Postcards from the Distant Past
For
my sister Christine at her birthday in 2009,
because she is the
last person who shares the memories of these places with me.
Liebe Christine,
Seit meinem Besuch in Schlesien mit Irmgard in 1994 sind so viele neue Bilder im Internet erschienen, dass ich für dich – und mich - eine neue Webseite aufmachen musste. Nun gibt es da ein schönes Bild von der Kirche in Spätenwalde, eins vom Sigritz zwischen Habelschwerdt und Grafenort und sogar eins von der Allee zur Wustung, an die ich nicht gedacht hatte. Mein Film aus Glatz ging verloren, aber ein guter polnischer Fremdenführer hat inzwischen mehrere neue gemacht – auch von Breslau, an das du wahrscheinlich weniger starke Erinnerungen hast als ich. Schliesslich fand ich zwei Postkartenläden mit alten Bildern aus den vierziger Jahren.
Ob du dieses nostalgische Geschenk an dich von mir wohl annehmen magst? Ich würde mich sehr darüber freuen.
Happy Birthday!
Dein Bruder
Rolf
Hier findest Du eine detaillierte
Habelschwerdt
1938 – 1946
Habelschwerdt from the Florians Berg 1940s
The Schwimmbad on the Floriansberg where I unsuccessfully tried to lean to swim 1943
The Willmanns Turm where the Heimatdichter Hermann Stehr lived for a while
Habelschwerdt and the railroad station
Many memories are connected with this Bahnsteig in Habelschwerdt (2006)
Habelschwerdt from the Neissebrücke on the road to Mittelwalde (2006)
Our house, now: ul. Jozefa Lenskiego 31, Bystrzyca Klodzka, (1994)
In our garden, Gerda Popp took the photo (1941)
The Poniewerski who were all born in our house (1994)
The house of the Schlachthof Director (1994)
The Volksschule where Gerhard and Christine went to 1941 (1994)
The “Kino” where in 1938 I saw my first movie is still the only movie house in town (1994)
The Aufbauschule where to I went to in 1942-44. Originally a Jesuit seminary. (1994)
The fire house which we passed on our way to school (2008)
The Maria-Hilf hospital run by catholic nuns (2008)
The Catholic Pfarrkirche from the east in winter (2006)
Interior of the twin-nave Pfarrkirche (2006)
The Protestant church where we went to, and I was confirmed in. Now a matchbox museum (2008)
Specially for Christine: The road to the Wustung (2006)
The path to Spätenwalde (1994)
The Holzkirche in Spätenwalde which Christine remembers and I don't (2006)
The Gasthaus in Hammer where Father and I stayed one Winter (1994)
Hagebutten on the Sigritz, Habelschwerdt in the distance (2006)
Schloss Grafenort owned by Friedemann Popp in 1943 (2006)
The Ruins of the Schloss in Grafenort (2006)
Maria Schnee under the Glatzer Schneeberg (1994)
Pilgrimage Church of Maria Schnee (2008)
Maria Schnee, Mass for the German Tourists (2008)
Glatz
1933-1938
The Brücktor-Brücke and the Minoriten-Kirche in the 1940s
The same view, the same flowers 2008 !
Glatz from the Stadtbahnhof (1940s)
Glatz, the Neisse river, and the “Donjon” fortress (1940s)
The ugly wilhelminische Rathaus is unchanged (2008)
The interior of the Catholic Pfarrkirche which I have never been in (2008)
Map of the Grafschaft Glatz by a highly revered Rector of the Volksschule (1930)
Click on the map!
A Czech bunker south of Mittelwalde which we visited in 1939 (2006)
The road from Habelschwerdt to Mittelwalde along which went our last trek in 1946
Barracks near the railrod station where we slept before we were deported 1946 (1994)
Mittelwalde railroad station from where we left for Western Germany 1946 (2006)
Breslau
1933
Gandmother Hammer lived here until 1945
The famous Gothic Rathaus (2008)
Dominsel and the Breslauer Dom from the Oder (2008)
The Kreuzkirche and the Hotel Metropol where Tante Irmgard spent her weddig night.
She and I spent an evening there at the same table in 1994 ! (2008)
The Stadttheater in the Schweidnitzer Strasse (2008)
The Univerity Leopoldiana from the Oder (2008)
The University Aula where father defended his doctoral thesis in 1927.
The German tour group whose guide took all these photos (2008)
The Jahrhunderthalle (1940s) where I heard my first concert with my father in 1942
The Schlosskirche in Heinrichau (1932)
Father stayed in Heinrichau 1944-45
Schlossgarten of Heinrichau (1994)
The unique Baroque interior of the Protestant(!) “Friedenskirche” in Schweidnitz (2008)
Mother lived in Schweidnitz in 1926-29
Grünberg, where I was born among these vineyards. (1940s)
I attach a German guide to the villages in the Grafschaft Glatz
which includes a dictionary of German and Polish place names
(Click on the yellow headline)
(PDF - 570 kBy, in German)
EIN REISEFÜHRER UND DEUTSCH-POLNISCHES
ORTSVERZEICHNIS
ZU LANDSCHAFT, KUNST UND KULTUR
DER GRAFSCHAFT GLATZ - ZIEMIA KŁODZKA
IN SCHLESIEN
Von Peter Güttler
unter Mitarbeit von Johannes Güttler und Johannes Tondera
sowie weiteren Freunden der Grafschaft Glatz
I collected these photos from four sources: 1. old postcards from the web, 2. photographs from my visit with Irmgard Hammer (1994), 3. photos from the website of the guide of a German tour group (2008), and 4. pictures from Panoramio/Google-Earth (2006)
Rolf Gross, Pacific Palisades, California, November 2009