Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-03
Out of the Night

10 the right bank of the river.
The oarlocks were wrapped in
cloth, SO that the rowing made
no noise. i jumped ashore.
My guide pulled away in the
night.
/ stood on wide meadow.
The wind blew in cold gusts.
j trudged away from the river
toward a house without lights.
There was a road. The road
led into a highway. A sign at
the junction read, karlsruhe
a KIlometer.'
/ did not 60 to Berlin by.
the shortest route. In San
Quentin i had dreamt of free
dom. In Paris, / had had ex-
periences VIII ich still lay
heavily on my mind.
l had spent almost nothing
OF the money i had received
from Canoe. Ginsburg, and
Sorgus. So l decided 10 have
week for myself. boarded
the train from Karlsruhe TO
Heidelberg. i was back in my
own country, but how little did
l know it! The Rhine folk
loved their land. They would
live nowhere else. and they
were proud that their cradles
had been rocked along the
Rhine.
"Nur am Rhein do mOecht
ich leben, muir am Rhein
gebOren sein :"
1t was here, in the country
between the Neckar and the
Main, that 1 had been born.
only TO be taken away before
my mind was ripe enough TO
imbibe its enchanting con-
tours. And now. after % years
Of vagabondage. l beheld for
he first time this land Of my
Olrth.
IN FOREST SOLITUDE
l took a room in a hotel
overlooking the Neckar. Later
N the day / mounted the ruins
Of the Heidelberg castle, and
after that l tramped through
The solitude of naked woods.
The country, even in Winter,
was the most beautiful had
seen. The next day / again
wandered alone through the
woods.
In the evening I went to a
bar. 1t was Saturday night.
There was music, and crowd
of young people were eating,
drinking. dancing. seemingly
without a care in their lives.
/ sat alone at a table, drink
ing Niersteiner. watching
enviously, but l was too BASH
full TO ask any of the girls
TO dance with me. They were
all so carefree and innocently
frivolous. They wanted 10
play, and I had already for
gotten how to play.
Then / saw a girl at another
table who also was alone and
looked melancholy. She was
about 26. blond, with round
face and good figure. and
she was very drunk. To drown
my detected mood and 10 at
tract her attention, j looked
at her and began TO sing
raucously. Hiking Is the Mil
ler's Joy.
"Vom asser haben wir's
gelernt,
"Vom WaSSer
"Das hat NIGHT Rub Tag und
Nacht,
rs stetS auf Wanderschaft
bedacht.
"DaS WasSer. das Wasser, das
Wa-a-a-a-asser."
NEVER ASKED NAME
That girl and I. the two
outcasts in the happy-go-lucky
Heidelberg crowd, came to-
gether. He rname was Liese
| never asked for her second
name, and she did not ask
for mine.
Two days we were together
in Heidelberg. We bought
rucksacks and provisions, and
spent six glorious days hiking
across the Odenwald Noun
talns from Heidelberg to
Darmstadt. A most every
mountain crest along the
famous Bergstrasse bore an
Old deserted castle with a
moat, drawbridge. dungeons,
wells dug down into the base
OF the mountain, and walls
often six 10 ten feet thick.
The Comintern seemed IS
far away as Saturn. We were
hardy and happy. Each day
we grew younger.
We parted in Darmstadt.
Liese returned 10 Heidelberg.
i Travelled North.
In Berlin. / reported at
once 10 Communist headquar-
ters. the Karl Liebknecht
House, a huge building COM
I'D