This photo, so typical of German schools of that time, was taken in 1957 at the Volksschule Leonhardstraße, whereas I attended the Volksschule Sophienstraße from 1952 and then, some years later, the Volksschule Heinrichstraße until 1960.
Inside or out and no matter where, "Volksschulen" all looked alike, and still do except they dropped the "Volks" and made them "Grundschulen".
It would be nice to still have a photo of myself sitting in one of those benches long before eight years of "Volksschule" almost ruined my life.
know what happened to those forty-one eager faces in the past seventy years?
The only photo I have of those days - and which now hangs, beautifully framed, on the wall in my library - shows me on my first day at school on 21 April 1952 which, from memory, was a Monday. Can you pick me? (hint: I'm the only boy in a whole row of girls, not one of whom wanted anything to do with me which clearly set me up for the next fifty years)
