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 Obersdorf, took a mail truck to Tiefenbach and walked the rest of the way to Alois Florens farmhouse 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 Geisberg (right), 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

• Breitachlamm, boardwalk
• Breitachlamm, farther up the gorge
• same place, very narrow part of the gorge
• view from mountain we climbed when examining molasse and flysch deposits, I don't know where it is
• outcrop of molasse from same mountain
• we got to write our names in a book after climbing this mountain, molasse trip
• signing the book, same mountain
• climbing back down the same mountain, molasse trip
• folded flysch, creek exposure
• Neuschwanstein, Ludwig's castle
• view from Neuschwanstein
• Neuschwanstein
• Neuschwanstein
• Neuschwanstein
• John Hopkins
• Neuschwanstein
• Neuschwanstein
• Neuschwanstein
• falls behind Neuschwanstein castle
• another view of falls
• rocks at base of falls
• pool at base of falls
• Neuschwanstein from falls area?
• Chris from Sweden?, mapping student
• mountain highway in Austria, we hired a Mercedes and driver to give us a tour one day
• Hotel Alpenhof next to an alpine lake in Austria, a lunch stop for us
• lake next to the hotel
• same lake
• mountain road, Austria?
• chimney sweep's bicycle, Sonthofen

My trip to Berlin

• Obersdorf, 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 Hammit Rahnama's apartment for awhile; it was across this street from the Berlin Wall, friends are Mittanz, me, Suri, Hammit, Faridy, unknown, and Feri
• another view of Persian friends
• view of sunrise over East Berlin from Hammit'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