Hans and Helga's Corner

About Helga’s hobbies and interests written posthumous from her notes.

• Included herein
  • Paper Cutting
  • Teaching German
  • Helga Old German Script
  • Rudolf Poertner (father) 1937-1948 and De-Nazification
  • Fuerstenaustrasse 10 Herford 1920-2012

Paper Cutting (Scherenschnitte)

A collection of information and completed projects Helga collected about Paper-Cutting.  In German it is call “scherenschnitte” and pronounced ‘shár-on-schnit’.  In America it is often called “Paper Silhouettes”.  Helga would used Paper-cutting as a teaching aide to teach the German language and culture.

Teaching German

This compendium is a collection of material and photos that Helga accumulated for the classes she taught.  In 1972 Helga received a Bachelors’ in Art from South Carolina University in Foreign Language Teaching in German and French..  From then on, wherever Hans was stationed in the US Air Force, Helga would become a Certified Foreign Language Teacher.  She taught in schools in South Carolina, Alabama, and Austin Texas.

Helga’s Old German Script

This compendium is a collection of material that Helga collected on the old German Scripts.  When Helga moved to Austin, Texas with her family, she became interested in the ‘old script’.  Mostly, because she started to research both her family genealogy and her husband’s family.  Many historical records were in the ‘old script’.

In the 1990’s Hans and Helga became involved with the German Texan Heritage Society.  Once people realized that Helga was good at translating German into English, they would ask her to translate the old family letters and diaries.  Austin is in the middle of the area of Texas that was settled in the 1800’s by Germans.  These Germans were very literate, and wrote in the ‘old script’.  So, Helga mastered the ‘old script’ so that she could provide the translations.  Like any hand writing, the ‘old script’ would vary, depending on the person doing the writing.  Helga often stated that the hardest part of translating these old letters was figuring out the ‘old script’.

Rudolf Poertner 1937-1948 and de-Nazification

Rudolf held a Civil Servant position in the City of Herford, Stadtinspektor.  To keep his job, he had to become a member of the Nazi Party and take the Loyalty Oath.  After the end of the war [8 May 1945 in Europe] Rudolf was investigated by the “Germany De-Nazification Chamber/Committee” by the Military Government in the British Occupied Zone.  During this investigation Rudolf lost his rights to hold a job for over 2 years [5 September 1945 to 1 November 1947] because he held the position of Block Leader within the Nazi Party.  Rudolf and his family also had their bank accounts and assets blocked for 2 years and 3 months [8 November 1945 to 28 January 1948].

FuerstenauStrasse 10 Herford 1920-2012

This is a compendium about the house that Helga lived in as a child, Fürstenaustraβe 10 (or Fuerstenaustrasse 10) in Herford Germany.  Contains some maps. A description of the house and its history in Helga’s own words.  Documents concerning the issues when the house was considered ‘property of the enemy’ because it was owned by Gustav who lived in America and was a US citizen during WWII.  And also a collection of photos of Fürstenaustraβe 10 as it changed from 2012 back to 1938 (the year after Helga was born, March 1937).