Seeking Roots in Bavaria

Dingolfing is not that big of a town, so it only took me a few minutes of walking until I found the Eglseder Sports store.  Upon entering the store, I asked the store clerk, as assertive as I could since it was a very awkward predicament, "Hi, I am an American, and I was wondering if I could talk with the owner of this store..?"  Her awkwardness turned into a weird panic, and immediately retreated to the back of the store to meet with him.  After a minute, a tall, very German-looking man with glasses emerged to meet me.  That's when I introduced myself and revealed to him why a random American was asking to meet with him in his store: I wanted to learn more about my grandmother, and there was a good chance that he could share more information about her with me.

The duration of my COS trip was limited since I was expected to be back in the States by the following Saturday for a wedding.  So, I only had a week to travel around, and thus with my limited time I decided to travel to Munich to learn more about my grandmother.  She had grown up for most of her life in Dingolfing, and during the War she lived in Munich.  Thus I took advantage of being free in Europe to visit the city in which she lived before moving to the States.  I also spoke with my mother about possible connections in Dingolfing, hoping that maybe I can meet with one of her friends or find the house in which she grew up.  The only information she had (or at least shared with me) was that of her friends, the Eglseders, who had once owned a shoe factory, but today own a sporting goods store.

As soon as I told Stefan, the Eglseder who managed the store, about my purpose and subsequently described my grandmother, he seemed to reminisce immediately about meeting her.  He probably remembered meeting her in 1973, when my grandmother visited with the rest of her family (including my mother), and Stefan was only about 8-9 at the time.  He remembered her as a fair-haired, beautiful woman, and he mentioned that his father had also dated my grandmother when they were younger.  Stefan also recounted how my grandmother had given him and his brother a bunch of American coins.  This memory seemed to be a singular childhood memory for him, which painted his depiction of my grandmother as that of a perspective of a child. 

Stefan also continued to share with me some history about his family and business.  His family had once owned a shoe factory, but as the largest BMW plant moved into Dingolfing, the family lost many of their workers to offers of higher wages at the car factory.  So they decided to branch out into sporting goods as well, and eventually the store focused on selling sporting goods instead of shoes.  Stefan said that the family business was doing very well.  He also mentioned that one of his aunts, Anne Marie (seen with my grandmother in a picture below) was sick (she has since improved), and she had even visited my grandmother in Chicago a few times.  After leaving the store, I strolled the streets of Dingolfing, speculating that not much had changed since 80 years ago, when my grandmother was younger and living in the town.  I was very young when my grandmother passed away, so I do not have any memories of her.  However, she is as much a part of me as all my other family members, and I felt more connected to the German part of my life than I had ever before.

My grandmother on the left, Stefan's brother, and Anne Marie (on the far right)

MY Grandmother and great-grandmother in Dingolfing

The same site as above, but ~90 years later.

Stefan and me in modern times

Dingolfing

Munich

The day trip to Munich was fulfilling and easy to execute, but I spent most of my time in the city of Munich.  My trip to the city coincided with one of their first weekends of warmth, which meant that strolling through the parks and historic squares entailed weaving in and out of locals and tourists.  I spent my first full day visiting the Marienplatz and relaxing in Munich's large park adjacent to the local university.  The hostel at which I stayed had a cheap and social bar on the ground floor, and I was lucky to meet with Ayad, an employee at the hostel who had the night off.  He was polite enough to invite me to a hike that he and his friends were undertaking on Sunday.  So we met at the train station on Sunday morning, and we took the train all the way to Bayrischzell to start our hike. 

The hike was up a mountain at the foothills of the Alps, right on the border with Austria.  I had never imagined that I would have the chance to hike again in Europe, let alone hiking in one of Europe's largest mountain ranges.  A mix of 7 expats/ Germans and a dog summited the mountain in about 2 hours, and I gained a serenity and respite from Munich's large, urban crowds. 

After the hike, many of us were exhausted, yet a few of us determined to share a meal together.  Maica (sp?), one of the Germans who brought her dog along on the trip, wanted to return her dog home so that he could rest, so we all decided to dine somewhere around her flat for reasons of convenience.  Fortunately, she lived in the Olympic Village, and as soon as we arrived I recalled that my grandfather had served as a body guard for the Lithuanian wrestling team at the Munich Olympics in 1972.  I tried to imagine all that my grandfather observed during the terrorist attacks against the Israeli athletes.  Maica's flat was directly across where the Israeli athletes were housed and attacked, and I experienced a profound feeling of being in the present of both history and a life experience of my grandfather.

My COS trip may be short, but I appreciate the ability to connect with some roots in a cool, gorgeous part of Europe.  I was also lucky to meet with locals who were able to help me experience parts of Bavaria that I otherwise would not have enjoyed, and all in good company.  I do not even believe that experiencing Munich during Oktoberfest could have surpassed such a momentous experience of Bavaria as this.

Strolling through Munich

Beginning our hike

Rest stop

Alps

Bayrischzell

In the Olympic Village