A stateside reader inquired about a local guest house he used to frequent with his army buddies, while stationed at Camp King in Oberursel in the early 1960s. The name of the guest house was Zum Weißen Roß.
I tried three different ways of locating this guest house – the internet, Oberursel city hall, and an oral source.
This quest for a guest house, closed down more than 20 years ago, was an interesting challenge. The internet had only one source listing the name of the man, who had married the proprietor’s daughter of the guest house Zum Weißen Roß. Fortunately, this very long excerpt from a church archive also listed the guest house’s address.
The second source, the city archives of Oberursel, I have sent sent an inquiry to by e-mail. Considering German bureaucracy (You want something from me! You need to wait!), I would consider myself lucky to get a response at all.
The most reliable source was our neighbor who has been around town for many years. He is in his early 70s, but yet was not familiar with Oberursel’s downtown bars. He consulted another friend of his, who confirmed that the address I had tracked down on the internet was correct and that the guest house had closed its doors more than 20 years ago. He also mentioned that this bar/guest house was one of the so-called Ami Kneipen in Oberursel.
Here are some pictures, for old-time-sake, but I doubt any former patrons of this guest house would remember the outside after a hefty intake of beer, Schnaps, Jägermeister, and Korn.
Taken in broad day light, probably with a new coat of paint, it might look mighty different compared to the time of day when the guys stumbled home after a night of partying.
This old German writing reads: Alte Häuser, junge Weiber, sind die besten Zeitvertreiber.
Translation: Old houses, young women, are the best way to spend your time.
This post is dedicated to Fred S. – he is the one who inquired about the former guest house Zum Weissen Ross.
Edit: The city archives finally responded on 12 May. There was also an apology for the delayed response due to staffing problems.I received a file in German detailing the history of the guest house. If anyone is interested, I will be happy to mail it to you.
Did you speak to the current occupants to see if they know about the history of their building?
As a matter of fact, I have been told that the proprietress, Mrs. Ernst, still lives in this building. And I did see her name on the mailbox.
I wonder if she speaks English and would like to do a podcast with us about the “good old times”:D ?
You ask – I’ll bring the mics and the mug 🙂
Sounds good!
I will contact her and see if she is willing to share any good stories with us.
Thank you very much, Maria. I appreciate all your efforts. When we went out, we actually went to Zum Weissen Ross because we got along with the working Germans who came there. We would arm wrestle for beers, chug-a-lug for beers, and even play that game with the leather loop, a sort of tug of war. That one could be a mite hazardous, but we did it anyway, since young and stupid go hand in hand! Often, we just bought beer back for each other and got along very well, even though the Germans there were older than we were, and were out in the working world. I would appreciate anything further you can find for me.
Aside from the Gast Haus scene, I was also interested in hunting in Germany. My father was born in Frankfurt in 1906, but emigrated to the US in 1925. He was a career soldier. Camp King actually sponsored the necessary classes to obtain a hunting license, and in that way, I met Herr Otto Buss, how taught the class, and a man named Willi Vogt, as well as many others whose names I don’t remember. I was amazed at the number of men I met who had the dueling scars on their faces. I still have the certificate I received, but I never shot anything. It was more of the challenge involved in learning the vocabulary and the customs. To this day, I prefer the German system over the American system. I thing every Jaeger is an environmentalist of sorts, and more respectful of the wildlife and such that he or she takes.
If you learn any more about Zum Weissen Ross, I’d be interested. I’m also aware that Ross, with an “ess-zet”, is a stag. Maybe that’s what interested me in the first place.
I’ll see what I can about finding out more about this place.
This is my kind of hunt – hunting for information.
Here is a picture of the back of the guesthouse:
Zum Weißen Roß,
Burgstr. 7 in Bommersheim (Oberursel)
Does this look familiar to you?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Bommersheim%2C_Burgstra%C3%9Fe_7_%28hinterer_Teil%29.JPG