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Willi is about 14 here

I. Lehrzeit (Apprenticeship)

Willi starts his hairdressing apprenticeship with master Huber in Villingen (1920); his master, colleagues and fellow apprentices

Diary page 05

Translated from Willi's German.

...the apprenticeships still open in every trade. There was only one apprentice place left to fill in each of printing, bookbinding and hairdressing. Another bout of heavy deliberation followed, until at last, strongly recommended by Herr Schumpf Valentin, we settled on the hairdressing trade. And so, on 15 April 1920, I began my apprenticeship with master hairdresser Herr Huber of Niederstrasse in Villingen. My master was a young, frivolous man, not too able at his trade, and 33 years old. He was married to a peasant girl from Buechberg who was absolutely unsuited to running a business. At the start of my apprenticeship she had two children, and by the end of it four. For the first two months I had a capable assistant named Gaisser beside me. I had the bad luck that a quarter of a year before me another apprentice had been taken on, named Jakob Bosch from Hausen im Donautal, whom I had to serve as the junior all those years. Still, we got on quite well - that is to say, I had to swallow a great deal, for he was superior to me in strength and size as well as in professional skill. On Sundays I avoided him entirely. Then we got an assistant named Zeit from the Rhine-Palatinate, but he could not take to Villingen and so gave notice again after three months. The next assistant...

People: Willi Distel, Friseurmeister Huber, Jakob Bosch, Gaisser, Zeit, Schumpf Valentin

Places: Villingen, Niederstrasse, Buechberg, Hausen im Donautal, Rheinpfalz

Interesting facts