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In 1949, a pretty, blond German girl named Johanna Jung was hired as one of the first switchboard operators to work at the Baumholder military installation. There were eight operators working two switchboards.
Germany was divided into four sections after World War II. The United Kingdom, French, American and Russian armed forces each occupied one section. When Johanna was hired, the French were occupying the Baumholder military installation, but there were between 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. Soldiers living in a tent city waiting for the French to leave so they could take possession of the installation.
The base was commonly referred to as the “mud hole” because none of the roads were paved.
“There were huge potholes and mud everywhere,” Johanna said.
At that time, the U.S. dollar was worth 4.5 German marks. Johanna said she remembers buying her first Hummel figurine, a small German boy with a backpack, for 3.95 DM. She bought it at a local gift shop called Maier’s.
Then, as now, Germans were not allowed to shop on base. For some time, before Jung was hired, German restaurants were off-limits to Americans. One time, a group of Johanna’s friends took one of their American officer friends to dinner.
They dressed him up in German clothes and were at the restaurant eating when the MPs entered the restaurant. They looked around and then walked straight over to the table where Johanna and her friends were eating. They asked the captain for his identification. He provided it and then asked, “How on earth did you spot that I was not a German?” The MPs laughed and told him, “By the way you handle your silverware. Enjoy your dinner, Sir, then please leave.”
One of Johanna’s most exciting moments on the job was the day she got a call from the U.S., she said.
She located the young officer for whom the call had been placed and listened in to make sure he was connected. She heard a soft voice tell the young man, “Darling, I’m in the hospital. I had the baby.”
She remembers going home and telling her mother the exciting news that she had connected her first call from the U.S. She now knew how a call from the U.S. sounded. Her mother said, “Lieber Gott! So far away!”
“I will never forget that call,” Johanna said.
The French moved out in late 1949, and the Americans moved in. Things immediately started changing and building up. Within a short time, everything was changing and the roads were improving.
Johanna married an American master sergeant, a former member of the 3rd Armored Division, and left Baumholder in 1951. She moved to the U.S. and lived in Pennsylvania for 10 years and in Arizona for 40 years. She became an American citizen the first year she was there.
Johanna moved back to Germany in 2001 after the death of her husband. Once back home, she reconnected with her sister and friends. Several years later, she married her German husband Josef and they now live 20 minutes from U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder. She is currently applying to volunteer on post in order to give back to the place she remembers so fondly.
