West Germany 1989

I spent a year in Gelnhausen, near Frankfurt, as a foreign language assistant at the Berufliche Schulen Gelnhausen. What a year it turned out to be. At first, Konstanze put me up for a week or two in Lieblos before I moved in with Karsten and the rest of the Grauel family in Laerchenweg 24 in Gelnhausen itself. The top photo shows Elisabeth with Benjamin and Nora, just after she was born. The Battenberg family became true friends and my “family” in Germany. Many a happy evening was spent in Eidengesaess drinking Jever on the patio, under the quince tree with views towards Frankfurt. When I arrived, Germany was still divided. You can see a shot of the massive American military base in Gelnhausen. By the time I had completed my year there, the wall was down and East and West were coming together.

There is a photo of Monika Grauel and her little sisters in the garden where I had a basement flat and next to that a photo of me and Walter. Firm friends and building buddies! Most weekends were spent helping him build his house. In the middle there is a photo of me with Harald Schmidt the Olympic runner and a photo of me with some of my students. Below that is a photo of the school itself. I formed “Acting for Fun”, an English theatre group whilst I was there and there are two photos of plays we performed at the town hall—Pushcart Pedlars and Mother Figure. There is a photo on the morning of my birthday when the English dept teachers came round with a big surprise breakfast for me (Karl, Wolfgang and Waltraud). Bottom right is my little Mofa that I used to get around. Many thanks to Udo for that one!