Karl Gerstenberger has lived the American dream. He just had to survive a nightmare to get the chance.
Gerstenberger was born in New York City in 1934 at the height of the Great Depression in the United States and the year Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany.
His family moved to Leipzig, Germany, when he was 2 months old after his millionaire grandfather offered his father the chance to get involved in business there.
Germany invaded Poland in 1939 when Gerstenberger was just 5 years old. As a child in Germany, he was involved in the Hitler Youth.
That was mandatory during World War II, all boys and girls were in it, Gerstenberger said. `At age 10 you joined. Living in a dictatorship, like Hitler’s dictatorship, you didn’t get two sides of the story.`
After surviving the war ` one of Gerstenberger’s brothers died on the Russian front ` he moved back to America with his older sister in 1945.
`You were just plopped into the classroom,` Gerstenberger said. `Sink or swim, you learned English.`
He lived as a foster child on a farm in the Catskills for two years until his parents were able to immigrate back to the United States in 1947.
`Luckily we survived the war; we had a lot of bombing,` Gerstenberger said. `The whole family, like an immigrant family, started from scratch.`
He was drafted into the U.S. Army in the 1950s, and was stationed in Germany for three years.
Gerstenberger married his wife, Charlotte, in 1960, and they moved to Clifton Park in 1971 when his son, Helmut, was 10 years old.
Gerstenberger retired in 1991 after teaching social studies and German at Shenendehowa for more than 20 years. He is a co-founder of the Clifton Park Soccer Club, which has hosted an international soccer tournament annually for the past 31 years, along with Spike Walsh, Peter Clinton and Peter Sands.
This year, Helmut, now 46, was the tournament director.
`It’s certainly been great to see a lot of the kids like my sons [Adam and Devon] really get involved in it and participate,` Helmut said. `It’s really pretty neat.`
Adam, 13, and Devon, 11, are part of a third generation of Gerstenbergers to participate in the Clifton Park Soccer Club. Helmut’s two daughters, Sabina, 21, and Erika, 19, also played.
Helmut explained the family’s passion for soccer.
`It’s something you can play for many years well into your 50s and 60s. When you get the ball, unlike baseball as an example, you’re kind of the quarterback,` Helmut said. `You can control the game because you as a player now have that ball by your feet.`
More than 130 youth teams played around 400 games during last weekend’s Clifton Park International Soccer Classic at the Clifton Park Commons.
Karl, now 73, sat under the shade of a golf cart as teenagers played soccer nearby.
`It’s two totally different worlds; it’s hard to explain what it was like as a child,` Karl said. `But I think it’s human nature to make the best of every situation.`
He remains humble about his role in the soccer club and tournament.
`We’re very proud of it and very happy about it; it’s been very successful,` Karl said. `It wasn’t only me; there were many other people involved.`
Karl said his grandson Adam reminds him of himself.
`When I see my grandson, that’s the age I came alone to America,` Karl said. `It was a different time in history, a different life.`
Adam is living proof of that different life.
`I hear a lot of comments during the tournaments from the teams. [They say] ‘How come you get a [golf] cart?’` Adam said. `I just say, ‘Well, that’s what I love about being a Gerstenberger.’“