Chapter 12: Ellse

With the reunification of Germany, and the gradual breakup of the Soviet Union, the role of the British Army Of the Rhine (BAOR) was under review. It didn't make much difference to 1st Green Jackets; we still had manoeuvres and schemes to take part in, and we continued with the training already scheduled, which had been designed to combat an attack by the USSR, a now non-existent foe.

I was far too busy for the next 2 weeks in getting my platoon into shape for a forthcoming exercise, to either phone home, or visit Greta. The fact was I never intended telephoning home ever again.- I was finished with Miriam. When she had said those terrible things about the Argie all the love that I had felt for her had turned into a bitter, corrosive hatred. How close an emotion is love to hate?

As for Greta; well it was true that I was attracted to her, and would enjoy being shacked up with her, but for one thing. Jazzer had been between her thighs before I had. My pride wouldn't allow me to have a relationship with a woman that one of my riflemen had already shagged. This probably says more about me than anything else I might have revealed about myself in this book. It would be OK (just) to visit her as a John, but no way could I live with her as I had with Annalise. This, of course, set me to thinking about Annalise. Munster was only a couple of hours away by train, and after I had returned to barracks from the exercise I determined to go to Munster and see if she was still there.

So there I was, on a bright but cold Saturday morning in late November, sat on a Deutsche Bundesbahn train heading for Munster. I had no idea what I would say or do if Annalise was still working in that bar. I was half hoping she would be there, and half hoping she wouldn't. We would have both changed from how we had been in 1987-what if we didn't like the people we had become?

Of course, in those intervening years the Berlin Wall had come down, Germany was in the process of reuniting, the Soviet Union was splitting up, and the Warsaw Pact had been wound up.

I remembered watching on TV as Berliners flocked to the Wall, during that climactic November of 1989. Pippa, of course, was certain that people power would bring down the Wall and reunite Germany. I had kept my mouth shut as I thought it would all end in tears and bullets. I was pleased to be proved wrong.

As time went on, with the gradual loosening of the Soviet Union's hold on it's 'satellite' states, and the movement in Northern Ireland towards a peace settlement, Pippa became ecstatic, seeing a new world order arising from the ashes of the Cold War. Once again I kept a zip on my lips. I was sure it wouldn't take too long before we would find another war to keep us occupied, and this time I was proved to be correct.

Nothing seemed to have changed much in Munster, at least not in the area around the railway station. However, as I made my into the centre of town, where the bar had been situated, I saw that several old buildings had been replaced with gleaming glass and steel edifices. More banks, and more restaurants and bars, showed that Germany was doing OK. Well, at least West Germany was. By all accounts East Germany was going to need plenty of Deutschmarks to drag itself into the 20th Century.

I arrived in the street where the old bar had been situated. For the life of me I couldn't recall it's name, nor the name of the knocking shop next door to it.

There was a gleaming, neon signed, shiny new, bar/restaurant/club sitting in the place where that old bar and brothel used to be, and the name of the establishment had me gasping with surprise.-'Davey's Trommel'– which in English means Davey's Drum.

I went in and realised that Davey's Trommel was a brothel- cum- bar and restaurant, but a much more upmarket sort of establishment than the Copper Kettle. It had the same long bar against one wall, tables with telephones, lights and menus, and even a plush carpeted stairway leading to an upstairs area where the girls plied their trade. The large restaurant, which was situated where there had once been two houses alongside the original bar, was a new development.

It was only about 11am but already there was a scattering of customers at the tables and bar. The waitresses were dressed in a sort of Bavarian costume, which gave prominence to their out- thrust and straining breasts. Their dirndl style skirts were wide and short, and swished as they moved between the tables. Most of the girls were blonde and blue eyed, and I assumed, judging by their attributes and general demeanour, that they were also on the menu. Other similarly dressed girls were sat up at the bar, like taxis in a rank waiting to be hired.

Sat on a high stool behind the bar, not serving drinks but obviously in charge of proceedings was Ellse. When she saw me she gave a great shout of 'Davey!' She jumped off the stool, ran from around the bar, and leaping into my arms planted a wet sloppy kiss full on my lips. I tasted schnapps, her lipstick and her tongue; and it all tasted good.

For a while we just stood with arms entwined and hugging. I hadn't realised how much I had missed Ellse. There had always been some sort of sexual buzz between us. She would have shagged me back then, but I couldn't see past Annalise, and I think it was this that made her so provocative towards me, always teasing me with her looks, stroking my hair whenever she went past me, and promising unlimited sexual delight in her whispered come- ons.

She'd put on a bit of weight since I last saw her, but she was still a very attractive woman. Those flashing eyes were just as seductive; her tits may not have been as firm but were just as prominently displayed. She was dressed in a similar garb to the waitresses. Her skirt was not quite as short as the girls, but her blouse top was cut as low.

"Come, Davey, we'll go into my office."

She led the way, and I admired the sway of her hips and the roll of her arse as she led me across the floor to an office in the corner of the room.

The office was large, with a roll top desk, a well stocked bar, and a chaise lounge set in one corner. Ellse poured herself a drink, offered me the same (I refused, it was a bit too early for me) and sat down at the desk. She motioned me into an easy chair on the other side of the desk.

"Well, Davey, I knew you couldn't keep away from me." She smiled as she said it and leaned forward so I could get a good eyeful of her breasts, and very nice they were, too.

"I know you've really come to see Annalise, but she's in the East, she left a few days after the Wall came down." Ellse took a sip from her glass. "Things are so much different from when you were here last. Half of my girls are from the East. They work for less than the West German girls and don't cause me so much trouble." She drank the rest of her drink, and put down the empty glass.

"I will tell you what's happened to Annalise, but first I need to tell you how I met her, so you will have to listen to my story first."

With that she poured herself another drink and told me her story.

She had been born in a small town about 10 miles from Munich; her father was a baker and Ellse was the youngest of three children. She was a precocious child, who by 10 knew all about the birds and the bees, and by 13 had shagged half the male population of her town. She had found out early in her life that not only did she liked fucking but she was also very good at it.(Which she still does, and is!)

Her family, who were strait-laced, and devout church goers, were appalled at this Jezebel they had spawned, and aged 14 Ellse was sent to her aunt in Munich, in order to protect the family from any further shame that she might cause them in the small provincial town where they lived. Munich was far away, and what Ellse got up to in Munich would remain there, including any babies!

Once in Munich, Ellse took to fucking big time, and soon became the mistress of a USAF officer, a Major no less, and she fucked his middle aged brains out. When he was posted back to the States she was handed on to his replacement, and for the next 4 years Ellse was a kept woman, courtesy of the taxpayers of the US of A.

What Ellse wasn't was a one man woman, and besides her sugar daddies (always men in their 40's) she had a string of younger men who, if not actually paying for her favours, certainly shelled out a lot of money for her company. As Ellse herself put it, 'It took at lot of Deutschmarks to make my belly go up and down!'

She then met an American, with whom she fell in love, bad news for the men who hung around her like flies around a cow's arse, but also bad news for Ellse, as the man was a bastard of the first order. He was a supply officer, and corrupt and venal, as some are in that trade. He used Ellse as a sexual reward, to sweeten up the gangsters he dealt with, and the fellow US military men he needed to help him defraud the US government. Ellse demurred about shagging willy- nilly, but he persuaded her it was vital to him. He had no genuine feelings for her, she was just a useful spunk bucket for his criminal associates.

Ellse's supply officer was transferred to West Berlin, which offered even more opportunities for graft, fraud and embezzlement, and he soon discovered like minded, corrupt, bureaucrats in East Berlin. Ellse was then put to shagging high placed officials in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), she was still a spunk bucket, but now her shagging partners were communists not gangsters.

It was around this time that she first met Annalise, who was the mistress of an official in the GDR's Ministry of Justice. This official had a 'minder', Herr Denzig, but he didn't bear that name then. Rather, he was Hauptmann Schroeder of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. Ellse became friendly with Annalise; they would attend gala events on the arms of their respective officials, with Hauptmann Schroeder always in close attendance. Ellse couldn't tell if he was there to protect the official, or to see that Annalise didn't stray from her protector and go freelance. She discovered later that Annalise and Schroeder had arrived in East Berlin from the Dresden area together, and that they were lovers.