There can be a hundred reasons why someone leaves a happy home. To answer the subtle but persistent call to visit one’s ancestral home would be a good one. For Gabi Hartmann, the overnight flight from Los Angeles to Berlin via Munich felt like a marathon, yet a hundred and twenty years earlier, Karl-Friedrich Hartmann had taken six months to make the reverse journey by sea from Hamburg to New York then across to California. He was the same age as Gabi is now. Karl-Friedrich had found his place among the oaks in the rolling hills of California, a world away from Eberswalde and Prussia. What will Gabi find in the land of her fathers?
An American Flaneur in Berlin is a stream of consciousness account of Gabi Hartmann’s visit to Berlin in late Winter of 2018. Gabi feels a strong connection with Berlin though she has never been there. She wants to explore what that means. Her ancestors had farmed for centuries in the Eberswalde district, a former Prussian town 50 kilometers North-East of Berlin. In the late 1800’s, Karl-Friedrich Hartmann, a younger son with no prospect of inheritance had gathered his courage along with a few belongings, bade farewell to his family and friends and boarded a steamship in Hamburg, America-bound. He never did return. The same age as Gabi is now, Karl-Friedrich found his place among the oaks in the rolling, wintergreen hills of the Salinas Valley in California, a world away from Eberswalde and Prussia.
David Tuffley is a travel writer with a deep fascination for Berlin. In his first work of fiction, David explores how the outside journey can mirror the stream of consciousness journey of the traveller. His other travel books include The Artful Traveller and Satori Now.