Inspiring Women Fall 2018

Germany: Support For Those In Need
53
I was born in Bonn as the first of four children to an
English mother and a German father. Since my
father was in the military, I spent most of my
childhood abroad. We moved four or five times
before I started school, and I went to school in
Prague, Bonn, Rome and Berlin.
My first four years of school were spent in Prague,
where my father was the first West German military
attaché. My siblings and I attended an
international school with an American curriculum
in a very international, mostly English-speaking
community. This meant that our written German, in
particular, was a little rusty, so we all had to do
extra practicing to get ready to go into German
schools when we got “home.”
After a few more years in Bonn and Rome, we
moved to Berlin after the reunification of Germany. My father, who had specialized in East-
West relations, was charged with organizing the decampment of the Soviet forces from Berlin.
This was a very interesting time in Berlin – and it also felt very international to me through my
father’s work and the British Officers’ Club we joined, where a lot of the British, American and
international community gathered at the time.
After finishing school in Berlin, I studied law in Freiburg
and Bonn and worked as an attorney in a law firm in
Berlin that specialized in victim protection and social
law. In 2004, I moved to Cologne with my husband and
worked for an academy where I was in charge of legal
issues as well as organizing events, conferences and
seminars. Our children were born in 2005, 2007 and
2008. Since then, I have been at home with them,
enjoying this intensive time together.
Now that my children are in school and I have some
spare time in the mornings, I have taken up various
volunteer activities in the community, my
neighborhood and our childrens’ schools.
I visit an elderly lady in my neighborhood once or twice
a week: she has no remaining relatives and is therefore
often lonely and needs some help. Depending on her
needs, sometimes we just sit together and chat, or we
go for a walk, shop for groceries or go to the doctor.
KATRIN THÜRBACH
American International Women’s Club of
Cologne, Germany
From: Bonn, Germany
Lives: Cologne, Germany