Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

He came with us in the train and I told him about our races with the coaches. Helmut met Franz, our coachman, and also had to admire the horses, though he probably had never seen what we would call proper horses. They looked better than the horses you could see in Posen pulling the taxi-coaches there. They had to be able to run and be strong enough to run for at least half an hour at a time.

"Is it dangerous to race with a coach?" "No, I don't think so, but it is probably not so good for the horses, nor for the coach on these rough roads."

When we passed the road sign with 'SAPOWICE' on it, I explained: "This is the road leading to our estate. You can see the lake there on our left. This lake is about 12 kilometers long, and goes from beyond Strykowo way past us. But on average it is only about 300 meters wide. It's more like a broad river, meandering through the fields here and further down our way through forest."

After about ten minutes we came to a forest. "This is our border here. From here, as far as you can see, is our property. The land here is not as fertile as the rest, so our Opa planted the forest here on our right already in 1894."

"I can see a path going into the forest. Could we go in there by coach?" "Of course. But we won't do it today. Those tall pine trees, the silver birches, and the odd fir trees, they are all about 50 years old. If you follow this drive way, you come to a place which is fenced in. There is a vault with the coffin of my father's brother Walter there. There is also a grave inside the fence where a sister of Horst and Bernd is buried. She died as an infant. I will show you the place one day."

Our coach went past the forest, and in the distance we could already see the park and the tall chestnut trees that lined the road which led into Sapowice.

"What is this monument under those trees?" Helmut wanted to know. "That's a monument to a catholic saint called Swițety Jan Ñ Saint John. Our Poles here are mostly catholics and they will always show respect in some way to it, either by lifting their cap, or making the sign of the cross. We must not poke fun at their religion. They are serious about it."

"Why does the sign here say "Schönsee"? I thought your place is called Sapowice?"

"Since we have become part of Germany, the administration would not allow the old Polish names. Why, they wouldn't even know how to pronounce them! Anyway, they wanted to give this area a German character, but when they came up with Schönsee, (meaning 'beautiful lake'), we were not very impressed. But there was nothing we could do."

When Franz stopped the horses, I said proudly: "This is our villa." We jumped out, waved good bye to Franz, and instead of going up the front steps, we went through the side-door. Only Vater had a key to the front door, which he regularly used.

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