European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 2, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Xxx Wax t Heidelberg s famous Castle much of which is a ruin towers above the City from a Hillside along the Neckar. Sis Mic Hast Abrams the inn and pub Zum Roten Ochsen was a popular tourist and student hangout in Twain s Day As Well As today. Sis file by Theresa Bujnoch though Mark Twain is perhaps the most important american associated with Heidelberg his tracks Are hot easy for the modern visitor to Trace. According to historian Harry 3. Davis american residents in Heidelberg planned to erect a Monument to Twain in 1910, but the plan was foiled by world War f. After world War ii the . Army residential District in Heidelberg was named Mark Twain Village and one of its streets Mark Twain Strasse. The Village elementary school is also named for Twain. But to track Down the places where Twain spent the summer of 1878,he Best place to Start is the Castle. The Quot Schloss hotel Quot the former Schloss hotel still stands though now it is the International student Center. The words Quot Schloss hotel Quot appear Over the front Entrance of the building but the place was completely remodeler after Twain s time and the enclosed balconies he praised so highly were removed. Twain wrote that he occupied Rooni to on the building s Northwest Corner where he spent Many an hour looking out onto the Neckar Valley Quot i have never enjoyed a View which had such a Serene and satisfying Charm about it As this one gives Quot from the former Schloss hotel one can still stroll Over to the grounds of the nearby Castle As Twain and his family often did Heidelberg Castle Twain remarked of the Castle ruins Quot misfortune has done for this old Tower what it has done Lor human character sometimes improved  he and his wife and daughters spent warm evenings on the grounds knitting embroidering smoking and listening to music. Then As now v visitors paid for Tours of the Castle and these included a look at the giant wine barrel in the Castle cellar. Quot it is a wine cask As big As a cottage Quot wrote Twain Quot and some traditions say it holds eighteen Hundred thousand bottles and other traditions say it holds eighteen Hundred million barrels. I think it Likely that one 12 stripes Magazine june 2, 1994 of these statements is a mistake and the other one a  the Konig Stuhl from the Castle ride up to the Konig Stuhl where Twain kept an office. Or for the full effect walk up the Steep Hillside As Twain did every Day Twain says he rented a second Story room Quot at a pretty Little wirtschaft11 an inn at the base of the Konig Stuhl. The inn now on the site next to the Coble car station is reportedly an expanded reconstruction of the Wirtschaft where Twain worked. As in the Case of the Schloss hotel however the old floor plan is Long gone so Twain s room cannot be identified. But the trip up there is Worth it for the expansive View alone. The student prison after that tramp Back Down to the town Center and the Universita splat to roam among the students. The former student prison students Knarzer is open to the Public monday through saturday. Visitors Don t need an inside connection As Twain did. Zum Roten Ochsen finally Stop in for a drink or a meal at Zum Roten Ochsen on the Haup Strasse no. 217. Guidebooks claim this is a restaurant Twain As Well As Otto von Bismarck frequented. Today the historic tavern is known As a festive Rowdy spot and a student hangout Mark Twain Tours another option is taking a highly recommended bus tour called Quot in the footsteps of Mark  the tour Leader is englishman Andrew Cowin a writer who recently finished a Book about Twain s time in the Heidelberg area. The All Day affair includes stops at several towns visited by Twain in the Neckar Valley. For information Call Ruth Becker at 06201-6918. For a do it yourself tour a copy of Mark Twain in Heidelberg and the Neckar Valley by Harry b. Davis is a helpful companion. This Small Book available in some stars and stripes bookstores and the libraries in Heidelberg briefly details Twain s time in Heidelberg and contains excerpts from a tramp abroad. With this guidance perhaps you will be moved to say As Twain did that Quot Heidelberg by Day. Is the last possibility of the  the University s old students Knarzer student prison is decorated with elaborate Graffiti done by prisoners. A amp is Filo Mark Twain s travels in Germany and Europe from a 1 070-79 resulted in a Book called a tramp abroad. Twain himself admitted the Book was uninspired and a struggle to write and his critics called it uneven. Yet the Book sold Well a better than turn Sawyer at the time a perhaps due to the Public s High demand for travel books in the late 19th Century. However an appendix to a a tramp abroad has endured among readers much longer than the travel volume itself. Perhaps this is because Twain s essay the awful Cerman language remains a Rich source of Consolation to anyone who has tried learning German Here Are some excerpts from that essay which was first published More than a Century ago a Quot a Persun who has not studied Cerman can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is Quot. T a "1 went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle and one Day i surprised the keeper of it with my Cerman i spoke entirely in that language. He was greatly interested and after i had talked a while he said my German was very rare possibly Quot unique Quot and wanted to add it to his museum Quot a a a 4 a. Quot German books Are easy enough to read w Hen you hold them before the looking Glass or stand on your head a so As to reverse the  4 Quot in a Cerman newspaper they put their verb away Over on the next Page and i have heard that sometimes after stringing along exciting preliminaries and parentheses for a column or two they get in a hurry and a have to go to press without getting to the verb at  a Quot the germans have another kind of parenthesis which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the either half at the end of it. Can anyone conceive of anything More. Confusing than that these tilings Are called separable verbs the German language is blistered Over with separable  a a a 4 Quot personal pronouns and adjectives Are a fruitful nuisance in his language and should have been left out. For instance the same sound Sie Means you and it Means she and it Means her and it Means it and it Means they and it Means them. Think of the ragged poverty of a language which has to make one word do the work of six a and a poor Little weak thing of three letters at that. This explains Why whenever a person says Sie to me i generally try to kill him if a . A. A. A a a Quot the inventor of. The Cerman language seems to have taken pleasure in complicating it in every Way he could think  Quot every noun has a gender and there is no sense or system in the distribution so the gender of each must be Learned separately and by heart. There is no other Way. To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum Book. In Cerman a Young lady has no sex while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for a turnip and what callous disrespect for the girl quota a a. Quot these things German words Are not words they Are alphabetical  personal notes Twain wrote while in Germany also reveal the writer s amusing Day to Day frustrations with the language As Well As the suffering of his fellow americans abroad. Excerpts Are from  Twain s notebooks amp journals a d. Ii 1877 1883 1975, University  press Quot aug 8 very Sweet girl in train a Joe told me so in Cerman to keep her from understanding. This is very neat. Most Gas do understand English but very few of them can understand our German Quot a a a t. Quot fellow said been Here several months St got no German but Wei lager a but got that  a a a Quot told 2 German gentlemen the Way to the  in elaborate German a i put up his hands and solemnly said Golt in Hummell Quot a 44 Quot Goddam Goddam the language with the 16 the s in  44 a Quot said he a mein  Quot 4 4 4 Quot said i a life is Short. I la have to get you to abbreviate some of your words Quot. -44 a Quot never knew before what eternity was made fur. It is to give some of us a Chance to learn German Quot 4 a Twain s complaining is not without inspiration for present Day students of German. At least one biographer says that while Twain was capable in French and italian he devoted most of his attention to Cerman after English in fact in their determination to conquer the language Twain and his family used More German than English when together. Eventually Twain tried Public speaking in German and translated much material from German into English and at least one Story from English into German. According to biographer Edward Wagon net hts the awful German language essay even delighted German readers among them Kaiser Wilhelm i. A Theresa Bujnoch Jutie 2, 1994 stripes Magazine 13