Some years ago, I was hunting on the internet for an out-of-print copy of Heinz Helfgen's book "Ich radle um die Welt". A young couple in southern Germany, Sven and Grit, had a copy of it. I was still wondering whether I should buy it because of the high postage costs when Sven, in a magnificient gesture of generosity, offered to send it to me for free!
One good deed deserves another and I told Sven that if he and Grit ever visited Australia, they should consider themselves our guests at "Riverbend".
We emailed each other for a while but somehow lost contact. I was reminded of them the other day when I found the aerial view picture postcard they had sent me of their home in Münsing near the Starnberger See. I wanted to contact them again to renew my invitation but I had forgotten their last name and lost both their postal and email address.
Luckily, they had circled on the postcard the house they lived in. I looked up the Shire of Münsing's website and emailed them a copy of the postcard. Not only did they identify the house in the aerial photograph but also told me that its previous occupants, Sven and Grit, had since moved and even gave me their new address in Wahrenbrück!
Finding my old friends again was entirely due to a very "Teutonic" system under which all citizens must inform the 'Einwohnermeldeamt' which is a kind of Census Office, both in the area they are leaving from and in the area they are moving to, of their change of domicile - all within very tight time limits, too. Imagine the outcry by civil libertarians if a similar system was introduced in Australia!
