The Road Ahead

When I Was a German, 1934-1945 #2

by Christabel Bielenberg, Sheila Mitchell (Narrator)

Following the success of The Past is Myself, Christabel Bielenberg received thousands of letters begging her to describe what happened next. The Road Ahead takes up her story with the outbreak of peace.

Genres: Memoir, World War II, Nonfiction, Biography

Audio Cassette

First published June 18, 1992

About the author

Christabel Bielenberg (18 June 1909 – 2 November 2003) was a British writer who was married to a German lawyer, Peter Bielenberg. She described her experiences living in Germany during the Second World War in two books: The Past is Myself (1968) and The Road Ahead. She was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey, Hertfordshire.

Christabel Mary Burton was born in Hertfordshire to Anglo-Irish parents. Her mother, also named Christabel (née Harmsworth), was the sister of Lords Northcliffe, Harmsworth and Rothermere. Christabel Mary won a scholarship to Oxford but decided to study music in Germany. While there she met Peter Bielenberg (1911–2001), two years her junior, who was studying law with a view of joining his father's practice in Hamburg.

They married in 1934 and she took German citizenship, which required her to relinquish her British citizenship. The Bielenbergs lived initially in Hamburg, then moved to Berlin and had three sons, Nicholas, Christopher and John. The heavy Allied bombing raids led Mrs Bielenberg and her children to leave the city, and they eventually settled in the village of Rohrbach, near Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, in the Black Forest.
Both Christabel and Peter Bielenberg were opposed to Nazism and following Hitler's rise to power in 1933, participated in anti-Nazi activity. Peter Bielenberg was a close friend of Adam von Trott zu Solz, who was involved in the von Stauffenberg bomb plot against Adolf Hitler of 1944, and as a result of his suspect political views and this close association was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp following its failure. In an effort to secure his release, Christabel Bielenberg asked to be interviewed by the Gestapo in order to convince them of her and her husband's political naivety and innocence. She was successful and he was released to a punishment unit but mistakenly allowed leave before joining it. He managed to slip away and remained in hiding near his family until the fighting ended.

After the war, she returned to the UK with her children, visiting Germany as a war correspondent. In 1948, the family settled in Tullow, County Carlow, Ireland, buying a dilapidated farm called "Munny House", which they transformed into a commercial success. As well as writing her autobiography she became involved with the Irish Peace Marches of the 1970s and lectured in Germany. She was made a Commander of the German Federal Order of Merit and was also awarded a Gold Medal of Merit by the European Parliament.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Margaret Wakeling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sequel to The Past is Myself it tells of Christobel and Peter’s life after the end of the war. I found it interesting but it rushed through the years and didn’t have the same emotional pull of the first book. The most interesting part was when they moved to Ireland as she describes the encounters with the locals! I would have liked more about that as I recognised much of it.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evidently when I read The Past is Myself it was not the combined volume. Just recently discovered the double title one and have now read The Road Ahead. pp. 297 - 527. The Irish farming was fascinating but I particularly liked finding out about Christabel as an older woman.

[Kathleen Harold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even better than The Past is Myself because I found the postwar years so much more complicated.

[Dogsandbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my British purchases. English woman with German husband and experience in Germany recounts what post war years meant to self and friends. Difficult to follow but some interesting passages.