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This bookstore has become a beacon of specialized literature
for me.
A photo of Toblach Airfield from 1915.
My friends posing for a live picture at the same aerodrome
109 years later.
Honza Kaše (second from left), one of my gurus on World War
I topics, visited Schmidt's with me once more in June. Gabi and
Uwe took this selfie with us as a memento.
At the beginning of June, I returned from
a short vacation with two friends. We spent
a few days in South Tyrol, where both of
my friends, newly retired, participated in
a marathon that started in Cortina
d'Ampezzo and finished in Dobbiaco
(Toblach). As the youngest member of our
group, I served as the driver during the
race, responsible for spare shoes, drinks
or chocolate, and other support tasks. Not
only am I unable to run the way my older
friends can, but from the photos taken
during this holiday, I discovered with great
horror that I need to lose a lot of weight.
Of course, my friends couldn't escape my
aviation history hobby, so I made them pose
for a photo as a live painting at Toblach
airfield. They imitated a well-known
photograph from the early summer of
1915, showing a Pfalz A.I from the Bavarian
Feldflieger Abteilung 9 at this aerodrome.
The aircraft was painted red and white to
give the impression that it was an Austro-
Hungarian aircraft. Although the German
Empire was not yet at war with Italy at that
time, FFA 9b was carrying out bombing
raids on Italian targets with such painted
aircraft.
I must also mention that, thanks to my
friends' foresight, I acquired a publication
on the air war over the Dolomites in a shop
at Passo di Falzarego.
But to get back to the topic of returning
from vacation, we stopped in Munich
on our way to Prague. I visited my
favourite bookstore, Christian Schmidt
Fachbuchhandlung, to pick up the books
I had ordered. My order was perfectly
prepared, but Uwe, who works there with
Gabi Schmidt, gave me a shock. He informed
me that at the end of August this year, after
more than half a century, their store would
be closing. I was left staring at him with my
mouth agape, and the information that they
were having a discount on books because of
it didn't make me feel much better.
After all, Schmidt's bookstore isn't just
any bookstore. It specializes in vehicles,
military equipment, and military history.
For decades, it has been literally a beacon
in this field of literature for fans worldwide.
This bookstore is not only a symbol of
reliability and honesty, but the books are
always packed with extraordinary care for
their journey to clients.
I first learned about this bookstore in the
late '80s when Rudolf Waniek, the head of
our model club, showed me Schmidt's book
catalogue. It was filled with titles from all
over the world, each with short and very
concise descriptions. As soon as the Iron
Curtain fell, I went to the bookstore with
my friends from the club. We drove a Škoda
120, so you can imagine that it was a long
but not very comfortable drive. At one point,
we were even overtaken by a deer while
driving uphill. It was only then that we
realized the engine was running on just
three cylinders.
The bookstore made me feel like a kid
in a candy store. My heart danced. For the
first time, I was able to browse through
the Model Art publications and bought
a few with the German marks I had saved.
By that time, I was already very focused
on Japanese aviation history.
Later I went to the bookstore with my
friend Vašek Knotek, my classmate from
Japanese at the State Language School.
We took a small bus from Prague to Munich
Central Station. We then walked about
8 kilometers to the bookstore, to save
money to invest in books. With the advent
of credit cards, which happened quite soon,
everything became easier and parcels
began to travel from Munich to Prague.
With the introduction of the internet, the
Christian Schmidt bookshop website was
also launched. Its content was identical
to the catalogue, which quite logically
stopped being published after a few years.
Yet I still have a few of them in my collection.
But most importantly, thanks to this
bookstore, I have a large number of
publications from which I continuously draw
information for myself and my colleagues.
For those who have not visited this
bookstore, it is now probably obvious why
I will miss it so much. For me, too, it was
a beacon in my segment of the book market.
To the Schmidt family and the other people
who have cared for their clients for more
than half a century, thank you very much.
And now I don't know where I'm going to
buy books. Sometimes books come to me
from Amazon with shoddy packaging and
damage that could never happen with the
Schmidts.
SAD RETURN FROM VACATION
Text: Jan Bobek
INFO Eduard140
July 2024