Majevica, Kolimer, Theo Tesanovic



	Notes on the author and his associates

First of all, I would like to thank all those dear families from Kolimer for entrusting me with details of their private lives, including a lot of old and new photos. As I have already mentioned here, the author assumes full responsibility for all the information presented on this site and has included no personal addresses or phone numbers of family members. .

In case some site visitors show interest in learning more about individual members of certain families, it will be possible only through me personally and with the permission of the respective families. For this purpose they can use my e-mail address to be found at the end of this page.

I would especially like to thank my youngest brother Spasoye who made it possible for me to visit a large number of our relatives in 2009 after almost 50 years. Furthermore, my special thanks go to Staniya Tomic, a registrar from the Priboy Registry Office, who made all the necessary documents available to me. Your help, dear Staniya, led me out of the dark and now I have learnt so much and see things far more clearly.

I would also like to thank Radivoje -Rado Toyic, the author of monographs and genealogy of the Mayevica region, for his personal assistance. Some of your monographs, my dear friend Rado, helped me to clarify family relationships and keep the memory of the individuals alive for future generations through the site. I promise never to forget the good you, Radivoye and Ms Staniya Tomic, have done for me. At the end of this report, I include an acknowledgment to you, Radivoye, by listing the works you have published so fa


	In an interview with Rado Toic in July 2008

Moreover, many thanks especially to those of the family for the important information they provided and I take off my hat to them for their unbelievable memories. I'm thinking especially of Vela Veyzovic, the youngest daughter of Milan Toromanovic, then Zora Stevanovic, the daughter of Simo Toromanovic, my brother Blasko, Jovo´s son Payo Toromanovic, Cviyeta Petkovic née Tesanovic, as well as Zivko´s son Cviyan Toromanovic. There are Srbo and Joza, with their son Narcis, Joka Cuyic, née Toromanovic, and Bozana Micic and her sister, Draginya Tomic, too. It was Draginya who led me to find the lost branch of the Teso Tesanovic family. Thus I came in contact with Teso´s grandson, Zlatko, and through him with Grozda Tesanovic, the wife of Teso´s youngest son Dusan. Grozda provided me with most of the data and old photographs that I published, somewhat changed, on this website and the information I got from her has been useful to me in my further search for Teso’s successors.

Please see imprint

Funktion	Competence	E-Mail	Address
Autor	In Germany: Theo Tesanovic	See in Google, Facebook	21033 Hamburg, Weidemoor 4h
Administrator	Denis Toromanovic	See in Google, Facebook
Staff	In Croatien: Skaljo Nijaz, for spelling and informationen	See in Facebook	41000 Zagreb, Odakova 5/5
Staff	In Germany: Jutta Voß, for German language	Information by the author	22457 Hamburg, Brummerskamp 16c
Staff	Anywhere: Nada, Lynda and Bill, for English language	Information by the author
Staff	In Germany: Helga Baumfalk, Lektor for German language	Information by the author
Staff	In Germany: Nihad Tokic Schult, for HTML	See in Facebook
Staff	In Germany: Christel Hein, for German language	See in Facebook
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	In the year 1961		1964		1969		1969		1972		1975		1980		In the year 1985

I am the son of Bosko and Jovanka Tesanovic, and I was born on 12 April 1946 in Kolimer, where I spent most of my childhood. I cannot remember how I lived before I started going to school, but I vaguely remember the birth of my youngest brother, Spasoye, in 1953. From that time on there were five of us brothers. We were born in the following order, Blasko, Theo, Sreco, Simon and Spasoye. In that year I started going to primary school in Selyublye, and I remember well that my first book was double Dutch to me. My journey to school was full of both the unusual and unknown, and it attracted me more than school and so I often lagged far behind my schoolmates from the village. I was interested in everything else I encountered on my way to school while school was my last thought, so in the cold weather I used to catch a terrible cold, so terrible that I would end up in Children´s Hospital in Tuzla with double pneumonia..

In 1954 I was enrolled in the first grade again, this time in Tesic, but my way of neglecting school on winter days and spending hours outdoors, uncontrolled, would land me inthe same hospital suffering from the same disease again. Naturally, staying in hospital for months affected my regular education a lot. Eventually I managed to finish the first grade in 1956, for which I have to thank my schoolmaster, Svetozar Pavicevic. The reason being that my teacher and my parents decided I should move to school and be his roommate, so to speak. In 1957, at the age of 11, I finally entered the second grade, still living with my teacher, Svetozar, of course..


	Aus dem Grundschule in Tesici mit dem Lehrer Svetozar Pavicevic (Schulklasse von Mico Simic)


	In zweite Klasse, Grundschule in Tesici. Joja Toromanovic und ich stehen in dritte Reihe, von links nach rechts, der zweite und dritte.

Somewhere at the beginning of 1958, my brother Blasko married Todora Dzuvic, who brought much joy into our home. For me and the rest of the brothers, our sister-in-law, Toya, became the sister we had always wished for and never had.. In the meantime, and before the end of my second grade, my parents decided to move to Tuzla. In the school "Franyo Rezac" in Solana suburb, I finished the second grade and then, in 1964, I managed to finish primary school with good markswithout any further delay. The friends I made at school and in the neighbourhood significantly influenced my future life. Those who went to the same class with me were Huso Tiric, Semsudin Talic and Zdravko Rakuly, as well as the girls, Mirsada Halilovic and Lyubica Nastic. The friends who lived in my street were Car and his brother Tita, Griso and his brother Laso, and Semsudin’s brother Mrki, too, who was known for a nice singing voice.

Those who further influenced my life were Miki, Marica and Blasko, Kata Ilic's children. They taught me a love and respect of our environment, a love of playing the guitar and thus, a love of romantic ballads, Dalmatian shanties, Mexican guitar music and sentimental songs. The largest part of my teenage days was spent with Miki. We saw almost all Mexican films, westerns and musicals and used to write down the lyrics to the songs we liked and ended up with a personal list of songs which were performed within our circle of friends "for our soul" as we used to say. We often rode our bikes in the countryside around Tuzla. The route used to be from Husino and Kiselyak to Lukavac, across the Modrac Plain, long before the dam was built there and Modrac Lake was made. We also spent days and days in and around Kolimer, where we used to visit my relatives, go swimming with the youngsters from the village, and fishing too, and at nights we would gaze up aat the starry skies above Kolimer..


	Marica und Miki		Schulexursion 1961, ich und Marica -oben		Zdravko und Semso		Huso Tiric		Semsudin und ich


	Mit Blasko und Miki -Tomislav		Mit Car		Car und Mrki		Ljubica		Mirsada

When I finished primary school I had no idea what to do with my further education. Firstly I thought of going to sea and working on some ship, and take the opportunity to see the world. So I spent almost three months travelling from Ljubljana to Riyeka in Istra. At the time I tried to get a job in the ‘Torpedo’ shipyard, but unsuccessfully, and soon afterwards I returned home to Tuzla. I entered the Secondary School for Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Tuzla and graduated with little difficulty. I made new friends then and we went to dances in the Student Centre or in summer to the volleyball stadium next to the Express Restaurant. That was when I fell desperately in love with pop music from all over the world. Around 1966 I became a parachutist at the Zdravko Smoley aeronautics club. I made a lot of friends there and I was the most impressed by Bilyana Gligoric, Vesna Benkovic, Zorislav Tkacik and Midhat Sehric, nickname‘Jigi Bau. While I was a member of the aeronautics club, I spent three months of the summer holidays each year at Medyas airport, where I obtained the official sports licence of the Flying Association of Yugoslavia after 116 jumps.

At the end of 1967, I met Lilian Lukic, “Lili” – my first girlfriend and my future wife – in a spectacular way, but our first relationship broke up after a while as she lived abroad for a time. I came through the break-up and set myself some new goals in life, which involved sport parachuting and working hard at school. I made new friends, went dancing at the student centre and, on summer days, at the handball stadium opposite the Express Restaurant. At the time, VIS Duge (a vocal and instrumental band) was the best-known group in Tuzla, and I knew the band members from my school, which is how I came to fall completely in love with dance music and international pop music. After successfully finishing grammar school, I got to know some more dear friends, who made my life better, helped me and set me on the path for the future. My circle of friends grew.

In early August 1969, I met my Lili again, and this time it brought a new turn in my life. We married at the end of August, and a few days later she travelled back to Wuppertal in Germany. I signed up to do my army service early. Getting through the 18 months was tough. The good thing about it, though, was that I served as a parachutist. This was the best and most exciting lesson in that period of my life.

My daughter Suzana was born before I had finished my national service. On leaving the army, I began working for Helios, where I designed and built central heating systems. We – my wife, my daughter, Suzi, and I – lived in Kreka, next door to a skittles club. Even though I was earning very well, the dream of travelling the big, wide world was never far from my thoughts.

Lilian went to Hamburg in late 1972 to work and I followed her in September 1973. My new employer was a company called Produktion and I was concerned with the maintenance and repair of the production facilities there.
Of course, our life took on new directions here. The city was big and beautiful, with several parks, the Alster lake, the Elbe river, the harbour and the ships there. It was just what I had longed for as a teenager. For the first time ever, I was able to see international pop groups in concert. In 1978, our son Goran was born. The family grew and thrived. Daughter Suzana finished her first year at school with excellent marks. Holidays were spent in Yugoslavia, at the seaside in Slano, near Dubrovnik. It was not until 1982 that I finally managed to make more of my old sport of flying. I travelled to Willingen in the Hochsauerland region of Germany, where I took a hang-gliding course and obtained my first pilot’s licence. A year later, I bought myself my hang glider, a Worldcup model, which I named after my hometown of Tuzla. Of course, I later visited Kolimer, my birthplace, in my hang glider, as well as Pajici, Banj Brdo, Duge Njive and Draganovac.

In 1984, we began building ourselves a house in Kakmuz, near Gracanica. The house was completed in the summer of 1988. We spent our last holiday in the house in 1990. The civil war in our old native country took its toll. We made great efforts to stay in touch with our families and friends and organized assistance in the form of food and money as well as taking in Bosnian refugees and helping them to make their way to Holland. Conflicts arose between my wife and me and we ended up divorcing.

In 1994, with the help of my refugee friends Palavra and Livancic’s families, who had stayed in Bosnia, I managed to bring my 75-year-old mother to Hamburg. When she arrived in Croatia, my friend Nijaz took her under his wing and helped her to obtain the necessary documents and a visa. He then put her on the plane and sent her to me in Hamburg. My mother felt very much at home here in Hamburg, although she was often alone. She was here with me for nearly four years – until her death at the age of 78. That is how my mother came to stay close to me forever. She found her last resting place in the cemetery at the end of the runway of Hamburg airport, where she arrived in October 1994.

In the last ten years, I have worked in the construction and service department of a firm of life manufacturers, Schmitt und Sohn, attended various seminars and learned a lot about computers, operating systems and different programmes. I took dancing courses for two years and in the process not only became a good dancer but also made many new friends. I used to spend long nights in the dance palaces and discos of Hamburg with a crowd of friends. Today I am a pensioner and live a pretty quiet life and spend my time studying the art of web design, reading books on technology, science, European history, astronomy, communications and behavioural research. But I also regularly take the time to rediscover, photograph and film the best sides of the Hamburg I have come to love.

ttheo Hamburg, Germany 2009


	1987		1989		1994		1995		2009		20013		2015		2016

And then, then came the Great Love, my Christy


	We both in 2015		Cinque Terre 2016		When friends to party


	At the Bundestag 2018		Hafencity Elbphilharmonie 2018


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