Home soil

Once to the East and back. Full of hope for a better future, the Rau brothers leave their small village in the Palatinate at the Donnersberg in 1785 and move to Galicia. There, they want to start a new life—far away from the war-torn and famine-stricken south of Germany. Two centuries and two world wars later, Mela Rau reflects on her life and her family's history. She remembers the vast sky over Ottenhausen, the village of her childhood, which now lies unreachable in a foreign land. She recalls the crackling of firewood in the stove, picturing herself sitting there, eagerly listening to her father. She remembers her father's stories about the emigration of their ancestors, the apocalyptic violence of the two wars, the flight and captivity in Poland, and their return to Baden. B. Horst Feuer describes this journey with emotion and authenticity.