Irmi's paternal grandparents

Gera, Germany  (June 10, 1949)

Left:  Lina (Krafzig) Scharna  (1891-1977)

Right:  Ulrich Otto Oscar Scharna  (1895-1980)

Ulrich served as schoolmaster of a two-room country school house in the town of Forsthausen, located in the former

German state of East Prussia.  As schoolmaster, he supervised one other teacher.  Classes one through four were

grouped under one instructor, and five through eight were taught by the other.  As a perquisite meant to supplement

his low salary, the state granted Ulrich eight acres of land which he and his wife could farm after normal work hours.

In addition to basic food crops, their land also nurtured cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals.  Ulrich had been

married twice.  His first wife, the former Clara Balnat, died in childbirth.  Their daughter, Elisabeth, died at age eight

from meningitis.  Ulrich and his second wife, Lina, gave birth to three sons: Hans (1922-1951); Herbert (1924-1973);

and Lothar (1925-2015).  In October, 1944, amid heavy fighting in World War II, Russian troops entered East Prussia,

and the Scharna family fled to Gera, in the German state of Thüringen, where a sister of Lina's lived.  Following

hostilities, the occupying powers re-drew the border between Germany and Poland; and all of East Prussia became

Poland.  As a result, Ulrich and his family could not return to their native Forsthausen . . . so they remained in Gera.