Children in war. Playing despite the circumstances 
Air attack! Into the bunker! 
Our teacher always stayed in class. Since she was a little hard of hearing, sometimes we mimicked an alarm, ran out into the courtyard to have some fun and came back in, nice and obedient, to give the all-clear signal. Class could begin again. 
Once, all us boys, fired cartridges on the schoolyard, previously found in a shot down American bomber. All those funny bangs, blasts and booms were so loud, that even our teacher heard them in class. Of course, we had to empty our pockets to verify if we possessed other explosive charges.  
 
Music, war and inventiveness 
I found a pipe in the wing of a shot down American bomber B17 Flying Fortress (29 December 1944) and used it to make a tuning key. The silver white wing panel (Dural – an aluminum-magnesium alloy) became a stop ring and all those different, strong wires – abundantly present in the plane wrack – were perfect to replace some missing strings.  
 
Creating teaching materials 
The only teaching materials we had, were a hundred chart and a slide projector. I wrote the texts for history, geography and biology class myself and created panels, which were then reproduced by my pupils in their exercise books. German teachers I personally knew, sent me used (but still in good condition) books for German language and math. Rarely, I was able to use the principal’s spirit duplicator in order to print some texts for the children. The chemical smell lingered for a long while in our class. 
Although it was unusual, I showed the girls how to knit socks, a practice my mother taught me as a child during the long winter evenings. The boys were instructed to use wood in order to recreate buildings from their environment (barns, stables, houses and chapels).  
 
“Material conditions” in schools 
 Being the head teacher, during the winter I had to order the firewood for the stoves. It was delivered in blocks and stored at the school’s ground floor, where it was cut and split. In the classroom above, the axe hits were heard for days on end! 
The janitor often stacked some logs behind the stoves to better dry them out. One day, as we were out to observe a solar eclipse, we suddenly noticed smoke rising from a window. We rushed into the class and saw the logs going up in flames. They caught fire because of the hot stove. Luckily, the firefighters were close at hand and could contain the fire just in time.  
 
Way to school 
Walking to school was seen as a normal, but adventurous matter, envied by the children living near the schools. Especially during winter, the snow was never too high and most of them came to school riding their sleds. “The far away ones (those coming from afar) arrive in time and the close ones (those living nearby) wait for the bell to ring”, the janitor always said, lighting the fire earlier on to welcome the first arrivals.  
 
Not long ago, I was accidentally sitting opposite to a former student during a bus ride and asked him if he could still remember his way to school. “It was the best part!,” he said joyously. “We were on the way for almost an hour and during winter times we often made longer detours with our sleds!” 
That’s when I thought back at my own school years. We happily stomped through the most profound snowdrifts sinking into it up to our knees.  Our wet stockings – not so well liked by our teachers since our trousers reached just slightly over the knee – dried very fast in our warm classroom.  

Handling the educational deficit
You, with your small scale education …
It should have been a joke, but it hit me hard whenever my husband – a qualified German agriculturist – alluded to my teacher training. At that time, teachers – in Germany even elementary school teachers – had to exhibit a degree in education. Me and my simple teacher training school! I had to take my courage in both hands to introduce myself at the education authority in Altötting (Germany).

The importance of school books for the individual memory
People, I just googled!
It still exists, the Krell, an antique.
Author: Dr. Leo Krell
Title: Deutsche Sprachschule. Ein Übungsbuch für den Sprech-Lese- Rechtschreib- Sprachlehr- Stil- und Aufsatzunterricht  auf der Unter- und Mittelstufe (German language. Exercises: speaking, reading, grammar, orthography, style and essays)
Publisher: Bayerischer Schulbuchverlag, München
Weight: 720 grams
Published in 1947

The Krell!
That I still remember this school book after seventy years… How much I used to love semantic fields, word families, grammar- and language learning exercises! My German homework was always the first – sometimes the only one – to be completed. Essay? No problem! Grammatical cases? No problem! Prepositions? No problem! I still can recite them in my sleep.

Mountain school: celebrating with the enlarged village community
Trial by fire. Christmas 1959
Premiere! The small  mountain school hosts a Christmas party for the first time. The classroom is overcrowded, parents are invited and the catechist is here. The atmosphere is festive and full of expectation. On the surface, I seem completely calm, greeting and welcoming everyone, accompanying the Christmas carols with my zither. Nativity play. The children sing and recite poems. My speech? My hair is standing on end, literally! One centimeter high, palpable. What a stage fright!
The next day, my scalp hurts.

From the mountain school to school principal
Ten years later. I am an elementary school principal in Bayern. My first speech as “the new one”. This time, I practice in front of a mirror. And everything goes well, without my hair standing up on end.
In the future, I would give many speeches, speak out spontaneously, moderate, offer seminars and conduct courses. Without practicing. Laid-back, confident, sovereign. I had already passed my trial by fire in Bad Salt!