It has been suggested to me on more than one occasion that I ought to write what is known as an 'oughtobiography' about my tangled and pretzel-shaped life. I am aware that these days one needs only be bitten by a shark or fondled by a step-dad to unload one's history on an unsuspecting wider public, but since neither has ever happened to me, I shall continue to record mere titbits of my past whenever my memory stirs me.
And there are few memories more character-building and life-shaping for me than my early years with the "Fahrenden Gesellen", a lifelong "Bund" within the German youth movement which started and coincided with the concept of youth hostels which also originated in Germany when a schoolteacher named Richard Schirrmann who on one of his excursions with his pupils was caught in a storm and ended up spending the night in an empty school building. Schirrmann decided to make this a practice and to turn empty schools, which were situated a day's walk (30–35 km) from each other, into accommodation during the holidays.
a typical tent of German Scouting and the German Youth Movement
My days as "Fahrender Gesell" as well as youth hosteller began when I was around ten years old, and they continued all through my schooling and articled years until I left for Australia nine years later. Dressed in my "Kluft", which identified me as a trustworthy member of the German youth movement, I hitchhiked all over Germany and as far north as the Arctic Circle and south as far as Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar.
During the short weekends I escaped the turmoil of the familial home with just a chunk of bread, by hiking, hitching or cycling to the group's "Landheim" deep inside the Lüneburg Heath, where I learnt to fend for myself by gathering mushrooms and foraging for the few potatoes or sticks of asparagus left behind by the farmers in the surrounding fields.
Thus I became resourceful and self-sufficient before I had even known these words, and there were many times later in life when I fell back on what I had learnt in those early days. They're all wonderful memories!
More than fifty years later, the "Fahrenden Gesellen" still exist, and I am still their member - after all, it is a "Lebensbund". Unfortunately, in today's world where everything is labelled, they are labelled as 'right-wing'. If 'right-wing' means to hold on to old values, to mean what one says and to say what one means, to keep one's promises, to be true to oneself, then I'm as 'right-wing' as 'right-wing' can be. Es lebe der Bund!
