Yesterday, I joined Mr. Kopp’s guided tour through the Camp King areal. He, as our local historian and Camp King archivist, offers these two-hour tours twice a year. They usually end up at the local Kirchencafé, where the basement houses all the Camp King documents, gathered by him over the years.

The photo on the bottom shows  the original Musterdorf Haus (exhibition house) for Germany’s Siedlungspläne (settlement plans), set up for the fair in Frankfurt in the fall of 1938. The top photo shows the house after it had been transplanted from Frankfurt to Oberursel. For the fair, the houses came without basement, but having been moved to Oberursel for a permanent location, basements were added.

Kinderhaus Oberursel, a place for children and teenagers to hang out

The same house from above is our Kinderhaus (child and youth centre) today.

Former Gestapo building

This former Gestapo building had been used as a temporary shelter for asylum seekers in years past. I had seen people occupying the building as late as the early years of this decade, but not so recently. It looks vacated to me.

Silk handkerchief with a complete map outline

This handkerchief served its purpose, especially when a POW got his hands on it.

Our small group walking up the Camp King slope

The chapel at Camp King

The chapel had been given a new coat of paint a while back. This was probably for the new neighbors out back (see left corner of the photo).

The next guided tour is set for 28 August 2010.

Meeting place: In front of the EDEKA supermarket on Hohemarkstrasse (you can take the U3 and get off at the station Kupferhammerweg)

Tour fee: € 3

I learned a lot from this tour and I plan on going again. Mr. Kopp is an infinite source of information and this tour is very recommendable to anyone interested in history and future political science.

For more information in German, visit CampKingOberursel.