Do you need that? Does that have to be included? This question wears travelers down again and again. In this section, the editors test inventions that are intended to make travel nicer or easier.
When I take the train, I often think of “Der Überpullover”, this couplet by Otto Reutter. Reutter, born in 1870, wrote a great many of these satirical songs. The one with the overcoat was dug up by Peter Frankenfeld in the post-war period. It revolves around a gentleman who has bought a coat, an overcoat. “This Paletot was a gem/And the price wasn’t that high/Forty-nine marks and eighty/Not even quite fifty marks.” and night”. Above all, when he goes into a bar, he should always take a look at it. The refrain goes like this: “Look away from the stain/Is the overcoat gone”.