As most of you may know, I have visited Rudolstadt quite frequently in the last ten years. I have come to be interested in more than just Richter and Anchor.
But first, a look at the way people look at Anchor meetings. The next two pictures were drawn by Wolfgang Fichtner of Hartha. He is famous among AVs for his excellent, in-perspective views of Anchor buildings, which is shown so beautifully in the picture below.
AVs know that in many ways, Anchor is a lonely hobby, surrounded by stones,
but by yourself, except for meetings.
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Wives of AVs have a somewhat distorted view of events like Ankersteinfest
Rudolstadt.
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Sunday morning the AVs visited the hunting castle of Hummelshain, built in
the early 1880s. Its tower is very similar to towers in Richter designs.
The interior of the castle is undergoing major restoration; the exterior,
major maintenance..
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The first stone factory building in the Anchor works. This picture
is on page 21 of my book, but I thought I could take a better picture. If
you compare this picture with the one in the book, you will see that
deterioration continues at a rapid rate.
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A close up of the date.
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The factory building across the street was the stone factory after 1900.
Note the date, 1899, over the door. That date is steadily becoming
harder to read.
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I have been following the fate of two local breweries. The brewery
in Watzdorf now has a large, modern facility. It is the oldest brewery
in Thüringen, since 1411. The other brewery is newer (since 1885),
but smaller. Schmidt Brewery, shown above, in Singen, was the smallest
brewery in the former DDR, and is probably the smallest brewery in Germany.
It brews 2,000 liters a week. It has survived the DDR, the
Treuhandanstalt and is still doing well as a family business. When
I first visited in 1992, it did not have any bottling facilities, just kegs
and bulk. People in Singen would come down with a pitcher and take
home beer for dinner. That business is about dead; people open bottles
today. But the tourist business is doing well. The bottled beer
is good if you drink it within a week. On the Sunday I visited,
they were serving Bratwurst and beer, a very fine noon meal.
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The malt cooking kettle.
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The main brewery, with the brewing tank on the left. Note the pulleys.
As you will see, the power is supplied by a steam engine, not
electricity.
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Al brewers know how important it is to clean the equipment well. Someone
has to scrub the interior.
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The steam engine, 1905. The upright boiler, coal fired, is dated 1940.
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A few of you may wonder what
I look like. Here is a picture from Christmas, 1996. This picture
is about as good as they get.
For those who are really interested in Anchor stones, I have written a book about them. (I just got tired of either looking up the same information again and again, or trusting my memory on specific details such as dates and names.) It is expensive, $70 (or 100 DM) ppd, because I print it myself on my PC and color ink is expensive. The book undoubtedly contains far more information about Anchor stones and sets, the Richter company, etc. than you'll ever want to read. This book is a lot of work to print (I print about a dozen at a time, in either English or German), so please don't think I am urging you to buy one.
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