Mv youth in the beautiful Swabian village Reichenberg („roughly translated as „Mountain of the Wealthy“) circled between two benches, both affectionately called „Bänkle:,a Swabian dialect diminutive of the German word „Bank“ which means at the same time a place to sit, lounge, relax and observe the environment.

One *Bänkle“ was right in the village, just in its very entrance and centre. The fact that everybody who wanted to enter the village had to pass it as well as everybody who wanted to leave it, made it a perfect observation point for all village life, as well as a perfect place to spread gossip . The other Bänkle was high above the village, bordering apple orchards, meadows and the dark Swabian Forest. Best of all, only the occasional forest walker passed it, and it offered views as far as to Stuttgart, a quite provincial town of half a million people which I considered at this time as the center of the universe. My kind-of Swabian New York, then. Moreover it offered wonderfully long sunsets. A place to drink, kiss and dream…