Ingrid Guntenhöners life story shines more than just a spotlight on the German history of the past century. Influenced by her mother’s attitude and involvement with the “NS-Frauenschaft (a NS women’s alliance) in order to make faster headway, Ingrid, born in 1929, visited Napola Kolmarberg one of the Nazis very rare elite schools for girls. At the end of the war she must completely change her way of thinking. Whilst she witnesses the German economic miracle and shapes it moving up from a simple office clerk position to becoming a successful businesswoman, the mother of two and grandmother of three still notices that during every phase of her life she has her very personal conflict with the question: “What is actually true?”

Guntenhöner, Ingrid: Zeit und Wandel. Bewegtes Leben in bewegter Zeit.
ISBN: 978-3-937772-27-1, paperback, 172 pages, multiple images of historical records, 14,90 Euro

“I cannot recall when exactly it was that my mother arrived home from one of the “Frauenschaft” meetings completely electrified. It must have been spring or early summer of 1941, I was twelve then. She had been to a presentation on the construction of a new school for girls in Luxembourg. “That’s where we’ll enroll you!”, she had claimed enthusiastically. “If you pass the entrance examination you will have great professional prospects.” She went on gushing about this school, it was going to be in a castle and the students would be allowed to travel abroad – it sounded more like a fairytale to me than school…”

As a child Ingrid Guntenhöner had black hair. In the school’s archive she was listed as ‘dark blonde’: an interpretation the Nazis preferred. The now 85-year-old attended school at Napola Kolmarberg, one of the most prestigious Nazi elite schools for girls. German studies specialist Ruth Damwerth has written down her story. It is the first biography of a female Napola student.

Westfälische Nachrichten, 04.16.2015, on “Zeit und Wandel“