From 1948 onwards it was possible to travel freely again within the three western zones of occupation. Many people took advantage of that. You still needed coupons for all kinds of consumer articles, food, textiles, furniture or heating equipment. I remember one coupon that we applied for and received in the autumn of 1947. It was for a small stove for Friedel's little room, which was still home to the three of us. But we couldn't find one in any shop, so we went on freezing through the winter of 1947–48.

After the currency reform in June 1948 we got offers of stoves from all sorts of people – if we were prepared to pay for one in the high-valued Deutschmarks. Up until then everyone swapped, foraged or “organized” to get hold of the necessities of life, and people who had something to exchange were at an advantage. We didn't hear much about the military governments in the Trizone; the enforcement of their regulations was delegated to the German authorities. And they in their turn explained their own unpopular policies by insisting that they were what the military government wanted. But with the foundation of the Federal Republic in 1949, followed by the formation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the same year, living conditions were transformed.

In 1951 our third child, our daughter Susan, was born. The times weren't rosy for our growing family. The Americans made a drastic reduction in the number of civilians they employed. I lost my job in Giessen and with it a secure monthly income. Now I was completely dependent on my earnings as a freelance actor. I would gladly have given up that “ungainful occupation” if I had only had a chance to get a permanent job again. But I couldn't. I had literally no training and no qualifications. The Nazis had made that impossible, and there was no way to make up the loss. The “economic miracle” was just beginning to gleam on the horizon, but every potential employer was still asking for papers and references first, and I had none. The State Employment Offices preferred “German” job applicants.