Herrmann Family Home

A two-story rowhouse (townhouse) built in Mettlach in 1815, has been the Herrmann family home since the mid 1800s. Two-foot thick exterior walls survived the bombs and grenades of both WW I and WW II, but in the attic, splintered rafters remain a token of war-time damage.

Near the end of WW II the US Army requisitioned this house, and soldiers lived here for a few months. We were pleased to learn that when the Army finally left town, a note was written to the family thanking them for the use of their house. We hope no one got into trouble for leaving a couple of “GI shovels” in the attic. One is now in my collection.

At noon one day, as I came from downtown I saw the roof of Toni’s and the neighbor’s house obscured by smoke. The neighbor said “No problem, I was just burning some boxes in the fireplace.” Well, since he speaks only German, that’s not exactly what he said, but that’s what he meant. In the middle of the night we were awakened by a shout from the neighbor and the sound of the fire alarm at the nearby Rathaus (City Hall). The mid-day fire had passed through a flaw in the flue, had smoldered for 12 hours, now the home next door was on fire, and we could see a yellow/orange flickering through the bedroom window.

The local fire department is equipped to protect the huge Villeroy & Boch ceramics factory in Mettlach, and that equipment was also available to fight fires in the local homes. The firemen did a very good job, and although the two upper floors of the adjacent home were destroyed, Toni’s house and the house on the other side, had no fire damage at all. Thank goodness they built these row-houses separated by a very thick stone wall, right up to the very peak of the tile roof.

Since I sprayed water until Toni’s fifty-year-old garden hose burst, I of course take credit for saving the whole place.

At that time our home in California was one of four in a building about 165 years newer, with dividing walls not even slightly fireproof. When Toni visited our home the following year, we told her we intended to entertain in the manner she had entertained us, and had scheduled the fire in our neighbor’s condominium for Tuesday night. She insisted that would be carrying hospitality much too far indeed.