Page 19

Willi is about 18 here

Auerbach

The Auerbach post sours into a rift with management; Willi resigns and heads for Berlin, with private-life episodes

Diary page 19

Translated from Willi's German.

...and they began to run down the business and the town, and so on. Since I was very inexperienced in such matters, the poison slowly seeped in. When Fridolin fell ill and the lessons grew rare, I felt I had good reason to complain properly about Moli, and he gave notice. My talking it out passed off very calmly, until on the Tuesday I was called in again, where I was in a way expected to take the whole thing back. I turned stubborn and stood my ground, and from then on the rift had opened, growing ever wider, so that I could see there was no longer any real working together. I gave notice, along with Berkenfeld, and travelled to Berlin. Private life, meanwhile, was so varied. I moved in with my colleague Fridolin at the widow Herold's. She had a marriage-minded daughter who was, by the by, the biggest handful. The girl tried, with her mother's help, to bind me to her, and I could do nothing more urgent than move out, since it was already becoming very intimate. The room was very bad; one morning I got cat dirt on my head. With Frau Ligget I got on very well, especially once Fridolin had gone. I went to the cinema a great deal and visited the towns of Zwickau, Plauen, Falkenstein, Rodewisch and so on. In the last of these...

People: Willi Distel, Fridolin, Moli, Witwe Herold, Frau Ligget

Places: Auerbach im Vogtland, Zwickau, Plauen, Falkenstein, Rodewisch, Berlin

Interesting facts