Quo Vadis
The Odyssey of a Woman in the XXth Century
by
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S PROLOGUE 1 | H O M E L A N D My Mother Aloisia Theresia Ilmberger 11 The Family Ilmberger 14 My Father Anton Rasso Schrankl 22 The Family Schrankl 35 2 | E A R L Y C H I L D H O O D M E M O R I E S Munich 1935 - 1937 Berlin 1936 – The year of the Olympic Games 1939 Vachendorf 1942 3 | C H I L D H O O D D U R I N G T H E W A R Berlin 1945 Vachendorf 1942 - 1949 Traunstein 1943 - 53 The End of the War 1945 - 1957 Berlin 1945 - 1959 4 | Y O U T H Highschool in Traunstein Joys and Sorrows of a Teenager The Convent of St. Zeno The Song of the Sirens – Canto I 5 | A Y E A R O F S T U D I E S I N A M E R I C A A Fulbright Scholarship at Evansville College Lieutenant Philip Diehl Cox Mrs. Philip D. Cox 6 | “W A N D E R J A H R E” I N T H E U. S. A I R F O R C E A meeting in Hawaii Sacramento, California The Deep South – Greenville, Missisippi Ariane is born in Arizona Las Vegas – a Fata Morgana in the Desert 7 | R E T U R N T O E U R O P E The Ferme de Bel Air Vivian is born in France Quo Vadis – the Song of the Sirens – Canto II 8 | S T U D I E S A T C O L U M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y The City that never Sleeps November 22, 1963 Practice Teaching in the Bronx Master of Arts 9 | A T E A C H I N G P O S I T I O N A T H A M P T O N I N S T I T U T E The Civil Rights Movement in the South The End of a Marriage a la Hollywood The Angel 10 | F R O M I S L A N D T O I S L A N D MARRIAGE WITH PROFESSOR HOWARD K. HOLLAND Wedding in Munich, Germany Beirut the ‘Perle of the Orient’ The American University in Beirut North of Beirut Howard’s Crisis The Six-Days War 11 | I N T E R M E Z Z O I N M U N I C H A Teaching Position at the Goethe Institut 12 | T H E A D V E N T U R E S O U T H – E A S T A S I A Meeting in Hongkong In a ‘Golden Cage’ in the Philippines Folk Music Festival in Manila Easter in Saigon 1970 In Hue after the Tet- Offensive Dark Clouds Over Angkor-Wat 13 | M Y A F R I C A N P A R A D I S E To Ethiopia via Europe Happiness at the Border to the Wilderness The Beautiful Strange Country The University of Haile Selassi The Amharic people and the Orthodox Church Every-Day Life in Addis Abeba The Cities in the North Traveling through the South A Dance around the Fire My ‘Involved’ Students 14 | E X P U L S I O N F R O M P A R A D I S E Howard’s Death Grey and Rainy like our Hearts 15 | N E W C H A L L E N G E S I N M U N I C H Dr. Kenneth P. Adler - the Regional Research Office Thr Olympic Games in Munich New Challenges at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich Many Flowers but few Roses 16 | A L I F E B E T W E E N T W O W O R L D S – M Y M A R R I A G E T O A R C H I T E C T F R A N Z H U S C H K A Athena Meets Poliphem in the Gulf of Naples Casa Carina Dance on the Tightrope The Children Leave the Nest Vivian’s Wedding in Australia Ariane Marries an American My Tasks in the Federal Armed Forces Sanibel Island in Florida Athena’s Victory 17 | F A R E W E L L S A N D B E G I N I N G S Divorce The Man in the Shadow The Grandchildren 18 | A R U S S I A N A D V E N T U R E The German-Russian Club The People in Chernogolovka The Language Center in Chernogolovka 19 | P A N T A R E I & M Y L I F E T O D A Y Globalization and Change The Day when the Tornado Struck Thanksgiving in the Bush-Country 20 | R E F L E C T I O N S The Song of the Sirens – Canto III Insights Inner Freedom Happiness Love Lack of Happiness The Purpose in Life Spiritual Life BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX EPILOG ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS P R O L O G U E I decided to write this book because I believe that my life has been rich and full of treasures. This wealth I want to share with others, especially with my children and grandchildren. Today they live in a different world on the other side of this earth and maybe one day it will be interesting to them to read about the life of their grandmother and try to understand how it represented itself in the twentieth century from the European point of view. Many of the political and intellectual movements of this time have had a strong influence on the course of my life. Thus they are also part of my children’s heritage and they are what they are today, because life happened they way it did in those days. In order to understand the future, one has to know about the past. Furthermore, the writing of this book has contributed considerably to fulfill the promises of the sirens: it has given me great pleasure, has added to the knowledge about myself and to the understanding of the underlying interrelations between the events in my life.
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About the Book
Mirroring her life’s journey to Homer’s 8th century B.C.E. epic, The Odyssey, Eva-Marie Schrankl creatively weaves her autobiography through the changing global landscape of the 20th century, bringing major political and social issues to life. By listening to the sirens’ call, Eva, unlike Ulysses, is able to glean wisdom without falling prey to their curse, ultimately finding peace and happiness.
Quo Vadis artistically delivers an arresting account of universal themes, such as ethics, morality, art, family and existential loneliness in a way that is playful and profound. This book makes a beautiful case of life’s endless surprises, uncovering truths with language that, for all of its formal experimentation, is intimate and poignantly real.
About the Author
Quo Vadis is a latin phrase meaning “Where are you going?” and also the questions Eva-Maria has asked herself continuously throughout her life.
Born in 1932 in Bavaria, Germany, she witnesses at the age of seven the outbreak of WWII, including the gruesome bombing raids and destruction of Berlin. During the final years of the war, she watches the American Forces entering her small village of Bachendorf in the beautiful Chiemagau in Bavaria.
She feels that Athena, the Greek goddess of logic and wisdom, is accompanying her throughout her journeys, as Athena did Ulysses.
A strong yearning for freedom passes like a red thread through all of her life, beginning as an only child when she attempts to free herself from the loving embrace of her overprotective mother.
In 1952 she is awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and travels to the United States to attend college. There she meets her first husband, Lt. Col. Philip D. Cox, a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and her years on the road begin,.
During her first marriage, she gives birth to two daughters and earns a master’s degree from Columbia University. Soon after, she teaches at Hampton University, one of the first universities for African-American students in the United States.
Whether she was in Berlin during World War II, Beirut during the Six-Day War, Vietnam after the Tet Offensive, or pre-revolutionary Addis Abeba in 1971, her world is entwined with the focal points of history, and global politics play a decisive and powerful role in her life.
.Anti-authoritarian education was her generation’s credo but with her children, she wanted to do everything differently from what her mother did. Is it the right education for a life full of new challenges? What are the values that secure a solid base for social peace and individual happiness in the future?
These questions become poignant again as her four grandchildren are growing up in the turbulent world of today.
Eva-Maria lives in Munich, Germany and the Gulf of Naples.