This is the story of a life full of "derailments." The author might have grown up under secure circumstances, yet, even his young years were full of confusion, caused by the divorce of his parents in his very young years and full of apprehension because of the dictatorial manner with which his grandmother ruled her flock. He has to learn the true facts of life very early when he chose a profession, which, he innocently thought, would fulfill his dreams about his professional life. Reality, however, turned into twelve to fourteen hour workdays on a highly efficiently run large farm.
His years of apprenticeship has hardly come to an end, when he was drafted into the army and after boot camp, he was promptly shipped to Russia, where he experienced more hardship, brutality, death and misery than most of us experience during a lifetime. Even though he was wounded several times, he survived that war in one piece, only to find upon his arrival in his hometown the Russians again as occupation troops, which led to new and sometimes dangerous problems, which convinced him to leave the "Workers" Paradise and flee to the "Golden West" in Germany. Not all was gold that glittered and the long harbored idea of emigrating eventually became reality, not without considerable obstacles.
The initial years in the new homeland were a cultural shock and full of surprises. Some quite funny, others not. After nearly five years of doing what he had never thought he would be doing, he finally found his niche in the financial service business, from which he retired in 1999 and is now enjoying his "golden years." He has never regretted his decision to emigrate.
