Letters From Germany

Maass Relatives 1952-1953, (page 3)

Letters sent by Ernst Maass in Berlin, Germany to his first cousin, August Maas, in Walnut Grove, MN. See page one for additional information about these letters.

[The accession numbers (A/N) are for reference and cataloging purposes.]

A/N MAA14 - [Alta Vista Babel Fish translation with editing by Gene Maas]

Ernst Maass
Finkenkrug b/Berlin
Mainstr. 49
16 August 1952

My dear August,

Again one year has passed and you and also I are again one year older. Nevertheless I want to express to you from the start my most cordial congratulations on your next birthday . I hope and wish that you are in the best of health which you can enjoy also in the coming times. You will surely not receive this letter by your birthday, but it will be welcome to you also afterwards.

I and my family are well economically and in health. All five of us still live in our little house. My boy with his small wife (the Spatzen, like she is called by us) spent their vacation this month with the motorcycle on Usedom at the Baltic Sea and returned well recovered . At the beginning of September I also want to take a vacation and drive then with my wife into Saxonian Switzerland, and for 14 days to relax there, hike, climb a few mountains, cruise on the Elbe with steamers, and eat and drink well. Hopefully good weather has returned again and we will be freshly strengthened and ready to go to work. Then it will be autumn again and precautions will be taken for the winter and in such a way time passes then again year by year. And with you, it looks like it is just the same. You have your wheat harvest behind you, then you get the potatoes from the soil, prepare the soil ahead for the next year and then head into the winter. Everyone does as well as they can, is pleased with one's life and waits for what time will bring. I gladly hope that this will bring only good to you and us.

with cordial greetings,

your cousin

A/N MAA016 - [translated by Jörg Schnadt, Potsdam, Germany]

Ernst Maass
Finkenkrug b/Berlin
Mainstr. 49
1 August 1953

My dear August,

Another year has gone and your birthday is approaching, now for the 68th time. Your children and grandchildren and your friends and acquaintances will be with you. You will have joy from all the good wishes and remotely you will think back to the days as a teenager and you will look over all the goals you have reached and you can tell yourself, that life was work, perhaps sometimes real hard, but also nice. And a life of hard work means a life of joy, as can be recognized in the four-line poem overleaf, which I dedicated to your birthday.

Also, I have written to you around the same time last year. Perhaps the letter didn't reach you, maybe your answer didn't reach me. In the present time of the event there is a good chance, though, that mail gets lost. Nevertheless I'm writing to you again today and I do not want to fail wishing you all the best for your birthday, that you can, even if only deep in your heart, look with happiness in life with God's nature.

Even my stage of life is reaching the point in some years, which commands a stop to my job at the desk. But I as well have always felt joy at work and I as well have joy towards life and joy for nature. When I come home from the office in the evening and step into my garden and enter my house and have my family around me, then I have proven to myself whole heartily that I have reached all this through industriousness and good will and through the joy of work and in life.

Although you experienced almost your entire life over there, you will certainly still have memories of Germany and understand what makes life worth living for us here. Even if we are worlds apart, feelings will be close. So remember us here in the "Old" world on your birthday.

Cordial greetings to you and your family

Your cousin

Now my dear August, I have to add a few lines and report to you how our time passed in the last couple of days (weeks). Last year my tired legs made me decide to go to a mud-bath in Thuringia. The health cure has done me good and therefore, I could go on nice climbing tour through the "Saxon-Switzerland" (at Bad Schandau) with my wife. This year I wanted to repeat the mud health cure, but could not get any mud-baths in the spa Bad Brambach, which was assigned to me and had to settle for radium. This was not successful for me. Also I couldn't hike much there, because the city is close to the border, which then always demanded a stop. Then I want to travel a little with my wife in the fall, perhaps to the Harz mountains. We'll have to see how the weather will turn out. In the coming days, our boy will drive to the Baltic Sea on the motorcycle with his little wife.

From my garden I had almost no harvest as the blossoming trees had frozen in May. Last year it was the same. However, my potatoes are growing really good.

From you over there, in the land of many opportunities, we only hear out of newspaper of violent hurricanes, of floods, then again of great drought and what else there is. How it looks in reality, you certainly know best. It will not be the same everywhere, just like the sun shines in one place, whereas in another place a thunderstorm causes havoc.

I hope that you are healthy and happy and I wish you a real nice day with your loved ones on your birthday and again the best wishes.

Your cousin Ernst

Updated - MAA016 added 3/15/2011