MITZ AND FRITZ
OF GERMANY
[Illustration: RHEINSTEIN CASTLE PERCHED HIGH ON THE
WOODED BANKS OF THE RHINE]
MITZ _and_ FRITZ
_of_ GERMANY
BY
MADELINE BRANDEIS
[Illustration]
_Photographic Illustrations_
[Illustration]
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
_by arrangement with the A. Flanagan Company_
COPYRIGHT, 1933, BY A. FLANAGAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
LOVINGLY DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY DEAR FATHER WHO
WAS GERMAN-TRAINED AND GERMAN-SCHOOLED, BUT SO DIFFERENT
IN UNDERSTANDING FROM THE FATHER OF MITZ AND FRITZ
[Signature: Madeline Brandeis]
THE PICTURES IN THIS BOOK
were taken in Germany! That is, the pictures of cities and
churches and parks were taken there. But Mitz and Fritz and
Mr. and Mrs. Toymaker were not.
These characters are played by my good actor friends. You
have seen them all on the screen. But never before did you
see:
Mitzi Green as Mitzi Toymaker
Jackie Searle as Fritz Toymaker
Herta Reinach as Mrs. Toymaker
James Guilfoyle as Mr. Toymaker
Those are the parts they play in this book.
And then, a musician friend helped me, too. What more
could one ask than to have as the music master such a
great violinist as Alexander Zukovsky?
I am grateful to all these kind people.
[Signature: Madeline Brandeis]
Oh, dear! I almost forgot to be grateful to my dog friend,
Koopsak, who posed as Frankfurter!
Some of the photographs in this book are used through the
courtesy of the German Tourist Information Office, N. Y.,
and the Hamburg American Line.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Chapter I
"Foolish Fritz" 9
Chapter II
The Toymakers 22
Chapter III
Goodbye to Nuremberg 33
Chapter IV
Bayreuth and a Plan 39
Chapter V
Along the Road Chapter 49
Chapter VI
Mainz and a Beggar 55
Chapter VII
Down the Rhine and Troubles 61
Chapter VIII
Bonn and Beethoven 75
Chapter IX
Mitzi in Hamelin 82
Chapter X
Ströbeck and Disgrace 91
Chapter XI
Eisenach and Bach 101
Chapter XII
A Castle and the Poet City 108
Chapter XIII
The Leipzig Fair 117
Chapter XIV
The Concert 124
Chapter XV
Fritz and His Violin 134
Chapter XVI
The Pied Piper 141
Chapter XVII
The Music Master 146
Chapter XVIII
Berlin and Happiness 154
Pronouncing Vocabulary 159
LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
RHEINSTEIN CASTLE PERCHED HIGH ON THE WOODED
BANKS OF THE RHINE 2
Handwritten signature: Madeline Brandeis 5
Handwritten signature: Madeline Brandeis 6
LITTLE MITZ AND FRITZ OF GERMANY 8
FRITZ 11
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" 12
GAVE A PIECE OF MEAT TO FRANK 14
MITZI SMILED AT THE PRETTY MUSIC 15
MITZI 17
HER EYES POPPED 20
HIS EYES WERE FULL OF TEARS 23
MR. TOYMAKER 25
EATING PICKLES 27
A TOY SHOP IN NUREMBERG 28
MRS. TOYMAKER 30
CHURCH OF OUR LADY--NUREMBERG 32
A HOUSE IN NUREMBERG 37
HOME OF RICHARD WAGNER--BAYREUTH 40
CHILDREN PLAYING AT THE FESTIVAL 41
THE SCHUHPLATTLER, A NATIVE FOLK DANCE
OF THE BAVARIAN MOUNTAINS 42
MARKET PLACE--BAYREUTH 44
GROUP OF HIKERS ON THE MARCH 50
AN OLD CASTLE MADE INTO AN INN FOR HIKERS 51
KASSEL; OLD STREET IN THE "GRIMM QUARTER" 53
SABABURG CASTLE IN THE GERMAN FAIRY TALE
FOREST NEAR KASSEL IS THE PALACE OF SLEEPING
BEAUTY AND BLUEBEARD FAME 54
MAINZ 56
THE GENERAL 57
CATHEDRAL AT MAINZ 59
STOLZENFELS CASTLE ON THE RHINE 62
THE MOUSE TOWER OF BINGEN ON THE RHINE 64
THE ROCK OF THE LORELEI 66
THE JUNCTION OF THE RHINE AND MOSELLE RIVERS
IN COBLENZ 68
"SEE, FATHER!" 71
"FRITZ HAS STOLEN THE MONEY!" 72
"THEY MUST OBEY!" 73
BONN 76
"DO NOT LOOK SO SAD" 77
BIRTHPLACE OF BEETHOVEN--BONN 79
THE RAT-CATCHER'S HOUSE--HAMELIN 83
PIPED UPON HER SAUSAGE 84
BEGAN TO EAT HER PIPE 86
"WAKE UP, YOU SILLY" 88
ONLY FRITZ, FRANK, AND MOTHER 89
A BAVARIAN MOUNTAIN VILLAGE 92
CHILDREN CARRY CHESSBOARDS TO SCHOOL 94
CHILDREN PLAYING CHESS 95
MITZ LOOKED CROOKED 97
"YOU NAUGHTY LITTLE GIRL" 99
EISENACH 102
"LET ME TRY IT ON" 103
THE HOME OF BACH IN EISENACH 105
WARTBURG CASTLE 109
STATUE OF GOETHE IN LEIPZIG 111
STATUE OF MENDELSSOHN IN LEIPZIG 113
A CHURCH IN LEIPZIG 116
LEIPZIG 119
LEIPZIG 121
THE PARK IN LEIPZIG 125
MITZI WAS HAPPY 126
FRITZ PLAYED 130
STOOD ON HER HEAD 132
"GIVE ME THE VIOLIN" 137
"PLEASE, FATHER" 139
"YOU MUST LEARN TO HELP OTHERS" 140
SAT UPON THE STEPS OF THEIR WAGON 143
"HERE IS YOUR SON!" 147
"HE STANDS LIKE THIS" 150
THE BRANDENBURG GATE IN BERLIN 155
UNTER DEN LINDEN IN BERLIN 156
THEY WERE GOING TO LIKE BERLIN 158
[Illustration: LITTLE MITZ AND FRITZ OF GERMANY]
Mitz and Fritz of Germany
CHAPTER I
"FOOLISH FRITZ"
Toys! Toys! Toys! All over the room--toys!
It was a big, comfortable room with a work bench in it, and shelves and
a table full of paints and pots of glue.
On the window seat in a corner sat a girl, a boy, and a dog.
The girl wore a stiff white apron. Her cheeks were rosy and plump. She
had a saucy look. Her big blue eyes were fixed upon the pages of a book.
She was reading to the boy. The boy wore a green blouse smeared with
paint. He was busily carving a wooden elephant. The dog was brown and
very long. He lay asleep beside the children with his nose on the girl's
lap.
These are Mitz, Fritz, and Frank. Now you have met them. And this is
their father's workshop--the workshop of a German toy maker in Nuremberg
(N[=u]´r[)e]m-bûrg), city of toys.
Mitz was really Mitzi. Fritz was really Frederic. Frank, the dog, was
really Frankfurter. But the former names were their nicknames.
"So! It is finished at last," said the boy who was Fritz.
He put the wooden elephant on the window sill. He stretched his arms. He
was younger than his sister, and his cheeks were not so red nor was his
face so saucy. He had the look of one who dreams--a happy look.
Mitzi cocked her head on one side and examined the elephant.
"It is not so bad," she said. Then she added, "For you!"
[Illustration: FRITZ]
Fritz smiled. His face seemed made for smiling.
"Now, please," he said, "read some more, Mitz."
"Good. I will," answered Mitzi. "But you must carve while I read. Father
will scold if he comes home and finds you idle."
Fritz began to carve a doll and Mitzi began to read. She read about
Richard Wagner (Väg´n[~e]r), who was one of the greatest musicians
that ever lived.
But suddenly she stopped reading and screamed, "Fritz! Fritz! What are
you doing?"
[Illustration: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"]
Fritz looked down at his work and, behold, he had almost cut off the
head of a doll he was carving! The poor head was hanging by a splinter.
"Shame, shame! I cannot read to you if you do such things," said Mitzi.
She started to close the book.
"No, please!" begged Fritz. "I promise I will not do it again. I was
thinking only of Richard Wagner. I was not looking at the doll."
"Good, then," said Mitzi, "I shall read more if you will not dream
again."
But before she began to read, she got up and went to a big cupboard.
From the big cupboard she helped herself to a lovely, thick slice of
German brown bread. Then she took out a long knife and a long sausage,
which looked very much like the long dog, Frank. She cut the sausage and
put pieces of it on the bread and ate it.
"Will you have some?" she asked Fritz.
But her mouth was so full of bread and sausage that her words sounded
like "Will-awamwam?"
Fritz shook his head. He was trying hard to stick the doll's head back
into place. Mitzi seated herself on the window sill. She gave a piece
of meat to Frank, who gobbled it up and promptly fell asleep again. Then
she began to read.
[Illustration: GAVE A PIECE OF MEAT TO FRANK]
"'One day,'" she read, "'when Richard Wagner was a little boy, he was
watching some acrobats in the market square. A band was playing and
Richard listened joyfully. They were playing a selection which he
liked. It was "The Huntsman's Chorus." Little Richard--' Fritz!"
Again Mitzi screamed and put down the book in horror. The poor wooden
doll had fallen to the floor. The head had rolled off. But Fritz had not
noticed it at all. Fritz was reaching for a violin, which lay on a chair
beside him. He was beginning to play the violin.
[Illustration: MITZI SMILED AT THE PRETTY MUSIC]
"This," he said, "is 'The Huntsman's Chorus.' It is what Richard Wagner
heard that day and loved."
Mitzi listened. She smiled at the pretty music that Fritz made. She
could not help smiling.
Often Fritz was very stupid. Often he made her very angry with his
clumsy, dreamy ways and the mistakes he made. His playmates called him
"Foolish Fritz." He was forever losing things and forgetting things and
dropping things, making Mother sigh and Father storm.
But his music! A different thing! Mitzi thought it was the sweetest
music in all the world. Even Mother, who had taught him all she knew,
thought it beautiful. But Father? Ah, Father hated it. Fritz must never
play when Father was around. Father was very severe, and he did not love
music.
[Illustration: MITZI]
To the strains of "The Huntsman's Chorus" Mitzi nodded her head in time
as she chewed on her bread and sausage. Frank awoke and gazed wonderingly
at the boy with the violin. Frank was a dachshund (däks´h[)oo]nt)--a
"badger dog," in English. At one time, Frank's kind of dog was used to
hunt badgers. Maybe that is why Frank seemed interested in "The
Huntsman's Chorus."
Dachshunds are close to the ground, with tiny, crooked legs, and bodies
that look like frankfurter sausages. Indeed, that is why Frank's real
name was Frankfurter. All at once, the little dog's body bristled. He
pricked up his long ears and let out a terrific bark.
Fritz stopped playing. Mitzi stopped eating. They looked up and saw what
Frank had seen. The wooden elephant had disappeared from the window
sill. Outside they heard a child crying.
"Give me my toy! I want my toy!" cried the child outside.
Fritz climbed upon his knees and looked out. He saw a large boy trying
to take the wooden elephant away from a small boy. The younger child was
crying and pulling at the toy.
"I want it! It's mine! I took it off the window!" he screamed.
But the big boy pushed so hard that the little one fell down on the
sidewalk.
"It's mine," said the bully. "And don't you try to get it away again or
I'll push you harder!"
Before Mitzi knew what had happened her brother had darted out of the
house. Now he was standing before the big boy.
"Give that elephant to me," said Fritz. "It is mine, and you stole it."
"It's mine now," said the boy.
He smiled at Fritz's angry face and soiled workman's blouse. He stood a
head taller than Fritz.
"If you want it you'll have to take it away from me," he added. He
started to turn away.
Fritz jumped upon him and with both fists beat him. Fritz pounded and
hit. The big boy tried to strike back, but Fritz's arms were moving like
a windmill.
Mitzi stared out of the window. On her open mouth hung neglected crumbs
of bread. Her eyes popped. Never had she seen her "Foolish Fritz" act
like this before. He had always been so very gentle and smiling.
[Illustration: HER EYES POPPED]
Frank barked. The child who had been knocked down howled. It was quite a
scene. But finally Fritz ended it all by giving the big boy one mighty
push. The bully fell down with a heavy thud upon the sidewalk.
Fritz snatched the wooden elephant out of the older boy's hand. He was
about to go into his house when there came a terrible scream from the
little boy.
"Mine! My toy! Ow!" he screamed.
Fritz stopped. He looked at the child, who was very ragged and dirty and
poor. The youngster's little shoes were torn.
"Here. Take it," said Fritz, handing the elephant to the youngster. "Go
home, now," he added, "before that great clumsy one snatches it away
from you again."
The delighted tot ran home. The bully limped away in the opposite
direction. Fritz rubbed his cheek where the fellow had struck him. Then
he started to go into the house.
But as he turned, he almost ran into a great burly figure, which had
planted itself in his way. It was his father!