Page 28 - Willi Distel Diary

Close of the Bremen chapter: social life with Kurt, expulsion from the journeymen's association, and departure at Easter 1926 [needs a human eye]

Translated from Willi's German.

took part in the bustle. Unfortunately I could not allow myself much financially, but Kurt often stepped in to help, and he gladly paid a good deal for us too. A few splendid masked balls, and my introduction and farewell at the firm, I shall never forget. My acquaintances were above all with Miri Gossmann, with whom I had a great deal of fun, and Hans Otto, Kurt's girl, who helped the friendship grow through her loose tongue. I was expelled from the journeymen's association because I did not come home on New Year's Eve; there too I met Adolf Mueller, a schoolmate, with whom I had very bad experiences. Otherwise Bremen is a splendid old city. It is said to have a certain stiffness, but I got on well with the people. The city has a very good zoo, a splendid Buergerpark, and the seaport is very interesting. At the very end, when I wanted to give notice, a Rieser came from Nuremberg, and with him I spent Easter in Hamburg. My landlord family, the Ecke family, were very nice. When my notice had run out I went off aimless and without a post - it was high time, for my clothes and shoes were in need of improvement. My final wage was 31 Marks. The Knueggli case was very interesting. And the children of the shop I held in affection. Tegnens was a snake and Koch a chatterbox, while the cook, Frau Goergs, is not to be forgotten as a character.

People: Willi Distel, Kurt, Miri Gossmann, Hans Otto, Adolf Mueller, Familie Ecke, Frau Goergs

Interesting facts

Weimar-era masked balls. Costume and masked balls were a hugely popular feature of the German carnival and social calendar in the 1920s, giving young working people a rare chance to dress up and let loose.
The journeymen's association. The Gesellenverein was a members' club for travelling and local journeymen with its own rules of conduct; being formally 'expelled' from it was a real social sanction, not just leaving a casual group.
Bremen's Buergerpark. The Buergerpark is Bremen's large landscaped public park, created in the 19th century and funded by the citizens themselves - one of the best-known green spaces in any German city, which is why he singles it out.
A wage in Marks. By 1926 Germany had a stable new currency, the Reichsmark, after the catastrophic hyperinflation of 1923 had wiped out the old Mark. A weekly wage of 31 Marks was again a meaningful, spendable sum.
Easter and moving on. Easter was a natural point in the year to change positions, and a journeyman leaving 'without a post' - jobless and on the road again - was a normal, expected part of the Walz.