Senior profile: Fleeing Germany in the early ’50s, senior eventually found his way to MH

Well traveled, Guenter Fassbender witnessed historic fall of the Berlin Wall

Published in the September 14-27, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Robert Airoldi

As a young man Guenter Fassbender fled Germany to live in Canada for a short time. He eventually made his way to California, finding a home in Morgan Hill where he’s spent the past 24 years. Traveling the world in his retirement, he found himself in Berlin in 1989 when the infamous wall dividing the city came down. By his own estimate, he’s had a great life and continues to enjoy every day.

But it wasn’t always that way.

In 1951 in Frankfurt where he was born, his family survived World War II, and he had finished an apprenticeship in electrical mechanics.

“That was a time when Russia and the U.S. were on the borders and each had patrols trying to keep each other out,” Fassbender said. “There was talk about Germany upping its army, and I thought the hell with that, I’m getting out.”

He had been thinking of going someplace but had no idea where. Then one day, he and a few friends were riding their bikes, and along the way met several friends he’d known years previously in a Hitler Youth camp.

“We were talking to them after not seeing them for years, and one guy said he’s moving to Canada. I asked him why and he said, ‘They don’t have a draft,’” Fassbender said, a sly grin creeping onto his face.

So, at the age of 20, on Dec. 31, 1951, he sailed across the Atlantic, leaving behind his parents, an older sister and a younger brother.

Knowing how to speak very little English, he got a job milking cows on a farm in a tiny town in Saskatchewan. He earned very little money, so he quit and made a journey to Regina, the capital of the Canadian province. He found his way to the home of a preacher who fed him and helped him find a job working as an electrician for a German man.
“That was pretty good,” he said. “I got real wages.” During this time in Regina, he married, then moved on to work repairing typewriters. But after a few winters of dealing with temperatures that reached -51 degrees, he and his wife moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he worked for the same company. Then he got a job more in his field – building switchboards. His daughter, Rhonda, now 54, was born. One summer in the early ’60s they took a vacation to California.

“On the way home, I said to my wife, ‘We’re going to come back here.’ We stopped for lunch in Portland (Ore.) and I picked up a telephone book, found Federal Pacific Electric and called them,” Fassbender said. “They got me a name, I got in touch with someone and got a job with them (building switchboards).”

He enjoyed working for them, but still longed for California. Eventually, they transferred him to San Jose. But shortly after arriving, the company moved to Los Angeles. Not wanting to move south, he got a job at Cutler Hammer, which manufactures electrical distribution and control products. Then he moved on to Hewlett Packard and at the same time, his brother Robert immigrated and got a job at the same place. Eventually, he found his way back to Federal Pacific Electric, where he worked for 25 years before retiring in 1997. Today, he possess three passports as a citizen of Germany, Canada and the United States.

After Fassbender divorced in 1992, a friend who lived in Morgan Hill recommended he relocate and told him of a home that was available. He walked in, saw the view and told the agent he’d take the place. He wrote a check on the spot.

Now 85, Fassbender has been to 25 states, South America, a cruise through the Panama Canal, visits to Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Poland, Austria, Holland, Hungary, and many other countries. He skied every other weekend until three years ago when he finally hung up his skis.

But it was a trip in 1989 that still resonates. He had returned to Germany when word got around that the Berlin Wall was going to come down.

“That evening we got to the wall and there was a huge festival. Everybody was drunk and people were tearing down the wall,” he said. “It was taken down rock by rock. That was really something to see.”

In 2012 he met Florence Mannix at Huntington Station Sports Pub. Today, the couple live together. The two enjoy dining out and traveling and recently returned from a three-week trip to Europe that included a stop in Germany to visit Fassbender’s family.

“I’ll still travel,” he said. “Most people die at home, so why should I stay there?”