Anyway, by then my parents needed bigger premises as the business expanded and they acquired some new and bigger premises across the river in Horst-Wessel-Strasse when Mechthild was still a baby. To me this new Workshop appeared enormous, may be because I was still small. It had a big yard with big Halls for the Workshops, that is the Blacksmith shop and the Mechanics repair shop and places to store the new pink Threshing Machines and ploughs and all the kind of machinery used on farms.

With the bigger premises came a bigger workforce. My father now employed a Master-Blacksmith with his assistant and an apprentice, as well as  Mechanics and an apprentice in the engineering workshop. My father was allowed to take in apprentices because he was a fully qualified engineer and he employed a Master-Blacksmith. Only Masters are allowed to train apprentices in Germany.

These new premises had a triangular shape surrounded by a high wall and big gates. To the left by the entrance were the offices, then behind that the Workshops . Across from the office to the right of the gates was our house, it was a one storey building with a Kitchen, a Living room with a big "Kachelofen" two or three bedrooms. We didn't have electricity at first but used paraffin Lamps. I don't think the bedrooms had any heating, because I remember it being very cold. I think the toilet was outside, but it could be reached through a door from the back, however my memories are a little bit vague. Anyway, I still have very good memories of that place.

Of course, we children were not really allowed to go into the workshops, but there was always a lot happening in the yard with farmers bringing machines for repair and collecting repaired ones. There was one place where we were really not allowed to go, but this place had the biggest fascination, and that was the big quick lime pit with its high walls and a roof over it. But I loved to throw stones in to the lime and see it bubble and going plop. I am glad, I was never caught. I am sure I would have got a good hiding.

Erika and Heidi were now 8 and 7 and were in School most mornings. As the premises were so big, my parents acquired a guard dog, which was chained up during the day and let loose at night. It was a very vicious Alsation and used to shoot out of its Kennel when I went anywhere near it. It must have frightened me so much, that I have never got over it and I am to this day very apprehensive of dogs, especially strange ones. But on the whole it was a happy and carefree time for us children.