…Apartment

For most of the year 1977 I lived in Cologne. I was just 20 years old, and it was the very first place of my own. I was in the military, stationed at the Cologne/Bonn airport. I didn’t want to live in the barracks, so I found an apartment of my own at Taunusstraße 15. I moved out of there in November of 1977 and I have not been back to Cologne in the past 47 years, until today. For nostalgia’s sake, I just had to go back and check out the old neighborhood. Photocredit to Trisha who took all the pictures for me.

Here is a view from the Taunusplatz up the street a bit, a one-minute walk away.

Here I am in front of the place. Unfortunately, there was a big van so we could not get any closer for a good photo of me at the door. I lived several stories up and in the back, overlooking the alley. But this was my entrance.

Here is the doorbell. My name was where Eljamali is now.

My landlord, Herr Wolf, lived on the second story, below me. He always let me borrow his vacuum cleaner.  He was in his late 60ies, about my age now, and he owned and operated the store below, which was a haberdashery at the time, selling upscale conservative male clothing, nothing a young soldier could afford.

The neighborhood has changed. Now the store is a Turkish shop with all kinds of baubles and, of course, hookah pipes.

The neighborhood is very different now. All the stores and businesses are distinct middle eastern, with Turkey being the major presence. It used to be a German white middle class area. Now nobody even speaks native German. We went to a little cafe in the neighborhood, had a nice breakfast, bought some fresh fruit and then took an Uber back to the city.

I am sure I’ll never come this way again, but I had a nostalgic fix walking along the old street corners and awakening long forgotten memories.