Today, we went to a splendid breakfast in the old schoolhouse in Gruorn (“The little village that was” in my earlier blog article).

I stand corrected on what I wrote about the recent history of the place. The houses were not razed in the 1930’s, after the villagers were forced out to make room for the expansion of the military training grounds. The houses were merely left to decay.

After the end of world war II, some villagers returned to their old homes, believing that all was over now. They were joined by refugees from the eastern part of the former German Reich, now forced out of their homes by the Red Army. But in the early fifties, it became apparent that the military would increasingly use the area again, and the last inhabitants left in 1952 (by other accounts I heard, in 1956).

The buildings decayed further, were partly used for target practice, and finally in the 1970’s became so unsafe that they had to be flattened, with the exception of the church and the old schoolhouse, which had served as a storage facility all along.

Gruorn had almost died once before. At the beginning of the “30 Years War” (in 1618), the flourishing village had had over 600 inhabitants, an astounding size here on top of the Swabian Jura, which is still quite sparsely populated today. Gruorn had fertile fields and five water springs – the latter almost a miracle on this limestone mountain range where surface water is very scarce. At the end of the war, in 1648, the number of inhabitants had decreased to 82, a reflection of the unparalleled devastation which the previous three decades had brought to Germany.

But owing again to the excellent farming, the village recovered, when people from Switzerland and the Alpine Allgäu region of Germany settled here. The population peaked at 713 in the 19th century.

We also had the chance to visit the little church, which has been nicely restored. Its oldest parts date back into the eleventh century, with additions in late Gothic style finished in 1522. Some old fresco paintings remain, and the new stained glass windows in the choir are rather striking. Only two church services are held each year, and occasionally the church is used for concerts during the summer.

We decided to join the club which supports the upkeep of what remains of Gruorn, so I may occasionally report on this fascinating place in the future.