45 Years with NAAFI
Eveline Winkmann retired in December 2008 having worked for NAAFI since 1963! In that time she had worked in the NAAFI Bakery, the Buying department, the Furnishing department, and before retirement the Property department where she was formerly Manger of Internal Contracts. Here she was responsible for property maintenance, but as Eveline fondly remembers, it is a long way from where she started out:
“I first joined NAAFI on 22nd April 1963 when I was just seventeen years old, working in the bakery based in Krefeld” recalls Eveline, “ This is where we produced the pies, bread rolls and even wedding cakes solely for NAAFI establishments, which in those days was approximately 100 clubs and a 100 shops. We had 84 staff working and only 4 telephones so you can imagine how hectic life was, especially as we had to order all the ingredients, sort out all the invoices for production, wages, as well as making sure the goods went out accordingly! Our orders were making a value of 200,000 Deutsch Marks a week so on top of all this we also had to calculate all the profits by hand which was very tiresome believe me! I did this for 24 years and took over the bakery office shortly after the previous chief clerk retired.”
In 1986 the bakery unfortunately closed. This was due to the move to Kempen and the decision to source goods from British Bakeries U.K.
“The closing of the bakery was a difficult time for all of us, mainly because we had all put so much hard work into it! To me though, it was literally my world as I had worked there since I was seventeen! After the bakery closed down I worked in the buying office on the ‘Berlin Budget’. The Berlin Budget involved the German Senate giving us approximately 1 million Deutsch Marks per year to allocate to NAAFI establishments all over Germany and included items such as cutlery, furnishings, cars and repairs.”
During her 45 years with NAAFI, Eveline has seen a lot of change, including the fall of the Berlin Wall:
“Over the years I think that the NAAFI has changed drastically. As well as the obvious development of technology, I especially remember the fall of the Berlin Wall. When Germany lost the war, Berlin was split in four parts to the winners of the war - America, France, England and Russia. Russia claimed the largest part of Germany and controlled the border. Berlin was isolated in the middle of East Germany. People living in the East sector of Berlin tried to escape to the West, so the Russians built a high wall through the middle of Berlin on 13th August 1961. NAAFI had shops and clubs in the British part and a huge NAAFI Supermarket was built. In 1989 people in the East of Berlin were revolting and finally the wall came down, all borders opened and the Eastern section came back to Germany. There was no longer any reason for the British, Americans, French and Russians to stay, so NAAFI closed all the Shops and Clubs in Berlin - from there onwards, step-by-step, many other NAAFI sites closed in other parts of Germany.
“Memorable experiences with the NAAFI include the Imperial club at Krefeld, playing bingo on Saturday nights, trips out to the Mosel River and Amsterdam excursions on the weekend. Skiing in the German Alps in 1999 with fellow NAAFI colleagues also stands out in my mind and was great fun. Another unforgettable experience was whilst working on the Berlin Budget where I got to visit Berlin.”
Eveline’s service over the years has been nothing short of amazing and NAAFI is proud to have had such a committed and loyal employee with us for such a long time.
