Childhood dreams

“Tell me about paradise”

On both sides of the Rhine: where is paradise now, where have people done everything right?(Bild: Kenny Vogt)

In his childhood, author Robert Schneider dreamed of paradise - until he saw it. A memory of summer-melted chocolate and weird street sweepers. 

When our village street was still a gravel road, I became friends with Hermann, the street sweeper. Hermann wasn't so particular about the truth. For him, fibbing was a matter of course. That made people feel insecure. As soon as he opened his mouth, the world as my father saw it, for example, became a different world. It was also mean, unjust and dishonest, but it was full of wondrous events that fired my childish imagination.