FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MY ANCESTORS

"Following in the Footsteps of My Ancestors" is a personal documentary film by Ute Köhler about her family history. The filmmaker embarks on an extraordinary journey to retrace the emigration route of her ancestors, who emigrated from southern Germany to Galicia (present-day Poland) in the 18th century and later to Volhynia (Ukraine). The film begins with Ute Köhler's own hike from Dolgesheim to Ulm in southern Germany, followed by a bicycle tour along the Danube to Vienna (Austria). This is the same route taken by her ancestors from five generations back, 240 years ago. Through interviews with witnesses such as her great-uncle Ludwig Zimmermann, who was born in Volhynia in 1902, as well as conversations with historians and archivists in Poland, the moving emigration story of German colonists unfolds. The documentary shows how her ancestors lived as farmers in German colonies, for example in Hohenbach and Reichsheim in the Vistula triangle in Galicia and later near the city of Lutsk in Volhynia in the 19th and early 20th centuries, until they were forced to flee again during World War I. Ludwig Zimmermann's family was deported to the Russian interior in 1915 and returned to Germany in 1918. The film combines personal investigation with historical analysis and culminates in Ute Köhler's decision to process this family history into a novel, a literary tribute to her courageous ancestors.