Cherry Train

inventory number: w0033
1948
Drawings coloured

Apart from the procurement of housing the provision of food was crucial for survival in the post war period. That is why the inhabitants of the city regularly went to the rural areas around the city by train or even walked in order to acquire food. This activity was called stockpiling or hoarding. In the time before the currency reform in 1948 the money had no value at all. That is why a lot of bartering took place, e.g. silverware, jewelry or other valuables were bartered in order to get food. The pen-and-ink drawing shows a scene with one of these hoarding trains. The travelers return with baskets full of cherries from the area around the little town of Gräfenberg, one of Germany´s biggest cherry producing areas, to Nuremberg. This drawing today is an important contemporary evidence.