I Was Seventeen

... or: Do You Live And Learn Local History?

Do you know Struwwelpeter?

17 Jahre war ich grade (I Was Seventeen) - Eckhard Schimpf - is a book about old songs and stories from and about my town, Braunschweig.

I learned some truly amazing stuff here! And wondered if kids here learn anything like this at school in this town?

How about your place - do kids learn local history? Did you? I didn´t...
If you didn´t, either... do you teach your kids some?

I just go through this in the order I read it, so... maybe the first ones isn´t that fantastic, but some facts are truly worth mentioning.

So... here are some interesting facts:

- Did you know that the "Braunschweiger March" and the "March Duke of Braunschweig" are still played by the German armed forces? (6 - I add where to find it in the book in case someone asks).

- The famous song Heideröslein (German: sah ein Knab ein Röslein stehn) was written by Goethe - but composed by Heinrich Werner from Braunschweig!
Even I know that song (not that I like it). (13)

- Braunschweig was an independent Federal Land from the 1800 something into the 1900-something! Like Bavaria today. Even the author´s Mother - and he is still alive and kicking - had in her passport for "citizenship":

braunschweigisch

Wow, huh?! Impressive!
Bavarian guys have "deutsch" in there now. (21)

- The author´s Grandfather was Wilhelm Mast. That doesn´t ring a bell, no? Didn´t in my ear at last.
Well - he lived in Wolfenbüttel, 40 km from here - maybe that tells you something?
He was the founder of Mast-Jägermeister!
Not that I like that stuff, but it´s famous all over the world - a small world, huh? (29)

- Certainly a chapter on Frederick William, the Black Duke isn´t missing.
Local Brewery Wolters even named a dark beer after him, Schwarzer Herzog (35)

- I also learned that the railroad-century in our region started in this town (49).

- And the most popular illustrators of German Children´s Books are Ralf and Margret Rettich from this town! (51)

- And in the days of our Duke Henry the Lion - 1129/30-1195 - this town was one of the centres of European Politics - also quite impressive, I think. (61)

- The German national anthem is written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben. Fallerleben belongs to Wolfsburg and he was often in the much-much-more beautiful Braunschweig ;-)
He also wrote Struwwelpeter (81)

- Oh, and guess who brought the Christmas-Tree to Canada? Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, in 1781! (97)

- Also mentioned is Christian Friedrich Theodor Steinweg, probably better known as C.F. Theodore Steinway. He was born in my hometown, Seesen, and died in my now-hometown Braunschweig. He built pianos, as you may probably know (probably not).
I learned to play on an original "Steinweg". He had no success in Germany, went to the United States and made Millions of Dollars with Steinway-pianos there.
My hometown later dedicated memorials to him... (106)

_ Our Mumme, Brunswick Mum certainly is mentioned as well. The strong beer that was mentioned first in 1390 and was sold back then as far as to India. (107)

- And last not least... composer Norbert Schultze, best known for giving Lili Marleen the musical part. (147)

No. I wasn´t born here - but I choose this town as my home and live here for 10 years now.
Maybe I know more about Braunschweig than many a person who grew up here does. Cause they just take it all for granted (naturally) - I don´t!
(Heck, there are trillions of things I don´t know about my home-town).

Btw... when I was seventeen... I started to come to Braunschweig from time to time. My friend´s boyfriend lived here and we often went to the Jolly Joker... I´m too old for that now, though ;-)