Ein Spaziergang durch meine alte Heimatstadt

Als der Spaziergänger sich der Videostelle 16:30 näherte, rief ich ihm zu "Geh' nach links, geh' nach links!", aber er hörte mich nicht und ging den Damm auf Richtung Bohlweg weiter. Ich hätte doch so gern noch einmal das Gebäude # 2 Münzstraße gesehen in dem ich von 1960 bis 1963 meine Lehre durchmachte.

An der Videostelle 26:53 sah ich das Pissoir daß schon damals in den frühen 60er-Jahren da stand. Es war auf meinem Weg von der Arbeit in der Münzstraße zum Zuhause auf dem Altewiekring und da musste ich manchmal kurz anhalten denn das Klo bei der Arbeit war meistens besetzt gewesen - siehe hier

 

Ich ging in 1963 von Braunschweig weg. Diese Aufnahmen sind aus dem Jahre 2000. Da hat sich viel geändert und viel ist so geblieben wie es war.

 

What's it like living in a palindrome?

"Please, sir, we want some more." I'm the non-praying one in the front row

 

We met a couple at the Nelligen Market who were on their way from South Australia to Queensland. "Where are you from in South Australia?" I asked. "Glenelg", they replied. I almost asked, "What's it like living in a palindrome?" but I had learned my lesson sixty years earlier in the (c)old country.

As an undernourished and underdeveloped post-war waif, I had been selected by the German welfare to join a group of equally undernourished and underdeveloped post-war waifs for transportation to a tiny Frisian island off the German coast in the deepest of German winters when only the very brave or the incurably insane would venture there.

 

 

There we would be weighed on arrival, fed endless gruel for four weeks, and weighed again on departure, presumably because "Onkel Max", our latter-day Mr Bumble, was being paid according to the kilos we'd put on.

 

 

However, before we could gain any weight, we had to assemble at our hometown's railway station where we watched our luggage being loaded onto the train from a cart which started rolling down the platform as soon as one kid had picked up its drawbar which released the brakes.

No sooner had I mumbled "that's synchronised" - in German, of course - than I was set upon by the whole bunch who wanted to know the school I was going to. No amount of reassurance that I came from as disadvan-taged a school as they did would stop them calling me "the synchronised one" for the rest of our stay on that bitterly cold and windswept island.

 

The island of Langeoog in Winter wasn't much better than our hometown, with the
added disadvantage that it was surrounded by water so no one could escape from it

 

I haven't used the word 'synchronised' since the late 50s, nor have I asked anyone since what it's like living in a palindrome. I've learned my lesson.

 

Selective no more!

 

Frank Spencer is a lucky man! He has a whole video clip to show of his interview with the Australian immigration officer. I have no record at all of my interview nor any recollection of it.

It took a whole half-century before I was able to retrieve from the National Archives a copy of my original "Auswanderungsantrag nach Australien mit Fahrtunterstützung", dated by me 26.9.1964 ...

 

Under "Other comments" I wrote: "At first I would like to work on a farm, if possible, with a German farmer, to learn English. Later I would like to return to an office job."

 

... and a copy of the three-page "Processing Sheet", dated and signed by the processing officer (Sergeant?) Schulze on 27.10.1964.

 

Note the "Suggested/proposed employment: factory worker" I proved them wrong!

"Appears good type. Understands employment prospects. Should settle without difficulties. Questions to the point. Neatly dressed. --- By sea not before June 65."

 

Until I retrieved those documents several years ago, I had absolutely no memory of what I had written on my application, nor any memory of the interview or the subsequent medical examination. For fifty-seven years, all I remembered was that small advert by the "Australische Auskunfts- und Auswanderungs-Büro" in the German   Bild Zeitung   which started it all. I cut it out, completed it, and mailed it in - and the rest is history!

 

Click on image to view full newspaper page

"Do you know Australia?
Information about Australia, a young and aspiring nation, and the opportunities awaiting you there, are available from the Australian Information and Immigration Agency
2 Hamburg 1, Mönckebergstrasse 11, Phone 33 49 82.
For more information complete this coupon (in block letters) and mail it to us."

 

More recently, I asked the good people at the German   Bild Zeitung   to find me a copy of this old advertisement - and within two days they did!

Now my memory is selective no more but complete!