Eleven siblings, nine children and almost eight extremely eventful decades – that is the balance sheet of the life of Julie, called Julchen, née Hausner. Her son Otto Hartl, a Grafinger, has now made a novel out of this material and self-published it.
Writing is nothing new for the man in his mid-seventies, who started out as a teenager. Simply because you can do this job flexibly and independently anywhere in the world – in contrast to your talent for painting, which he discovered at school. Otto Hartl did not make writing his profession, instead first becoming a banker and stockbroker, later a software developer and sales professional at companies such as Siemens, Microsoft, IBM and Apple. At the same time, as a freelance journalist, he wrote texts on the subjects of politics, culture, sport and clubs, an activity which he expanded into a “pensioner hobby” from 2010, for which he was out and about in the Ebersberg district almost every day from then on. Until the various lockdowns slowed him down in his thirst for action. So it happened that Hartl remembered the moving conversations with his own mother shortly before the end of her life – and the idea of a novel arose.
In 1927 Otto Hartl, Julchen and Heinrich’s parents get married. They should have nine more children.
(Photo: private)
From these conversations with the mother, combined with my own childhood memories and rummaging through old photo albums, “Julchen’s secret” emerged, a smooth connection between poetry and truth, historical and fictional events. Subtitle: “The moving fate of a woman in the 20th century”. And at the end of the 360 pages, something actually comes to light that was hidden for almost 60 years. However, so much can be revealed: Otto Hartl’s readership does not expect a thriller, spectacular revelation, but rather another piece of the mosaic that rounds off the picture of an impressively strong woman who has always made the best of every situation throughout her life – regardless of the adverse political circumstances and all personal strokes of fate.
At the beginning of the book, the heroine, who was almost 20 years old at the time, was allowed to shovel money into a basket with a pitchfork from the fictional Wall Church in Rottal, Lower Bavaria. Neither acute wealth nor criminal transactions are the trigger, rather the point in time: The year is 1923 and a loaf of bread costs one billion marks shortly before the currency reform, which is why the rags of banknotes are piled on the floor in the parents’ general store.
This shop really existed, as did the second one that Julchen ran in the book and in reality, first together with her husband, then alone during his war-related absence, as a capable businesswoman on the ground floor of Hartl’s parents’ house, which the grandmother on his father’s side had built . From the mid-1940s onwards, up to 16 people lived there in a confined space, including grandma and two bombed-out women from Munich. Not only did his mother ensure harmony among the residents of his own home in every situation, says Hartl, she was also suffered well in the rest of the village because of her patience and was often called, for example when a farmer was injured.
Otto Hartl with his mother, the main character in the novel. Pictures like this are included in the book as bookmarks.
(Photo: private)
Such episodes also find their way into the novel, along with all sorts of tragic accidents and war experiences. Even the district of Ebersberg is mentioned, although the story takes place in the deepest part of Lower Bavaria. In 1939, Julie’s husband Heinrich became the head overseer in a camp set up for Polish prisoners in the Ebersberg Forest. When asked about the truth of the matter, Otto Hartl confirms: “That is actually true!” The father, already blessed with five children at the beginning of the war, was spared from serving at the front because of the “large number of children”. However, he never gave details about his work at the Sauschütt later.
In another chapter, too, one initially thinks that the whole thing has been invented. It’s about one of Julie’s daughters, barely a year old, when she was admitted to the Schwabing Children’s Clinic due to polio. A short time later I received an invoice for 10,000 Reichsmarks, to be paid within 14 days, otherwise the child would have to be given “special treatment”. Fortunately, this fate can be averted – Hartl’s sister is allowed to live. However, this is not the only moment in which she escapes death by a hair’s breadth: The woman, who now lives in Poing, falls ill with corona at the age of 80, is in the clinic for four weeks and is ventilated. Now she is fine again.
Just like Hartl’s other surviving sister and brother – “four of nine are still left” – she contributed to the development of the novel by talking about her memories. The relatives are correspondingly proud, including the representatives of the younger generation, who have all received a book. Some copies had to be sent around the world for this, because not only do some of the spouses of Julie’s children come from China, Poland or the Philippines, one brother also emigrated to the USA. Perhaps the individual fates of this highly international family, already briefly outlined in “Julchen’s Secret”, will even find their way into possible serial volumes, as Hartl suggests.
All nine of Julchen’s children, taken shortly after the war, in 1947.
(Photo: private)
First, however, he concentrates entirely on his first, current book, which he gives with a special extra: Some of the family photos printed in the book (including: Mother Julie as a child, at her wedding or with the author himself) are bookmarks on each copy at. The novel is available in local bookstores such as Braeuer in Grafing or on the Internet. Most of all, Otto Hartl would like to present his work himself, if there can be face-to-face events again, and tell a lot about his mother Julie, called Julchen, née Hausner.