Life is a journey: Live it (Part 61)

The other autobiography
So I bought my beloved Saab at Etehad in Halstenbek. I opened my first Studienkreis Nachhilfe in Ratzeburg, less than one hour's drive from my apartment in Rissen. My idea was one day possibly to relocate closer to the school but not at the start. The school developed well…not brilliant but okay. To pursue my dream I employed a part-time staff. Sylvia Scheffler was a Primary Teacher from the former GDR, the German Democratic Republic or short East Germany. Ratzeburg and later Schwarzenbek were towns close to the former border between the two German states. We agreed to work together.

One year after the opening of Ratzeburg in Schlangenstraße 20, I made my second mistake. To keep the internal Studienkreis Nachhilfe competition away from me far down to Geesthacht where a teacher had opened his school and the competitive organisation Schülerhilfe I accepted the offer from Studienkreis Nachhilfe to open my second school in Schwarzenbek. Schwarzenbek was about a fifteen-minute drive away from Klein Pampau where my sister Sabine Fuchs lived with her family. I left the responsibility for Ratzeburg school in the hands of Sylvia Scheffler, my next mistake. My focus was on Schwarzenbek to get the school going. It was hard to find teachers. As Ratzeburg and Schwarzenbek were towns along the two German borders the Federal Police Bundesgrenzschutz was stationed there to safeguard the border line. After the German reunification on October 3, 1990, the Bundesgrenzschutz was transferred inland to safeguard airports, sea ports or train connections. Slowly the officers and their families were transferred and left the area. The number of students dropped significantly.

I asked Sylvia Scheffler in a meeting in Ratzeburg to reduce the number of courses and put pupils of similar age in only one course. I needed to improve the profitability of the school. Into my face standing right before her, she refused to follow my instructions. Sylvia Scheffler argued out of pedagogic reasons that this would not be sensible therefore she would not do it. This triggered my next mistake. Instead of firing her on the spot which is permitted by German law and more so to save the operation I let her have her way.

To save my school, I made the next mistake. I cancelled my life insurance, my apartment in Rissen and moved into the school in Schwarzenbek with all my furniture. The biggest room became my living room and the smallest my bedroom. It did not save my schools at all. The situation got worse. The responsible manager from Studienkreis Nachhilfe in Bochum came to visit me in Schwarzenbek. She suggested I should sell both schools and move on in life. She did not disclose the potential buyer.

I agreed, sold most of my furniture except for my Chesterfield sofa and moved into the dining room at my mother's apartment in Muemmelsmannsberg. The news hit me when I was told Sylvia Scheffler had bought both of my schools, runs the school in Ratzeburg while her sister runs the second school in Schwarzenbek. Years later both schools were shut down.