Word: ndorf
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Dates: during 1953-1953
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...three cars came to a halt in the village of Rhöndorf, across the Rhine from Bonn. While they waited, a tall old man, whose face is a graven image, strode down the 53 steps leading from his villa to the street. The policemen's iron heels clicked in unison and the old man, with no smile, lowered himself into the cushions of the big Mercedes. The convoy moved off, purring through vineyards and pine woods until it came to the Autobahn and merged with the traffic flowing towards the Ruhr...
...next twelve years Adenauer was a virtual prisoner in his home at Rhöndorf. "I became a very good gardener," he says. Twice the Gestapo arrested him, but he was treated as an Ehrenschutzhäftling (honorary prisoner) and released unharmed. But Adenauer heard and saw enough of Gestapo brutality to feel bitterly ashamed of his countrymen...
...Mistake. World War II came to an end for Konrad Adenauer on a quiet Sunday morning. The U.S. 9th Armored Division broke into Rhöndorf in its drive for the Remagen bridgehead. The lead tank fired three shells in the general direction of a 69-year-old gentleman who was quietly tilling his garden in overalls and straw hat. Adenauer threw himself down and escaped with nothing worse than bruises...
...among the vineyards," said he, "not in potato fields." One by one, Adenauer ticked off the other possibilities: Berlin-"a city where the monkeys still swing from the trees"; Frankfurt-"too immoral." Adenauer plumped for Bonn, which, conveniently, was within easy commuting distance from his home in Rhöndorf. As usual, he got what he wanted...