However, Bielefeld, das gibt's doch nicht, literarily means the town of Bielefeld doesn't exist and is a fake. Since 1994, this so-called Bielefeld Conspiracy has been a running joke on the Internet and German television. I was reminded last week when a feature article in the Badische Zeitung came back to it.
Red Baron was never in Bielefeld, but I read the name for the first time on July 21, 1944, standing on a platform of the Paderborn station waiting for the train to ... Bielefeld. Why do I remember that particular date? While my family was waiting, my father went to the entrance hall, bought a newspaper, returned, and told us: "Yesterday, an assassination attempt on Hitler failed."
The train drawn by a steam locomotive eventually arrived and dropped us off at
Hövelhof, a village with the only feature that a single track to the town of
Gütersloh branches off from the track to Bielefeld.
Hövelhof was where I lived for two years, and here is the place to
write about my first encounter with the English language.
I am astonished looking at the picture of the Bahnhof in Hövelhof on
©Wikipedia. It has stayed the same over the last seventy years. |
Once the US Army had rolled over Westphalia in general and Hövelhof in
particular around Easter 1945, we children curiously walked through the
occupied village. I suddenly noticed a page on the ground with a drawing, and
among the many words I read and could not understand, I spelled the word Look.
Look? I only knew the word Lok, short for Lokomotive, in
German.
Coming back to Bielefeld. This year, Bielefeld celebrated its foundation in
1214. The slogan for the event is:
800 Jahre Bielefeld, das gibt's doch nicht! Don't say Germans have no
sense of humor.
The other small town in Germany that made it into the Badische Zeitung is Goslar, located at the foot of the Harz mountains. Red Baron was there twice, so it definitely exists. Goslar is the site of a Kaiserpfalz (Medieval Imperial Palace), and its Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Goslar also served as a historical setting for a recent George Clooney
movie, The Monuments Men. Last week, when the movie was presented
at the Berlinale, the Berlin Film Festival, the people from Goslar were
deeply disappointed. Most of the lovely pictures taken showing their beautiful
town had been cut.
Goslar exists, but you may ask: had George Clooney really been
there?
Red Baron's Pacific Lok of 1940 |
The other small town in Germany that made it into the Badische Zeitung is Goslar, located at the foot of the Harz mountains. Red Baron was there twice, so it definitely exists. Goslar is the site of a Kaiserpfalz (Medieval Imperial Palace), and its Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Wilhelm der Große aka Wilhelm I, first Kaiser of the Second Reich,
in front of the Kaiserpfalz in Goslar. The glassed windows are from the 20th century. |
Bill Murray, Burkhard Rösner, and George Clooney at Steinberg-Alm (©ARD) |
He made some film recordings at the Steinberg-Alm and had a
Schnitzel for lunch. George's team had Almgröstl mit Spiegelei
(Roasted potatoes mixed with meat and crowned with a fried egg) and
Kaiserschmarrn (a shredded pancake).
Since then, owner and chef Burkhard Rösner venerates some photos and serves a
Steak Clooney as proof that handsome George was there.
*
I've been told to see the movie, but haven't had a chance yet. I wonder if they will have more footage when it's released in Blu-ray?
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