Biography Hermann Luyken

Hermann was born on 29.11.1930 in Mexico City. There he went to the German school where he made the first three school years. 1939 he was brought to Germany where he was supposed to go on with school and learn German better. Then it was cheap to come to Germany as the land needed foreign exchange. He stayed at his grandparents Hermann and Julie in Wuppertal-Vohwinkel. There he went to primary (Volksschule) and secondary school (Oberrealschule).

Two months after Elisabeth had arrived visiting Germany World War II broke out. Walter, who was in Mexico, sent a telegraph telling her Hermann should stay in Germany and she and the two other children, Hans and Walter, should return to Mexico. Nobody thought the war would last for long. But this wasn't true. As the communications with Mexico were severed, the parents learnt only 1946, after the war was over, that the son and the grandparents had survived. Thereafter Hermann could return to Mexico in July 1946.

The war was a difficult time, so in Vohwinkel. As long as there was school Hermann went to it. Joining the DJ (Deutsche Jugend = German Youth) with 10 years and later the Navy-HJ (Hitler Jugend) with 14 years was compulsory. It didn't matter that he argued he was a Mexican citizen. Under German law he was German. After Wuppertal was surrounded by American forces he was ordered to the army and to register in a city outside Wuppertal. He ignored the order as did his superiors who had brought the order because to do so meant breaking the American lines.

A year after the end of war he went back to Mexico. Walter organized the return through the Mexican Foreign Ministry. The return trip took two months as the communications were very bad. First he went to Paris where he had to wait for a month for an opportunity on a ship. Then he sailed from Le Havre to New York City in a ship for American troops. After that he went on to Mexico City by bus which took six days. At the border with Mexico he had to produce his Mexican passport. The officers laughed at him as he didn't speak Spanish any more.

Once in Mexico City he met his sister Helga for the first time who was to become 5 in a couple of days. When she saw him for the first time she ran to him and kissed him. Then he went on to the German school where he had to learn Spanish again. After a year he left school to help his parents in the deli they owned. After another year he had to look after his father's cowshed after he had bought a bigger one. Both cowsheds were joined later and Hermann started as a practicant in a chicken farm and worked later in his father's poultry farm. One part of the poultry farm was in Mexico City, the other 70 kms far away on the country. Hermann first managed the farm on the country but afterwards he was needed in the city.

1957 he got to know his later wife Mireya and became independent after marrying. In Cuautla, Morelos he became co-owner of a poultry farm. There his two sons Hermann and Walter were born. Mireya wouldn't bear the hot climate, so they returned to Mexico City. Once there they opened a radio and television repairing workshop which they owned for several decades. Daughter Elisabeth was born in Mexico City.

1990 they retired and helped Hermann's mother Elisabeth to manage her assets. A couple of years before that they had begun building a house in the country near the city of Querétaro where they moved after Elisabeth's death. After all children had emmigrated to Germany they came frequently visiting and now live most of the year in Germersheim near Ludwigshafen/Mannheim.

Germersheim, 3.10.2005

Links Hermann Luyken

Internal links
• Birth announcement, family bulletin 1930, page 500 (German)
• Chronicle of the Berge-branch, family bulletin 1958, page 238 (German)
• Golden wedding celebration, family bulletin 2008, page 275 (German)