What was it like to live on a farm in Adelshofen 80 years ago? Where and how did people use to make phone calls? The participants learned all of this during the third historical tour of the community. And there was great interest in local history.
Adelshofen – A good 40 interested people went on the foray to which the local chronicle Adelshofen working group had invited. Mayor Robert Bals was also there, for whom the stories of the old farms are very important.
Contemporary witness was there
At the former Niemer property, 89-year-old Cäcilie Schneeberger reported on life on the farm during and after the Second World War. The father was deployed as a soldier in Finland. Her mother, aunt and she, the only daughter, had to manage the farm. Her two brothers died shortly after birth.
Where there were once animals, there are now houses
The farm had 19 days' work (around six hectares). The women mown the fodder with the sawgas (scythe) and brought it in with the two oxen, which had to be looked after alongside five cows and a few pigs. As a young girl she had already learned to lead the two harnessed oxen. There was no tractor yet. It was only after the war that her sister Monika, 14 years younger than her, was born and can still remember the processes in agriculture, which did not change suddenly.
Nothing remains of the farm today. The area was divided within the family for the construction of houses. When the 89-year-old was asked whether it was a hard time for her during and immediately after the war, she answered with a convincing and positive answer that of course she had to work on the farm as a child, but she was during her always satisfied throughout her life - and unfortunately this satisfaction is missing from many people today.
The further tour, which the spokesman for the working group Heinz-Josef Schmitz organized together with his colleague Norbert Steinhardt and Angelika Mundorff, who is responsible for public relations, led to the Expositus House. “Post-Otti” lived here with the first and only telephone connection in town, which some of the older participants still remembered very well.
Post-Otti arranged telephone calls
When I called, Post-Otti answered “Adelshofen Public”. The caller then announced that he wanted to speak to one of the residents from Adelshofen and made an appointment when he would call again. Post-Otti then went to the person in question in Adelshofen so that the person in question should come to her home at the agreed time in order to be able to accept the new conversation.
Fourth tour planned
And so there is a lot of interesting information and anecdotes that the members of the Adelshofen working group can and will continue to report on. “Since there was great interest in the previous tours, there will be a fourth tour,” promises Angelika Mundorff. This will be announced again in good time.