Camp King Oberursel and its Influence on Jazz in Hessen

The Cold War era and the deployment of American military at various bases during that time played an important role in the growing popularity of jazz in Hessen.

As a tribute to this, there will be a concert at the Oberursel Town Hall on 22 May 2022.

Visit History of Jazz in Hessen for more information.

Berthold Schinke, one of the organizers, has this to add:

“On this day, the focus is not so much on the history of Camp King as on the music from the time of the Mountain Lodge as well as stories and anecdotes that are not found in any history work. The concert begins on May 22, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. in the town hall of Oberursel, admission from 4:00 p.m.”

Camp King Bus Stop in Oberursel, Germany

The first time I used the bus line 42, stopping at the newly installed bus stop called ‘Camp King’, the recorded voice announced this stop the German way, which came out as ‘Cump King’.

Years down the line, it got changed to the American pronunciation of the letter ‘a’. It sounds much better, I tell you.

The bus stop was added sometime after the new German housing area Camp King was completed in 2002.

Camp King Bus Stop in Oberursel

This is the view from across the street (next to the U-Bahn tracks on the left). From here, you can see one of the remaining original US-army housing buildings. It is the only one with a slanted roof.

For many years, the building had been coated in a sandy color.

The bus route is heading the opposite way from here towards Bad Homburg.

I walked behind the tracks to get a better view of the former Camp King entrance. I got lucky and did not have to wait long for a car-free shot. This can be a very busy intersection at times.

Camp King Oberursel entrance today
Camp King Oberursel entrance
Camp King Oberursel entrance back in its days

Reflections of my Childhood Spent near Fliegerhorst, Langendiebach, in Germany

A friend of mine, David K., shared his childhood experience of living in Langendiebach, Germany, in the early 1960s.

When we first came to Germany, I think it was December, 1959, the Army had no place to house us.  We were taken by Army truck far out in the country to a little apartment on a German farm.  It was a working farm that raised mostly chickens. 

We lived in the part of the farmhouse that was built in the 15th century.  It was made of stone with two foot thick walls and uneven stone floors.  It was heated by coal and it had minimal electricity. We were there six months through the winter and my father was gone most of the time.   

My mother would put the two younger kids on a sled and we would walk into town for groceries – the butcher shop, the baker etc.  Finally, we were able to move to a larger town – Langendiebach – which was next to the air base where my father worked.  The air base was called Fliegerhorst and it was originally a  Wehrmacht airfield. 

In Langendiebach we lived in an apartment that was originally a small factory.  My friend Helge and his family lived down the street.  His mother, Rosemary, was the propane dealer for the town and she would hand deliver large bottles of gas that we used for cooking. His father, Wilhelm (Willy) was a carpenter and they lived in a very old stone house that had no plumbing.  Their house had the barn area under their living area.   

We became friends with several families in town.  After all, we were probably one of only a very few Americans living there.  Almost all of the older men had served in the Wehrmacht and they did not easily warm up to Americans.  Despite that, we made a lot of friends and my parents and Helge’s parents became pretty good friends.  Willy once told my dad that he always wanted to ride in a helicopter, so my father gave Willy one of his flight suits and took him for a ride.  Helge, and his brother Rudiger were close to my age and we often played together.  Most of the people in town had little garden houses nearby and we would often spend weekend days at the my friend’s garden house. 

Just up the street from us (all roads in town were dirt roads) lived Katie and Herr Bach.  They were a little older than my folks and they never had kids.  Herr Bach was a successful insurance agent and a master hunter (Jägermeister).  Their house was full of stuffed animals.  Herr Bach served in Norway in WWII but he was not really a military person.  The Norwegians where he served invited him back to Norway after the war for hunting expeditions.  The Bachs were truly nice people.  They loved me and my brother and sister.  My parents would leave us with them when they wanted to go away on a short vacation.

As a side note, President Kennedy came to Fliegerhorst in June of 1963 and I saw him there from about twenty feet away.

Hanau Elementary School 1961

The storyteller sits for his first grade photo at Hanau Elementary School. The map on the left, now a relic from the Cold War, shows the divided Germany.

That was all during our first tour to Germany.  We went back to the USA in late 1963 and my father went immediately to Vietnam.  Three years later we returned to Germany for our second tour and that is when we went to Camp King and then to Edwards Housing area. 

A New View onto the Mountain Lodge Camp King, Oberursel

Last year, quite a few trees in our neighborhood had to be taken down because of the drought from previous years.

The removal of these trees opened up a new view onto the Mountain Lodge after almost 25 years.

When you look closely, you can see the steeple in the center of the photo.

The droughts of 2018 – 2020 are definitely changing some the landscape in Germany.

Tour of Camp King in Oberursel, Germany

There will be a tour of Camp King with our local town guide, Sylvia Struck, (in German) on Saturday, 18 September 2021.

The tour covers the history of the area from the time of the Reichssiedlungshof in the 1930s to the the end of the U.S. Army occupation in 1992.

The meeting point is the Kinderhaus in the Jean-Sauer-Weg at 14:00. The tour costs 3 euro.

Anyone wishing to partake in this tour should register beforehand by calling 06171 502-232 or writing to tourismus@oberursel.de by 17 September as spaces are limited.

A negative COVID-19 test and wearing a face mask are recommended.

I happened to come across Mr. Manfred Kopp, also known as Mr. Camp King, at an event in Oberursel today.

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