I don’t remember exactly when or where we collected the money but we were definitely not amongst those who stormed the banks. I thought it was awful to see people scrambling in front of the trucks, knocking the glasses off each other’s noses. We stayed away from all that and just went back home. As a family we quickly decided to use our Begrüßungsgeld (welcome money) to go on a trip. Given my personal history, the destination was also quickly set.
As a child, I lived with my parents in Mainz. When I was nine years old, we moved to Jena because my father accepted a position at the University of Jena. I had always yearned to go back to Mainz, the place of my childhood. Our journey began during the Easter holidays of 1990. Even the car ride there was thrilling. The amazing motorways, the infrastructure, it was an entirely new world! We actually managed to cover our needs for the whole trip with the money. We stayed at a youth hostel, bought our food in stores and took care of ourselves in that way. With the money we also bought the fuel we needed for our Wartburg (East German car brand), which had to be “mixed” (two-stroke oil and petrol). People from the West stared at us because we, with our car, looked very exotic. The whole trip was incredibly exciting, uncovering traces of my childhood in a city that had changed so much. It was very moving for me but it was also interesting for our two sons.
»I had always yearned to go back to Mainz, the place of my childhood.«