Twenty Year Touchpoints

In 1989 I left apartheid South Africa and spent much of the next year travelling Europe. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989 at which time I was somewhere between Turkey and Italy. I was heading for Berlin and on December 4 I hitch-hiked from Stuttgart to Mannheim, heading for Bonn where I was going to be staying with Dr. Marcella Rietschel (a Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Bonn) who I had met in Istanbul in October. This is a recent picture of her:



It was freezing cold and snowing out on the road, and by the time I reached Mannheim, I had had enough and headed to the Hauptbahnhof. After a cup of steaming coffee, I bought a ticket to Bonn, boarded the milk-train and continued the journey north.

It was now evening and I was deeply engrossed in my book when the train stopped at a local siding south of Frankfurt I looked up lazily, and saw the name of the place - Zeppelinheim. Zeppelinheim? ZEPPELINHEIM! I knew someone who lived there! Who, I could not remember, but I definitely knew someone there. Snap decision - frantically I packed my stuff, grabbed by bags and jumped off the train. Just in time. So there I was, in the snow in the middle of "nowhere", with no place to go! There was basically nothing at this railway siding, other than a prefab bar, and so that's where I headed. Over a beer, I flipped through my address book in an attempt to figure out who I knew in Zeppelinheim! Oh shit! Sure, I had an address in Zeppelinheim, but it was for the parents of Ulrike Cowan, the girlfriend of my best friend in South Africa, Hartmut von der Ohe. I had never met them, and they had no idea who I was! But I was committed - I was cold and the train was long-gone.



I fed the public phone in the humid, prefab bar, got Johan Cowan on the line and explained the situation. Amazingly, Johan was incredibly welcoming, drove down to the railway siding to pick me up, and insisted I stay for a couple of nights! Mr. and Mrs. Cowan were incredibly gracious - they set up a bed for me in the basement, wined and dined me, and took me shopping in Neu-Isenburg. I also had the opportunity to go into Frankfurt where I got to see Debbie Harry (and Chris Stein) in concert from the front row of a venue called Batschkapp. A wonderful (and eventful) concert, but that's another story!



But probably the highlight of my couple of days in Zeppelinheim was meeting Ulrike's sister, Kati. It's 20 years later and we're still in touch, so I guess that says something. The picture below was take in the basement at Vogelring on the night of December 6, 1989 as I packed up to leave for Bonn the next morning. The following week she was admitted to hospital to have her appendix removed...and there she contracted measles! How do I remember this stuff?? Anyway, it was a restful two days after a crazy couple of months on the road. But East Germany, Berlin and the crumbling Wall lay ahead, and what an experience that was!



FOOTNOTE ONE - while reading the Wikipedia entry for Zeppelinheim, I noticed that it is twinned with the Borough of Dacorum in Hertfordshire. I now live in Hertfordshire, and Dacorum is a mere 15km from my front door. Serendipity.

FOOTNOTE TWO - Kati Cowan has excelled over the past 20 years and is now doing noble work with Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

FOOTNOTE THREE - Dr. Marcella Dominica Rietschel is now Professor of Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. A fantastic achievement - and a long way from October 26, 1989, the Ümit Restaurant in Istanbul, a backpack of blood samples, a little food and way too many drinks!



Holy Darwin - I've travelled an interesting road, crossing paths with some amazing individuals in the process :-)

Cheers, MAlfaRK ©