Page 08 - Willi Distel Diary

Closing of the apprenticeship chapter: friends, youthful escapades (New Year's Eve 1922-23 at the Tonhalle), and the first ladies [needs a human eye]

Translated from Willi's German.

...and wonderful, often longer outings. In my third year I made friends with Michl Beinutz, Edwin Efinger, and Fritz. They always had quite a bit of money, and we enjoyed life as apprentices like to. Besides several little scuffles, my biggest was on New Year's Eve, from 1922 into 1923. I had to [illegible] right in the middle of the Tonhalle, the concert hall; a young lady slipped over, and I had to pay for the silk dress. We had many such adventures, but I would rather not dwell on them here at length. I was also taken into the company of ladies, although until then I had wanted nothing to do with them. They are the ladies Lina Schweizer, Hilde Stuetz, Anna Glatz, Winkler, Betsch, and so on.

People: Willi Distel, Edwin Efinger, Lina Schweizer, Hilde Stuetz, Anna Glatz

Interesting facts

Silvester night. New Year's Eve is 'Silvester' in German, named after the saint whose feast falls on 31 December, and it was (and is) a night of lively public celebration. Willi's escapade falls on the turn from 1922 into 1923.
The Tonhalle. A Tonhalle was a concert or assembly hall - literally a 'sound hall' - the kind of large venue that hosted concerts, dances and festive gatherings in German towns. It was the natural setting for a crowded New Year's celebration.
On the eve of the crisis. This carefree apprentice's night out came just weeks before Germany's world turned upside down: in January 1923 French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr, and hyperinflation ran wild through the year - events that shape the pages that follow.