Anni - The Perfect Wisdom Web

c h i l d h o o dpreferring romantic tales of robber knights and, aboveall, stories about American Indians. Indian stories werethe highest and best, and Karl May’s Winnetou made atremendous impression on me. I liked the stories aboutIndians so much because they depicted such outlandishthings, foreign to my experience, and because no limitswere set to such fantasies. I always had a lively imaginationof what I would do if I lived among the Indians.These stories absorbed and excited me to the extentthat, especially in the evenings, I imagined an Indian, arobber, or a murderer waiting to fall upon me from behindevery tree or in every dark corner. Of course these booksinfluenced my play very much as well, and particularlyduring my vacations I lived, spoke, and wrote as if I werean Indian. One or two boys usually stayed at schoolduring the vacation, and luckily they were the kind ofboys who were just as full of fantasy as I and with whomI could dream up the most marvelous games.My vacations were always divided between playingIndians and playing with dolls. Especially during theChristmas holidays I played doll family all day long. Andthe same boys who had played bloodthirsty Winnetougames with me during fall vacation now played peacefullyat being the doll father. Even though I wanted tobe quite warlike, I had a great love for my dolls and wasvery tender with them.For the children at the Keilhau school, life –and the lifeof the imagination –remained shielded from a war thatleft over two million Germans dead. A period of polit-7