Field Camp in the Bavarian Alps, Germany, 1972
by Don Chesnut ©2005
The field camp was part of the academic program in geology at the Frei
Universitat Berlin. Dr. Liedholz led the camp. John Hopkins and I came from
Kentucky to attend the camp during the summer of 1972. We flew from Kentucky to
Munich, took a series of trains from Munich to Oberstdorf (Google Map), took a mail truck to
Tiefenbach (Google Map) and walked the rest of the way to Alois Florens farmhouse (Google Map)
to meet up with the rest of the field camp. When I arrived at the
Munich airport, I realized that someone had stolen all my money from my
backpack; all I had was seventeen cents. Luckily, John Hopkins was with
me and he very generously loaned me money to pay for everything until I
could get some money wired to me. Unfortunately, my money didn't get to
me until field camp was over. Instead of coming back to Kentucky after
camp, I took a train from Munich to Berlin, met some friends I had made
in field camp, and paid the professor the money I owed him. I stayed
with friends for several weeks in West Berlin and traveled all over
East and West Berlin. In addition, the professor invited me to have
dinner with his family. I had a very nice time in Germany and thought
the people were wonderful. Thank you to everyone. The following is my
account of the trip. Or you may just want to view the photographs
in the thumbnail directory (no maps or
descriptions).
Field Mapping
- Alois Florens Gasthaus, Tiefenbach, this was a
working farm house and guest house
- breakfast view from Alois Florens' farm
guesthouse, with Donne, Chris and Gregg
- view from Alois Florens' farm, Kalk Alps in
background
- view of mapping area from the farmhouse,
Engenkopf (left), Kachenkopf (middle) and Geißberg (right)(Google Map). Kachenkopf was my
mapping area and I was part of a team of three, a Berliner and a Persian were
my pardners, none of us could speak the others' language sufficiently, but we
had a great time anyway.
- Drusberg mergel (Drusberg marl), reference
locality
- Schrachten kalk and Brisi sandstein, reference
locality
- Kalk Alps from Kachenkopf, my mapping area was
Kachenkopf
- Kalk Alps in the back, Engenkopf in front,
from Kachenkopf
- view of Kalk Alps in background, from goat
herder's cabin on my mountain, this is near the Austrian border, part of my
mountain was in Austria, we walked into Austria in a regular basis to complete
our mapping
- Kalk Alps from goat herder's cabin
- goat herder in hat, he also sold beer,
schnapps, sausage and bread to hikers, the other three fellows are hikers
- another view of goat herder's cabin
- another cabin in my mapping area, notice the
tight fit between the logs and the dovetail joints
- alpine flower, unidentified, Kackenkopf
- view from the base of the Kackenkopf cliff (Schrachten
kalk cliff)
- Starzlach creek was one of the boundaries of
my mapping area
Day Excursions
My trip to Berlin
- Oberstdorf, early morning, waiting to catch
train
- West Berlin, I stayed in several apartments in West Berlin, with friends I
made in Bavaria
- Charlottenburg Palace, West Berlin
- garden at Charlottenburg Palace
- Kaiser Wilhelm Church, West Berlin, a memorial
to damage caused by World War II
- inside the Kaiser Wilhelm Church
- old person waiting near Templehof
- Persian friends, against the Berlin Wall, I
stayed in Hamid Rahnama's apartment for awhile; it was across this street
from the Berlin Wall, friends are Mittanz, me, Suri, Hamid, Faridy, unknown,
and Feri
- another view of Persian friends
- view of sunrise over East Berlin from Hamid's
West Berlin apartment
- East Berlin, I went into East Berlin three different days
- mosaic in Pergammon Museum, East Berlin
- old church in East Berlin, damaged during
bombing at end of World War II
- trilobite from non-public area of Humboldt
Museum, East Berlin, I spent several days going through the collections and
talking to the curator of invertebrate paleontology, Dr. Jaeger, I also got to
see the real Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx. Dr. Jaeger took me down
locked hallways in the storage area and finally into a locked room. One case
in the room had a metal? case covering it. Dr. Jaeger unlocked both sides of
the case uncovering the famous Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx.
- same trilobite
- view of East Berlin street
- flight back from Germany, islands are part of
Greenland, I think
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