Goslar and Bielefeld

Two small German towns lately made it into feature articles in the Badische Zeitung: Goslar and Bielefeld. During a party, the host asked one of his guests where he came from, and the guest answered, "Bielefeld." The host's reaction was: Bielefeld, das gibt's doch nicht. The host expressed his astonishment with this remark: What a surprise, I don't believe it. It knocks me off my heels that you are from Bielefeld.

However, Bielefeld, das gibt's doch nicht, literarily means the town of Bielefeld doesn't exist and is a fake. Since 1994, this so-called Bielefeld Conspiracy has been a running joke on the Internet and German television. I was reminded last week when a feature article in the Badische Zeitung came back to it.

Red Baron was never in Bielefeld, but I read the name for the first time on July 21, 1944, standing on a platform of the Paderborn station waiting for the train to ... Bielefeld. Why do I remember that particular date? While my family was waiting, my father went to the entrance hall, bought a newspaper, returned, and told us: "Yesterday, an assassination attempt on Hitler failed." 

The train drawn by a steam locomotive eventually arrived and dropped us off at Hövelhof, a village with the only feature that a single track to the town of Gütersloh branches off from the track to Bielefeld.

I am astonished looking at the picture of the Bahnhof in Hövelhof on ©Wikipedia.
It has stayed the same over the last seventy years.

Hövelhof was where I lived for two years, and here is the place to write about my first encounter with the English language. 

Once the US Army had rolled over Westphalia in general and Hövelhof in particular around Easter 1945, we children curiously walked through the occupied village. I suddenly noticed a page on the ground with a drawing, and among the many words I read and could not understand, I spelled the word Look. Look? I only knew the word Lok, short for Lokomotive, in German.

Red Baron's Pacific Lok of 1940

Coming back to Bielefeld. This year, Bielefeld celebrated its foundation in 1214. The slogan for the event is: 800 Jahre Bielefeld, das gibt's doch nicht! Don't say Germans have no sense of humor.

The other small town in Germany that made it into the Badische Zeitung is Goslar, located at the foot of the Harz mountains. Red Baron was there twice, so it definitely exists. Goslar is the site of a Kaiserpfalz (Medieval Imperial Palace), and its Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Wilhelm der Große aka Wilhelm I, first Kaiser of the Second Reich,
in front of the Kaiserpfalz in Goslar.
The glassed windows are from the 20th century.

Goslar also served as a historical setting for a recent George Clooney movie, The Monuments Men. Last week, when the movie was presented at the Berlinale, the Berlin Film Festival, the people from Goslar were deeply disappointed. Most of the lovely pictures taken showing their beautiful town had been cut.

Bill Murray, Burkhard Rösner, and George Clooney at Steinberg-Alm (©ARD)

Goslar exists, but you may ask: had George Clooney really been there? 

He made some film recordings at the Steinberg-Alm and had a Schnitzel for lunch. George's team had  Almgröstl mit Spiegelei (Roasted potatoes mixed with meat and crowned with a fried egg) and Kaiserschmarrn (a shredded pancake). 

Since then, owner and chef Burkhard Rösner venerates some photos and serves a Steak Clooney as proof that handsome George was there.

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