Pass on history before nobody remebers any more

Karlsbad

When someone in my new homeland Canada asks me, where I originally came from, and I answer  „from Karlsbad“, people want to know, „and where would we find Karlsbad on a map?“ Then I have to say,“ a Karlsbad in Sudetenland does not exist any more, it‘s currently called Karlovy Vary and is located in, again I have to consider: is it in the newly founded state of the Czech Republic?

Yet  was I born 1939 in Karlovy Vary, a world-famous spa town at that time, in our own Hotel  Hopfenstock.

I had kept a box full of documents that I wanted  to read and sort out. It was high time for me to deal with this project.
I was thinking of creating a little more order in the box: create small piles:a  genealogical tree;  photos, ID cards, resumes, transcripts, evaluation letters, official notices and letters, so many letters! The oldest letters and postcards were written in cursive. I found a great many letters from me, which I had largely written to my mother, also letters from my children were in the box.

The more I traced my family roots back, the more I found people of whom I have never heard before. This was my clan, our family. I understood that my ancestors, as well as my children, were a part of me, that we were never alone and never would be isolated.

And that we can knit the time, but never be able to unravel.

By the way, my first language is German, my second English. Please excuse mistakes, I try my best to avoid them.

One of the first to record the oldest Karlovy Vary legend about the discovery of the geyser known as the Sprudel by Charles IV was the renaissance physician Dr Fabian Sommer, a native of Karlovy Vary. In his book on the use of Karlovy Vary's waters from 1571, he relates the story thus:

It is said that Charles IV once went hunting in the woods, in the hilly areas and valleys where now the hot springs do bubble up. The woods in this place were full of game.

During the hunt, one of the hounds started to run after an animal. Whilst following it, the hound fell into a pool where hot water does now burst from the ground.

The hound began to howl in pain. The hunters ran to the hound, believing it to have been wounded by the animal it had been chasing. The marvel which they saw amazed them greatly. They stepped closer, pulled the hound from the pool, and then tasted of the hot water which had so distressed the hound.

The entire event was reported to the Emperor Charles IV, who then went in large company himself to marvel at this singular wonder of nature. In the presence of his physicians, the wise ruler said that such hot water may drive off many grave ailments, and that it was beneficial and invigorating. Then he himself used the water (it is said that he had an afflicted leg), and sensed assuagement and improvement. The ruler was overjoyed at this, and soon gave orders that the whole place be settled, and that around the springs, houses be built.

Ornament made from Sprudelstein