Back to Lommel
Why am I interested in Lommel?
Well, the family of my father came of Silesia. Else Heidrich (born Gebauer) and Harry Heidrich lived in Bad Flinsberg (today Swieradów Zdrój in Poland) near Löwenberg (today Lwowek Slaski). Information about Bad Flinsberg you will find here.
They had four children: Manfred, Lothar, Edith and Günter, the youngest, who is my father.
When my father was 5 years old (in 1948) my Grandma and her children had to flee as war refugees to what was left of Germany. They ended up in a small town named Borlinghausen near to Warburg (Northrhine-Westphalia) to live in the tower flat of a small baron castle. She didn't discover about the death of my grandfather but a few years after the end of WW II.
After a couple of years all the children of my Grandma were married and lived with their families nearly all around Germany: Bonn, Sobernheim, Hanau, Leverkusen. In the early seventies my Grandma decided to live with her daughter in Hanau. There I often spend my school holidays, for she was the best Granny of the world (I know that every child says that about his/her Granny, but for me she was the best of all).
In the late seventies my Grandma bought me a longplay with many recordings of L. M. Lommel. This was the first time I listened to that exciting sound of Silesian slang (My Grandma came round not using the Silesian idiom). I was very pleased about this longplay and after a few weeks I was able to repeat the text of nearly all of Lommel's sketches. At that time I already wanted to have a look at the country my father and his family originated from. But the iron curtain was still up.
Nothing happened until 1998. I wondered what theme I should select for my first homepage. So I started to search for links to themes like the army, model trains, computers, but for everyone of these themes there were so many links and information, I didn't want to be another one in the mass.
One of the last Themes I searched for was Lommel - and here it was: only four links at all. and only links to a collector of shellac recordings and to the German Institute of Films (Deutsches Filminstitut - see Links Page).
So I searched for a free-of-charge possibility to get a homepage. And I started my homepage with Ludwig Manfred Lommel and the knowledge of only those 22 recordings of the longplay and the CV of Lommel on its cover.
After nearly four years I had not very many visitors on my homepage for Lommel is not very much known in Germany except for those who were able to listen to him in the radio at lifetimes. But I am glad that everyone who found this homepage was very happy to see that Lommel is not forgotten and I had inquiries and visitors on my guestbook from all over Germany and as well from an immigrant in Argentina. Most of the recordings I have now are not from the old longplay but from many fans of Lommel who answered to my homepage and from many auctions at ebay (shellac as well as videos Vinyls and CDs).
My father, his brother and his sister (his oldest brother died three years ago) went to Bad Flinsberg in Schlesien (Silesia) in 2001 to take a look at the town of birth and what happened after the war and especially after the iron curtain fell. They found a small grey town gone bankrupt during the communism but now blossoming in colour and life again. They found their old house just renovated and many streets and sights were new or rebuilt. But none of the people that used to live here before dissipation after WW II was still here.
Finally in 2005 I visited Bad Flinsberg (Swieradów Zdrój) and had a look at my father's town of birth. I tokk many pictures and you can see my impressions here (in German).