Philip's First Trip to Germany: 5 February 1965

by Philip Arthur Graupner
(James Graupner remembered that I had started my first trip to Germany on 5 February, 1965 and asked if I remembered my thoughts on that day. I wrote out this story in response.)

The trip to Germany, Feb. 1965

What thoughts went through the head of the insecure, immature, naive, socially inept and inexperienced boy of barely 22 yrs. on the eve of his first trip to Europe? What thoughts went through the head of the insecure, extremely willful, outrageously opinionated, arrogant and desperate young smart-alec on the eve of his first trip to Europe? It was but one person and the answer to both questions is the same. My brain was not having many thoughts as Dad drove me to the airport in Stevens Point for the first leg of the journey, for it was already nothing but ashes after all the anticipation and anxiety and sleepless nights of the preceding weeks.

It is strange how little I can remember about it. I can really only recreate little bits and pieces in my mind. I certainly didn’t remember the exact date, although I did remember that it was in February. I had just finished my Bachelor’s Degree at UW-Steven Point in January, 1965 after having to put in an extra semester in order to take a number of basic requirement courses that I “couldn’t be bothered” with during the first four years, such as Geography 101. My major was in German and I had decided to take a two-month course at the Goethe Institut in Rothenburg o.d.Tauber to improve my language skills. That was to take place during March and April. I made my travel arrangements through a travel agent in Stevens Point and requested that the first leg of the round trip be by ship. (I was fascinated by ships then.) The trip was booked on the little Holland-America Line passenger ship named the “Maasdam”, which was still doing regular transatlantic crossings from New York to Rotterdam with stops in Cobb, Southampton and Le Harve. I had a round-trip ticket that was good for a year and wasn’t thinking of staying in Germany for as long as I actually did.

On 5 February, 1965 my father drove me to the little airport in Stevens Point, which at that time was the local “big airport”. I can’t remember who else was along. I remember receiving an extravagantly large gift of several hundred dollars from Dad. I can remember getting into the little North Central DC3 plane and that it was daytime. I’m sure that this little plane did not fly directly to New York but can’t remember where I changed planes. Since I remember arriving in Manhattan during the day, I must have slept in the airport overnight. I landed at JFK and took the shuttle bus to the transit terminal on the east side of Manhattan.

From there I took a taxi to the Holland-America Line pier. There was a huge crowd of people waiting to be allowed to board the ship but a movie was being filmed on this location with actors running up the gang-way over and over again. I have no idea if we “extras” were in the final version of the film. I was anxious because I did not actually have a ticket. All I had was a written confirmation that I had paid for the passage. Of course, the worry was unnecessary and I was on the passenger list. We finally were all allowed to board and it took a while to find my cabin. I shared a tiny 2-man cabin toward the inside of one of the lower decks with “person unknown”. He hadn’t arrived yet but oddly enough, I picked him out of the crowd on deck as we all waited for the tugboats to move the ship away from the dock. I thought to myself, “I hope I don’t have him for a roommate.”
Slowly the ship moved away from the dock and people waved to their friends and relatives on the dock....no paper streamers. I don’t think I was as impressed by the leaving as I was perhaps expecting to be. I know I was relieved that I was on the boat but other than that, I was mainly hungry and exhausted. I’m fairly certain that I had eaten nothing in the last two days other than what I ate at home and what was served on the flight to New York. I was in luck. Passenger liners do not let their customers starve. There were three big meals in the dining room and extra meals in the lounge; a second breakfast of coffee or tea, the afternoon coffee or tea and one final lunch for those who wanted to stay up late. I was very fortunate in being assigned to table of 8 in which all the other guests were students from Redwood College in California. They were part of a class of perhaps 30 - 40 students and professors that was traveling on this boat to Europe for a semester abroad. Our assigned waiter was a red-haired student from Frankfurt named Fritz. As the time gradually was changed and breakfast came earlier each day, I was often the only one at the breakfast table that Fritz had to wait on.

The meals were an epiphany for me. I had no idea that food could taste so wonderful. Each meal was exciting. The ship didn’t offer too much otherwise. The single movie was “Goldfinger”. There was a little library and in the evenings there were betting games and on one occasion, a woman gave a little song recital which was pretty awful. The bar was well attended in the evening. My college friends usually didn’t appear until around noon. So, I had a lot of time to myself and was usually on deck in the wind. My schedule worked out fine for the little cabin. I was usually out of the cabin during the day and the other guy was usually out during the night.


The passage took ten days and it was fairly rough in mid-ocean. The first stop was in Cobb, Ireland. The ship anchored outside the harbor and was met by a smaller boat that took off passengers. We also stopped in Southampton and Le Harve before reaching the final destination of Rotterdam, Holland. The final days of the journey, running along close to the shore and into ports, was particularly interesting. Still, it was also good to reach the end of the journey. I didn’t have to say good-bye to my college friends. They and their professors were all bused to Amsterdam and they just took me along. I was able to get a room in the hotel that they were booked at. We had each gotten a book of coupons for free tourist activities in Amsterdam with our boat ticket. My friends and I took the free canal boat tour, free drinks at a famous pub, etc.

After a couple of days, I said good-bye and early in the morning took the train to Mainz, Germany. Why not to Wiesbaden, which is where I wanted to go? I was just too dumb. I probably didn’t see the name on the schedule and assumed that trains didn’t go there. I took the bus from Mainz into downtown Wiesbaden. I called Tante Hanni at her office and she asked where I was. I said, “I think I’m across from the Museum.” “Stay there, I’ll come and get you”. Fortunately, she was just a couple of blocks away. She got one of the guys in the office to drive her over to me and they took me back to the Wiesbaden train station and put me on the bus to Schlangenbad. In Schlangenbad, Onkel August met me at the bus stop and walked with me to their little house. He had to go back to work in his shop across the street, but Tante Elsa made coffee for me and keep me company until Fritz Hadrich and Hanni finished work and picked me up to drive me to Bärstadt.

The house in Bärstadt was full. Tante Anna and Onkel Adolf Beckers lived downstairs. Oma and Hanni lived on the second floor. Helga, still a high school student, was staying with them then....and I joined them too. In the little apartment on the third floor under the roof lived the Hadrichs; my cousin Erika Dauer Hadrich with her husband Fritz and their two children, Juliane and Kristine.

I was there for a couple of weeks before starting classes at the Goethe Institut in Rothenburg, a picturesque old walled city in lower Bavaria. I was assigned a room in a 17th. century house inside the old walls. The school was on the other side of town just outside the wall. Classes were entirely in German and lasted all day with a long break for the noon meal. Meals were eaten as a class in restaurants, although a breakfast of tea and Brötchen was served in the school itself. The experience in Rothenburg was extremely valuable for me. Although I had a good background in German language from college, I really learned to speak the language during those two months.