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Hannover/West Berlin, Germany Exchange
It a nice morning when we landed in Frankfort. We took a bus to Hannover, probably a distance of 150 miles. We stayed in a village of some 4,000 souls called Bad Salzdefurth. Its about 40 krn. south of Hannover. As the name indicates, it is noted for being something of a health spa, with mud baths, salt baths, cold baths . . . everything. Our host family in Bad Salzdefurth were super. They had a nice home on a hill overlooking the village. Lutz is in his early 60¹s and will retire shortly. He is a mining engineer. He and his wife, Elisa, have traveled a great deal and are quite familiar with Nebraska having gone from the Wyoming line to Lincoln by automobile. Oddly enough, they are good friends of Larry Kunkel who was born here in Albion. They were excellent hosts and we had a fine time with them. On June 22nd the group toured the city and met with the Lord Mayor. Hannover is quite a large city and had been heavily damaged during the war. Most of it has since been rebuilt The following day, we went to the "West" Harz mountains with our host family. We had a walking tour of the Pied Piper's village of Hameln followed by a river boat ride on the river Weser on the 25th. That evening we went to a rather isolated country restaurant with good food and folk dancing. June 28th we left Hannover for Berlin by way of the Berlin corridor. The frontier is now open so it was no problem getting through. We were met in Berlin by our host families and went at once from country living to apartment living in a very large city. Our host family was very interesting. Klaus is an independent toy salesman and Hanalore works in the china department of a large department store. His knowledge of Berlin is fantastic and he drives his Mercedes around town with all the gusto of a Palermo cabbie. We were always on the go back and forth about the city. With the group, we met the mayor of a district and had lunch. We also had a big cook out in the county north of the city and were well entertained. West Germany is very, very prosperous. East Germany is by comparison very, very poor. Few public works have been done since the war. Many of the buildings, streets, homes, utilities, etc. are in disrepair. This is very alarming to a lot of West Germans who have worked so hard over the past 45 years rebuilding the country. One thing was brought up in Berlin over and over again and that was the event of the Berlin Air Lift Conducted around the clock non-stop for 11 months by the United States, England, and France when the USSR tied to seal off West Berlin from the Free World, planes loaded every 2 minutes, 24 hours a day, bringing in all the food, fuel, and other necessary supplies for 3 million West Berliners to survive. People said that that was what made them all think that someone really cared about what happened to Berlin and its people. How much we cared or how much international posturing we were doing at the time may raise questions as to our motives, but whatever they might have been, the Berliners remember and think well of us. |
©2008 Friendship Force of Lincoln. All Rights Reserved. |
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ur trip with Friendship Force this summer to Germany was an exciting time and one in which some history was being made right under our noses.