The Schnabels – Mum, Dad and 17 Children
An unforgettable portrait of an exceptional family and a story of solidarity and sacrifice
With seventeen children, the Schnabels were an exception even by the standards of old West Germany. Many things in their everyday life were out of the ordinary, such as how they managed to live in a small flat, the mountains of food they required and how the older children cared for and helped bring up their siblings. At the same time, many things were typical of West-German families between the 1950s and 1980s: The father was the breadwinner, the mother a housewife, the children roamed the streets unsupervised and the mother increasingly sought her own independence.
ZEIT reporter Katrin Hörnlein tells the fascinating story of a remarkable family – almost en passent presenting us with a slice of West-German history.
- Through one family’s story, a fresh perspective on postwar West-German society
- Built from over 1,000 pages of interviews, combining rigorous research with compelling storytelling
- For readers of Ewald Frie and Sabine Bode
Katrin Hörnlein
Katrin Hörnlein, born in 1977, is a reporter for the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, where she is the editor for children’s and young adult literature and inter alia organises the Children’s and Young Adult Book Prize.
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