"Ludwig is still asleep," says Rocco, peering out of Maria's kitchen window into the backyard.Rocco is four and Maria's grandchildren.His home is just across the street, where his mother Lisa is making coffee right behind her kitchen window.Ludwig is five and he is too Maria's grandson, the son of her other daughter, Anna, lives in the back house at the bottom of the house - you can see everything from Maria's kitchen window.
"The Ludwig will appear," says Maria Tembrink, 70. For ten years, the knit designer lives with her husband Clemens, a lawyer, back in the same house as her daughters and their families in a typical Berlin old building in Suarezstraße, Charlottenburg, with front building, rear building and side wing. "See you ?, this has a different meaning here than in most families. It's a real gift that we're all on top of each other.

No one planned that. The girls were scattered around the world. But somehow we all got together again

The assumption is obvious that this development has to do with Maria herself, because she is an unusual grandmother with her white blond match hair and the bright red lipstick. She also wears a long black and gray striped jersey she designed herself, black leggings and combat boots. Very casual and self-confident that works. And she is very warm. Maria's dress style is the same as the home decor. The kitchenette is hyper modern. On an old kitchen cabinet with white porcelain finds is their collection of sheet metal books. Next door in the living room books up to the ceiling. The economical furniture is a mixture of antiques and designer pieces. And everywhere pictures, pictures, pictures - modern art, children's drawings and above all family photos.

A huge dining table as the heart of the family

The Tembrinks are cultural people. Cinema, theater and exhibitions, they are up to date. And they like a full house. "The kids know that they can show up at any time, even when I'm in the shower," says Maria.The center of her apartment is the huge dining table, to which she squeezes 25 guests if necessary. "Five are loaded, ten have come, pouring water to the soup, warm everyone welcome ?, she quotes an inherited embroidery image that became her motto.

Where is the catch in their reunion, one asks oneself involuntarily. I think that's all a question of freedom and respect, of course there are arguments, one says yellow, the other green, then yellow, then green, sometimes Clemens is too busy here Then he closes the door for a while, okay too?

Tembrink as a designer brand

© Madlen Krippendorf

The house on Suarezstraße is like an ark to the Tembrinks. At the bottom of the ground floor is Anna, 43, in the shop, which she runs with her mother. Fifteen years ago, she got into Maria's design business. As if life in the same house would not be nest-building enough. Anna is unadorned, has a black ponytail, but otherwise the same open nature as her mother. She also wears Tembrink - a calf-length, mud-colored mohair dress with a black hoodie underneath. It has something nunnery about it. "We design for everyday life," she explains.The store, which resembles a gallery, hangs elegant, sporty and very contemporary.The regular customers recognize themselves on the street, reveals a customer, who is trying on a dress just in front of the mirror - a unique like every play with Maria and Anna.

Tembrink is a bit like driving Harley, a sworn club.

Maria is actually a trained social worker and has opened her designer shop as a cozy wool business. Anna is a cultural scientist, but once she did a tailor's apprenticeship in Kreuzberg. Nobody attaches importance to a purposeful career here. It is the independent, creative work that connects the two. When Maria, who likes to be independent, is looking for a partner, Anna is spontaneously on the spot. The idea that her world may be a bit small, she has not come. "I collect chairs, but I'm never seated," Maria explains. "I can build a life, but not live it permanently. There must always something new here. Because she does not cling to anything, she is a magnet for others - for her clientele and her family.

Life in the extended family - everything except stuffy

Life around her has arranged her like a loose community. When Anna's son Ludwig is born, he gets a baby bed in the store, because Anna wants to work again. Each working day starts at the café around the corner, for the briefing and the "street inhale." Maria regularly lapses for a while and soon she wants to cycle through Portugal, she needs her freedom, which also leaves the other air.

"From the stuffy mother picture, I always had to delineate myself, even externally.The girls have sometimes suffered as I left the house?

There is a time when she is out and about with bright red hair, boxer boots, tiger pants and studded belts. As a 13-year-old Anna disguised herself to Carnival as a punk. The children in the school laughed at her: "You look like your mother!" At that time she did that Today she is proud of Maria The self-confidence she has given to the daughters, also with regard to the name On the bell buttons on Haus is Tembrink three times, Anna and Lisa both kept their surname after marriage.

In the end, all roads lead to: Berlin

Anna is the first to move in after the shop, after studying in Frankfurt on the Oder and Utrecht. Her parents are still living in Schmargendorf, in a house with many friends. Ten years ago, the move to the city center, for the sake of culture, but also because it is time for something new. Lisa, who has been a fundraiser for non-profit organizations and is now organizing funds for retirement homes and hospitals, joins after stopping in Italy and Brazil.

© Madlen Krippendorf

There is a photo of her wedding in the hallway. Of course Lisa wears white - and of course Tembrink. She used to be the model of the family label. While Carlo, a wine merchant by profession, makes espresso, he tells of his native Apulia, where he goes on holiday with Lisa, Emilia, 10, and Rocco every summer. La Famiglia? Lisa chose a man with the right values. Are not you tempted to move to Italy? "Maybe later, for a few months a year," says Lisa, "Hey, you're my retirement," Anna complains in jest. "Then you come with me."

Let's face it, why are they all so fat here? "Because we always had all liberties ?, says Lisa

"That does not mean that no one was worried about us - when we were out at night, Maria kept the hall light on, and when we got home, we made it out so she knew." Our friends have always been welcome has certainly said their saying: 'Five are loaded ...' But when we need time, we have him, because no one has an expectation or puts pressure.?With freedom comes also a responsibility to take care of, above all when the two get older, but caring is a matter of course.

Grandma as a babysitter

Today, Maria also takes care of her children. She has fixed days as a babysitter with every grandson. Sometimes one needs more help, sometimes the other. Everyone is quite good at keeping their balance and taking advantage of nothing. A few years ago, Lisa and Carlo built a youth house in the favelas of Fuerte Leza in Brazil. When Clemens and Maria recently celebrated their 70th birthday, they wished for their children's shoes there.

The soup of the Tembrinks may taste slightly watered down, but no one cooks his own here.

It is also remarkable how similar her style of living is: everything very bright and colorful, with a lot of modern art and hand-picked furniture. At Anna and Adrian, 44, who is an architect, a tin shark hangs from the ceiling in the kitchen. When they needed more space for their family, Anna and Adrian went through the ceiling and mounted a spiral staircase to the next floor. Lucky that the landlord is also a family man.

A family dinner with Stammtisch-feeling

The house search ends at Maria's dining table. She has applied: bread, cheese and tomatoes. If everyone here eat together, it has something of a regular's table. Intense speech, much laughter and eye contact. Frequently, sentences are ended in several voices, anecdotes are warmed up. Now Clemens, 70, is sitting at the table, the quiet pole of the family, who himself grew up in a three-generation house. His career goes well with the Tembrink: knitting patterns: first barber training, then law school and now also the dream of owning a cinema. And of course he remembers his family life that freedom and trust are the most important foundations for every education.

On a family crest of the Tembrinks, should there ever be one, the terms freedom, adventure and a ball of wool would belong.

Maria is not afraid of getting older, and she certainly does not make any plans. From every chaos something new grows, she is sure, and radiates, as if she is already looking forward to it.

A report from "ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Wir" (02/18): www.ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-wir.de

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