From The Dubois County Daily Herald
Wednesday, January 19, 1955

HARK THE HERALD

Excitement In Reute; We Say “ Lebe Wohl”
by A. T. Rumbach

On the night of Saturday, October 16, 1954, the peaceful and law-abiding village of Reute was the scene of a crime.   The village buzzed with the news and the citizens were indignant about it; they gathered in small groups on street corners to discuss and condemn the deed.

During the preceding night some miscreant had cut down an apple tree, still bearing its freight of fruit, in the orchard of one of the citizens.   The ax and saw used in perpetration of the misdeed had been taken from the home of the tree owner and were left lying at the scene.   The man had not known enemy and no motive for the crime could be found.

Burgermeister Birkle called a community council after the church services at which the crime was freely discussed. The ax and saw were carefully wrapped in cloth for submission to finger print experts.   Some conferees suggested importation of blood hounds. All agreed that the guilty party must be found, and regardless of his motive, even if it was merely a prank, he must be punished.  

The incident was the subject of discussion even at the big football game held at the Reute Sportsplatz Sunday afternoon, October 17, 1954.   Up to the time of our departure on Monday, no suspect had been found.   I must keep in touch to see what the outcome of the case was.

Fred and I were the guests of Oma Rumbach and of Werner and Agnes Yentsch at dinner Sunday.   As the hour of the game approached, Werner offered to “carry” us to the Sportplatz, about two miles from the village on his moterbyke.   Fred readily agreed.   He was duly “carried” there, whereupon Werner returned for me.   I could think of no plausible excuse so I mounted the rear seat, with much misgiving. Bump, bump, bump down the narrow street we went, and made a sharp turn into the main road. I hung on for dear life as the byke made a dip in rounding the corner.   Then, on down the rocky, and rather chucky road! I wondered whether my accident, health and hospital insurance would be honored outside the U.S.A.   I wondered whether a broken neck is fatal and how long it would take for a broken leg or arm to mend.

We finally reached the field safely, but I politely declined a seat that was offered me, as I preferred to stand (you know why) on the sidelines.   At the half I informed Werner that I thought it would be a good for my system to go back on foot – I needed the exercise.   So after the game, I started back and soon heard the chuck-chuck of the motorbike with Fred as the rear-seat passenger.   They sped by like a flash and I continued my walk.   I had negotiated about three-fourths of a mile, when the bus carrying the Reute team back to town approached and stopped.   The driver invited me to ride.   My concern about my health vanished and I gladly accepted.  

The bus halted in front of the bakery where I dismounted and joined the group of folks including Alph and Virgil, the Bolschweil Gramelspachers who had come for a last farewell and the Reute relatives and neighbors.   The baker was busy taking pictures of the “ Abschied”.   The entire gang stayed for supper and for a final evening of song and merriment.   A large “ kuchen” beautifully decorated and bearing the inscription in icing “Auf Wiederschen” formed the centerpiece of the table.

On Monday morning ( October 18, 1954), we paid a final visit to the “Gems”, Fred’s birthplace and returned to complete our packing.    It was quite a job to find room for all the accumulated loot, the mementos from the folks and Oma’s “ Birnen” (pears).   After dinner Herr Buehler’s bus was ready, the loot was loaded and, accompanied by Klara and Agnes, we left for Karlsruhe.   We had intended just to stay overnight but after the cordial reception by the Alois Rumbach family and the Goelz family and their absolute veto of our immediate departure, we decided to stay over.    They had completed arrangements to take us to Heidelberg, a favorite American haunt – one of those places one must “ videre et mori”, to Speyer and to the Renaissance Castle Favorita, now a national museum in a state of excellent preservation.