In the night from the 20. to the 21.4.1944 the flat of Herta and Kurt Müller in Cologne-Ehrenfeld, Mackensenstr.65, was completely destroyed by a bomb attack. At this time noone was in the flat. Herta M., 7 months pregnant, lived with her paternal
relatives at Isselhorst (Westphalia) for several months, already.

In the morning of the 21st April Kurt Müllers mother-in-law,

, went to the ruins of the house Mackensenstr.65 and searched the smoking remains for anything worth saving. She did not find much, just two things, two books of the about a thousand which had been in the flat, both half-destroyed, but legible, still: one travelogue (Keilpflug: "An den Rändern dreier Erdteile") and one volume from "Heine's works" (see right) from Meyers Klassiker-Ausgaben, a symbolic find maybe because Heine was one of Kurt Müller's favourite poets (see his spontaneous recitation of a

, to be listened to

) and was, because of Heine's Jewish origin, forbidden literature under Nazi rule. The Nazi party block warden ("Blockwart") should not have found it.

Left: View from the balcony of the destroyed flat  Mackensenstr. 65 to Franz- Kreuter-Straße (right) and, crossing it, Barthelstraße (background, centre) with the Schiller-Gymnasium (grammar school from 1888, right in the background, which was completely destroyed in the war, as well). The house in the right part of the picture survived the war relatively well and stands there, almost unchanged, still today. The house in the left part of the picture is preserved in its basic structure, as well, but its surface and form have considerably changed. The house Mackensenstr.65 itself has been replaced by a new building.

Above: Herta Müller on the balcony of the flat.  From here the photograph "View from the balcony" (see left) was taken.

War 1944: Destruction of the flat in Cologne