ILLUSTRATED IMPRESSIONS OF AN EARLY TEEN
WORK IN PROGRESS BEING COMPILED IN NEXT WEEK OR SO
. AGED 12
About half of the houses in Kallmorgenweg were requisitioned for RAF srrvice personnel ,the attic in no 13,was my bedroom & the houses had a cellar,& small fruit garden,& ours was enclosed with white wooden fence.At bottom of the garden were allotments up to
CONTENTS
1.WHY WE WERE THERE
2.WHERE & (HOW) WE LIVED
13 KALLMORGENWEG (off Kalckreuthweg) OTHMARSCHEN in a married quarter
Eberallee (in 1951 someof the prefab garden sheds therein (at that 1951-53 postwar era )these were occupied as housing (see post war photos of centre of Hamburg immediately following WW2)
Food shopping was done by a weekly Saturday arm bus at the NAAFI 'supermarket' shop for UK sourced food & local German shops for 'top-up' fresh meat just round the corner from Kallmorgenweg at junction of Kalckreuthweg&Eberallee.
RAF Altona station was a short cycle ride (for Dad-no cars in those days) up Eberallee to the Hillfeldersteg junction.
3.WHERE WE WENT TO SCHOOL-
LOCATION OF BRITISH SCHOOL HAMBURG
BSH (BRITISH SCHOOL HAMBURG) 57 HohenzellernRing Altona Hamburg BAOR 3 A (B)ritish(F)amilies (E)ducation (S)ervice Secondary+Primary Day School 1947 thru 1954
...believed to be the first comprehensive, co-educational, day school under the terms of the Education Act 1944 and ...
was the largest BFES school established in Germany in 1947( known initially as HohenzellernRing Altona)
We were collected by an army bus each day from pick-up point on Eberallee Othmarschen to BSH Altona campus.School routine was much as it was in England,except for wednesday afternoon sports when were bussed out a Hamburg sports country club to play football in the winter & cricket in summer.
After joining May 15 1951 I took their Moray Intelligence Test,and put me in their 2nd( year grammar ' stream' (form 2W1)with 'double ' homework for a year to catch up with others in my form.This proved to be a 'life-changing ' event (for as a consequence on return to England I had 'grammar' education& 'articles & chartered accountant FCA qualification (1).
Whilst at BSH school I earned 20 german marks to appear in an English educational programme on the local Hamburg radio station.
4.WHAT WE DID OUT OF SCHOOL
I had a personal 'crystal radio' set (which rarely worked) in an era (without TV) when BFN (based then in Hamburg) was the only radio station available.
Two German friends (Wolfgang & Peter) lived nearby and I played table tennis with them in the garage of Peter's house in Kallmorgenweg.
Kallmorgenweg house had small gardens but were full of fruit trees,ours at no 13 was particularly blessed with succulent yellow cherries.Others had plums &....so we kids ften spent time up in the trees during the long summer holidays.Otherwise we played in the street just as we had in England,(in those days imagination was the 'rule to play)
Saturdays ,a regular army bus service (see 2 above) ran to Hamburg NAFFI centre in ??strasse nearby the Alster lakes had upper floors for snooker & table tennis & closeby further downthe 'strasse' was a cinema showing Hollywood & English films(albeit a bit later than when premiered in UK)
Summer swimming was a favourite pastime(see map A) ..weekdays..to the indoor one at the local Othmarschen country club,sometimes mid-week by cycling to the outdoor Blankanese Army camp pool on those long summer evenings & occasionally for the day (4 or 5 of us with a packed lunch,by our selves without parents !!) during school hols crossing to the larger (more crowded) & sophisticated Hamburg forces pool & leisure centre (travelling with our free passes,via S-bahn Othmarschen station to Dammtor strasse, in centre of Hamburg )& then by catching a tram to the location of the centre.
5.WHAT TRIPS WE DID
6.NOTES/LINKS
1.Letter to parent.(July 1953)
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