Elisabeth Haggblade

Home

My book, "Trauterose: Growing Up in Postwar Munich" (Glass Spider Publishing, 09-02-2023), is an eye-witness account of the post WWII years in Munich, Germany.

Left as an orphan at birth in the winter of 1942 in Munich, I spent the first eleven years as a foster child in the family of a former SS-officer. What was it like to live the following seven years in foster care in a home for children under the aegis of Catholic Sisters? What was it like to face culture shock as an immigrant to the United States at age eighteen without family support nor knowledge of English?

My coming-of-age story is set against the German economy of the "Wirtschaftswunder" years (time of rapid reconstruction). I describe what it was like to belong to a segment of society that did not reap its benefits.

I book-ended my work with some thoughts about German history, with reflections on today's Germany, concluding with critical remarks about nationality: Being considered German in the United States versus being American in Germany.

My academic credentials consist of a B.A. in German, a B.A. in Russian, a Master's in Linguistics from the California State University, Fresno, and a PhD in English Philology from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Retired from teaching part-time English and Linguistics at California State Universities and the Freie Universität Berlin, I am currently living in Santa Barbara, CA.

My publications began with academic articles and book reviews as well as book reviews of fiction in The Los Angeles Times. My book, "Trauterose: Growing Up in Postwar Munich," is now available in the Library of Congress.

Reviews

BookLife 01-16-2024

IndieReader 11-27-2023

The Prairies Book Review 11-14-2023

Midwest Book Review Nov. 2023

Interviews

The Authors Show Podcast 15 min, 11-01-2024

KCET Santa Barbara Live Interview 4 min, 03-05-2024

IndieReader Written Interview 12-28-2023

Awards

The Authors Show Non-Fiction Book Cover Award, Dec. 2024

"Trauterose: Growing Up in Postwar Munich" received the "2024 IndieReader Discovery Award Genre Memoir"