Mein Leben in Blau und Weiss

I am Franz Drews. In Schalke and the Bundesliga, people simply call me Schalke-Franz. Born in Waren an der Müritz (Mecklenburg), I fled from the former GDR with my mother and sister at the end of the 1950s. Ultimately, we ended up in Iserlohn, in the beautiful Sauerland. However, the escape was not easy at all. From Waren, we first went to Berlin to a large refugee camp, and the time there was tough, as Stasi agents would pick up children who were on the streets and take them back to the GDR. This way, they could force the parents to return to the GDR. Those who did not comply lost their children. Some did go back, but some did not.