Close of the Stuttgart chapter: journeyman visitors, friction with the boss, and leaving for a new post in Auerbach
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Translated from Willi's German.
Ehinger, Kanninger and Nutz came to us as travelling journeymen, and we always had our worries until each of them had somewhere to sleep for the night. My brother Alfons visited us too, as did Paul's parents, and some people from Villingen such as Kopp, Ernst, Heller and so on. It felt almost like home, even here in Stuttgart, a place I simply could not take to. And so I began to lay plans to move on.
But the professional course I was attending was not yet over. I had great difficulty when I needed a model to work on. Then one Saturday my boss told me I had to work faster and not dawdle so. That was the end of it for me. I at once looked for a position where I could also find work in the ladies' trade. I got a fine offer from Auerbach, and off I went there. Over a litre of wine in the Stuttgart town hall we had a simple farewell drink.
Stuttgart itself is a magnificent city, large, with beautiful hills all around and good theatres. One of the railway stations was still not quite finished when I left.
Willi's original German, as transcribed.
Ehinger, Känninger(?), Nutz, kamen als fahrende Gesellen
zu uns wir hatten immer Not bis Sie ein Nachtlager hatten
[illegible] Auch mein Bruder Alfons sowie Pauls Eltern besuchten uns
einige Villinger wie Kopp, Ernst, Heller und so weiter
Hause(?) wenn auch in Stuttgart, was mir absolut nicht gefallen
konnte. Und so legte ich den Plan weiter zu gehen.
doch der Fachkurs, den ich besuchte war noch nicht zu Ende
Große Schwierigkeiten hatte ich als ich ein Modell brauchte.
An einem Samstag sagte mir mein Chef ich müsse schneller
arbeiten und nicht so diftete(?). Da wars aus mit mir ich suchte
sofort Stellung wo ich auch im Damenfache Beschäftigung
finde. Ich bekam ein schönes Angebot aus Auerbach wo ich auch
hinmachte. Beim Liter Wein im Stuttgarter Rathaus war
schlichtes Abschiedstrinken. – Stuttgart selbst ist eine herrliche
Stadt groß, schöne Berge ringsrum und gute Theater, der
eine Bahnhof war bei meiner Abreise noch nicht ganz fertig
Stuttgart's unfinished station. Stuttgart's main station, the landmark stone building by architect Paul Bonatz, was under construction from 1914 to 1928, so it genuinely was 'not quite finished' when Willi left in the mid-1920s.
Journeymen on the road. Travelling craftsmen relied on one another and on trade hostels for a night's lodging as they moved from town to town, which is why finding beds for these visitors was a recurring worry.
Off to the far east. Auerbach lies in Saxony's Vogtland, in the far east of Germany near the Czech border, a very long move from Stuttgart in the country's south-west.