I was born in 1934 in a little town called Kolberg, a seaside resort and a "Bath" known for its white sandy beaches and its hot saltwater springs, situated at the mouth of the river Persante on the Baltic Coast in Hinterpommern in Germany. This area is now in Poland because it lies beyond the Oder/Neisse line.

Kolberg was also the birthplace of my Father, Erwin Schmidt,who had a business selling and repairing Farm machinery. He was a Diplomingenieur, that is, he had a degree in Engineering from the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart. He was particularly interested in Steam engines. Actually,
after leaving the Technische Hochschule (like a Polytechnic) he worked in Berlin at the "Borsig Werke" where trains and steam engines were manufactured.

In Berlin he met my mother, who came from Hamburg and worked in Berlin in an office. They got married in 1929 in Kolberg and then started their married life in Berlin, where both my older sisters were born. Erika was born in 1930 and Adelheid (Heidi) in 1931. They left Berlin after that, probably to get away from all the troubles that were then occurring in the Capital when Hitler was on his way to power, and came to live in Kolberg, where I was born in 1934. By then they had already established their business with some financial aid from my Grandmother Schmidt. They lived on the works premises at No. 1, Wernerstrasse and I remember this house quite well. There was a yard behind the house with a workshop for a smith and a mechanic.

The living quarters were on the first floor and the offices on the ground floor.  Since my mother was needed in the office to help run the business, they employed a maid to do the housework and look after us children.

When I was 4 years old, in 1938, my younger sister Mechthild was born. We children stayed with my grandmother in Kolberg, I remember vividly getting back home and there was my new sister. I do not remember my grandfather as he had died in 1929 but he used to be a Maths and Physics teacher at the local boys grammar school which was just across the road from where my Grandma used to live. He was known as "Professor Schmidt" and my Grandma was generally called Frau Professor Schmidt."