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 | 100 years ago |
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...A visitor on his way to the spa, who nowadays (Remark "1953") can travel comfortably from almost any direction - without e.g. having to change trains three times after Hanover - in a non-stop train to Norddeich-Mole and who's instantly being driven alongside the beautiful motor boat and brought to Baltrum, who - after a pleasant cross-over through tidal shallows covering mud flats - , walked to his hotel or pension over beautiful, pleasant, red-plastered walking roads, having arrived finds his friendly room with electrical light and running water, can hardly imagine what it was like then, many years ago. You might be interested to read more about it.
The trip to the seaside in itself was quite an event. Of course there were already inter city express trains with restaurant and other conveniences. It has not been that long since the 20th century started. But with these trains you could - on your way to Baltrum - not travel any further than Oldenburg; after having changed trains several times the journey would continue via Jever - Sande - Esens or via a similar route, until you would descend the local train "somewhere up there in East Friesland" on the small train station of Dornum. From there you had to continue your journey to the coast and the town of Nessmersiel with horse and wagon - in our case in a half-open "chaise" while the rain poured down - until finally we could see the sea, turbulent and totally grey. There was no little steamer waiting for us at the quay - instead we quickly had to come to terms with the thought of being transported with a heavy, big sail ship with motor, the "Möwe" (seagull) that was moored, rocking and making a creaking sound! There was nothing we could do, we had to, - if we wanted to get to the other side - , cope with this not particularly inviting vehicle, although we had more faith in a real steamer.
The crossover from Nessmersiel to Baltrum did not take long however. Nevertheless long enough for my mother and sister to turn seasick quite seriously, after they had fled from the poring rain and the howling winds into their cabin. No wonder in that small, claustrophobic room with a lit hanging paraffin lamp on deck that dangled that much that it in itself could make a person lose his balance. - We arrived on Baltrum in the same area, where the boat arrives today, and we walked through the deep sand, partly over duck boards, into Westdorf to our guest house next to the hotel Küpers, that already existed then, though not as big and extended as it is nowadays.
The friendly couple that rented the room did everything to make the stay of their guests as pleasurable as possible: they had put a standing paraffin lamp into the room and on the side tables were candleholders with a box of matches.….They were busy getting fresh water for us which was taken from a well next-door; the island neither had any electrical light nor a central, permanent water supply!
How tiresome was the - thank God - only short way to the beach through the dunes over sandy paths! Of course there were duckboards to make it easier for the guests. But they hardly offered enough room for one person; people walked like ducks in a row and if somebody would come form the other side one them was forced to step ankle-deep in sand again! In that time the beach was just as beautiful and wide; of course there weren't any great, comfortable beach tents we have today, but instead deck chairs that can be seen even today during an walking tour through the dunes to the east end of the island. There you will find two of those original chairs on a high dune placed on a pole as seamark and I enjoyed seeing them once again.They were kind of longish, round laundry baskets turned upside down, the bottoms of the baskets were used to sit on, and backs had been plaited all the way up; unfortunately they offered little shelter from rain and wind, since they didn't have any tent linen on the inside as they would have later. And the legs were always "outside" so to speak!
And yet - how could we know better! - we felt great and we always regenerated on the beach; we, children of the city, here, outside on this beautiful, big sandy playground. Mind you, of course we were not allowed to walk around in bathing costumes, for heaven's sake! We wore the well-known sailor-outfit, gymnastics shoes, and sometimes "half-stockings" and after we had returned home we proudly showed our father patches of sun-tanned skin that the shirt had left uncovered and of skin, that had a chance to be exposed to the sun, after we had sometimes pulled down our stockings... -"Heinz should walk barefoot soon", my mother wrote on a postcard addressed to her mother in Berlin in July 1906. That was quite something in those times, walk through the water, puddle and splash with curled up trouser legs! -
Between two breakwaters, in front of the low stockade - that was along the whole northwest side of the island in these days - (nowadays there is just a part left on the southwest side towards the berth) ladies and gentlemen - strictly separated - could have a bath/swim. They were not next to each other, but in the middle was a "neutral zone" and walking on the stockade was during bathing-hours forbidden for gentlemen. They might have - if they would have been allowed to - been able to see the bathing angels with their - nowadays impossible - bathing costumes with knee-breeches that covered half of the calves, nicely decorated with borders with little ship motives. - Maybe some of you readers will still remember the well-known green mobile cabins, in which you got dressed, that was then rolled towards the water and you could descend directly into the salty water via a small flight of stairs. -Of course one had to buy a ticket before one could go into the water. Getting up from your lazy chair and walk into the sea, as we do today, was not permitted! -
In those days there wasn't any spa-related tourism yet on Baltrum.Approximately only 300 guests visited the island, and they were not really interested in special events or happenings. After all hotel Küper had a piano on the veranda; sometimes a guest would sit and play the usual German pieces "Das Gebet einer Jungfrau" or the "Husarenritt" and he would have a grateful audience. We, children were allowed to say up a bit longer and listen sometimes.
Idyllically, as now, was the little island church with its bell on a high frame next to the church that is still there today. In older days a rope was attached to it and even today I sometimes stop and look at it, reminiscing with a certain sense of pride, that I, myself as a young boy was allowed to help on a Sunday, when I rang the small bell, together with my island friend Hinrich, who lived opposite of us and who will probably have met many guests on the island, who were very friendly to him. Hinrich had a little boat lying next to his elderly home, where it was wonderful to play, to that extent that my mother sometimes had difficulties dragging me along to the beach…! - Communicating with Hinrich however was not very simple, since he only spoke an East Friesian dialect that was not very clear to me. But we did enjoy ourselves splendidly!
Translation of an excerpt of Heinz Band's "Die Inselglocke" (The island's bell)
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