The war returnee Peter Lenz

Peter Lenz was born in 1911 in Schmalkalden, Thuringia. Father Herbert is a master saddler with his own business, mother Gerda runs the household. After four years of elementary school, Peter Lenz did an apprenticeship in his father's company.

In 1935, Peter Lenz was drafted into military service and, at the end of his basic training in horse-drawn artillery, was transferred to Erfurt, where he was employed as a saddler repairing the harness. With the beginning of the war in 1939, his unit is deployed in Poland. Here he was taken prisoner of war by the Russians at the end of 1941.

After his release in 1948, he reached the Friedland reception and transit camp after days of train travel and from there he went to Euskirchen. At first he worked in a crew that cleared mines and other explosive ordnance for the British military government.

He met his great love Gisela Schulz on the black market. Only after their marriage in October 1948 were they assigned accommodation.

Since December 1948, the small family has been living in a Nissenhütte settlement in the Rhineland.