Christkindlesmarkt

   I always loved going to Nurnberg.  Harry Wickart, who I worked with in Stuttgart, said you have to go to the Christmas Market in Nurnberg.  He said that it is the best of all the Christmas shows in Europe.  I didn’t know they had Christmas shows anywhere…

   Buyers from all over the world attend as well as families from near and far.  After my first Christmas holiday trip to Nurnberg I promised myself that I would go back in 1962 and I did.

   Just to watch the faces on the little kids was worth the trip.  I also enjoyed a few of the beer halls in the Alt Stadt.  The “burned” beer took a little getting used to.  But once you had one under your belt the rest went down quite easily.

   I don’t care what you are looking for you will find it at the Nurnberg Christmas show.  If it isn’t here they don’t make it!

   I know they still have this market every year.  If you are headed that way in December be sure to put Nurnberg on you itinerary. The kid in you will be delighted!

   Leave a comment if you’ve been here.

Court Room

   My first time to Nurnberg was really enlightening.  The 594th Transportation Movement Control Office in Nurnberg was in a building called the Palace of Justice.  I drove to Nurnberg for the first time in the early Fall of 1961. We met most of the morning and then Capt Gorman asked if I would like to see where the trials were held.

   I had no clue what he was talking about and he said the Nurnberg Trials.  I said as in the Nazi trials and he said yes.  I got up and started putting my overcoat on and he said you don’t need a coat its just down the hall!  Sure enough the actual court room was down the hall and around the corner. At that time the court room wasn’t open to the public.

   A lot happened here.  I remember a minister in Grants Pass, Oregon who was in a Ranger unit that dropped into France prior to D Day.  He was first generation German and was one of the few survivors of his Ranger unit.  Because he spoke German he was assigned to be a guard at the Nurnberg trials.  Unfortunately he was separated from the service prior to the trials starting.  He said most all the original GI guards spoke fluent German.  Once the trials began most of these soldiers had been sent home. He said had they been there no one would have committed suicide. Not sure how they would have prevented the suicides but they happened.

She dropped her drawers RIGHT there!!!

  There were a number of things that one had to get used to when moving to Germany.  One was that many of the women didn’t shave there legs or under arms very often.

   Harry Wickart explained it best. He said that many of the urban women were more sophisticated than those working on the farm. Generally those in the small towns and farms didn’t shave very often and after a while looked more like men than women.  The urban girl’s who followed the fashion magazines quite often shaved.

   It was also not unusual to see young and old men and ladies sunbathing with little or no clothes on.  Englischer Garden in Munich is a great example.

   As I mentioned earlier the putzfrau that came through the men’s room at the hauptbahnhof in Stuttgart washing the floors.  There must have been a dozen guys taking a leak and the only ones  embarrassed were the newly arrived American GI’s.

   That brings me to the two lane road (now four to six lane road) between Kornwestheim and Ludswigburg.  My first week in Germany I was riding in a jeep to the motor pool in Ludwigsburg when all the traffic stopped.  We sat and sat with no movement for almost 30 minutes.  There was VW bug in front of us with two young gals inside.  We were having a cigarette when one of the young gals (probably about 19 or 20 years old got out of the VW, walked 2-3 feet to the side of the road, faced us, pulled up her skirt, dropped her panties, squatted and peed in the grass.  Sylvester who was driving forgot what he was doing, took his foot off the brake AND clutch and rammed the VW in front of us!

   SP4 Sylvester got an Article 15 for his error and we learned again that the rules were different in Germany in 1961.