Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [20]
There are other factories, mostly of a light-industry nature, on the river front: A brewery, a small barge-construction yard and a leather works. There are a number of the generation to generation shops in crystal cutting, the manufacture of the famous Rombaden puppets, a toy factory, etc.
Rombaden is known for its gay life. A large source of the town’s income comes from the fact that it has been an overnight stopping place for Landau river-barge pilots. To facilitate their entertainment there is a three-block-long street of beer halls, bars, small hotels and brothels known as Princess Allee, which has a reputation of being a “little Hamburg Reeperbahn.”
The pre-lenten ball of the Medical College Students is a riotous affair drawing artists from all over Schwaben and Bavaria for a week of unabashed revelry. No less bombastic is the November Beer Fest in which the city Hall Square is covered by several enormous tents. A half-million liters of beer are consumed along with staggering amounts of wine, schnaps, and Schweinwürstchen.
To counterbalance these various orgies there is a splendid opera and symphony season, puppet theater, innumerable scientific seminars at the Institute and other cultural affairs.
Rombaden has its own unique pageant based on the Legend of Rombaden, which is a thousand years old. In medieval costume there is a re-enactment of the story of the legend. The climax is the reading, by a dozen actors, of Hinterseer’s epic poem. This takes place before his statue, for upwards of a hundred thousand listeners.
ROMSTEIN DISTRICT (Roman Stone)
Upon crossing the two bridges you enter the District. It is dominated by the Von Romstein family, the Von Romstein estates and the Von Romstein castle. The area has been under such domination for eight centuries.
The family’s personal estate covers nearly 100 square miles and includes its own private forest for hunting.
There are three main farming villages named after leading Von Romsteins; Ludwigsdorf, Sigmundsdorf and Ottosdorf.
The castle is an exquisite structure of seventy rooms and holds an untold wealth in art treasures. It sits back six miles from the river on the first of the rolling hills in the proximity of Ludwigsdorf.
Ludwigsdorf is also the entrance village to the Schwabenwald Forest, which has gained notoriety as the site of the Schwabenwald Concentration Camp. It was one of the first political prisons opened by the Nazis in 1934. The entire forest area is controlled by fanatical Waffen SS. (At the time the writer of this report was an inmate, 1936–37, there were some 6000 political prisoners, several priests and pastors included. The most famous inmate at the time was the old Social Democrat, Ulrich Falkenstein. It is not known if he is still alive.)
Also on the south bank of the river, somewhat removed from Rombaden, are some forty or fifty medium to large estates belonging to the wealthy and upper crust of the area. In this area are also a dozen hotels built around the natural hot springs. The Germans are ritualistic in their belief of the great curative powers of the spas. The center of this upper-class activity on the south bank is the Kurhaus, a gambling casino and rather muted version of the bawdy Princess Allee across the river.
Rombaden/Romstein has many “typical” German characteristics.
There is idol worship, tribalism, revelry and mysticism.
There is the pagan ritual of the Nazis.
As a contradiction there is strong Catholicism, a cultural and educational life and a modern industrial complex.
This tug of war, this paradox, runs deeply in the German character. It is particularly easy to see in Rombaden/Romstein. Rombaden, indeed, is representative of the eternal German, who is looking for himself and is an enigma to himself as well as to the outside world.
CURRENT POLITICAL DATA:
The Von Romstein family dynasty has been the absolute power for eight centuries. The current family head, Graf Ludwig Von Romstein, ascended to the hierarchy after a