Page 04 - Willi Distel Diary

Willi leaves school in Villingen (1920); his confectioner apprenticeship falls through on the first day

Translated from Willi's German.

I. Apprenticeship In 1920 I left the elementary school in Villingen. Our headmaster Schuehler, grown grey in the service, sent us on our way with his last words of advice as a teacher. Most of my schoolmates went straight into an apprenticeship, and I too was to start on 1 April with Herr Spaet, a confectioner in Villingen. On the agreed day my green suitcase was packed, and my brother Friedrich helped me carry it into town. But once I had presented myself, Herr Spaet told me: "By law I am not allowed to take on an apprentice, and over Easter I simply forgot to let your parents know." Very disappointed and downcast, we made our way back to our family home at Herdstrasse 34, where Mother received us and very nearly had a stroke. Now what were we to do? Most of my schoolmates were going into the factories and were paid from the very first day, so my father had the idea that I should go into a factory too - something neither I nor my mother could accept at all. There followed days of heavy back-and-forth deliberation, until at last it all became too silly for me. I went to the labour exchange and asked them to show me the apprenticeships still open in every trade...

Interesting facts

Leaving school at 14. German children of Willi's day finished the Volksschule (elementary school) at about 14, and most went straight into a trade apprenticeship rather than on to further study. Willi, born in 1906, was leaving in 1920 right on cue.
In the Black Forest. Villingen sits on the eastern edge of the Black Forest in Baden, south-west Germany, a region long known for its crafts and small workshops. It later merged with neighbouring Schwenningen to form today's Villingen-Schwenningen.
The labour exchange. The Arbeitsamt (labour exchange) Willi visits was a state employment office that matched workers and apprentices to vacancies. Turning to it directly, over his father's wish that he take factory work, was a practical way to find one of the few remaining apprentice places.
Factory versus trade. The family's dilemma was a real one of the time: factory hands were paid from day one, while an apprentice earned little or nothing for years but came out with a recognised skilled trade. Willi's parents wanted the trade; his father, the wage.