Every family has a geography. Ours runs from the Westphalian farmland to the Gulf of Finland, and it took a few turns on the way.
Dortmund, Soest and Unna — where the line comes from
The Kallenbach name belongs to Dortmund-Hörde and to the villages of the Kreis Soest and Kreis Unna — Welver, Dinker, Lünern, Hemmerde and their neighbours. Martin’s grandparents Franz and Hedwig married in Dortmund in 1935; both his parents were born there. The archive traces the line seven generations back, to the early 1800s. That part lives in the family archive, not here.
Olsberg and Brilon — a birthplace
Martin was born in Olsberg in the Sauerland in January 1965, while the family lived in Brilon. He has no memories of it; the family had moved to Cologne before his first birthday.
Köln-Porz — the first ten years
A district of Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine. Primary school, the river, the city on the other side. The place Martin thinks of when someone says “childhood”.
Rösrath and Rösrath-Forsbach — the parents’ house
East of Cologne, on the edge of the Bergisches Land. The family moved here in 1976; from 1978 the house in Forsbach was home, workshop and office — Friedhelm’s electronics business ran from it until 2010. Martin’s parents lived there until the end of their lives; his sister Ute still lives on the property. The Christuskirche in Forsbach is where, in June 1984, a Finnish youth group from Kulosaari came to visit.
Bergisch Gladbach and Overath — the years in between
The towns between Cologne and Rösrath where Martin’s children were born and grew up, and where, in 2006, Liisa and four of her children moved in so that one household could form before the move north.
Gütersloh — Julya
Two hours north, in East Westphalia. Not a family root, but where Martin’s sister Julya lives — and therefore a fixed point on every trip to Germany since 2017.
Kulosaari, Nurmijärvi, Klaukkala — Liisa’s side
Liisa grew up in the Helsinki region; the Kulosaari parish youth group was the reason she was in Cologne in 1984. Nurmijärvi and Klaukkala, north of Helsinki, are where her family life happened before Germany, and Klaukkala is where the family bought a house in 2009.
Virrat — the wedding, and the lakes
A small town in the Finnish lake district. Martin and Liisa were married there in church on 29 June 2008, and it has stayed the place they go back to.
Espoo and Helsinki — home
Nokia was in Espoo, and so was the first workplace. Church is at UCC Espoo. Since 2017 home is in western Helsinki. The sea on one side, forest on the other, and a light that changes completely between June and December.
Hauho — the sixtieth
A manor house by a lake in Kanta-Häme, May 2025, eighty people, three days. Family from Germany and colleagues from every employer in forty years. If you were there, you know.
A map and photographs will follow once the albums are sorted.