When the birth remains a secret

Hamm · When she was 13, Petra Welkers from Hamm found out that she had been adopted – she was lied to about the background, she had to cope with it on her own. How disastrous that was for her life and why she only started researching her origins at the age of 52.

By Jörg Isringhaus

When Petra Welkers opened her adoption file for the first time at the age of

52, her heart was pounding in her throat. Again and again she had

fantasized that she would find a photo or a letter from her birth mother in

it. Anything personal. Vain. Instead, there were a few names, sober

information about her birth parents who had already died, and a birth

register. "I was frozen, couldn't even cry," says the 57-year-old from Hamm.

She found out about her adoption when she was 13, but details were kept

from her. Welkers suppressed their true origins. It was only decades later

that she dared to reveal her “birth secret”, as her book about her journey

into the past was titled – with far-reaching consequences.