Pat Brennan takes us back to a previous memory, one from 2010 about a beautiful German town and a meeting between old soldiers . . .
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WISMAR, GERMANY, OCTOBER, 2010 – Their days were winding down and they knew it.

The surviving members of Canada’s elite 1st Parachute Battalion met last month for their final lunch together. About 100 of the more than 600 Canadian World War II paratroopers are still with us and about 30 of them made it to their annual lunch amidst the bombers at Hamilton’s Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.

Next year there’ll be even fewer of them, so they decided this was their last official gathering.

And we shall remember them — particularly if you come here, to one of Germany’s prettiest towns.

This entire sea port on the Baltic Sea has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its collection of red-brick architecture. Their unique architecture is intact today primarily because of the military efficiency, the toughness, but mostly the discretion of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.

On the northeast corner of Wismar’s town hall—built in 1817—stands a plaque that says in German . . .

“In remembrance of the end of world war II and the release of the German population from fascism 50 years ago. On 2nd May 1945 Wismar was captured by British and Canadian Forces without any resistance from its population.”

The plaque couldn’t be installed until May 2, 1995 because Wismar was in East Germany and under the control of the Soviet Union for most of those 50 years.

Kai-Michael Stybel, Wismar’s director of tourism, explains the significance of the plaque. “The Canadians were here and everybody was happy and relieved that there would be no fighting,” said Stybel, who was just a kid when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

“They had their parades and ceremonies in our town square celebrating that the war was nearly over. Everybody was so happy that the Canadians had won the race against the Russians and got here first.

“But after a few weeks the Russians sent a message that if the Canadians didn’t withdraw they would destroy our town with artillery and shelling by tanks. In the end the Canadians pulled back to the west and our town was reprieved, but then we had all those years of Communism.”

The paratroopers had penetrated deeper into Nazi Germany than any of the Canadian forces. They were the first Canadians involved in D-Day when they parachuted behind enemy lines to disrupt communications and transportation before the invading troops hit the beaches.

Combat boots are ideal for touring Wismar. Cobblestones cover most streets and squares. Unless you have the ankles of a Clydesdale, forget the high heels. Being on the edge of the Baltic Sea means there are no natural rock resources, therefore practically every building is made of brick — preferably red brick.

The largest brick-built churches in the world are found along this coast in Wismar and nearby Stalsund and Luebeck. Their Gothic Brick architect got these three Baltic ports listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Beautiful Baltic beaches draw hordes of Germans north to these UNESCO towns in summer, but tourists can be found roaming Wismar’s charming old town all year.

The warm look of the red-brick structures is further enhanced by the warm atmosphere in the cafés, hotels, retail shops, museums, apartments and restaurants housed behind the walls.

A favourite pastime of locals and visitors is to stroll along Wismar’s narrow harbour and buy smoked fish sandwiches directly off the fishing boats that just landed the catch. Locals are still relishing the fact they can stroll along their harbour. In Wismar’s Communist days nobody was permitted near the harbour without official business documents. The Stasi (secret police) closely watched the area in case somebody tried to escape this workers’ paradise in a small boat.

Freedom awaited not very far across the water. Denmark, Finland and Sweden are not only close neighbours on the Baltic, they are like blood brothers.

Wismar was part of Sweden for 200 years until 1903 and much of its architecture is attributed to Swedish and Dutch architects and merchant traders. The Swedes built the town into one of Europe’s biggest fortresses. Some of its 700 cannons still look out on the harbour.

Wismar was a principal trading port in the Hanseatic League, an economic alliance in the Middle Ages of trading cities on the Baltic and North Seas. They were more than just trading partners. The alliance was almost a cult with strict rules about religion, marriage, laws, doing business and mutual aid. The league practically became a nation on its own.

The Swedish influence is still strongly felt in Wismar. You’re liable to see as many Swedish flags as German flags.

Being an important trading port, Wismar saw its fair share of Allied bombers overhead during WWII. It wasn’t bombed as frequently as nearby Hamburg, one of Germany’s biggest cities with one of Europe’s busiest harbours, but Wismar still displays plenty of war damage.

Two of Europe’s biggest churches were built in Wismar. They were heavily damaged during the war. Two of them are being rebuilt into their original grandeur, but that has been happening only since the fall of Communism.

St. Mary’s, built in the first half of the 13th century, was the largest red-brick church in Germany, but was heavily damaged by the last raid of the war on Wismar. In 1960 it was dynamited again by the Communists when locals started dreaming of rebuilding it.

Only its 80-metre tower still stands. It remains an important landmark for the fish boats returning from the Baltic.

This article was originally published as a Special to the Toronto Star, Thu., Nov. 11, 2010.

 

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