trotzdem da! 
Karin Müller was born in Breslau, now Wrocław in Poland. At the end of the war, her family fled to Potsdam, where Karin grew up. In 1955, they moved to the city of Heilbronn. After completing school, Karin worked as an office administrator. She later moved to London, where her son Markus was born. Because she needed support from her family as a single mother, she moved back to Heilbronn with Markus in late 1966. Karin only found out that she was adopted when she needed a birth certificate for her wedding to her future husband Peter Müller. She was 28 years old at the time. Her adoptive mother had already died and her adoptive father told her nothing about the circumstances of the adoption or her birth parents.
In the decades that followed, Karin tried to find out about her origins. She questioned the family of her adoptive parents and wrote to authorities and archives, but without success. At age 75, she decided to have a DNA analysis carried out in order to search for relatives. Two relatives were in fact registered in the laboratory’s database, with whom Karin made contact and who were able to tell her more about her biological parents.
Karin spent her entire childhood and early adult life under the assumption that her adoptive parents were her biological parents. It later emerged that the relatives in her adoptive family knew about the adoption.
Photo: unknown. Private property Müller
Karin had a close relationship with her adoptive father. When he told her about the adoption, he assured her that she had always been his daughter and would remain so.
Photo: unknown. Private property Müller
The laboratory compares the results of the DNA analyses of all customers. If relatives are found, they can contact each other. This is how Karin found Ronny L. and Dino M.
Private property Müller, Graphic: Katrin Bahrs
With the help of the DNA analysis, Karin Müller was able to contact her grandnephew Ronny L. They surmised that Ronny’s great-grandmother Ella V. was Karin’s mother. She was a single mother who from 1940 to 1945 lived with her three daughters on a farm in a village near Liegnitz, now Legnica in Poland. According to the DNA analysis, however, Ella was evidently Karin’s grandmother. Since Ella had herself registered as
the mother when Karin was born, Karin suspects that she wanted to protect her eldest daughter Ruth. Ronny’s great-aunt then recalled a young Frenchman who had to work on the farm and who regularly visited Ruth. He talked about how he had been forced to work and often scolded the Germans. However, Dino M., a second cousin in France, could tell Karin very little about his grandfather’s siblings. One of the sons of these siblings must have been Karin’s father. She suspects that he was the French forced labourer or prisoner of war with whom her mother had contact
at the time.
Her husband Peter has always supported Karin in her search for her biological parents.
Photo: unknown. Private property Müller
With the information provided by her grandnephew Ronny L., Karin was able to request her birth certificate in Wrocław, Poland, in 2020. Ella V. is listed as her mother, but she is evidently Karin’s grandmother.
Private property Müller
Also shown is the border between the western zones to the Soviet occupation zone and the Federal Republic of Germany to the German Democratic Republic 1945 to 1990.
The territories transferred to Poland in 1945 are highlighted in dark, the territories transferred to the Soviet Union in 1945 in light.
Graphic: Katrin Bahrs
Karin spent her entire childhood and early adult life under the assumption that her adoptive parents were her biological parents. It later emerged that the relatives in her adoptive family knew about the adoption.
Photo: unknown. Private property Müller
Her husband Peter has always supported Karin in her search for her biological parents.
Photo: unknown. Private property Müller
