By Deb Kroon
Review Staff Writer
On Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 40 plus members of The “Amazing” Worthington City Band, under the direction of Mike Peterson, traveled to Crailsheim, Germany to celebrate 70 years of the Worthington and Crailsheim’s “Sister City” bond. The band was to perform in Crailsheim’s “Kultur Wochenende” Festival and also perform a dual concert with the Crailsheim City Band. French Horn player and Worthington City Band board member Monica Horn was among the members of the band who made the trip to Crailsheim.
Monica explained that the reason the Worthington City Band was called “amazing” was because the band got together to practice on Monday night and gave a concert on Wednesday night. Whoever can make practice comes, and if not they just come the night of the concert and the band sounds good! Pretty amazing!
The sister city program started during World War II, when Crailsheim was decimated by bombs. Martha McCarthy, a Worthington resident started a campaign to collect donations of clothing, shoes and other essentials that people need to live. Martha’s campaign gathered over 6 tons of supplies that were shipped to the people of Crailsheim. This was the beginning of the bond between Crailsheim, Germany, and Worthington, MN.
Accompanying Monica on her trip was her husband, Dan and their three children. Jonathan (16 yrs), Joshua (12 yrs), and Joycelyn (11 yrs). Monica said when the band started making plans last year to go to Germany, a trip the band makes about every 5-7 years, she and Dan started to discuss the trip. Should she go alone, or should the two of them go? Should they make it a family trip? They came to the conclusion it was a chance for the whole family to go and visit another country. The perk of this trip was that someone else was handling all the travel arrangements, lodging and some of the meals. The plans were put into place for the Horn family’s trip of a lifetime.
“This was my first time on an airplane” Joycelyn said excitedly, but was quickly reminded that she had flown as a two year old. “Well, the first time I remember” she corrected. The group from Worthington flew out of Minneapolis to Iceland, a 6 hour flight. They had a layover in Iceland before going on to Germany. Landing in Iceland, they had entered the Schengen Area. The Schengen Area is an area comprised of 26 European States that have officially abolished passports and customs in each individual country for a union that allows a traveler to go through customs only once. The entire plane had to have passports checked. The officials obtain the manifest from the flight and randomly pick people for a more extensive search. Monica Horn was one of the lucky chosen. She was pulled aside and taken to another area where she had her hands, waist and electronics swabbed for explosives. She also had to answer a series of questions. There is less chance of error, she was told. Monica’s family was concerned because they didn’t know where she had been taken and Monica was concerned for Joshua who was in line in front of her when she was pulled aside. But in a short time they were all back together and didn’t have to pull out their passports again.
After leaving Iceland, they had another 3 1/2 hours before landing in Germany. Upon arriving in Crailsheim, the band members were met by the host families they had been paired with. The Horn family was split into two homes. Monica and Joycelyn were with one family and Dan and the boys were with another. The host families did not necessarily speak English. If the family had a school age child, they were taking English in school. Monica had taken German in High School, but she admitted she was a little rusty. Joycelyn said they learned basic words like please, thank you and hello, but they made sure to always have their English to German dictionary with them. “We were told how nice the people of Crailsheim were, but the reality was way beyond our expectations,” said Monica. “They really rolled out the red carpet for us. We were treated like royalty. It was way beyond what we expected.”
As we talked about life with a German family, of course food was a main topic. Each member of the family had a different favorite, but they did agree on a lot. Dan’s favorite was maultaschen, which is like a giant ravioli, stuffed with meat, cooked in a meat broth instead of a red sauce. All agreed that the pretzels were amazing, especially when purchased right at a bakery. “They put butter right in the pretzel for you. They sliced them open and put butter in them” said Joycelyn. I think that might have been one of her favorites.
Schnitzel and spaetzel were high enough on the list to mention. They also tried blootz (German pizza), but the reviews were mixed. Instead of the tomato base American pizza is traditionally made with, blootz is made with a sour cream base. Again the consensus was they loved the dessert blootz. It is made with a plum jam, powdered sugar and an egg cream filling – sooo good!
French fries are tremendously popular, especially in the places the Horns were taken to eat. In fact, upon arriving in Germany, after 10 or more hours of not eating, and being very hungry, the Horn family found a McDonalds! They were fast to state emphatically that they were not looking for American food, but being hungry and curious they tried it. Joshua stated that the food was ‘alright,’ not quite the same-just alright! All three kids pointed out there was no such thing as a ‘free refill’.
Breakfast, German style, consists of assorted breads like croissants, pretzels, or crusty breads, meat and cheese, sometimes with honey and for special treats, eggs. The family Monica and Joycelyn stayed with had their own bees, so they had fresh honey every day. Dan and the boys family had chickens, so they did get eggs each morning.
Other foods mentioned was German candy. “Did you know Haribo gummy bears originated in Germany?” I did not know that!
Monica also mentioned spaghetti eis -spaghetti ice cream dessert. The ice cream is made to look like spaghetti noodles topped with strawberries. “It truly looks like you’re eating spaghetti with strawberries on top” said Monica. I think German food was a hit!
Monica and Joycelyn had the opportunity to attend third class (3rd grade) with the 9 year old from their host family. Monica was especially excited as that is the grade she teaches here in Adrian. She described the program as different, not better just different. The German student goes to school from 8:00a.m. to 1:00 p.m five days a week. They study four subjects each day. Joshua added, “It’s kinda cool – the kids stay in the classroom and the teachers move. That’s so much easier.”
Touring was naturally scheduled into their agenda. The group traveled by bus, car or train and usually stayed 1 to 1 1/2 hours from Crailsheim. The Horns loved that they weren’t doing the usual “tourist stuff”, as put by the kids. Joshua described some of the towns they visited as being “old medieval towns”. “There were lots of really old buildings and beautiful churches. Rothenburg has a real old wall that was hundreds of years old.” His eyes were full of excitement as he told how you could walk on top of the wall and also walk inside of the wall.
Würzburg Residence Palace was a destination on one trip. The whole family had something to say about the palace. They tried to make me understand how big this palace was. “It was so big, so fancy” Dan said. “What’s incredible is that it had been bombed,
severely damaged. In the States we would demolish it and rebuild something new. Not in Germany. They spent a lot of time and money to repair and rebuild the palace, bringing it back to it’s original glory.” Joshua kept trying to make me “see” the “Grand Staircase”, the murals on the ceilings and lots of gold. He said “the Germans really take care of their old buildings, not just ‘doze’ them down and build new! It’s so neat!”
The Horns found themselves with one free day to do whatever they wanted. They decided to take the train to Dachau to visit the Nazi concentration camp. Jonathan had studied about it in a class and expressed an interest in seeing it. They described the feeling of the camp as being depressive. It was and still is very hard for the family to believe how badly people treated other people. Joycelyn kept repeating that it was “so sad”. She felt really bad for the people that died there.
Monica explained some of the history of Dachau. It began in the 1930s as a work camp for political dissidents. It wasn’t a bad camp as camps went, just a place to put enemies of the government. Then between WW I and WW II, it was expanded to the concentration camp we know it as. Monica said it is not sure just how many people died there. Dan and Monica were unsure of taking an eleven year old to a place that had contained so much evil, but since it is such a big part of history, they did their best to explain to all three of the kids how such evil could exist.
Crailsheim is a more modern city. A lot of the town was demolished by bombs. Only one or two of the old churches remain, so a lot of the buildings are newer. Dan and the boys attended church at St. John’s Church. Again they were awed by the size and grandeur of these old building. “The architecture was amazing, especially since there were no machines to help build these huge buildings. Simply beautiful!”
Another difference Joshua noted immediately was the size of the license plates on the vehicles. “I noticed it right away” he said. “They were so big! They were double the size of the American license plate.” After googling the German license plate they learned what all the numbers, letters and symbols meant – some are similar to ours. The first thing on the plate is the flag of the European Union, and below that is a letter for the country. Next is the first three letters of the city or region where the license is issued. There are two symbols next. The lower sticker is the official registration of the respective German state. Did you know there are 12 states in Germany? The upper sticker green sticker is the vehicle safety inspection sticker, in which the black markings indicate the month the inspection expires. The cars in Germany are inspected every two years. If there is rust on the car, or a loud muffler, no sticker is issued until repairs are made. Germany is pretty tough on their inspections. The last three letters or numbers make each plate unique.
There is no air conditioning, at least not where the Horns were. To the people who live in Crailsheim, 87 degrees is hot. The temperature is usually cooler than we are, at least in the summer. There are also no screens on the windows. There is no such thing as a mosquito. Solar panels are a widely used method of heat. They noticed a lot of differences between our countries.
One special evening, the group was treated to a traditional German BBQ. The food was great! The special part of the evening for Monica was the entertainment provide by a group of men who played the traditional hunting horns. “My French horn is an ancestor of these horns. It was so amazing to hear the tones of the old horns, and how they mixed sounds together. They have no keys – the different notes are made by the lips. Amazing!”
Jonathan hasn’t been mentioned much. I found he was the quiet one of the Horn clan. He may be quiet, but he contributed his fair share to the interview. Any question or forgotten fact the family needed for me, Jonathan had up on his phone in a minute.
What a wonderful trip the Horn family had, “I would love to go back, I am going back someday. There is so much to see” said Joycelyn emphatically. “It was kind of hard coming back,” admitted Joshua. “After being there, with so many neat, old things to see and so much to do everyday, it’s pretty boring here.” It is nice to know that no matter what age you are, you can appreciate the difference in cultures and architecture, that you can appreciate the age and history of a country so much older than ours. If you ever have the desire to know more or see more of Germany, talk to Monica, Dan, Jonathan, Joshua or Joycelyn. They have a lot of stories to tell about great places to visit in Germany, and they all have pictures on their phones. It truly was an ‘amazing’ trip, one that will not soon be forgotten.
HORN CRAILSHEIM TRIP
AUGUST 30
