Diary of Annie's War

by Annie Droege

‘Have you got enough bread at your home for a bit for lunch?’

  They ask this at ten o’clock in the morning. The talk on food is everlasting.

  Wednesday 10th January.

  We went to the theatre to see ‘Puss in Boots’. A poor show when one has seen English pantomimes, but we enjoyed it pretty fair. Many children were there for it was the last performance this year.

  Thursday 11th January.

  I have been to Mrs. Voight’s to tea today and we had some very nice English biscuits and tea. We have to go again to Dr. Gearland about our passports as they are not quite in order. I have a good reason for leaving but Mrs. Voight has not. Her husband is not being exchanged and she is leaving only for financial reasons. I wonder if they will accept that in Berlin. We were introduced to a Miss Meyrego there. She is really of French extraction, but was born in England so she has to announce herself twice a week to the police. I quite like her and hope I shall see her again.

  Today we also hear of the serious state of the towns for coal. The coal is there but there are no men to get it for us as all are at the front. Many schools are closed because they cannot be heated. If you want coal you go to the town hall and report when you last had any and how much and then a man comes to see the state of your cellar. The price is not much dearer at only two shillings and two pence per hundredweight but you cannot get it at all. I say that we should all lie in bed to keep ourselves warm and then we would not require so much heat or food.

  I go twice a week again to the school to bathe the children and it is remarkable how much better dressed they are since Christmas. It is the result of all the Christmas charities and the little ones have profited very much. Ladies have made all kinds of underwear for them from all sorts of cloth. Materials of all colours and all qualities are joined together and the result is that the children are all warmer and neater. They are also cleaner because their mothers have the old ones to change into while the new ones are being washed. It is very praiseworthy to see the mending and the time that has been spent on the little garments. But still I must take my own soap.

  We have had no fresh fish for two weeks now. I have bought some ‘Finnie haddock’ - a rather large fish and cost three shillings and sixpence a pound. I wonder how it will taste.

  I was very thankful for Arthur’s parcel and we had a tin of salmon for dinner, because the fish here is so strongly smoked that we must soak it in water for four hours before cooking.

  Friday 12th January.

  I got a letter from Arthur this morning that he wrote on the 7th. It has taken a long time to come. He tells me that he has his papers and hopes that I have seen to mine. He also gives me some general instructions about going to the border. I shall write to him tonight about it. He seems to have great hopes of getting away soon. Again I have my doubts of it.

  Monday 15th January.

  I had a visit yesterday from a Frau Winslov and she seemed surprised that the newspapers I receive give so much news of food stuffs. She had the opinion that it was just as bad in England as here for supplies. She also expressed her doubts as to the government allowing me to travel. She said that I could say so much of the shortages. I laughed as I told her that the English papers could tell me news of various provinces of Germany four days before I heard of it myself. It was published in the English papers how much butter, meat and potatoes were reduced in weight in the big cities. I gave her the date of the newspaper in which it appeared. She was astonished.

  We read in a neutral paper today that Greece is on the English side and has accepted all her terms. If this is so, how can the tale be true that we are told? We are told that all the foodstuffs that Germany got in Romania she had to send to the Greeks to help them in the blockade that England had commenced around Greece. I think myself that there were no gains from Romania and that the tale of help to Greece was a fib.

  I read in the paper of the appalling Christmas weather in Manchester with such a dreadful fog everywhere. Well, even the thoughts of a fog made me feel homesick. Perhaps I shall be enjoying one in March.

  I have just seen a lot of Belgian and Siberian prisoners go past. Poor fellows, they look so downcast. I know just how they feel.

  I think of the Germans in England and hope it lies in my power to do one of them a good turn. I also hope their lot is a better one than these ones. I cannot think that the English are at all spiteful to a prisoner. What can the poor man do? It’s the multitudes and bad governments that caused this dreadful war.

  We read dreadful accounts in the papers of what is to take place in the next few months. Nothing is to be spared on land, or sea, and by all accounts all kinds of frightfulness are to be practised. I do hope that England will not resort to anything, but a clean fair fight. It is better to lose with honour than win with disgrace for her children to carry forever. But we are not our own masters. We have to obey orders and it is sad for any country when a man in command has no respect for honour.

  Thursday 18th January.

  We had a very heavy snowfall last night and all the children are so very happy in the snow. Sledges and toboggans are all over the place and everywhere looks so very pretty. All the trees bowed down with snow and the silence seems such a relief. Nothing can be heard but sleigh bells and the laughing children. The little ones have not a thought of these dreadful times in their pleasures of the snowfall.

  I met Mrs. Herald today and she tells me that she has let her house to three gentlemen - prisoners from Belgium. They are bankers and have had to leave their homes. They are men of over forty-five-years-old and look very well fed.

  No news of Arthur’s leaving, but I read in the English papers that the exchange is to commence at once.

  Tuesday 23rd January.

  Had a letter from Arthur on the 19th and he says that he has not any definite news of his release but wishes me to go on the 6th February. My papers are not yet here from Berlin.

  We are having dreadfully cold weather and for three days now it has been twelve degrees below freezing and all the pipes are frozen up.

  We are told that we will get more bread when the swedes are done. A nice prospect but we do not say anything about it.

  Churches and most schools are not heated as coal is so scarce and there are no men to do the digging for it.

  The war news is very quiet, but we read of the Kaiser telling his people that he was the only worthy man to offer peace but no one will take it. So it is to be another dreadful year of losses. Now all the people say that the war will last at least another year.

  Many of my friends have been to see me before I fly away from them. They say that they have many messages for anxious friends.

  I wrote to Arthur today to try to get two masses said in Ruhleben for my mother and his brother Marcus. Here it is impossible to get one said as there are so many dead people to say masses for and so many priests away.

  Pastor Gruse came to say goodbye on Saturday. He is from Alsace and at last has permission to travel home after being a war prisoner for one year and nine months, because now they have found he is innocent.

  Thursday 25th January.

  I am busy paying farewell calls and getting ready for my journey.

  We heard yesterday at Sermes, where we had a cup of tea, of a sea battle but it must have been only a slight encounter for there is not much news of it in the papers.

  Arthur wrote me today and says a few more people are leaving Ruhleben this next few days and hopes that he is at home for Easter.

  Here it is bitterly cold with six to eight degrees below freezing and one always has cold feet.

  I have been to see Herr Grebe and he seems very ill. I do not think him likely to last long.

  There is a deal of sickness here – diphtheria, typhus and smallpox. We have such a dearth of doctors as they are all at the front or in the lazaretts.

  Rosie writes us that the smallpox is very bad in Celle, but here we have not much of that disease.

  Wednesday 31st January.

  We
are having a terrible winter. Snow has been lying on the ground for nearly a fortnight and it snows a little more each day. When one cleans the front you find the next morning that there are a few inches more of snow. I wonder what the streets will be like when it thaws. We have had frost now for three weeks and the streets are in a fearful state.

  One pities the poor horses for we have no men to clear the streets of snow and all is cleared from the pavement onto the road. The poor soldiers all seem to have frost in their feet and many are limping. What with the shortage of food, the shortage of clothes and coal, it is a very bad time we are all going through.

  I have been very busy this past week paying calls and receiving visitors and then doing a little packing.

  Arthur wrote me yesterday that he has hopes of going away soon for quite a number of prisoners leave Ruhleben in the next few days. I hope to leave here on the 6th and Arthur says he knows of one young lady who is to travel as far as London. I do hope I meet her for it seems not so certain about Mrs. Voight.

  We are told that we cannot take any metal over the frontier for all is strictly forbidden.

  Steinoff came to see me today and he was very sad at hearing that I was going away. He tells me that William is in Riga and it is twenty-five degrees below freezing. They constantly send him parcels and bread is what he asks for most.

  Hermenia came to see me yesterday and she was upset at my going. All think that it will not be long before I come back again.

  Herr Veury came last Sunday. He was in Ruhleben for one-and-a-half years and says that it will be six months before Arthur will be fit for any work. He himself was so afraid of the people and felt so very strange. He is only just feeling normal and it is nine months since he became free. He thinks this war must end soon. Many others say no and that it will last two more years. That is a dreadful outlook.

  Saturday & Sunday 3rd & 4th February.

  Up to now I have not received any notice of my papers and I think it is very improbable that I travel on the 6th. I have a very great objection to travelling in March. Perhaps it will be April before I go.

  I had a letter from the American Consul today, Sunday. He writes that it has complicated my leaving because I asked that if Arthur was not exchanged this month could my papers be made to travel on the 6th of any month. Perhaps it is all for the best that I do not travel. I am not in the best of condition and this dreadful weather is enough to frighten one off a journey. The trains are not heated as we are so short of coal.

  I have never experienced such cold weather. Now it is over four weeks that we have been frozen up and it is impossible to get warm. This morning it was twenty degrees below freezing and for days the ice has never left the windows, not even in the rooms in which we live. We cannot look out on the streets and every shop and house is just as if they had been thickly whitened. It reminds me of the winter that James was born. Then we had the coal strike in England and all January and February there was skating and we had six weeks of frost. I remember it very well and we have never had such a winter since. Well, that cold was never as great as this. I even awake in the night shivering with cold. And in bed at that!

  The poor soldiers fall down in the streets with the cold. I expect that they do not have enough warm food. One poor fellow fell by our door as he was marching past and some of his comrades fell over him. He was picked up quite unconscious.

  There was a bread riot in and by Hamburg on Thursday and it has been very bad with the people. But what can a few women do?

  I gave up my potatoes yesterday and they have only left me five pounds a week until the 15th of April. What we are to do from April until August no one knows.

  The bread is now half barley meal and half swedes and it is awful stuff to eat. We hear that the swedes cannot last longer than April. The people say that February, March and April are to be our hunger months.

  A great deal is written and talked of as regards the undersea boats and according to our papers England is now surrounded. I wonder if it is true and that England cannot do anything to help herself.

  Arthur must have written about me being met at the frontier by the Women’s Help Association for I have had a letter saying that I should be attended to. I am sorry if they have had their trouble for nothing. Mrs. Voight is like me, ready to travel at a few hours notice, but we still have no sign of the papers.

  Monday 5th February.

  I got a surprise today when I went to the police for they informed me that my papers were in Hannover and if I liked to go for them I could travel tomorrow. As there is so much unpleasantness over America I thought it better to risk it. But it meant being up half the night to get things in order. Belle and I ran over to Hannover and it took us from three o’clock till ten o’clock to get there and back.

  It is now half past twelve at night and most of my luggage is on its way to the station thanks to Herr Roeder of the Weiner Hof. Luggage men are so difficult to obtain.

  Tuesday 6th February.

  I will leave here this morning at a quarter to seven and I hope for a successful journey.

  I am just writing a letter to Arthur and pray that I shall soon meet him.

  EPILOGUE

  And that is how Annie’s ancient diary ends…but the couple were reunited and did live happily ever after up to a point.

  For during his time in Germany Arthur had been advised to invest his money in land, but at the end of the conflict and after five war loans his meadows were virtually worthless.

  Arthur’s health stood up well during his internment, but Annie was not so fortunate the stresses and strains of life in Germany during the Great War left her thin and unwell upon her return.

  After ‘borrowing’ money from the family they again set up home in Stockport, Cheshire with a new address at 249 Stockport Road in Cheadle Heath – where they supplemented their income by taking in lodgers.

  Their return to England was greeted by a relieved family and understandably Annie’s welcome home was greater than that of Arthur’s as the nation had lost many sons in the conflict.

  As things began to return to normal a quantity of splendid furniture, paintings and treasures (some given by the Kaiser) eventually arrived in Stockport from Germany, but these possessions slowly disappeared as Arthur continued to indulge his passions for fine wine and bridge.

  Arthur found gainful employment on the Manchester Ship Canal – where his command of languages landed him the post of translator.

  Sadly, he did not take too well to his lesser position in life though he did admit it was far less stressful than his final three years in Germany.

  Annie took everything in her stride. She began working in the church and maintained that she was far happier washing the tea-towels and looking after the poor of the parish than she ever was as the grande chatelaine in Germany.

  Of their war years in Germany she was typically understated and always said: ‘It was quite an adventure’.

  Though sadly they did take their toll and although she saw the start of World War Two Annie only survived until 1940 when she passed away peacefully aged 66. Arthur – who envisaged an early end to the Second World War – survived a decade longer than his wife and finally surrendered in his sleep in 1950.

  Until his dying day at the grand old age of 79 Arthur pined daily for the love of his life Annie. Now they are together forever – buried side by side in a Stockport cemetery.

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © Mark Drummond Rigg/Charles Yates, 2012

  Annie Dröege is hereby identified as author of this work in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  The book cover picture is copyright to Annie Dröege

  ISBN: 978-1-78148-125-7 in epub format

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