GERDA KOHL
"The love of the homeland
We will create with works".
The wisdom of this Latvian song encouraged me to get as fully involved as possible in the work of creating the German version of the texts of virtual walk. The word "fatherland" (homeland), literally translated from German, is the father's and mother's country, who were born, worked and used three colloquial languages here: Latvian, Russian and German. They had to leave their homeland in 1939 and they did not arrive in Germany, as promised, but in Poznań, where I was born.
Only in 1976 did my parents take me to their former home and workplace in Riga. I arrived in Aizpute still during the Soviet occupation and here I experienced the day when Latvia's independence was proclaimed again.
As a stranger, I came to this town and they welcomed me here. I was allowed to celebrate with the people I spend the night with, to enjoy their colorful flower garden, laugh, dance, sing and dine with them.
Here I found the roots of my family among Latvian friends and was able to "experience" stories of grandmothers. To explore the area with Peter’s car. Gunta showed me the way in the forest, where to pick the most wonderful mushrooms. An unknown fisherman gifted me richly by sharing his catch. And Laimdota escorted me back to the town when I was lost in the woods and asked her for the right direction. In the market I found local products for my physical well-being. The cooking skills of the housewives in Aizpute evoked in me sleeping memories of buckwheat, Himmelspeise, thin crepes filled with meat - "komm morgen wider", pancakes and pies. In short: I feel at home here, I want to come back here again and again.
I was so inspired by Ivars Silārs and Varis Sants book "Aizpute. Past and Present", their virtual walk around the town - even more! Visitors to this virtual tour can learn about the architecture of the town, its diverse history, the various languages, cultures and folk traditions that have left marks on the site. Perhaps my professional experience as a surveyor, working with maps and land, buildings and laws, helped me to articulate and shape the complex terminology of ownership structure.
And I want the national traditions of this picturesque region to be preserved for all of us, to be known to an even wider circle of people in the future, and for people without knowledge of the Latvian language to have access to this work. An insight into the history of this charming small town gives us all the opportunity to prepare for a trip to the real AIZPUTE and look for clues to its history.