THE DAY I FOUND A CAVERN

The day I found a cavern, it must have been 1950 just 5 years after WWII had ended. I lived in Bonn which at that time was the capital of Germany and had been badly dammaged by the bombs. We were a small group of 6 to 8 year old children all living together in buildings with very small apartments that had been built quickly after the end of the war for federal government employees in Bonn

Bonn just after the war



The Rhine valley with the Venusberg in the background

The Venusberg from far

There was a small mountain called Venusberg (Venus mountain) just besides the buildings.


With a fortress on the top

Steps were leading up to the top of the mountain where also a hospital was and American soldier families lived here in a sort of "Ghetto". We didn't have a lot of contact with them but when they saw us they always smiled and were very friendly and sometimes we got even some sweets, which was a rarity and it wasn't easy to buy.

We kids loved running up the mountain through the woods  playing cowboys and Indians what we had learned from the American occupation.

One day when we ran through the forest again, one of our group suddenly disappeared. We looked around but saw nothing but a hole from which suddenly screams came out.

We quickly looked into the hole which had been hidden with branches and leaves and into which the boy had fallen.

He shouted that we should come down too because he had found a cavern with a narrow path. We discovered a few steps carved in the sidewalls, leading down into the cavern where it was very dark.

It was a little scary and two children didn't want to go further. But I wanted to know where this path led and went on. A few others followed me. Suddenly I saw light coming from a hole in the ceiling.

We were in quite a big room. To the right and left were old camp beds which were pretty rotten. In the middle was an old table with rusty cutlery and Lead dishes on it. There were a few uniform jackets in one corner and some leather bagpacks. I was only 7 but I realized that we had discovered a secret cavern built in the mountain, where soldiers probably hid from the enemy or the other way around.

We were very proud of our discovery and it became our secret. We brought a lot of stuff there, which we "stole" from our parents, like an old blanket which we put on one of the beds.

We couldn't bring very much because our parents had only the strict minimum and nothing to give away.  But we found apples on trees which we ate with gusto and sometimes when we were really lucky a mother had baked a cake and we brought slices of cake in our cavern !

When I think today where and with what we played at this time, it was our Disneyland ! Adults had no time to to pay attention they had to built up the houses again and hunting for food. We were lucky we lived in this nice area outside Bonn, where houses still stood but people mostly lived in their basements, because there were no windows anymore or the roof was missing.

For us children it was a very happy and adventurous time !

Linking to Linda G. Hills SOCS - Cavern