October 1959 had two memorable dates in my life. The sixth was the 85th anniversary of my birth, and the twenty-eight, the 60th anniversary of my arrival in the land of boyhood dreams - America, after three previous attempts which ended in failure.
Seeing the Statue of Liberty on that date, I did not know that it was also her thirteenth birthday.
Writing the true story of my life, is with the hope that my grand-children are spared the blunders made by their foolish Grandpa. And if he succeeds, he will feel compensated for his writers cramps.
It was late on the night of October 6, 1874 in an attic room illuminated by a tallow candle, my mother told me, I started to bawl.
My cradle was in a small town with a long history. I was only four years old when it celebrated the thousandth anniversary of its founding in 778. Moosburg in Bavaria (Germany) was also the birthplace of both my parents.
Our little house was next to an ancient tower that was also the tollgate.
My favorite place was Grandfathers house on the banks of the River Isar, watching rivermen floating rafts of timber towards the River Danube.
In 1880 I entered public school in Moosburg, but after a few months my father was given a state job taking charge of 5 Kilometer of state road and so we moved to Gruneck, a hamlet near Munich. It was my first railroad trip with Mother, brother Nikolaus, and sister Barbara. We had two attic rooms, and father decided to build a house for us on a salary of 56 Mark and 48 Pfenig per month or $14 in American money. The summer of 1881 marked the building of the new home.
A mason was hired to work on the house, mother was hod carrier and mason tender, while father framed the roof after working 10 hours on the road.
I tried to do my share by pumping water into a wooden tub for mortar, besides looking after brother and sister, and attending school which was in the village of Newfahrn about 3 Kilometer from Gruneck.
When the house was finished, the bills piled up and mother went to work again. The government needed crushed stones to fill the ruts caused by wagons, and so she worked in a gravel bank filling a table supplied by the government. The table had the shape of a keystone two legs on the wide side, and a solid block about 12 inches square in front with an iron plate about one inch thick and bent on two sides with a screen and bench.
Her tools were an iron ring on a handle to pull the stones on to the iron plate to be crushed with a hammer. The pay was one Mark and 70 Pfenig for one cubic meter. I helped her by minding Sister and Brother, and bringing drinking water from a spring about a half Kilometer away.
Our daily breakfast was Brotsuppe (Breadsoup). Mother held a big loaf of bread in her arm, cut small slices into a large bowl and poured boiling water over it. When we had some fat, she fried some onions, and put them in the center of the bowl. In order to get some onions we had to eat to them, and not fish for them. An attempt to do so was punished with a slap on the hand. Coffee we had only four times a year, Christmas, Easter Pentecost and of course Kirchweih (Anniversary of blessing of village church.) Coffee was made from chicory but it was heaven compared to brotsuppe.
Kirchweih is celebrated on a Sunday in October, and was a day of gluttony, the only day in the year when the poor lived like the rich. Mother started to bake a few days ahead, there was not only cake but meat which we had not seen in ages, and also beer in a keg, Neighbor visited Neighbor in a happy mood, tasted Mothers baking and cooking and wished that Kirchweih would be every day in the year.
Milk was another rarity in our home. On our way to school we had to go past the Priest's house, one of the two two-story building of the village. He was a kind old gentleman who wore dark glasses. In his yard I could see some cows, a team of horses and some chickens. Seeing the cows I began wondering why the priest had more than one cow and we had none. To me it was simply impossible that the priest could drink all that milk, and when I asked mother why the priest had more than one cow, and we had none, she said 'I don't know, ask me no more, I don't know'.
Father got a raise in pay, his wages were not 60 Mark and 90 pfenig or $15 in American money, we also got a new baby sister and her name is Maria. I was not very happy, there was now one more to watch and the babys crying annoyed me. Mother would chew some bread, put it in a piece of linen, tie it with thread and put it into the babys mouth. That stopped the crying, it may not have been sanitary but there was nothing else.
One day a letter came from Grandfather Steiner, telling us that we could have a cow, but father would have to come and get it. That day we prayed a rosary. Father went to Moosburg by train but had to walk the cow home, a distance of about 25 Kilometer. The day passed too slow for us, night came and still no father or cow, we refused to go to bed until father came home, but fell asleep. When mother aroused us from our slumber the cow was in the stall and both father and cow were half dead from the long march. Cows need food to give milk, so mother left early in the morning with sickle and wheelbarrow to cut grass on the ramps of the highway and I had to get up early too to meet her and help pull the wheelbarrow loaded with grass.
We had the cow about a year or longer when she refused to eat. Father had a veterinarian look her over and decided that she had to be butchered. The cause of illness was that she had swallowed a horseshoe nail which had lodged in her stomach. After the cow was butchered we had to have the Fleishbeschauer (meat inspector) who decided how much my parents were allowed to charge for the meat they could sell. Neighbors bought some meat but most had no cash to pay for it and we had to sell quick before the meat spoiled. The hide sold for about 16 Mark but the money we received for meat and hide was not nearly enough to buy another cow, and we were never able to have another one. Our prayers were not answered, and we had to go back to Brotsuppe again. We missed the fat more than the milk.
Our school house had two class rooms, one for the first 3 grades, and the other for the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. There were only seven grades. Classes were from 8 to eleven and from 12 to 3. During the summer months we went to school barefoot. Church and School were within the cemetery walls and in one corner behind a rotting lattice fence was a pile of skulls and bones we boys used to play with. Bones found in new dug graves were thrown into that corner. To go to church on Sunday we had to go to Neufahrn, the farmers in their knee boots, with elk leather trousers which went from father to son, black hat and coat vest with a double row of silver buttons made from old coins about the size of a silver dollar. When seat and knees of trousers have shown some natural brown color they were retouched with shoe blacking. Women wore colored shawls.
On Palm Sunday the farmers come to church with bundles of pussy willows on a pole to be blessed. On an other occasion they bring a log of wood on a chain, start a fire in the church yard, when partly burned they split it and put the pieces out in the field against hailstorms.
Our teacher tried hard to get something into our heads, but he was also good in tanning our hides. That is not to all of us, to children who could bring a few eggs, a lump of butter, or a slice of bacon, the punishment for misbehavior was a scolding, but to others he was liberal with his stick. When in a bad humor he would grab us by the neck, pulled us over the desk and hit our buttocks with his stick so that we could not sit on them, or he made us stretch our open hand, and hit us so hard that it caused swelling. There was not much parental sympathy either, they thought where there is punishment there must be cause. But one time my father did think the teacher went too far and threatened him with a complaint to the priest. After that the teacher would take my wrist, twist my hand to my back and hit me over the knuckles, it was just as painful, but left no visible marks, the hardest thing for us poor children was the partiality of the teacher.
A teachers lot is not a happy one, they have been ridiculed by satiric poetry about their poverty. the ridicule should have been against the state for paying inadequate salaries to their educators.
History and geography were my favorite subjects, and the teachers stories of strange lands he had never seen aroused my desire to travel. One day he connected two cans with a copper wire to demonstrate to us the new telephone.
Our vacation was divided into three periods, about 10 days in the spring for planting and sowing, another 10 days for hay-making and a third period for harvesting, children had to pick up potatoes or relieve their mothers by baby sitting.
Our state highways had poplar trees on both sides to provide shade for man and beast. Dead trees were replaced with fruit trees, fruit to be auctioned to the highest bidder by government. Hunting in government forest, and fishing in government waters was also granted to the highest bidder. Fish and Game laws were strictly enforced, and also violated.
We had an oven to bake our own bread, the flour we had from a mill in Freising whose wagons passed our house on their weekly trips to Munich. One day mother ordered me and brother Nikolaus to go to Freising after school to order flour from the mill, but we forgot the order and were slow in getting home. Mother was frantic, the wagon was to pass the house today and we had no flour. After a spanking to both, we were told to run and be at the mill before driver starts and order our flour. The distance was 10 Kilometer, and we ran 8 without stopping for breath, and we reached the mill as the driver was ready to start. Seeing how exhausted we were he gave us a ride part of the way. We never forgot the spanking nor the run.
One day when mother was sick, father and I had to bake the bread, a big fire was started in the oven, and after a time we pulled the fire and cleaned the oven we put in the bread and when we pulled out the bread it looked like a cement block, and in it were pieces of charcoal, it lasted longer than mothers and we were never allowed to bake again.
Father was paid monthly by check, and once a month we went to Freising to cash. As a rule, Mother went for the money, and one of us was permitted to go with her. When she went she bought a soda for 10 Pfenig of which we got a sip. When father went we stopped at a tavern and had beer and Bratwurst, and mother lamented the waste of money, but both bought sometime a pound of bacon for Sunday dinner, which was boiled with Knodel (dough balls), which was divided among the six of us with father having the largest piece. Our beds had a mattress of straw with pillow and covers of feathers. Straw was changed at thrashing time. Straw for mattress was thrashed with flails because it was straight and made a better bed. Beds wetted by children caused fleas, and they can be annoying like bed bugs.
On winter evenings neighbors came to visit us and spent time with story telling, among them some blood chilling. Sometime we were sent to the tavern for beer, and behind every tree we saw a ghost or murderer, and at night in bed hid under the cover. Hunger and fear we learned early in our life.
The year was now 1887 and I was to graduate from school and learn a trade or be hired to be a farmer. To learn a trade was out of question, because it would cost a few hundred Mark which my parents did not have. An apprentice had to board with his employer during the period of learning, and I disliked the idea of farming.
Mother asked me to write a letter to her only brother who was living in Nurnberg, to congratulate him on his name day (George). Catholics celebrate the day of their saints after whom they are named, and also write to him that I was to graduate.
In his reply Uncle George complimented me on my good hand-writing and asked if I were interested in coming to Nurnberg. I was overjoyed, and my parents also thought it was a good solution to their problem. Graduation was to be held in May, and on a Saturday in June 1887 mother and I boarded a train to Nurnberg.
I was too excited to remember how we arrived at our destination, there was so much to see, however I do remember the next day Sunday when Aunt Barbara asked Uncle George to show us the city. He refused by saying he could not care to be seen with that scarecrow, so Aunt Barbara was our guide.
Nurnberg is the second largest City in Bavaria. The population in 1890 was 142,000 and it is the home town of many famous men among them are Hans Sachs the poet, Martin Behaim the sailor, Albrecht Durer the painter, and Peter Henlein the inventor of the pocket watch. Among the many historic sights is the Burg built about the year 1050, and has been the residence of many German emperors. The most interesting sights to me were the Tiefe Brunnen (Deep Well), Folter Kammer (Torture Chamber), and the Eppelein Sprung (Eppeleins Jump). The Deep Well is about 300 feet deep, dug by prisoners into solid rock excepting the top 15 feet, and took 30 years to complete the job.
To demonstrate the depth the attendant held a glass with water over the well and while counting made 5 drips from the glass. After she made the last drip, the echo comes back 1-2-3-4-5. Then she lowers on a board 5 lit candles, and by holding a mirror over the well one is able to see the water below.
Two tunnels from the well, one leading to the Rathaus (City Hall) is still passable, the other leading to St. John cemetery is not.
The Folter Kammer contains the Worlds largest collection of torture instruments of the Middle Ages, among them is the world famed Eiserne Jungfrau (Iron Virgin).
Robber Knight Eppelein was captured by the Nurnberger, kept prisoner up the Burg to be hung. As a last request he was given permission to ride his horse again, a moat around the Burg made his escape impossible thought the Nurnberger, but Eppelein rode his white steed, gave it the spur, and over the wall and moat he went safely landing on the other side, and his farewell shout was 'The Nurnberger don't hang one if they don't have him.'
The former Catholic and now Protestant St. Sebaldus Church had a silver crucifix between the two towers. Fearful that the invading Swedes during the 30 year religious war may attempt to steal same, the Nurnberger gave it a coat of black paint, and since this time the Nurnbergers are known as the Herrgottschwarzer (Christ blackener).
Among the many historic fountains the Schone Brunnen is the most attractive. Built between 1385 and 1396 it has an ornamental iron enclosure. In one part of the octagonal enclosure where two iron bars cross there is a brass ring about eight inches in diameter without a seam, the ring can be turned and passes thru the center of each bar. The stone step on that side is worn more than the others from curious visitors. The Master craftsman placed the ring as a sign of his skill.
The cobbler shop of the famous poet and Meistersinger Hans Sachs has been preserved since his death on January 19, 1576. The alley where his shop is, is so narrow that one could almost shake hands with someone across.
Das Bratwurst Glocklein (Sausage Bell) near the Durer House a lean-to, built in 1313 and about eight or nine feet wide was the Bier and Weinstube (Beer and Wine room) of famous masters. Their personal Steins are preserved on a wall shelf.
The first Railroad in Germany was opened in 1832 between Nurnberg and Furth a distance of about 6 Kilometer.
The Palace of Justice and Zellen gefangniss (Cell Prison) in the Further Strasse were made famous by the Nazi trials. I best close my short description of Nurnberg by quoting their favorite verse:
Wenn einer Deutschland kennen und Deutschland ruhmen soll Wird man ihm Nurnberg nennen, der edlen Kunste voll Dich nimmermehr verachte Du treue fleissige Stadt Wo Durer's Krafft gewalted und Sachs gesungen hat.continue reading with the Kunigunde tale.