The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (4 page)

Benedikt
also thought that Wilhelm was a bit of a weakling and probably not much use at the farm. His mother, Elizabeth, had suggested right away that he should maybe find work in a library or a bookshop as he was so fond of reading and with the help of some people at the German club, Wilhelm was soon set up at the bookshop and even managed slightly to supplement the farm income with his salary. Wilhelm was away from the farm for most of the day and was hardly ever even noticed. That suited Benedikt very well; Wilhelm was the only handsome son of his cousin and he did not want his daughters to get any wrong ideas. Wilhelm was not ever likely to run the farm either, so the less the girls saw of him the better.

Despite their different backgrounds
, the two Winkelmeier families bonded surprisingly well. Johanna was a very cold woman and not comfortable as the female leader of the clan but Elizabeth took on the role as the warm and giving heart of house and kitchen to whom the girls came with questions and their problems. For the first time in its history, the house started to have a friendly feel to it. Elizabeth hated shouting and arguing and she always tried to bring people back together rather than stirring things up like Johanna was used to doing.

The attention starved Roswitha loved that there was a person on the farm that made time for her and seemed to like her without any conditions attached. The more introvert Maria on the other hand was just relieved that she no longer had to help her mother in the kitchen. Although Benedikt had ordered the two girls to learn everything that they could
from the new domestic boss, Elizabeth was not interested in pressurizing anyone into something they did not want to do and so she let Maria quietly steal herself back to the fields, where the girl could be as isolated as she wanted to be and so suffer less from the social pressures on the farm. Gunter was also extremely pleased about the new developments on the farm, mainly because of the superior cooking. All three children were content with the new situation and Benedikt’s wife Johanna was relieved too that a competent woman had taken all these unwanted tasks of her hands. She did not form a strong bond with Elizabeth but was polite and thankful to her – much more than Benedikt would have expected from his otherwise cold and closed wife.

Oskar and his bo
ys obeyed the laws of the ruling patriarch and accepted his role as teacher and leader without the slightest hint of questioning his authority, which pleased Benedikt no end. Everyone seemed happy.

A
fter only a few times of her and Wilhelm meeting in the barn, Greta became pregnant and the young Prussian – despite his feelings towards her still being a little unsure - decided to do the right thing by her and proposed. Now that fate or bad luck had tied him to the bibliophile woman he became aware of the reasons behind his earlier hesitations.

Greta was more of a muse and a fantasy lover to him than a woman he would have chosen to marry. Too many practicalities were speaking against it and he did not even know if she could cook and be a good wife. It was his code o
f honour that forbid him walking away from her now. They got married in a civil ceremony in 1934 with little Karl already showing through her wedding dress.

Wilhelm
’s family was not particularly pleased with this marriage either but felt it only right that no Winkelmeier child should ever be brought up a bastard. When Wilhelm told the family about her background, Oskar had raised the issue of having a Jewish wife in these difficult times but Elizabeth made him see that the damage was already done and that there was no other Christian way out of this situation. A Christian solution was not necessarily something that would have mattered to Benedikt, but he was fond of the idea of grandchildren and the continuation of the family. The sooner this process began, the more he would be able to personally pass on and mould the next generation; a thought that was dear to someone who was so self-loving and arrogant, and so he gave his blessing. Besides, the bride was not an official Jew and her presence would destroy any ideas his daughters might have about the handsome young book seller.

After the wedding
, Greta and Wilhelm lived together in a small room on the farm and soon after the birth of their son, when she was not nursing little Karl, Greta was called upon to help on the farm. Having been brought up so liberally by her father, she initially found it difficult to adjust to the new harsh climate where Benedict dictated what would be done and where she had the lowest part in the female pecking order. Working in the fields would have taken her too far away from Karl, so for most of the day she was made to cook and clean. Greta hardly managed to read, so exhausted was she in the evenings. She had to take orders from both Johanna and Elizabeth and while the latter was gentle and caring, the former could not have given a damn about the ‘Jewish whore’ who had trapped ‘her’ beloved handsome Berlin boy into marriage.

Wilhelm got promoted to assistant buyer at his book shop, a favour to the family
out of respect for his new role as young father. He came home even later every day and then still had to read or work till late at night. Jonah had offered for them to live with him in Bratislava at the workshop, but Johanna and Elizabeth both were heavily opposed to the young family living with Jews. For the sake of peace and with one eye on the political situation in Germany, the Weissensteiners agreed that the farm would be a much safer place for the little boy to grow up.

Greta was able to
see her sister and family at most once a week. When everyone else went to church on Sunday mornings, she was allowed to walk into town with the little one. Elizabeth and Oskar were not very religious but succumbed to the continuous social pressure from Benedikt and Johanna, who said that village life revolved entirely around church attendance. If you wanted to be part of the community, or at least find buyers for your goods, you had to stay friendly and always show your face at church. The rural population was incredibly devoted to Catholicism and it was best to go at least to be seen regardless of your actual beliefs, which in the case of the Winkelmeiers were Lutheran.

Hardly any of the locals knew them
more than by name and no one ever came to visit apart from those farmers that borrowed or rented Benedikt’s equipment, but keeping up appearances could never harm. Elizabeth and Oskar gave in to this logic and made their children go regularly to mass as well, but they didn't quite dare to ask Greta to come to church too.

Only Johanna
tried to persuade Greta to convert. She found an unlikely ally in this campaign in Jonah Weissensteiner, the father of the bride. He felt that a family should be all of one faith and go to church or the temple in unison. When Wilhelm pointed out that the Winkelmeiers were actually not even Catholic but Lutherans, he shrugged and said why could they not convert, after all they were already going to the services, it should not make any difference to them.

Lutherans at that time were particularly unpopular in Slovakia because the politicians in Prague appeared to favour them. There was already a lot of ill feeling towards the government because it consisted mainly of members of the domin
ant Czech half of the country and the resentment was transferred to the innocent Protestants.

Johanna caught on to Jonah'
s idea and suggested immediately that her family should all convert together. It would ingratiate them deeply in to the local community and one could always do with some allies among the neighbours.

Greta refused to convert, saying that she felt it wrong to commit herself to a church she did not believe in, but since she was not a very committed Jewess either she declared herself happy to attend some of the church services. Since those occurred at the one time a week that Greta had been allowed to visit her family in Bratislava
, she asked to be excused from at least a few services so she would be able to carry on with the visits to the workshop.

Johanna noticed how weak Greta sounded
when she voiced this request and it seemed a good opportunity to try and bargain further with the young mother. Would Greta be prepared to have Karl baptised - after all it would do wonders for his future if he was raised in the predominant faith of the region? Greta said she would leave that up to Wilhelm. If he felt strongly enough to support Johanna's suggestions then she would happily go along with it. Secretly she was sure Wilhelm would never agree to such a silly idea and such an obvious sucking up to the local church members. However, to her surprise Wilhelm was very enthusiastic with the plan. His superior at the book shop, Herbert Kling, came from the Catholic Bavaria and had often commented on him not having had a church wedding. Wilhelm had laughed it off with much appreciated rude comments about the bride not being able to wear white at the wedding and refusing to walk down the aisle in a different coloured dress, but it was made clear to him that if he converted to Catholicism and baptised his son Karl, it would be appreciated and his career prospects would be much stronger.

To everyone
’s surprise the local priest seemed the first real hurdle. He was not particularly happy for any of them to convert and was certainly not prepared to baptise them without a series of harsh conditions. Father Bernhard Haslinger was of the old guard and demanded that they should all attend regular catechism lessons for several months during which he would test their current knowledge of the Bible and then teach them in detail the differences between the two branches of Christianity. He also scolded them for having gone to Catholic Church so frequently when in fact they were not of the right faith. In his book that was as blasphemous as eating meat on a Friday.

Benedikt found it h
ard to keep his anger in check and to let the priest carry on with his sermon, but Johanna and Elizabeth made up for his offensive body language by throwing admiring glances at the priest, playing up to his own grand vision of himself as the wise and charitable saviour of these poor souls before him.

Wilhelm and his father Oscar kept quiet and when put on the spot
, they showed their lack of knowledge without any attempts to hide it or even make excuses for it. Father Haslinger was enraged whenever he saw the depths of their ignorance and ordered them to do homework. He knew that it was the women who were behind this whole conversion idea and if the men were ready to take on the new faith, he wanted to make sure they had to work for it. It shouldn't be made easy for anyone to convert and receive the reward of salvation. Baptism was a privilege and its right should be earned.

When the date of their b
aptism was near, Johanna mentioned little Karl to the priest and asked him if - after his father Wilhelm had become a Catholic – it would be possible to baptise Karl too? Father Haslinger thought about this for a while and then he said he would only do so if Karl’s mother was a Catholic too.

Johanna
immediately saw where this was going and in a desperate attempt to hide from the priest that Greta was a Jew she said, yes, the mother was kind of a Catholic, but she had only been baptised, had not been raised in the faith after that and had not received her confirmation. Elizabeth stared in disbelief at such speedy lying but Oskar punched her gently in the side to signal that she had to go along with it.

“I will personally see to it that she receives the sacrament if she is willing to. I can't have a little Catholic boy raised by a
non-believer. It would not be in God’s will,” Father Haslinger stated with seriousness in his eyes and turned to leave.

Johanna rolled her eyes
behind his back and then addressed him with as much humbleness that she could muster without laughing. “You are too kind. Of course you are right. I will speak to the mother.”

Greta was shocked when she heard the proposal by Johanna.

“You want me to pretend I am baptised so I can learn about Catholicism and convert, just so that my son can be baptised as well? That is a lot of lying and effort for something so unimportant. Will your God not punish you for all this deceit of a priest?” she said.

“It must be better in his eyes than
remaining Protestant or Jewish,” Johanna replied.

“Do you really think that it will make such a difference in the community? No one is interested in German
s, regardless of their religion,” Greta guessed.

“I think it will make a big difference with the locals. It is not too muc
h of an effort. We have all just taken that stupid course, so don't worry about the studying. We all can help you with the preparation. After that you only need to go to church once in a while, just like before,” Johanna assured her. “Who knows when we might need the help of our neighbours. It can't be wrong to make more friends and get the locals to see us as peers and fellow church goers and not just as rich German land owners. The Catholics love seeing someone come onto the right path with them. We'd have the Father as an ally which is good and the congregation hangs on his every word.”

Soon Greta gave in and went to the lessons, even though it meant she had to give up even
more of her precious little spare time allotted to reading. Father Haslinger was less strict with her than he had been with the others. He was quite aware that Greta was not doing this for herself but for her son and he admired nothing more than a selfless mother. Unlike in his other lessons, he was incredibly patient and gave her much less homework than he had done with the other Winkelmeiers. He was content as long as she could recite some prayers and knew the main parts of the Catholic Church service and, of course, how to confess her sins. In his eyes, this woman had singlehandedly shown more dedication and Christian spirit than her whole family.