Ansbach, Bavaria, Germany

[Big Frank]

My roommate from Germany 44 years ago, who lives in Bay City, MI reminded me that it's a Sister City to Ansbach, Bavaria, Germany. That's where our Division Headquarters was. Ansbach was home to the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division (United States) about 20 years, from 1972 to the early 1990s. Developed in the 8th century as a Benedictine monastery, it became the seat of the Hohenzollern family in 1331. In 1460, the Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach lived here. The city has a castle known as Margrafen–Schloss, built between 1704 and 1738. Here's what it looked like in the 17th century. And Martin Luther Square, with the Church of St. Gumbertus in the background, in modern times.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansbach#

I don't think I ever heard about the Wolf of Ansbach. It was a man-eating wolf that attacked and killed an unknown number of people in the Principality of Ansbach in 1685, then a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Initially a nuisance preying on livestock, the wolf soon began attacking children. The citizens of Ansbach believed the animal to be a werewolf, a reincarnation of their late and cruel Bürgermeister (Mayor) Michael Leicht, whose recent death had gone unlamented. During an organized hunt, the locals succeeded in driving the wolf from a nearby forest and chasing it down with dogs until it leaped into an uncovered well for protection. Trapped, the wolf was slain, and its carcass paraded through the city marketplace. It was dressed in a man's clothing and, after severing its muzzle, the crowd placed a mask, wig, and beard upon its head, giving it the appearance of the former Bürgermeister. The wolf's body was then hanged from a gibbet for all to see until it underwent preservation for permanent display at a local museum. If I knew that I would have gone and seen it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_of_Ansbach

[Majer]

My Opa came from Schopfloch which is a municipality in the district of Ansbach

[Big Frank]

I never heard of it, but when I looked it up found a site that said Schopfloch is situated near Freudenstadt on the high plateau of the Northern Black Forest. Wikipedia says Schopfloch is a municipality in the district of Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located in the northern part of the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). Schopfloch consists of three communities: Schopfloch, Oberiflingen and Unteriflingen. And another Wikipedia page says Schopfloch is a municipality in the district of Ansbach in Bavaria in Germany. It is the home of Lachoudisch, a rare Hebrew-infused German dialect. So there are 2 cities in 2 neighboring states with the same name. It happens all the time in the U.S. but I haven't seen it much in other countries. Schopfloch is only a 20 mile drive from Ansbach, and Illesheim, where I was, is 18 miles from Ansbach. It's cool knowing right where your relatives came from. I'm not even sure exactly where my grandparents are originally from, just where they ended up.

Baden-Württemberg is the furthest SW state in Germany, and Bavaria, right next to it, is the furthest SE state. Schopfloch is located on the Romantic Road between the towns of Feuchtwangen and Dinkelsbühl in a landscape surrounded by meadows and forests on a gently sloping valley slope of the Wörnitz River. The town is located in western Middle Franconia; it is only a few kilometers from Baden-Württemberg's district of Schwäbisch Hall. The municipal area includes the districts of Dickersbronn, Lehengütingen, Schopfloch, and Waldhäuslein. The Schopfloch district has an area of ​​4,336 km². It is divided into 1,675 parcels of land, each with an average area of ​​2,588.79 m². In addition to the eponymous village, it includes the municipal districts of Buchhof, Deuenbach, Neumühle and Rohrmühle. Schopfloch borders the town of Feuchtwangen to the north, the municipality of Dürrwangen to the east, and the major district town of Dinkelsbühl to the south. The borders of Dinkelsbühl and Feuchtwangen meet in the west of Schopfloch.

My favorite bars to go to, besides on the ones post and in town, were in Wiebelsheim to the NW of Illesheim and Bad Windsheim to the NE. Wiebelsheim only has 500-600 people living there, but Bad Windsheim has almost 13,000. A city that big has it's own brewery, so we drank a lot of the local beer. Most people I knew drank Bad Windsheimer Burgerbrau, but my roommates and I drank Alt Windsheimer Kiliani. It was a Dunkel (dark) beer, as dark as a cup of espresso.

Dunkels were the original style of the Bavarian villages and countryside, and it was the most common style at the time of the introduction of the Reinheitsgebot (1516). As such, it is the first "fully codified and regulated" beer. Its ABV is rarely higher than 5.5%, and it has low bitterness, a distinctive dark color, and a malty flavor. Dunkel is brewed using lager yeasts. Lighter-colored lagers were not common until the later part of the 19th century when technological advances made them easier to produce. The only place I ever got beer in a can instead of a bottle or mug was at the bowling alley. They had Tucher Ubersee Export beer from Upper Bavaria, located in the southern portion of Bavaria. It had different kinds of scenery on all the cans. They were 330ml, about 11.2 ounces, instead of 500ml, 16.9 ounces like bottles. My stein held 9 cans of beer and my friend's stein held 15. That's a whole case of beer in 2 steins. Some of up would go to the bowling alley and get a Totino's (or similar) cheap pizza and drink beer, but never bowled. If you go to a German festival nowadays, you may just meet the perfect woman, one you can rest your beer on top of their head.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot