It was during the most chaotic and turbulent times in Germany, immediately after the end of World War II, when my great great grandfather, Josef, tried to help his family in any way possible to survive. Although the area of the Bavarian Forest did not suffer that much damage compared to other parts of Germany, the people were still very much in need for basic goods such as food and water for everyday life. Water supply was often interrupted and of course, there wasn’t any reliability in receiving food or other necessary supplies to live.

The roads and streets were crowded with refugees who were also begging for food, shelter and help.

Understandably, everybody was just looking for anything of value. Once you had something of that nature you were able to use it for yourself or exchange it. And so was also, Josef. A rumor arose about an abandoned train on the nearby tracks that apparently contained mysterious goods. This rumour spread very quickly and soon everyone in Josef’s small hometown wanted to know what was on the train.

Many people thought or even hoped that there would be things of value or other precious goods like lost paintings, jewelry, or even gold to be found on it. With all his eagerness and curiosity, my great-grandfather made his way to this nearby abandoned train. The train was a long freight train with opened doors and lots of opened boxes inside. It stood on the tracks as if somebody had started to unload it but was interrupted in the middle of doing it. Because of these unusual elements the whole scene seemed very mysterious and somewhat creepy. Fearing a bit what else could happen Josef grabbed quickly anything that looked somehow valuable to him. He decided that he wanted to inspect later what he had found on the train, to avoid any trouble on the spot.

When arriving at his home, he had to find out and decide on his own what was of value because all the other members of the family were doing fieldwork at that very moment. What made it even more difficult for Josef was that he had no specific knowledge of or experience with military equipment because he was considered not fit for army service at the time.

Josef considered himself lucky because he realized that he had found some rings, a pair of earrings, a small painting and even a vase. Especially the vase appeared to be of great value because it was obviously made by the very famous Meissen porcelain factory as it showed the typical flower motive in the even more typical dark blue finish. It seemed to be very rare and therefore quite precious. All these finds made Josef very happy, excited and even more curious to find out what else was among his findings. As he moves on he sees the other people go by and enjoy th
Eventually, he was so curious that he could not wait for his other family members to return from their fieldwork. But at the same time, he was a bit undecided about what could be hidden in this round metal ball of the size of a bigger apple. He had never seen something of that size, material and shape. But to him, it made perfect sense that the outer part of this object was only used to contain and hide something even more precious than anything that he had found before.

Clearly, my great-grandfather knew very well the logic of these days to hide precious things so that the actual value became only apparent and known to those knowing or daring to know or discover what was hidden inside. But at the same time, he also realized that he would certainly need some tools to unveil the secret hidden in the metal ball. Quickly, he decided to go to his nearby workshed, located just a few meters from his main farmhouse and it was equipped with all necessary tools to find out what was inside this mysterious object. He could not wait to get into the workshed to fix the mysterious metal ball in a tool and start hammering on its top so that he could open it and discover what was inside.

After nothing happened after his first few attempts he increased his force until - boom! - a huge and loud explosion shook the ground and devastated the workshed. Attracted by the sound of the explosion all neighbours and even his son - my grandfather - ran to what was left of the workshed.

All they could find was my great-grandfather lying in the middle of the decay of the workshed and surrounded by a huge cloud of dust and splitters. He was coughing for a last time in his life and dying of serious injuries he had from the explosion of what was actually a hand grenade. Actually, most of what was left in the abandoned train was military equipment and only a few other items, that my great great grandfather had found.