the cowshed had gone out. He’ll have to get a new one. Until then they’ll just have to make do as best they can with the old oil lamps.
The new maid looks as if she’d be a good, hard worker. That’s what he needs. He can’t be doing with anyone who’s work-shy. The farm is too much for him and Barbara on their own. During the summer, anyway.
In winter they get by somehow.
It’s harder and harder to find laborers and maids to work on the land these days. Most of them try their luck in town. Lured there by better pay and lighter work.
Town life, that’s not for him. He has to feel free. Be his own master. No one tells him what to do. He decides on everything here. On this farm he is Lord God Almighty, never mind how much his wife prays. The older she grows the more pious she gets.
What’s keeping the old woman in the kitchen so long? Sits praying under that crucifix half the night, wasting expensive electric light.
He’ll have to get up and go and see.
In his socks, clad only in his nightshirt and a pair of long johns, he slips his wooden clogs on. Shuffles down the stone flags of the corridor to the kitchen.
The door of the room next to it is open.
What the hell’s the idea? What are those women doing in the cowshed at this time of night? You had to see to everything yourself around here.
Very annoyed, he goes into the room next to the kitchen and then on, over to the cowshed.
F rom his vantage point, Mick has been watching the comings and goings on the farm all day long
He sees old Danner finding traces of the break-in. It’s dead easy to keep out of the old man’s way.
Old Danner searches the whole place. He even climbs up to Mick’s hideout in the loft.
Mick holds his breath. Stands there with one hand gripping the knife in his pocket. Hiding by the chimney, behind the farmer’s back. He could touch his shoulder. Danner is perched on the steps up to the loft not an arm’s length away from him. Trying to light up the dark loft with his lamp, which is very faint.
He doesn’t notice the straw scattered over the suspended ceiling of the barn, or the rope hanging ready.
Mick waits all day. He can take his time. He knows just where the Tannöd farmer hides his money. He’s planned everything out down to the smallest detail.
If it all goes as he’s calculated, he can leave the house unseen. And if not?
Mick shrugs off this idea. He doesn’t shrink from using violence. Violence is part of his job. He’ll play it by ear.
As evening comes on, two more strangers appear in the farmyard. Two women going toward the house in the rain. They knock. Both of them are let in. After about an hour the women come out of the house again. They say good-bye to each other, and one of them goes back indoors.
Hansl Hauer, age 13, Georg Hauer’s son
It was the Tuesday when my auntie told me to go over to the Danner farm.
“No one’s seen or heard anything of them over there,” she told me. “Maybe something’s happened and they need help.”
So I went over.
I guess it was about three. But I’m not sure.
There wasn’t any of them in the farmyard, so I knocked at the front door. I knocked good and loud, I shook the door, but it was locked and nobody opened it.
So then I went around the house. Peered in all the windows. Couldn’t see a thing, though. The place looked quite empty. Like there wasn’t anybody there.
I heard the dog. Whining terribly, it was. And I heard the cattle in the cowshed. The cows were lowing like anything. But I couldn’t get into the cowshed, it was locked from inside.
You can get into the cowshed from the old machinery shed, though, I know that. First you go through the barn, then there’s a wooden door into the cowshed on the left.
And the door of the machinery shed was standing open. Wide open, but I didn’t fancy going in there.
I just stood at the door and called. I called for Barbara and Marianne. But there wasn’t any answer and I didn’t want to go in. I was
The new maid looks as if she’d be a good, hard worker. That’s what he needs. He can’t be doing with anyone who’s work-shy. The farm is too much for him and Barbara on their own. During the summer, anyway.
In winter they get by somehow.
It’s harder and harder to find laborers and maids to work on the land these days. Most of them try their luck in town. Lured there by better pay and lighter work.
Town life, that’s not for him. He has to feel free. Be his own master. No one tells him what to do. He decides on everything here. On this farm he is Lord God Almighty, never mind how much his wife prays. The older she grows the more pious she gets.
What’s keeping the old woman in the kitchen so long? Sits praying under that crucifix half the night, wasting expensive electric light.
He’ll have to get up and go and see.
In his socks, clad only in his nightshirt and a pair of long johns, he slips his wooden clogs on. Shuffles down the stone flags of the corridor to the kitchen.
The door of the room next to it is open.
What the hell’s the idea? What are those women doing in the cowshed at this time of night? You had to see to everything yourself around here.
Very annoyed, he goes into the room next to the kitchen and then on, over to the cowshed.
F rom his vantage point, Mick has been watching the comings and goings on the farm all day long
He sees old Danner finding traces of the break-in. It’s dead easy to keep out of the old man’s way.
Old Danner searches the whole place. He even climbs up to Mick’s hideout in the loft.
Mick holds his breath. Stands there with one hand gripping the knife in his pocket. Hiding by the chimney, behind the farmer’s back. He could touch his shoulder. Danner is perched on the steps up to the loft not an arm’s length away from him. Trying to light up the dark loft with his lamp, which is very faint.
He doesn’t notice the straw scattered over the suspended ceiling of the barn, or the rope hanging ready.
Mick waits all day. He can take his time. He knows just where the Tannöd farmer hides his money. He’s planned everything out down to the smallest detail.
If it all goes as he’s calculated, he can leave the house unseen. And if not?
Mick shrugs off this idea. He doesn’t shrink from using violence. Violence is part of his job. He’ll play it by ear.
As evening comes on, two more strangers appear in the farmyard. Two women going toward the house in the rain. They knock. Both of them are let in. After about an hour the women come out of the house again. They say good-bye to each other, and one of them goes back indoors.
Hansl Hauer, age 13, Georg Hauer’s son
It was the Tuesday when my auntie told me to go over to the Danner farm.
“No one’s seen or heard anything of them over there,” she told me. “Maybe something’s happened and they need help.”
So I went over.
I guess it was about three. But I’m not sure.
There wasn’t any of them in the farmyard, so I knocked at the front door. I knocked good and loud, I shook the door, but it was locked and nobody opened it.
So then I went around the house. Peered in all the windows. Couldn’t see a thing, though. The place looked quite empty. Like there wasn’t anybody there.
I heard the dog. Whining terribly, it was. And I heard the cattle in the cowshed. The cows were lowing like anything. But I couldn’t get into the cowshed, it was locked from inside.
You can get into the cowshed from the old machinery shed, though, I know that. First you go through the barn, then there’s a wooden door into the cowshed on the left.
And the door of the machinery shed was standing open. Wide open, but I didn’t fancy going in there.
I just stood at the door and called. I called for Barbara and Marianne. But there wasn’t any answer and I didn’t want to go in. I was
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