1937

We really haven't found much in the way of datable "stuff" in the house. The previous owners were not hoarders, and apart from a child's shoe up under the eves, there's been little material showing what life was like over the years in the house.

However, today I found a balled-up sheet of newspaper that was stuffed into a hole in a door post, presumably used to pack the hole before the post was plastered over (there was also bits of tiles on the other side of the hole). It turned out to be the front (and back) pages of the Volksgemeinschaft / Heidelberger Beobachter, from the 1st of October, 1937, found 74 years later, almost exactly to the day.

What's interesting about this, apart from the historical aspects of the headline, with Adolf Hitler being invited to visit Rome shortly after Mussolini's September 1937 visit to Germany, is how it ties in with other documents we have from that year.

I've already posted about the various planning documents we have, and one was also from 1937, when part of the eastern gable was rebuilt in brick, and a new chimney was inserted on the western side of the house.

The stamp on the back attests to the regime in power at the time.

So, they applied for permission to do major works in March 1937, and by October they had re-plastered the walls in the kitchen, using a sheet of newspaper to plug a hole in a post. Just another piece of life.

The other, everyday stories in the few pages we have are interesting. Adverts, cinema listing, a piece about the Morning Post being taken over by the Daily Telegraph. History through a keyhole.