The miniature commanding officer’s story could not have been more exciting if it were a fairy tale from the Arabian Nights. The hand-carved wooden figure was made in 1939 for Franz Strömer, then commander of the Bonner Stadtsoldaten, a carnival group of so-called City Soldiers. It returned ‘home’ by chance following an adventurous odyssey halfway around the world. “For us it is more than matching all the numbers in the lottery” says Orth in delight.

As adventurous as the story of the figure is, the circumstances of its return are equally incredible. In April Orth received a phone call from Gaby Dreyer in Paderborn. She tells him that her sister, Bobby James, who lives in America, is in the process of sorting out the house of a deceased aunt in Richmond, Texas. The wooden soldier was found amongst the many decorative items and other objects. From the engraving and the explanation on the base, the two sisters quickly realised that the figure obviously came from Germany. Next to the artist’s signature (E. Rösler) they discovered an inscription: “Happy 50^th Birthday to His Loveliness, Commander Franz Strömer, 20 September 1939.”

Gaby and Heinz Dreyer researched online and quickly found out that Franz Strömer belonged at that time to the City Soldier Corps. The call to Wolfgang Orth confirmed this. Pictures of the figure were emailed from Texas to Bonn. “From the first sight of the photo I was absolutely certain that the figure was a Bonn City Soldier,” explained Orth. The uniform colours were exactly right, the medals in the correct place, flowers and wooden spoons adorned the hat and all the buttons were exactly where they should be. “It was really a perfect copy. I quickly realised that we had to try and obtain the carving,” remembers Orth.

He quickly came to an agreement with the executor Bobby James in Texas. “She didn’t know how the figure came to be in her aunt’s possession or how it reached America. But she wanted the soldier to come back home,” he explained with a smile. The City Soldiers only had to cover the shipping and customs duties.

Last Friday the time had finally come. Securely packed and well padded, the airfreight package weighing just under 12 kilograms arrived. Bobby James wrote an accompanying note: Farewell from Texas and a sincere welcome home to Bonn.

Even though the figure has clearly aged, it could not be more beautiful for Wolfgang Orth. “No, it will not be restored, retouched or polished up. The soldier will stay as he is. You should be able to see his age,” Orth says. So that he can be admired by many, the figure will stand in future in his own display case in the Bonn City Soldiers’ armoury. “In his 83 years he has now taken two trips from one continent to another. That leaves its mark”. Orth has calculated that the figure has travelled at least 16,000 kilometres.

And he has discovered yet another curiosity - underneath the base, an explanation about the soldier’s significance was apparently added in America. The commanding officer is described as the mayor of the town. “This is not wrong,” says Orth. Because after storming the town hall, the city soldiers are in charge of the city for the duration of the carnival.”

The soldier will be officially handed over in the next carnival session. The City Soldiers have invited the Dreyers from Paderborn, who passed on the contact with Texas, to attend their gala carnival ceremony in Bonn next February. “They will then officially present us with the unique figure,” says the commander, excited about the event. Will the Paderborn guests and the wooden soldier be able to understand the Rhineland dialect? “We will see. If not, we can translate everything,” says Orth with a smile. The main thing is that “D‘r Jung es zoröck!” The boy is back!

(Original text: Gabriele Immenkeppel, Translation: Caroline Kusch)