by Sarah Matook
from Brisbane in Australia
I am Sarah, a 11-year-old Australian-German who lives in Brisbane, Australia. My parents are from Germany, Dresden, but I was born in Brisbane. In 2024-2025, we lived 4.5 months in Germany and I went on daily walks with my German grandfather, Opa Wolfgang.
During these walks, Opa told me his life story in an effort, so my mum said, to put me on a path of learning and knowledge.
This portrait shows Opa on one of these walks. We had picked flowers together.
For me, Opa is my hero because I admire his knowledge and achievements as a wood engineer.
When Opa was my age (11 years), he was a boy living in Germany after the war, but determined to take over the wood crafting business. It was different; he went to university and did his PhD under the harsh conditions of the East German Communist dictatorship. Because Opa never joined the Communist party, the recognition for his thesis work was never given to him. Only once the wall came down in 1991, he received the appreciation for his inventions “Quality Management of Furniture,” which was revolutionary at the time of his thesis.
Today, Opa still works at the age of 80 years, but not because he has to, but because he wants to share his knowledge and help others.
I admire him for never giving up, even under the hardest circumstances.
