Otto Kögler

* 1921

  • “There was almost no contact with the Czechs. I remember that during the holidays, I even once drove into the interior of Czechoslovakia to learn Czech, the language. In our village, there was only a Czech gendarme, a post-office employee and a bank employee. Besides them, there were no Czechs living there. It was all settled with Volksdeutsche, with Germans in the region of northern Bohemia. Some jobs, later on, were then given to Czechs. For instance the school director, who was at first a German, was later replaced by a Czech director. And my class teacher, Dr. Schrabal, he was Czech, too. But as I said, we had hardly any contact with the Czechs in that region. It was quite the contrary: we kept together. I have to recall our post master Viclas, who was a very kind man. When he saw what had happened to the Germans from Sandau, he moved out, too. He said that he couldn’t watch on to what they did to his German folks.”

  • “Being the refugee chief, I witnessed things like that, of course. I had to take care of several municipalities where people had to be quartered for instance. These are, of course, quite different affairs. But in Hofstetten, we didn’t have the slightest trouble. As the refugee foreman, I witnessed it, in the catholic as well as protestant neighborhoods. I found out that the clerics were wholly different, since I was also on the special lodging commission. Some offered me a rack shack dirty hole for accommodation, others were more generous. In Hofstetten, for instance, the priest was so generous that he gave at our disposal his parsonage. So two or three families could reside at the parsonage. That was really generous of him.”

  • “The opportunity that we had here - professionally and economically – was incomparable with what life would have been for us in the communist regime over there! I mean you have to clearly say it out loud, right? Talking about the younger generation, so we could cope with the banishment much more easily than, for example, our parents. I mean everything that they had had been taken away from them, their property was expropriated without compensation, right? So they were of course then in an entirely different situation. We had to start from scratch, for sure. So you really had to be ready all the time, be on your guard. That’s what we witnessed in politics again and again, you know. But we still were able to go and progress and the ultimate outcome is what you see here.”

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    Ansbach, 26.08.2014

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Like a dappled dog A social democrat for life

otto Kögler in the socialist youth
otto Kögler in the socialist youth
photo: privat

Otto Kögler was born on January 3, 1921, in Sandau, District of Böhmisch Leipa, the second of five children. His father was a cabinetmaker in a factory and his mother was at first a shop assistant. Early on in his life, Koegler joined the ATUS. He was also in charge of a small singing group at the Lasalle choir and joined the Social-Democratic Youth at the age of 16. As an industrial salesman by training, he worked until 1941 for the local administration, before he was conscripted to the Wehrmacht. After the war, he made it back to his home only to find that his wife and children had already left. They had to flee – his son was just 11 months old at that time. It wasn’t until 1947 that he could see them again in the course of their reunion, after he had left the country with his parents. Thereafter, the family moved to Hofstetten, where Mr. Kögler became active in party politics again and where he helped to establish the local SPD party organization. He was made the chief of the expellees in the district. In 1952, the family moved to Ansbach, where Kögler picked up his learned profession of salesman for the government of the region of Middle Franconia. He remained for over 31 years in this position and represented the interests of his colleagues as a counselor for personnel affairs. He also held many other positions and roles in his long and chequered political life and in Ansbach. He was the chairman of the district association of the SPD and the leader of the party faction. When the local branch of the Seliger Community was established in 1954, he immediately joined it. Since 1993, he was its chairman.