Hans and Christel Nieske married in Zernin, a village in Mecklenburg, in 1949. They both came from farming families that had lived in the area and run their farms for generations.
The same year that Hans and Christel tied the knot, the German division was solidified by the establishment of two separate German states – the Federal Republic of Germany in the west and the German Democratic Republic in the east. The village of Zernin was now part of the GDR.
This had drastic consequences for the farmers who lived there: Private farms were expected to merge “voluntarily” into agricultural production cooperatives (LPG). Independent farmers were pressured to pay high levies to the state and disadvantaged, for example, in the distribution of fertilizer, seeds and machinery.