Papiergeschichten
A couple weeks ago I found another lovely batch of old papers at one of my local Trödelläden. I have to stop myself from going to my favorite shops on a weekly basis, as I don’t have either the money or the storage space to properly take care of everything that I find. But on the other hand I worry that, since they’re showing up in junk shops, if I don’t rescue them, their next stop is a landfill.
I love this sketchpad (Skizzenblock in German) with just one drawing it, but a good drawing. I wish whoever started this sketchpad had recorded either where or when they drew this landscape. I really would like to know more about it. I’m assuming that Tell is a brand name, but a few minutes of internet research doesn’t reveal anything, let alone what Nr. 1486 means. Ges. gesch. is commonly an abbreviation for Gesetzlich geschützt, which means “legally protected”. Is it important that a sketchpad is protected by law? Or maybe it indicates that anything drawn or written inside is automatically copywritten? I’m clutching at straws here.
I haven’t allowed myself to use the sketchpad yet. Chances are I won’t anytime soon. At the moment it’s sitting on a shelf in my studio with the one drawing displayed.
I don’t have any way of knowing if the Skizzenblock and this blue Mappe are connected. I found them on the same day in the same shop, but that could simply be coincidence.
The folder contains paperwork belonging to Günther Schlachte, who appears to have been an electrical engineer in Berlin, searching for work with the Deutsche Bundesbahn. DB was the national train service for West Germany, which in 1994 merged with Deustche Reichsbahn, the former East German train service, becoming Deutsche Bahn AG, the current rail service operator.
This is only a snapshot of what was in the folder, picked out somewhat at random. What I find particularly interesting is his Lebenslauf in Stichworten (CV in keywords), the top left image.
Born in Berlin, 1911, Günther Schlachte began his Hochschule (university) studies 1930 in Berlin, but they were interrupted multiple times, first due to economic reasons and then by the war. In 1942 he was drafted in the German army and sent to Breslau, now know as Wrocław and located in Poland. The next year he was sent to Stuttgart where he worked on turboprop airplane engines for Daimler-Benz AG.
There he was able to continue his studies and passed his first diploma requirements in 1943 but the war once again interrupted school and in 1945 he had to stop before finishing his final requirements, including four verbal exams and his thesis project. From 1945 until 1952 he worked in Regensburg for the US occupying forces, and in 1954, finally back in Berlin, he completed his degree with a thesis in Elektrische Bahnen. Entwurf einer 50Hz-Lokomotiv (electrical railways, design of a 50-Hz locomotive).
I don’t know if he found work with DB. I still have more papers in the folder to look through. What I’m struck by though, is the simple mundanity of a human story that plays out in these papers. We know all the big events that happened between the start of his university studies in 1930 and his graduation in 1954, and it’s easy to focus on the political figures, and the military actions. But how many small stories are there from this time? It’s fascinating to learn even a little bit about everyday life in this monumental period of history.
More to come.