Vater, Mutter, Kind; that is ‘Father, Mother, and Child’.

Some Childhood memories

Ja, this goes back to some early childhood memories of mine!

Playing with the children that lived in our street:

I spent lots of time playing with all the children in our street, Bozener Straße. One of our games was playing ‘Vater, Mutter, Kind’. It was understood, that the father had to be a boy. Luckily, there were usually a couple of boys, who did not mind acting as the fathers. If the girls outnumbered the boys, it did not matter. They could all be mothers. Each girl was allowed to bring one doll along. This doll then was a Kind, so that each girl would be a mother with one child. And all tghe dolls would be shared with the boys. We would be very proud, to see the boys showing affection to our dolls, that were our children!

I think, a game like this would probably have lasted for only a few minutes! We would quickly have gone to play any of our other games. We could play all these games in our very small street, that was hidden away from any traffic. Not that there was much traffic yet at this point in time. I am talking of the end of the 1930s and early 1940s, and Bozener Str. is pretty much in the Centre of Berlin.

We loved to play ball games, or hide and seek, or singing and dancing games. I only went up to our apartment for meals. Mum would let me know, when it was time to come up for a meal by calling down to me from our balcony. From that balcony she could practically survey the whole of Bozener Straße!

The house, that I grew up, in is still standing. It survived all the bombings during the war. It just had to undergo some renovations in the post-war period.

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Humming Tops

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The other day we looked into a shop through a window. I noticed these tops. I believe they are called humming tops? I could not help myself, I had to take a picture of them. They reminded me so much of my childhood. Gee, did I love these tops as a kid! My humming top was probably one of my favourite toys. And I knew other kids who owned humming tops. Whenever I visited a friend with a humming top I would try out what kind of humming noise their top did make. This was so exciting!

My friend Eva, who was a bit younger than I was, had lots and lots of children’s picture books. I loved to have a look at all her books! Of course, I had a few picture books myself. However, I am sure Eva had many more than I had. So it was always a pleasure to go visiting her.

Eva had a large play-room all to herself, whereas I had to share my room with my little brother, who was about two when I was five or six. I was allowed to go across the road all by myself to visit Eva. I believe I had instructions to return home straight away if for some reason I could not stay at Eva’s. When I rang the bell at the door to their flat, it was usually the maid who opened the door.

My standard question was: “Guten Tag, can I play with Eva, please?” And then the maid would let me in and I’d join Eva in her room. Eva’s Mum usually came to Eva’s room to say hello and talk to us for a while. Over the years I did get to know their whole apartment. I still know where all their rooms were. But for playing we always stayed in Eva’s Kinderzimmer.

All this comes back to me just by looking at these humming tops! 🙂

I went visiting other kids too. For instance there was Cordula, who lived in the same building that we lived in.  I think I knew Cordula already when I was only about three.  Cordula had her own room too with lots of toys. Her Mum would open the door when I asked could I play with Cordula. (They did never have a maid.)

Other friends I visited in the neighbourhood were Siglinde, Gunhild and Rosmarie who had a younger sister called Gudrun. I knew all these friends before I started school. With all these friends and some boys as well we often played ball games and hide and seek and some singing games in our secluded street. This was a time when there were not many cars around. I cannot remember any cars ever going through our little street.

Tante Ilse and Onkel Addi owned a car since 1938, the year my brother Bodo was born.  They rented a garage for their car  some distance away. These days the street is full of parked cars. No children play in the street any more.

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