Back to School in Bucharest (2,434 km)

(Bucharest, 05.06.2017 - 08.06.2017) This class photo was taken fifty years ago in front of the Bucharest German School, referred to as Gymnasium No. 21 on Nuferilor Street (today Gen. Berthelot Street) between 1956 - 1976. Before, the German School, which looks back on a tradition of more than 250 years, was located on Luterană Street, later, i. e. from 1973 on, it was on Dorobanți Road having the entrance from Cihoschi Street. You'll find me kneeing in the first row as the second from right. At that period of time there were just two options to join this elite school: 1. You were counted among an ethnic minority, such as Germans, Jews, Hungarians, etc., BUT previously you had to take a severe admission exam. 2. You didn't need to pass such an exam in case your parents were high-ranking [Communist/Socialist] party functionaries, preferably ministers. Well, my father was Jewish, my parents were not even party members, and - to top it all - they asked for an emigration permit on a yearly basis since my year of birth 1957. Twelve times these requests were automatically and recurrently rejected until 1969, when we finally succeeded to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

Let's exit the school yard now and go for a walk in the vicinity. We are going to (re-)discover some characteristic buildings, which remained more or less unchanged over the last half century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing but decay, mud, penetrating smell, poverty? Maybe, but at the same time, since I spent my childhood here, and it was not an unhappy one at all, l'm associating nostalgic feelings with these streetscapes. What about you?