3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

18 1 Childhood and Youth
in a gap between the clouds. Bicycling was heavy going, strong contrary wind and
bottomless [muddy and unpaved] roads, in addition they went continuously up
and down. The landscape was very pretty, mountain meadows, and spruce forests.
When I stood on top of a hill drawing breath, the moon broke through the rushing
clouds, a wonderful setting. Dawn commenced a quarter off five o’clock and at six
o’clock I was in Münchberg. […] A freezing wind–Fichtel Mountains–in addition
the fear that it might start raining again. Finally I reached Gefrees. From there on
the riding became easier. To the left one might have had a nice view toward the
‘Schneeberg’ but everything was cloud covered. Finally, the descent began toward
Berneck, a long-missed pleasure, I even had to use my backpedaling brake. I was
very delighted with Berneck and its environs. To continue toward Bayreuth would
not have been difficult, if I hadn’t been completely exhausted. So I put up just
before the last ascent, drank half a liter of milk and ate several slices of bread.
Meanwhile it started to rain. When it stopped after an hour, I rode via Bindlach to
Bayreuth. Because it rained again I decided to take the train to Pegnitz. […] There
it cleared up. I jumped on my bike and rode over deeply muddy roads through
the romantic ‘Switzerland’ of upper Franconia to Pottenstein. When I got there it
poured again for a change and I had to look for cover. The land lady asked me:
‘Where are you headed?’ ‘For Lindau.’ ‘Oh, there I know the hospital doctor, Dr.
Mayr.Yes,IwasemployedbyhissoninHeidelberg,’etc.ShewasElisaRadl,the
former housekeeper of Uncle Hermann. We were both quite surprised. Over even
more deeply muddy roads I reached Muggendorf where I stayed overnight.
8 September. At 8 o’clock in the morning I continued and reached Forchheim
riding along the less interesting lower valley of the Wisent River passing through
Streitberg and Ebermannstadt. The road defied any description; on occasion the
mud was so deep that bicycling was impossible.” From Forchheim he took the
train south to Neumarkt (via Nürnberg) “and then had a wonderful ride downhill
withbackwindalongtheDanube-Maincanal.IwasenthusedwithBerchingwhere
Fritz Gösswein 3 was born and reached the Altmühl Valley at Beilngries.” Following
the Altmühl upstream to the village of Arnsberg he turned southward up onto the
plateau where Böhmfeld is located arriving after dark: “I had a strange feeling
when I entered the birthplace of my great-grandfather. 4 ” On the following day
(9 September) Ernst checked the church books and found the data he was looking
for. On 11 and 12 September he stayed in Unterthingau near Kempten (Allgäu)
where his other great-grandfather J.E. Mayr was born and where he certainly
also checked the church records. These activities were part of the genealogical
research that the Mayr brothers conducted during the 1920s (see p. 11, footnote).
Regarding the continuation of Ernst’s trip from Ingolstadt to Lindau via Augsburg
3 F. Gösswein was Ernst Mayr’s classmate and friend at the gymnasium in Munich for
three and a half years. They lost contact when the Mayrs moved to Dresden in 1917.
His father was a blue collar worker (running a locomotive engine) and Fritz was living
proof that the saying, children of blue collar workers were not accepted at the humanistic
gymnasium, was wrong.
4 Bonifazius Müller (1805–1860), father of Wilhelmine Müller (p. 8), was Royal Bavarian
District Physician in Lindau at least from 1837 until his death.