During the war, I was moved with the school to Thüringen. When I returned after graduating with my school-leavers certificate, we had lost everything: my father fell in the war, the apartment was destroyed. My mother and I were dependent on the help of others.

As I demonstrated that I was good at working, a woman helped me to find an apprenticeship. She was a master seamstress in Dennert, who already employed 14 staff members and only designed and produced for the upper-class market. The well-off ladies would come partly chauffeured to our firm from Cologne. There I became a ladies seamstress.

Sewing has always been with me. Whether it was designing and making a costume for a school project, vestments for the church or improving my flat here in the sheltered accommodation with curtains and blinds…

Needle and thread have made an impression on my life!