Let’s Go West
Saturday, February 18, 1984: A Love Letter from Behind Locked Door.
42, the answer to all questions in Douglas Adams' “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,” is the number of days I've been locked up in Domstraße in Greifswald since the beginning of January.
Because I wrote “Let's Go West!” on a piece of paper and wanted to take the Reichsbahn to Wuppertal.
I wonder what Kathrin would say if she knew?
Kathrin, the greatest love of my life, whom I met in the summer of 1977 at a holiday camp and visited in Merseburg in the fall (see Friday, January 13, 1984).
A year later, in the summer of 1978, we met again.
My brother took me to the special train from Halle to Sagard on Rügen.
We left in the late afternoon and I was totally excited about the wonderful night trip with hundreds of children on the train.
When I finally calmed down and was just about to get comfortable, I looked through the swing door into the neighboring compartment where the girls were sitting.
Less than two meters away from me sat Kathrin, who had been watching me with amusement for hours.
From then on, we were the stars of the trip. It was rare to find a couple our age who had known each other for so long and were still together.
It continued seamlessly where it had left off the previous year.
Then came the end. For completely idiotic reasons, we broke up after two weeks.
On the way back, we spoke very matter-of-factly and said goodbye like adults who can look each other in the eye at any time.
And there was a good chance that we might try again sometime.
There is no song that moves me more than “Meine erste Liebe” (My First Love) by Udo Lindenberg:
“Du kannst Dir echt nicht vorstellen (You really can't imagine) /
Wie sehr ich Dich geliebt habe (How much I loved you) /
Du warst die erste Frau für mich (You were the first woman for me) /
Und ich verlor fast den Verstand (And I almost lost my mind) /
... Und dann war Schluss (And then it was over) /
Und ich drehte durch, wie ein Idiot (And I went crazy like an idiot) /
Ich heulte tagelang (I cried for days) /
Und es war wie ein kleiner Tod (And it was like a little death) ...”