Silent witness

Nothing is more closely connected with the circumstances of flight and expulsion than the experience of loss. Three touching objects from the years 1944/1945, which are now in the East Prussian state museum with German-Baltic department in Lüneburg, bear witness to this.

A white, knitted baby's jacket made of wool is one of the many objects in the permanent exhibition of the East Prussian State Museum that tell of the events around the escape from

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East Prussia

deu. Ostpreußen, pol. Prusy Wschodnie, lit. Rytų Prūsija, rus. Восто́чная Пру́ссия, rus. Vostóchnaia Prússiia

East Prussia is the name of the former most eastern Prussian province, which existed until 1945 and whose extent (regardless of historically slightly changing border courses) roughly corresponds to the historical landscape of Prussia. The name was first used in the second half of the 18th century, when, in addition to the Duchy of Prussia with its capital Königsberg, which had been promoted to a kingdom in 1701, other previously Polish territories in the west (for example, the so-called Prussia Royal Share with Warmia and Pomerania) were added to Brandenburg-Prussia and formed the new province of West Prussia.
Nowadays, the territory of the former Prussian province belongs mainly to Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) and Poland (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship). The former so-called Memelland (also Memelgebiet, lit. Klaipėdos kraštas) first became part of Lithuania in 1920 and again from 1945.

Ostpreußen in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)

Ostpreußen at Google Maps

in the winter of 1945. Two official documents describe the short life of the infant who wore this jacket. The first is a birth certificate from the registry office in Friedland (East Prussia), now "

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Pravdinsk

deu. Friedland in Ostpreußen, rus. Правдинск, deu. Prawdinsk

Pravdinsk (Russian Правдинск, German Friedland in East Prussia) is a town in the south of Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, about 50 km south of Kaliningrad (German Königsberg). About 4300 inhabitants live in Pravdinsk.

Pravdinsk at Google Maps

" in the Russian

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rus. Kaliningradskaja Oblast, deu. Kaliningrader Gebiet, deu. Oblast Kaliningrad, rus. Калининградская область

Kaliningrad Oblast (rus. Калининградская область) is positioned between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. The oblast is the westernmost part of Russia and is populated by about 1 million people. The capital of the oblast is Kaliningrad (German: Königsberg).

Oblast Kaliningrad in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)

Oblast Kaliningrad at Google Maps

, which states:

_Christina Annamarie Güttler was born on December 22, 1944 in Friedland (Ostpr) Gartenvorstadt 50. Father: assistant machine fitter Wilhelm Erich Güttler, living in Friedland (Ostpr) Mother: Klara Anna Marie Güttler née Döhring, living in Friedland (Ostpr) ... December 28, 1944.

_ The second document is a death certificate from the "Berlin I" Registry Office, dated 19 September 1946. On it is written:

Christine Annemarie Güttler, resident of Friedland/East Prussia, Gartenvorstadt No. 50 died on January 28, 1945 at 9am on the
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Kaliningrad
deu. Königsberg, rus. Калинингра́д
Kaliningrad is a city in today's Russia. It is located in the Kaliningrad oblast, a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland. Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg, belonged to Prussia for several centuries and was the northeasternmost major city.
Kaliningrad in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Kaliningrad at Google Maps
-Pillau railroad line. The deceased was born on December 22, 1944 in Friedland/East Prussia.

In an account of her work at the Provinzial-Erziehungsheim

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Węgorzewo

deu. Angerburg

Węgorzewo is a city in northeastern Poland in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship. It is inhabit by about 11,000 people and is located not far from the border of Poland with Russia.

Węgorzewo at Google Maps

written about 50 years later, the baby's mother, Klara Güttler, recalled those harrowing and eventful days:

I had married a soldier who served in the 601 Intelligence Regiment from Mauerwald. In October 1944 I had to give up my job because I was expecting a child. ... Then everything happened very quickly. My husband wanted to get me and our child out. The OKH [Army High Command] was stationed in Bad Reichenhall by then. We could no longer get through by train. After that he went missing, my child – only a month old – died when we were on the road, my only brother (18 years old) died in the military hospital – from a bullet to the brain – and my home was also gone, and all that within a single week. Thank God I found my parents again and a second home in Hamburg-Bergedorf.

Klara Güttler held onto the baby's jacket and the certificates – the former in a beautiful, decorated jewelry box. Long after her death in 2001, these things finally found their way to the East Prussian state museum with Baltic German department.