Excerpt from Chapter 2:
I remember the train trip very well as I was
terribly sick and vomited all over the
compartment. No doubt Father was faced with a
hefty clean-up bill. I felt a bit better after
we changed trains in Munich for the Dorfen line
and in Dorfen, which was only about 40 Km out of
Munich, we changed again on to the Kloster's own
railway - a little stubby engine and one
carriage. The ride to Algasing lasted about 15
minutes, then followed a short walk up the hill
and we finally reached the Kloster's gates. It
was a huge building complex with massive walls
all round like a medieval castle. Very
impressive and awe inspiring to a 6-year old
little boy and, realizing once Father had
abandoned me and gone home I would be left at
the mercy of people I had never seen or met
before, was a little frightening. The only
consolation was knowing my brother was in there
somewhere too.
The front door was huge, made of solid carved
oak with an enormous brass ring in the centre
and a bell-pull hanging on a chain, going round
a metal pivot, before disappearing through the
top of the frame to the inside. I looked up to
that chain when Father pulled it and listened to
the bell inside which sounded more like a church
bell on a Sunday morning. It took some time for
somebody to answer the call and when the door
finally came open there was Brother Hyronimus
from the Catholic Order of the Barmherzige
Bruder, looking down on me. I knew this was
Brother Hyronimus because Father called him so.
He was dressed in a black cassock reaching from
the neck to the floor with a white rope belt
round his middle and a sleeveless sort of apron
covering back and front which had a cape on the
back. He must have been in charge of all the
doors in the place because he had a large key
ring on his belt with a dozen or more huge keys
dangling from it which probably weighed him down
a bit. Brother Hyronimus took us to the
visitor's reception room where there were other
people with their boys. Refreshments were placed
on the tables - black home-made bread and butter
and honey, with coffee for the grown ups,
lemonade for we boys. Some, like me, were new
and some were being visited by their parents. I
was expecting to meet my brother but he was
nowhere to be seen. This visitor's room was the
end of the line for all females coming to the
Kloster. They were only allowed in the
playground or in the theatre hall. There were no
female employees anywhere so all chores like
cooking, cleaning and the general running of the
Kloster were done by the monks.
After refreshments Father and I were taken to
the second floor to be met by the Prior of the
Monastery who had a chat with him, then
addressed me as 'my son'. I wasn't quite sure
about that and asked Dad why he called me his
son. He told me the Prior was the father figure
of the monastery and therefore called everybody
around him his son. Later that afternoon we were
able to see my brother for a short time in the
playground then after we said good-bye to
Father, Willi went back to his quarters on the
first floor and I was taken upstairs with all
the other new boys of my class to the third
floor which was to be my living environment for
the next 4 years.
At the end of the corridor was a large dining
room with tables and chairs along each side.
There was a drawer in the table behind each
chair, containing spoon, knife and fork and a
little book called 'Leitfaden' (guideline,house
rules) which told us how to behave at meal
times, how to use knife and fork, and that you
didn't bite the bread but broke off little bits
at a time. Of course since we couldn't yet read,
Frater Jakobus in charge of our little lot, read
it out to us before every meal, seated at his
elevated desk at the front of the dining room.
Adjacent to the dining room was the dormitory
with rows of beds covered with thick white
eiderdowns and, of course as we discovered very
quickly, each morning we were the ones who had
to make the beds under the watchful eyes of big
Brother Jakobus. Wash basins, one for each boy,
cold tap water, with toothpaste, brush, soap,
comb and towel in precision arrangement were
placed at the rear of the dormitory.
Each morning after getting washed and dressed we
lined up in front of our beds to be inspected by
Frater Jakobus for neatness and grooming before
entering the dining room for breakfast and ten
minutes prayer, which was the order of the day
before every meal. Breakfast usually consisted
of a bowl of porridge followed by black bread
and butter and jam or honey and a cup of coffee.
It all came up from the ground floor kitchen by
means of a hand- operated lift. After breakfast
and washing up we went into the assembly hall,
which was also the gymnasium, for 10 minutes
breathing exercises, push-ups and a quick trot
round the hall before heading off to the chapel
located at the other end of the corridor.
Everything was on the same floor, including the
classroom. The chapel was a sort of balcony
overlooking the main church below.
That balcony also housed the apparatus which
supplied the wind to the church organ and was
operated by our 'minder' Frater Jakobus. Poor
chap. We thought it fun to watch him standing on
a huge wooden pedal with one foot, holding
himself on a rail above his head with both hands
and thus doing push- ups for half an hour. It
must have been quite hard work because he
perspired profusely, which certainly entertained
we boys more than the church service though
should one of us get carried away and giggle the
punishment was severe. Right there, after the
service, before going to the classroom for the
morning's lessons Frater Jakobus dealt with the
miscreant as he always carried a cane beneath
his cloak.
It was quite a chastening sight to see three or
four boys lined up for Frater Jakobus's cane and
watch it come dowm with precision strokes, never
missing once. It was no good pulling the hand
back as the cane was always quicker. The
ultimate punishment, however, was having to lie
on the back with Jakobus locking one's head
between his legs, grabbing the ankles, pulling
the feet up and giving the backside a generous
whacking with his cane. All that before eight in
the morning, before the day had started properly
in school. Once in the classroom, those who had
received such punishment were quite relieved
that we always had the Lord's prayer before
sitting down...
The morning school session finished at 12
o'clock, then it was back to the dining room for
our midday meal, the main meal of the day. It
was a strict rule that all meals had to be eaten
in complete silence and the eagle eyes of our
minder seated on his raised desk made sure it
was stringently obeyed. Woe betide anyone who
broke the silence, not just by speaking, but any
noise created by dropping a spoon or shifting a
chair on the floor was enough. Not only did he
get the cane treatment or a spanking but he also
spent the rest of the meal time kneeling in a
corner staring at the walls and forsook the rest
of his meal.
The afternoons were usually set aside for
outdoor activities for we first and second year
kids. On rainy days it was playtime in the gym.
We had large playgrounds with swings, slides,
turntables, lots of scooters, billy carts and a
large sand pit. There wasn't much that could
have been improved upon as the equipment was
supplied by boys with rich parents and there
were quite a few of them. I remember one in
particular, whose name was Schermer. He would
have been about the most stupid boy in class but
for some reason he always seemed to get the best
marks. His parents obviously were rich and his
mother visited regularly in a large
chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benz. What we liked
about her was she always had little gifts for
everybody and if we were short of, say, scooters
because of breakages, all we had to do was
whisper in little Schermer's ear and sure enough
Mummy came along with new ones. So, despite
little Schermer's scholarly handicap he was the
most popular boy in class.
Of course, the playground was full of other
attractions. There was an animal enclosure with
deer, geese and ducks but the most interesting
building was the toilet block - an impressive
building, a family-sized 8-holer with neat
little lids and cut-out hearts in the doors. It
was a real challenge to see who could lower
himself furthest down a hole without
disappearing altogether. Of course a good
lookout had to be maintained for Frater Jakobus
- but then he couldn't be everywhere at the same
time. Luckily for us, nobody disappeared down
the small apertures, and more importantly,
nobody was ever caught. Punishment would have
been beyond description, especially for the
unfortunate chap, going under!!
On a hot day when the temperature rose to a
'dizzy' 25 degrees or more - 25 degrees was
regarded as a heatwave and caused all school
activities to be stopped - we would be taken to
the Kloster's swimming pool to cool off. It was
a large pool with the usual deep and shallow
ends and as the shallow end was already deep
enough for we boys to drown in, plus the fact
that practically none of us could swim, one
would think that Frater Jakobus had a problem.
Not so. He just grabbed us by the neck and feet
and threw us right into the middle of the pool.
This soon indicated who could swim and should
one not surface after an appropriate time he
dived in fully attired - habit and everything he
wore underneath - and he always got us out in
time! I don't know how he did it; he was
extremely short sighted and wore glasses the
size of headlights and when he took them off I'm
sure he couldn't see the pool, but the important
thing was he never lost a boy. After a few such
lessons we learned to keep ourselves afloat.
Winter time was quite pleasant too. On Sunday
mornings after church we had long walks through
the pine forests or went tobogganing in the
afternoons with the older boys. This was one of
the rare occasions when I was together with my
brother for a whole afternoon as the rule was I
was only allowed to see him twice a week, on
Wednesdays and Saturdays for one hour in the
evening after tea for playtime activity, which
was more of a hobby time with model making and
reading. On the stroke of the bell precisely an
hour later my visiting time was over and I was
on my way up the stairs again.
We also had a very good theatre set up with
professional stage and sunken orchestra pit and
dressing rooms, plus a sunken cue box for actors
who forgot their lines. Regular plays and dramas
were put on mainly by the older boys, with
audiences coming from all over the countryside
because the productions were quite proficient.
I remember one Christmas watching the Nativity
rehearsal where the curtains opened to reveal a
row of angels led by the archangel who had quite
a few lines to recite. Well, just a few days
before the opening 'Gabriel' went down with the
flu and had to be put into Kloster's infirmary.
The producer was having problems and frantically
looked around for a replacement capable of
learning the lines quickly and whatever made him
choose me I will never know. I had no trouble
learning them - I'd had three days to do so -
then they took me to the stage for a rehearsal
and everything went fine; I was ready for the
big event.
Then came the day of the performance and we all
got dressed, looking like proper angels in our
white floor-length robes with wings on our
shoulders and a halo on the head which sparkled
when the lights shone on it. We assembled on the
stage with the curtains still closed but behind
them I could hear the murmur of the audience and
disaster struck! My mind went blank and when the
stage manager quizzed me for my opening lines I
couldn't remember one single word. I had
forgotten the lot, and it didn't make any
difference how much they prompted me, the lines
just wouldn't come back, gone forever. I was
quickly whisked back to the dressing room and
stripped of my wings and halo while somebody
raced to the infirmary to snatch 'Gabriel' from
his sick bed and over to the theatre and dressed
in time for the event. The curtain rose half an
hour later and so ended my acting career...
Time passed and we had our outings, like the
annual picnic with the Kloster's train to Dorfen
for Brezel and Wurst and a bottle of Kracherl -
a bottle of mineral water where a glass marble
inside popped to the top when opened, which
always fascinated us. On another trip out of our
walled 'home' we were taken to Dorfen to the
polling station when all the Fraters had to
vote, in the election in September 1930. We
didn't know anything about the big power
struggle going on in Germany at that time
between the ruling factions of the Weimar
Republic and particularly between the Communists
and the German National Party. All the Fraters,
being good Catholics, voted for the 'Centrum' -
the middle party, as all southern Bavaria did,
so we were told.
There were other excitements in Kloster while I
was there. One night, well after midnight, we
woke to discover our dormitory filled with
smoke. Fire had broken out in the adjacent
dining room but despite the seriousness of the
situation there was no panic. The Fraters were
in complete control and told us to get dressed,
in silence as usual, then we were led from the
room past the closed dining room door behind
which the fire was raging and out into the
corridor. The Fraters made sure no-one was left
behind then led us down the stairs and across
the lawns into the theatre hall.
Looking through the windows of the auditorium we
could see the fire raging and the monks on
extension ladders smashing the glass from the
window frames. Each time a window was broken the
up-draft made their habits billow up like
balloons and it wasn't long before the roof was
ablaze and then collapsed. It was quite
frightening for we boys to watch our 'home' go
up in smoke like that. The Fraters did their job
well, managing to contain the blaze to the top
floor of our wing and had it under control by
mid morning. All fire-fighting was done by
Kloster's own fire brigade.
I'm not sure whether it was the fire drama and
the general disruption which followed, or
perhaps the bad weather we were having at that
time, but shortly after I became ill and spent
two weeks in the infirmary where, despite being
sick, I quite enjoyed the break from lessons and
meeting some of the older boys and becoming
privy to their 'tricks' which, in retrospect
were pretty diabolical. One in particular
involved welcoming a new patient by several boys
forming a line, everybody linking hands, with
the newcomer placed at the end where, with his
free hand he held the water tap. Meanwhile the
devilish 'mastermind', having removed the
insulation from a bedside bell, pushed it,
sending a shock through the unfortunate boy
holding the tap! I didn't have such 'initiation'
but thought it funny watching other victims. No
doubt it would have been even funnier watching
the punishment had Frater Doctor discovered such
a prank.