A German Village on American Soil 



How the homesick sailors of the interned ships built 

 a real little town with all German conveniences 



T 



An interned German and 

 his flock of neutral ducks 



^HE German 

 village at 

 the Nor- 

 folk, Virginia, 

 navy yard is no 

 more, and the 

 whole South is 

 the sufferer 

 thereby. 



Ever since the converted 

 German cruisers, Kron- 

 prinz Wilhelm and Prinz 

 Eitel Friedrich, were in- 

 terned at Norfolk the 

 German village flourished 

 within the confines of the 

 navy yard. But several 

 weeks ago the order . 

 came from Washington 

 to remove the big ships 

 to the Philadelphia 

 navy yard. It was sad 

 news for the one thou- 

 sand members of the 

 crew who had built with 

 painstaking labor the 

 many houses which con- 

 stituted perhaps the 

 oddest village ever seen 

 in this country. They 

 took their transfer 

 bravely, however. They 

 tore down their houses, 

 packed the lumber and 

 fittings aboard ship and transported the 

 lot, including themselves, to Philadelphia. 

 Now they are busy erecting a newer and 

 bigger German village in the Philadelphia 

 navy yard. 



Built in front of their ships on a little 

 strip of land set apart for them by the 

 United States Government, the village 

 was amazingly complete. The houses 

 were painted red, green, or blue, and some 

 all three colors. The roofs were of straw, 

 except some of the more elaborate, which 

 were shingled. At each window of the 

 houses hung freshly-starched curtains, and 

 over the doorways appeared picturesque 

 names and sayings, either suggestive of 

 the war or of German folklore. The gar- 

 dens in front of the houses were surround- 

 ed by fences, some of which were original 



P.illllk?r 

 IHI 



A Dutch windmill and flower gar- 

 den was one of the sightliest places 



enough in design to set a future style in 

 such enclosures. 



But the German seamen were not content 

 with merely raising flowers. In their spare 

 time they planted oats, barley, radishes, cu- 

 cumbers, tomatoes and many other vegeta- 

 bles, each gardener trying to surpass his 

 neighbor in the variety of products. 

 Thousands of sun flowers reared 

 their yellow heads above the 

 garden vegetables and gave 

 the village a truly rural 

 complexion. 



Plans for the German 

 village were worked out 

 long before the sailors 

 knew where they would 

 be located. During a 

 long winter's session 

 they perfected plans for 

 their village. They 

 made tools out of such 

 materials as happened 

 to be at hand. 



The animal mascots 

 aboard the ships — ani- 

 mals rescued from ships 

 that were sunk — were 

 taken ashore and given 

 real homes in the vil- 

 lage. There were goats, 

 black pigs from the 

 tropics, rabbits, birds, 

 dogs and cats innumer- 

 able. In the officers' garden a fish pond 

 was built and trout _«^. and carp, their 



A picture of domesticity itself — the 

 telegraph station minus the telegraph 



