Germans Hanging Out

 

There's a stamp on the back, mostly faded, but I can make out Eichwalde which is a suburb of Berlin in the Brandenburg area.  There's also a date, "3-21/71."  At least I assume it's a date and the man's haircut looks like it's from the right period.  They must have lived near the wall.  Of course, I guess everyone in the Berlin area lived near the wall.  

Germans Enjoying Themselves

My mother was an English war bride who hated Germans.  I was going to write some of the things she used to say about Germany and Germans, but then I got to thinking, that was along time ago, and as there are fewer and fewer living World War 2 vets, there are also fewer and fewer living Nazis in the world.  I think I'm going to spend my time worrying about the alt-right in the United States instead.

Anyway, this one's a real photo postcard from, I assume, West Berlin.  There's a printer's credit on the back, "Foto-Dienst LEPPIN-Berlin 1 Berlin 30, Moizstr. 68, Ruf 246192."  Also, written on the back, "Bune."  I'm guessing that's a name.

The Gothic Horror Hair Bow

I don't know about anyone else, but I associate that hair bow with twelve year old girls, not adult women.  That alone makes this image kind of odd, throw in the leafless trees and shadows, and it all seems rather creepy.  I don't know why, but it reminds me of Nosferatu.  The silent version directed by F.W. Murnau, not the surprisingly good Werner Herzog remake.

Stamped on the back, "H. POGADE, NEUKOLLN 50"  Neukollon, with two dots above the "O" is a neighborhood in Berlin.  It took a bit of web surfing, but I was able to find a reference to a Pogade Camera Store, in Berlin,  that dates back to, at least, the mid thirties.  There's a watermark on the back, "Agfa Lupex" that wasn't used before the mid forties, so 50 might be a year.

At Home and On Occupation

There's a famous story.  Douglas MacArthur,  newly appointed military governor of Japan, arrives at his post, sees the devastation and sends a telegram to President Harry Truman:  "Send food or send guns."

As we've found in the last decade, winning the war is one thing, winning the peace another.  After World War 2,  the United States, Great Britain, and France took an enlightened approach to winning the peace.  First, there was the deNazification program.  While the out right war criminals and major government figures found themselves in the dock, we decided that the minor officials, cultural figures, teachers, and members of the working classes, no matter how enthusiastic they were in their party activities, were dupes, and were allowed to go on with their lives.  And then there was the Marshall Plan, America's commitment to rebuild Europe, no matter the cost.  Any threat of a resistance movement ended, and our post war occupation went smoothly.

The occupation of Germany began right after the war.  Germany was originally divided into four zones of occupation.  The Soviet, British, French and American zones of occupation.  In 1947, the British and American zones were merged, quickly followed by a merger with the French zone.  In 1949, the first post war German government was formed, and the military governors were replaced with a Civilian High Commissioner.  Technically, the Commissioner had governance powers and could over rule the new German parliament, but, by and large, the Germans were allowed to run their own affairs.  On May 5, 1955, the occupation of Germany officially ended.  There are still American military bases in Germany.  

The first four pictures in the column are not labeled in any way, but appear to show our subject through his military training.  The fifth photograph is labeled, "Camp Kilmer, N. J. April 1951."  Camp Kilmer, named for the poet killed in World War 1, was never used as a training camp, but as a mustering point for troops being shipped from the port of New York to Europe.  It opened in June 1942, and closed in the 1990s.  Note that our subject is standing by a car with a Tennessee license plate. Could be coincidence, or could be his home state. The next picture, "Tompkins Barracks, April 1952, Swetzingen, Germany."  This is a misspelling.  Tompkins barracks is outside the town of Schwetzingen, and is scheduled to close in 2015.  The color photo is labeled, Fike Park in Wiesbaden, Germany."  It's also stamped, "THIS IS A KODACOLOR PRINT MADE BY EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY T.M. REGIS. U. S. PAT. OFF. Week of June 2, 1952."  Was their a photo lab on base for the troops?  Too, I think Fike Park might be mislabeled.  I've run a search for public parks in Wiesbaden, and nothing by that name came up.  And the last picture, "Wurzburg-Germany  Bahnhof-train station.  July 3, 1952."  I  wish there were some people's names listed. It's nice to have place names and dates, but being able to identify a person by name is always special.

I wonder what was going through the mind of this soldier.  Was he living the great adventure of his life, using his leave time to explore Europe?  Did he take trips to Paris, the Alps, Berlin, Basel, Switzerland?  (Go back  one post to see a ticket stub from the tramways of Basel sold to American service men on leave.)  Did he learn German or French? Or did he stay close to base, home sick, just putting in time until the end of his service, and a ship's berth back home?  I hope he saw it as an adventure and not a duty to be endured.

The American zone of occupation included Bavaria, Bremen, Hesse, and Wurtemberg-Baden.