Gerhard Ammermann with a copy of his book. Photo / David Haxton
Gerhard Ammermann with a copy of his book. Photo / David Haxton
Gerhard Ammermann’s life has changed so much over the years, from being part of the Hitler Youth organisation in Germany to retiring on the Kāpiti Coast, and everything in between – and now he’s documented it all in his autobiography.
He was inspired to look back on his life in his book, titled It Is What It Was, by two of his grandchildren who wanted to learn more about him.
Ammermann was born in northern Germany in 1930 so was still very young when World War II started.
After being drafted at 14, he and his family fled, but being so young he wasn’t really aware of the war or interested in it.
Eventually, after the war had passed, he was offered the family farm, and despite not fully knowing what he wanted to do as a career, he knew it wasn’t farming.
His father encouraged him to start working in the wool trade and that’s what he did for many years, until the Korean War made wool more expensive in the early 50s and Ammermann said he could see the industry was going down.
After a couple of odd jobs, he got a job for the pharmaceutical company Bayer, which saw him working in various roles and took him around the world.
Eventually, though, he ended up in New Zealand, where he retired in Waikanae with his second wife Merle.
Ammermann said the process of writing his autobiography was a bit of a lengthy one.
Gerhard Ammermann at 24.
After his grandchildren prompted him to write his life down, he wrote something up and went to a writing teacher in Paraparaumu who read his work and recommended Lynn Peck from Writes Hill Press as a publisher.
Peck and Ammermann agreed the book should be made public, but since the original piece was written exclusively for his family, Ammermann said he felt he needed to rewrite it to suit the public.
“When you write for family you write without inhibition, and it doesn’t matter.”
Rather than relying solely on his memory, Ammermann said he was able to reference correspondence he had kept between himself and his parents, and he had several letters that dated up to 1979 which really helped.
He said one of the challenges of writing the book was ensuring it was balanced and not exaggerated, especially because “you can upset people so easily”.
The photo of Gerhard Ammermann that features as the front cover of his autobiography.
But one of his favourite parts of writing the book was reliving his life and all the changes that he experienced.
It reminded him that while everything and everyone changes, the “essence of life always stays the same”.
He was “very happy” with the finished book, and said he had only good feedback, despite expecting some sarcastic comments from his friends.
“Normally you live your life and think back on individual things happening, but you never see it in the one go and how it all flows.”
