I RECENTLY returned from a touring holiday in Germany, where one of my first visits was to Harsewinkel, better known as the headquarters of the Claas agricultural machinery group.
After a gruelling week’s travelling, I ended up in Kassel, which was famous in former times as the base for the manufacture of the Tiger tank.
What is there in common between a 21st century combine harvester and an army tank, which is now part of history?
Both were important in their day: the modern Claas Lexion combine harvesters have brought about a revolution in the way that crops are now harvested.
One machine is now able to harvest such formidable amounts of crops in one day that it has turned harvesting into an industrial activity.
There is little human output, except in handling the massive output of one machine (although we did visit one former collective farm in the former East Germany where they had ten of these combines).
The Tiger tank was also a formidable machine in the countryside and was often able to overcome any obstacles in its path.
The factory which manufactured these tanks was in Kassel, and as a result this town was to be heavily damaged during the war.
But the purpose of our visit to Kassel was not to visit what was a former tank factory, but to spend a couple of hours cruising down the River Fulda.
If we had sailed upstream instead of downstream we would have passed the tank factory, instead of which we visited the historic town of Minden.
During our cruise we had to pass through several locks, which had been replaced in the 1950s because the original locks were probably destroyed as a result of the Dambusters Raid on the Eder dam, less than 20 miles away.
The flood from the broken dam caused substantial flooding in Kassel before dispersing down the valley of the River Weser.
The benefits of attacking the Eder dam have often been debated since the event: the River Fulda and Weser flowed east, whereas the main industries of Germany at that time were in the west in the Ruhr basin.
For me Kassel holds a special connection as it was the first German town I ever visited. Then it was during the Cold War and the town was not far from the border.
On our visit to Harswinkel, I had a rare opportunity to actually drive one of the new Claas Lexion combines. But it didn’t quite happen and I had to accept a Xerion tractor instead.
