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Hanovarians, horses, Göbels and Mohrs

Hanovarians and horses


Lazaro Cardenas
asked to see Don Rafael.

- “What a lovely orchard you have Don Rafael," he said.

- “Which orchard are you referring to Mr President?”

- “Why the one near the river on the way out of town.”

- “Oh Mr President, I am so sorry, but you are mistaken, that avocado orchard is no longer mine, I sold it recently.”

- “Oh, did you?” said the President, eyes glittering.

Whenever president Lazaro Cardenas, patron saint of the Left in Mexico, saw a piece of land he liked, its owner was forced to sell - well below the market price – as a gesture of (self preserving) good will. Raphael heard the President had stopped off to admire the orchard and so had rushed to sell it off.

When Lisa insisted that the Hanoverians had assassinated her mother Carolin’s grandparents, some members of the family disbelieved her, most of them, actually, but it would not surprise me. All rulers are accomplished, land grabbing, cattle thieves, aren't they?

- “My grandparents had a beautiful piece of land and refused to sell it to the Hanoverians,” Lisa said.

-“A week or two after they refused, they were discovered dead in their bed."


The Hanoverians stole their land. It’s probably worth quite a lot by now.", Lisa said wistfully.

I suppose it’s lucky for the Hanovarians that they didn't pick on Sicilians, or the blood feud between us would still be alive.

Lisa's father’s grandfather was the only barber and doctor in Shlitz and as a result, he was well off. He used leeches to bleed out the town's bad blood and glass cups to suck out it's bad humours.

Lisa and Heini have little to say about their father, Konrad Goebel, because they were toddlers when he was kicked to death by his horse. He left a policeman's state pension to his widow Caroline; enough to look after four of her children: Heini, Lisa, Tini and Wilhelm and with thrifty household management they thrived. Gretel, who Lisa's parents had out of wedlock, was the fifth, older child. She and was raised by the grandparents and eventually inherited the house in Frankfurt.

Heini went to the Gymnasium, but there wasn’t enough money for ambitious tomboy Lisa to go with him. But, she stayed close to her brother. Caroline sewed, Carolin's daughters helped. They all lived quite well. Happily, until the inflation in Germany began to go out of control.

"What was it like before the war granny?" we would ask her.

She would pause to reflect. Then wail by way of explanation: “The inflation, the inflation. It was terrible, terrible.”

And that was the most cogent thing she was able to say to us. The inflation marked the end of Konrad's pension and the end of their untroubled family idyll. Times were hard until Heini finished Theatre school in Frankfurt and started earning money as an actor.

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