A New Life in a New Country
Horst and Elly arrived in Winnipeg in June, 1954. Interestingly, they knew where they would be living in Canada while still in Germany, as it seems the immigration officer told them that would be where they were going.
There was an established German community in Winnipeg, and they were able to find an apartment and both find jobs from within this community. Both Horst and Elly took English classes in the evenings while working.
Elly found a job in a dressmaking factory, surrounded by other German immigrants. She was paid by piece, so the faster and more efficient she worked, the more she was paid. This work ethic seems to have continued within the Eigenfeldt family.
Horst found a job in a furniture factory.
He eventually had to leave as the toxic chemicals were quite harmful to his health. He eventually found a job in a meat-packing plant, a job that he would continue after they moved to Vancouver.
First house on Ellesmere Ave.
Within two years after arriving in Canada, Horst and Elly were able to purchase their first home at 71 Ellesmere Avenue in a suburb of Winnipeg, Glenwood.
They were also able to furnish their new house with modern appliances, like a black and white television set.
There are quite a few photographs of Horst and Elly enjoying the outdoors, such as at Lake Winnipeg in September 1955, below.
Somewhat understandably, they were very proud of owning their own house. There are quite a few photographs of Horst and Elly in their house, most likely sent to their relatives back in Germany.
Horst and Elly were part of a German community in Winnipeg, as well as maintaining relationships formed on the two week journey across the Atlantic.
First car
They were able to buy their first car, a 1953 Mercury Monterey, in 1956.
In 1960, Elly’s mother Koyus came to visit Winnipeg after her father, Julius, passed away. Elly had hoped that Koyus would stay in Canada; however, Koyus was in her 70s at the time, and she did not feel she could move to a new country at that age.
While Koyus was visiting in 1960 (it is unclear how long she visited), Horst and Elly bought a new car, a 1960 Ford Falcon.
In 1960, both Horst and Elly became Canadian citizens. They had decided not to return to their home country of Germany, and instead embrace their new home of Canada.
And Then There Were Three
After years of attempting to conceive, Horst and Elly became pregnant. In August 1962, their son Ralph Arnold was born in St. Boniface hospital. Elly, 34 years old at the time, had a difficult labour and lost a lot of blood. Doctors told her that she should not have any more children.
According to Oma, they called me Ralph for the first two weeks of my life, then decided I wasn’t a Ralph, but an Arnold.
Second house on Kingston Row
Horst and Elly upgraded to a more affluent area in 1963, to 90 Kingston Row. Opa was very proud to be living in that area.
I have memories (1965-66) of “helping” to sandbag across the street.
Kingston Row was a block from the Red River, which regularly used to flood.
Being on the Prairie, Winnipeg was exceedingly cold in the winter, and snow was on the ground from November through April.
For my first two years, I only spoke German. Oma and Opa only spoke German at home, and I assume didn’t feel confident enough with their English to try to teach me. A neighbor, a girl named Marilyn, taught me English. English is thus my second language.
A trip to Germany
In the summer of 1964, Oma and I visited Germany. We visited Bünde, where Elly’s mother, Koyus, lived, along with her sister Charlotte. It was an opportunity for the extended family to see their Canadian emigrant who had left ten years earlier.
Deciding to leave Winnipeg
Horst and Elly maintained strong friendships with many of the other Germans that came over on the same ship from Bremen in 1954. One of those families had moved to Vancouver, and wrote to them about how lovely it was, and, more importantly, how mild the winters were.
In the summer of 1965, the Eigenfeldts took a vacation, driving from Winnipeg to Vancouver and back. Some of my earliest memories are of this vacation.
Sometime after that vacation, and perhaps after the particularly brutal winter of 1965-66, Horst and Elly decided to move to Vancouver.
They sold the house on Kingston Row for $13,900.
Moving to Vancouver
In the late spring of 1966, Horst drove to Vancouver alone, two weeks before Elly and young Arnold, who followed by train.
We left Winnipeg before I was four years old, so I have few actual memories of my birth city.
The plan was for Horst to get a job and a place to live during those two weeks; however that didn’t happen as both the job market and the rental markets were tight. We ended up staying in a basement suite of a German family in East Vancouver for several weeks while Horst looked for a job, and they both looked for an apartment. Many of the landlords did not want a couple with a young child.
By late summer, Horst found a job at Meteor Meat in North Vancouver, a meat-packing plant.
They eventually found an apartment at 1011 Richelieu Ave and Oak Street; however, there were no children in the area, and Elly was unhappy with this limitation. They also wanted to live closer to Horst’s new job in North Vancouver.
After only living in Vancouver for a month (or two), Horst and Elly purchased a duplex in North Vancouver across from an elementary school in September, 1966. The total cost of the duplex was $21,500.
Horst and Elly were able to pay off the mortgage in less than 15 years, closing it out in April 1980.
Our German Family 