Hans Gruber

Hans Gruber was born February 14, 1924 in Stettin, Pommerania (now a town spelled Scecin in Poland). The year after being released in 1950 from Russian POW camps, Hans met Bridgett, a medical technician from Saxony, Germany. Their relationship blossomed, and they married in Saxony, East Germany in 1952 before the Berlin Wall was built. Bridgett had an uncle living in the United States of America who (along with a Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio) helped sponsor the newlyweds’ immigration to the U.S. in 1954. The couple became U.S. citizens in 1960 and were married for fifty-six years until Bridgett died in 2007.

Hans’ career in the U.S. is a prime example of capitalism at its finest. Hans first started working for a Cleveland up-scale housing contractor as a utility laborer, but when the retiring owner (of German descent) became aware of Hans’ background in architectural engineering, he offered to provide a loan and to sell the business to Hans. Limited knowledge of the U.S. marketing system and limited English skills were too much of a hindrance at that time for Hans to take such a gamble. Instead, he astutely decided to take a job as an office boy for a Cleveland architectural firm making $1.25/hour. After a few months he gained valuable experience designing an outdoor picnic area and a bridge over the Cuyahoga River. He left that firm after eight months and took a higher paying position with H.K. Furgeson Company. Then an odd, curious thing happened.

Many U.S. returning World War II soldiers were taking advantage of the government G.I. Bill which provided financial assistance to U.S. veterans for college tuition. When H.K. Furgeson asked Hans if he wanted to further his engineering education attending night classes via the G.I. Bill, Hans jumped at the chance. The U.S. bureaucracy never bothered to check that Hans fought for Germany instead of the U.S. In just four years of working full-time during the day and attending classes at night, like most highly motivated immigrants, Hans successfully obtained his licensed architectural engineering degree from Western Reserve University. The irony of it all was that it was accomplished by an enemy soldier expense-free courtesy of the U.S. government.

With the income as an architectural engineer and as a medical technician, Hans and Bridgett lived a white collar existence in Cleveland Heights and spent summers on an island in Lake Nippissing, Canada that they purchased in 1969. After unsuccessfully dabbling in the U.S stock market and eventually retiring, Hans sold his house in Cleveland and built a winter home in Vero Beach, Florida where he and the current love of his life, Ingrid, happily reside today. Ingrid was born in Berlin and met Hans in 2010. Currently Hans has only two male cousin relatives remaining in Germany.

2013 finds the spry eighty-nine-year-old Hans playing golf daily (He walks the course.) and bowling on weekends. His experience as a POW made him acutely aware of the importance of maintaining a good diet and exercise regimen. Cayenne pepper, garlic, German beer, and yogurt are mainstays of his diet, and swimming and walking are a permanent part of his exercise routine. Despite his mother’s (Erna’s) penchant for the occult, Hans is a Lutheran Christian, and despite his father’s (Otto’s) penchant for loose women and cut-throat business methods, Hans is a moral, compassionate person. Against all odds, Hans’ life seems the epitome of faith and perseverance and is a triumphant example of free-market capitalism’s superiority over socialism and communism. Only a person who has actually lived through the best and worst that all three philosophies have to offer would know first-hand which one to promote. Hans is currently in the process of translating this book over to German and of publishing it on the German free market. After writing his biography, My Odyssey Thru Hell, and interviewing Hans April 25, 2013, I am under the strong impression that he will continue to support the free enterprise system until his dying last breath. Instead of succumbing to become a Russian mole and an advocate for communism, he resisted his mental brainwashing and physical torture to become a capitalist who deserves a badge of courage for his relentless quest for freedom. It is an honor and a pleasure to know such an extraordinary man. His incredible stamina and zest for life continues to be an inspiration to us all.

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