Mama mia
Renate Schnabel and her 17 children
Renate Schnabel is the mother of 17 children. When the 72-year-old reminisces, she can hardly recall a time when she was not pregnant. And this despite the fact that she always found “all this fussing with small children to be just awful.† And housecleaning, cooking and doing laundry were “a horror† for her. Renate Schnabel is no typical mother. Her children only started to interest her when she could converse seriously with them. She was never the affectionate mother hen type, but instead somewhat distant, albeit always reliable and ambitious. Today, she remarks with hauteur that while many people assume that any family this size must be in some sense antisocial, 13 of her children have academic degrees. And this despite the fact that after her husband’s premature death, Renate Schnabel became a single parent. Her husband’s passing was the biggest shock of her life. Left all alone with 17 children, it became clear that her life would consist solely of mothering, that she would miss out on many things. Lately, she has been catching up in many departments. Her favorite hobbies are travel, making music, and exercise. This agile old lady receives regular visits from her children, and holds the family together as its “foreign secretary.† This year, one of her daughters will marry in her family’s home village, Langenhain im Taunus. More than 200 guests are expected. With 17 children, 24 grandchildren and umpteen stepdaughters and stepsons, it doesn’t take much to bring together a big horde. As when she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit just a few weeks ago. She is proud of this distinction, but on the other hand, it annoys her that, up to the present, she has always been perceived as nothing but a parent. For Renate Schnabel, the joys of motherhood are inseparable from its tragedies. Her life as a woman has been marked by contradiction. Looking back, she cannot help but ask herself how things might have been different — but at the same time, she can hardly imagine life without her 17 children.
