August Heinrich CARL KOVERMANN

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Karl - my grandfather - was of the eldest of four children, from which only two survived. A middle brother and sisted died in 1917 at the end of World War One. This made him significantly older than his brother Hans. The father Adam died, when Karl was 10 years old of tuberculosis from which he suffered for years according to the records. Maybe he had this since 1917, when his daughter died of an unspecified lung disease. Adam was working for the railroad which only existed in the area for a few decades then. First taking care of the brakes - which must have ended at one time since he is later listed a conductor.
(Hydraulic brakes have been devised in 1904 in England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_brake)

My grandfather seemed to have been an ambitious man, who regretted not being able to study. At least Helmut Hermann Wittler, later bishop of Osnabr\\\\'fcck, at times teased Karl, that he has been able to do so. Family legend said bishop Wittler was my grandfather's 1st cousin. In truth, his uncle Bernhard Kovermann married into the Wittler family, making Hermann the nephew of his wife. But the relationship seemed to be close enough so that the kept the death card of Hermann's grandfather Franz Anton Wittler.

In the end he learned a craft as a metalworker, working for OKD Co. in the northeastern part of the town. A nephew also worked there for a while. The factory - produced shells for ammunition - suffered heavy British bombardments following 1944. Karl was there the whole war not being drafted in contrast to his brother. Obviously his position was to important for the war industry, evenmore he advanced from journeyman to master a few years before. His job was that of an instructor for unskilled workers (mainly women, which got drafted at the end of the war), which seem to have cost him some nerves sometimes.

Karl also got a small inheritance from his grandfather August Kovermann's side, who had built a new farm in Felsen (today Ostercappeln). This seem to consisted of goods like potatos and such.

It is not clear how involved he was with the NS regime, even though at least one uncle had sympathies for the Zentrum (a mainly catholic based party in the Weimar Republic). He came into the focus of the secret police, the Gestapo. They listed his membership in the Kolpingverein, which supported e.g. craftsman. A good friend of him in contrast was member of the SS. He had some trouble after the war being blackmailed because of that. The attempt was foiled by the police by arresting the blackmailer - the son of his landlord - in the faked try to hand over money. This friend also asked my grandfather to cut out his SS tattoo with a razor blade, which my grandfather refused.

Karl's brother Hans was a successful soccer player playing for local clubs like VfL Osnabrueck. There are pictures of Karl standing behind a group of soccer players. His wife Hilde - my grandmother - remembers quite vividly trips to matches to surrounding locations. Karl had a quite regular contact with his brother even after he moved to Eastern Germany after the war and became a soccer player for Lokomotive Stendal.

My grandparents first met on the fair in Belm east of Osnabrueck, when she was with a friend of hers. She was quite sceptic at the beginning, because she was two years older. But in the end they married. Obviously she like her mother-in-law Angela (died 1940) a lot, who gave her a family inheritance, which she can be seen wearing at her wedding photograph. Later my grandmother handed it over to my stepmother, who much to her regret, lost the heirloom.

My grandparents had only one child - my father, although at least my grandmother liked to have a larger family. But given the war the time were bad and in the 1950's when everything was over, she was too old for more children. In 1955 the family moved to Guetersloh, were my grandfather acquired a new job yielding 100 marks more per month, which was a quite large sum in that time. My grandmother did this with a heavy heart, since she like Osnabr\\\\'fcck a lot. I also have some memories of family visits as a kid in the town, staying with my grandmother's half-sister Grete also.

Karl worked longer than mandatory until 67, dying less than two years later. He had as a young man trouble with his stomach. That's why a doctor told him never to begin smoking. What - at least in his head - helped was homeopathy. Also his heart was a weak point. He stayed in the spa of Bad Wildungen for a while after a heart attack.

My grandparent's were on vacation mainly in the southwest of Germany. I have pictures from the Black Forest and down to Switzerland with my father and the Mosel region. That might have reminded Karl of the travels as a young man to the Niederwalddenkmal in R\\\\'fcdesheim. And often they visited uncle Hans in Stendal, which was quite a difficult procedure given the border checks between West and East Germany.

I will always remember my grandfather as a man of dry humor, which my father also practiced. He also liked hiking. Unfortunately most of the memory is gone since he died in 1981 when I was ten. The same age, when his father died. This explains maybe the story my grandmother told me. He was present, when the last remains of his father had been exhumed, which depending on the cemetery happens around 30 years. So this must be shortly after the war, maybe in 1953 on the cemetery in Schinkel.

(Andreas Karl Kovermann, 2021-03-25)

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Titel	Kovermann 2024-03-30
Beschreibung
Hochgeladen	2024-03-30 18:22:21.0
Einsender	Andreas Kovermann
E-Mail	kovermann@freenet.de
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