Wartime.
Less mountains. Less journeys?
Fritzl celebrated the new year by getting some sort of fever, so haf a page is devoted, naturally, to that. 120cm tall, 19.5kg weight ...
Max Hecher's decoration by the army, the same month, went unrecorded.
March 'unser Bürschel' is OK, with a güten Appetit and -- goodness, is that a noisy musical instrument --
Pepi seems to have undergone a Nachmusterung -- a second fitness for service examination? --
The first photo is the one taken at the family farmlet, digging potatoes ...
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| The farm |
28 June they are at Hochschneeberg ... er, that's a Railway Hotel ..?
A Schneeberg Tour? More names. Grünbacher-Hutte, Wanderin Eicherthütte, Große Kanzel, Grünbach ..Our little Soldier ...
What's this? A visit to Onkel Gustl (who?) in Pressburg? 'Schiff und Bahnkarte' .. Pfingsten
Fritz is told the story of Adam and Eve .. the old testament ... hummm.
October they are in Winzendorf at the Schneebergbahn ... oh this writing! 'Soldatenspiele' .. No photos. Lots of place-names .. the 18th century Teichmühle, the walking tracks of the Johannesbachklamm, the ruins of the Emmasberg .. Fritzl went three times to Hohe Wand, then to Stollhof, in a snowstorm, and the family seems to have tramped from there via Wieser, Postl, Völlerin, Mayersdorf, Teichmühle to Winzerdorf. I see this area is a Nature Park nowadays ..
November they are in Vienna. A visit to the Circus Beketow on the Prater with Fritz, Grandma, Minna, Mother ...
Trained elephants, bears, horses ... and the well-known fake Red Indian trick cyclist, Dieck ...
And news from Siberia. From Onkel Max Hecher.
I see that Eduard's address is now XIX/2 Hackhofergasse 37. Is that Nüssdorf? Hermine, without interned husband, and with teenage daughter, was in her forever home at Lederergasse 23.
And who was Anton Budil? Ah! Another Bernsteindrechsler .. and another Christian Socialist chap .. businessman ... 'Bezirksrat' ... local politician ... ??Zugsführer
Yes. That's he, Anton Wenzel Budil born Margareten 14 July 1860, died 2 February 1922 ...
Christmas 1915. The circus had its effect. Fritzl wants a Red Indian costume. And a Bilderlotto .. but mostly it seems war-themed toys!
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| a child in wartime |
The first recorded event for 1916 is a visit to the Theater an der Wien. Rather a classy one, even though it was a children's 3am matinee. A quick glance down the cast list throws up star actors even I have heard of! The comedians Karl Tuschl and Franz Glawatsch, soprano Anny Rainer and Therese Tautenhayn, Mizzi Schütz ...
No januts, it seems. A quiet 5th birthday at home with the close family. Murmurings of "Schüle". Visits to Nüssdorf ...
And Aggstein ('12th century castle on top of a rocky outcrop .. above the Danube'). Well, they did got out a bit! Till Fritz got angina. It doesn't seem to have been the best year. until ... 20 October when Rudi reports that she visited the Direktor of the 'Freie Schüle'.. real life was about to begin!
I'm not quite sure what this document is ...
A bit of wartime bumf?
This, however, is easily identifiable!
Fliegende Holländer at five years of age? Well, half a century later, when I turned out to have a huge basso singing voice, he said to me that I had the sing 'Der Frist ist um' and Wotan's Farewell at his funeral. Alas (or hurrah!), the much-lauded teenage mega-voice was in tatters, by the time he died, at 84. And, anyway, both pieces were too high for me ... Rudi recorded his reactions this time ...
I pick up the odd place name. Rotenturmstrasse ... I have been there!
Sadly, none of the 1916 photos are labelled ... are these 'home' or 'away'?
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| Be careful of blondes, Dad! |
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Hmmmm. A rough lot?
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1917. Our father told us that they 'spent the war in Hungary'. Well, as we can see, not the whole of the war, but much of 1917. Rudi says, from Székesféhervár, in September, 'we came here three and a half months ago' .. and this little set of official documents shows them in the city in May .. 32 Erzébet utca ...
I have not yet been able to discover whether they had (?all) left Vienna for safety reasons ... Rudi is more concerned to relate that Fritzl got the measles ..
In September they visited Aliga am Plattensee, a resort set up as a holiday resort for members of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party. 'The Party' was evidently a larger and larger part of their lives...
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Aliga: Fritzl and some happy socialists
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| .. and always something to climb! |
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Who is that man? In uniform?
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They seem to have returnd to Vienna in September. On the 24th Rudi writes 'Fritz has been at school for a week ..'
Needless to say, Rudi is only interested in her son's progress in writing, reading etc. And some outside school activities ..
He's moving on from 'Peterschens Mondfahrt' to 'Das Djungelbuch' ... Onkel Fritz is on hand for his 7th birthday ... where are the others?
"Leider ist der Sommer nicht so schön'. They are missing their jaunts. Onkel Fritz seems to have been in Udine. I wonder why. Was he a commercial traveller? Or in the forces?
Its books, this time, rather than Bergs ... 'Thomsens's Tiergeschichten', Ewald's' 'Was Mütter Natur erzählt', 'Baron Münchusen', Kauff's Märchen, Die Höhlenkinder', 'Robinson in Versen und lustigen Bildern' .. and then skiing makes its first appearance in the history ...
No mention of the War's end! Or Max Hecher's return home?
Rudi has started a new volume. So, so shall I.
I shall add to this one as I exhume more bits and pieces ...
One of my special finds! Already deciphered, a few years back, with the help of Chris Zwarg.
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