Bad Arolsen is the closest large town near our ancestral roots that could accommodate a tour bus. It is located in the county of Waldeck, state of Hesson.
Wes' Account:
Wow – what a pristine, crisp, clear
environment we have stumbled into. Bus travel is nice, that is, leaving driving
to a professional, but it is tiring even so. We arise at different times and
eventually get a nice breakfast and ready for the first visit in Vasbeck. The multigrain cereal together with salmon
and bree hit the spot for me. Some do not relish the raw fish for breakfast.
Yes it does go down easier with a glass of wine, but how often do we get fine
sliced salmon for breakfast in America.
When all are finally gathered after
breakfast, we meet Gilda at the bus and
begin our trek through the country side. She gives directions and gets up
pumped for the day’s activities. Steve,
Chuck and I share our experience the evening before on our scouting trip. It
was a hoot finding the people, Lydia and Phillip and meeting Stephanie Emde who
are all related to the Pestorius family in Freeborn County.
The bus driver has a difficult
challenge squeezing this behemoth vehicle through narrow streets and even
tighter gate posts to get adequate parking.
We exit the bus to find both Phillip and Fritz eagerly waiting for us to
tour the village. We start with the church and find the memorials to the
soldiers from WWI and WWII. It is aerie to see the family names that fought in
opposition to those same young lads with German family names buried in the
cemeteries in Freeborn County that we know and recognize. Stepping inside the
church we find the atmosphere to be cool, serene and peaceful.
We find inside the doors a church
historian who captivates us with tidbits of information linking families even
closer and showing us the pictures of the church in it’s damaged state after
the British bombed in WWII. Nothing else was much damaged in Vasback that day
and no one was killed. The locals seemed to have post war information
indicating that the pilot saw light below and let loose a bomb for no specific
war-related reason, as there was no fighting and no war material preparation in
this small rural community. Chuck Steele, Steve Sprenger and Roger Baer were
eagerly gathering what bits of details that could be gleaned from our cryptic
conversation across the two languages even though we had an interpreter at
times who filled in some gaps.
Many pictures were taken of the
inside of the quaint little church and when we had finished our exploration,
Bev Baer suggested and we all agreed that it would be nice to share in a short
prayer and then to have the group sing the doxology. For those of us who have
moved on with more progressive services in our respective church activities, it
was a very touching, pleasant and cherished few moments together in that
revered setting, especially singing a memorable song of reverence that brought
emotions to some.
After leaving the church this group
meandered all around the town of Vasbeck finding the houses of the Stiehl and
the Sprenger families from decades past, not necessary currently owned by these
families at all, but in that town everyone calls the building by the family
name from centuries ago. Finally we found our way back up to Lydia Emde’s house
and chatted with her for a short while. Amidst the language abyss, there was such a
warm pleasant connection with this woman who was born a Sprenger and now
carried the Emde name. Phillip was our constant guide and interpreter
sheltering us from the occasional stranger challenge from those in the village
that did not understand our strange invasion of sorts. Below are shown the Sprenger and Steele houses--both probably rebuilt or many times renovated since our ancestors:
Chuck's Perspective:
The bus arrived in Vasbeck and had to navigate a very
narrow driveway into the parking lot by the Behle farm complex. Dietmar, our
trusty driver, navigated it with great skill. The group met at the church which
was open, and was able to explore many interesting things about the church. The
church had been bombed in the later days of WWII by the British. It was
restored to its appearance before the war.
Everyone got to see the war monument to the WWI and WWII
deaths from the city of Vasbeck. Many names were the same a Pickerel Lake, Mn
families. Noticeably were the WWII list of killed in action, those that died in
prison and those that were never found.
The church pastor met us and Chuck gave the pastor a copy
of PL Concordia Luther 1951 Church dedication with a list of names of
confirmands starting in 1867. A number of those confirmands were born in
Vasbeck.
A group
picture was taken by the church. Then Phillip Embe proceeded to lead the group
around the town to see the Houses of people from Vasbeck. Sprenger, Stiehl,
Pistorius just to name a few.
Next we toured the Pistorius manufacturing company. Pistorius’s
makes doors, windows, and other high quality products for homes and office
building. Wes invited them to our Arolsen dinner the next evening.
Finally Lydia said that we would be
welcome at the Pistorius factory to meet her brother Fritz who spends time at
the workplace but has long since turned the “reins in a business sense”, over
to his son and grandson. At first we had to pass the time waiting for our
introduction as we browsed through the Pistorius showroom which featured many
different styles of doors, door frames, hinges and window frames. The quality
craftsmanship was clear to be seen.
Extremely solid and tightly sealed products were all that we saw. Then
Fritz himself finally came forth to greet us.
He grilled John Perschbacher intensely about who with the Piestorius name
from Freeborn County had been over to visit some 25 years earlier. Apparently
it was Bob, Gary and perhaps Gerry Pistorious who had made the visit. Once the connection was made, we passed the
acid test were escorted on a first class tour through the fabrication plant.
Upon exiting, Fritz gave each of us a promotional gift in the form of a
cigarette lighter that featured their marketing logo and contact numbers. Is there any resemblance between John and the Pestorius grandson below?
Lunch occurred in a small local
village nearby which featured a wonderful buffet with three hot meat dishes and
lots of salad. The fare is always tasty and has a great deal of protein meaty
products in the center of the presentation. At 2pm we arrived at the Schloss,
or the Prince’s castle in downtown Arolsen, which is very near our hotel. We
were greeted by a newspaper reporter from the local publisher for a group
picture and the updated story of our recent travels. We are definitely
celebrities in this town and we work that to the hilt. After a group picture
(again, we will have many before the end of the day) we finally get a guided
tour of this magnificent building, yellow in color, multistoried and built in a
U shape. There are carefully groomed green hedges forming unique figures with
roses planted in the bare spots within the artistic design. A similar landscape creation with different
shapes in presented also in the back of the building.
We spent an hour in the facility
with a guide struggling with her English but providing rich details about how
the Princes and Princesses, in succession from the 1600’s to the 1800’s (??)
had built up the Schloss and revealed their specific idiosyncrasies, some very
logistical, others rather ridiculous. But the structure had all the murals, the
art, the paintings and all the furnishings that were delightful to the casual
observer. Such was the sign of the times centuries ago before 1918 when the
monarchies of Germany provinces were finally outlawed and the formal power was
taken from them. A prince and his family still live in the Schloss but the
governmental power now lies with more progressive democratic processes. Many
gruesome war machines and weapons were on display in the basement of this
facility as well. A playroom with elegant child toys from the past was a
highlight among all the other formal and stodgy decorations.
We moved on to a museum in
Mengeringhausen where Gilda’s Uncle Fritz Syring at the age of 80 was
host to us for coffee, and cakes before we toured his wonderful historical
museum featuring craftsmanship of the ages in blacksmith, rope making,
cookware, pharmacy, dentistry, butchering and …..many others. He was so passionate about his work and his
display – it was a pleasure just being around his folksy ways. We then toured
an age old church in the town that was built in about the 12th century as a
catholic parish and was later converted to Evangelical about the time of the
Reformation in about 1520. Luther had
his influence all across the country in various denominations well before his
name became marque to our Lutheran faith.
Friday afternoon Joan, Chuck and Karen left the tour group to visit Manfred and Lilo Muller. Manfred is a a distant cousin of Joan and Chuck living in Helsen near Arolsen. Manfred’s mother was a Schmidt from Dehausen. Manfred went over the family history and identified a link to both Ludwig (Louis) Schmidt of Conger and Christian Schmidt of Armstrong. Both families are linked to the same grandparents Johann and Marie (Schafer) Schmidt who were married in 1780 in Dehausen. Manfred bought out pictures of the homes of the Schmidt family in Dehausen. Also discuss a Prussian war hero Christian Schmidt who saved his Lieutenant from harm and was decorated for it. It’s hard to keep the Schmidt apart. It seems a lot of the Schmidt men use the name Christian.
Manfred and Lilo have a beautiful garden with many flowers and vegetables in it. They many times eat food directly from their garden. They have a garden tea house were they occasionally have afternoon tea while working the garden.
Manfred then gave Joan, Karen and Chuck a tour of Landau were another relative Biller of the Schmidt’s came from. Landau is about 5 km from Arolsen and set on top of a very high hill. It’s a very old village that still has part of wall and gates to enter the city. The view was breath taking of the surrounding area.
This side venture was very productive in confirm heritage links.
As the evening drew to a close, we
finished up at the Das Burg castle, hotel and pub where we were served
wonderful traditional German meals of chicken, wienersnitzel, or pork steak.
Our enthusiastic discussions among various subgroups of this entourage became a
spectacle in and of itself, with sociological implications rampant. Food, food and more food, the German
tradition.
Sad to say, our wonderfully cheery
partner on the trip, John Perschbacher was not so happy from noon time on. It seems that his credit card got “eaten up”
by a money dispenser a day or two ago and then after valiant efforts by John to
use another card to get cash, poor John was turned down by two banks when all
he wanted was to exchange dollars for Euros.
I would not want to be in John’s path when he gets back to the States
and confronts somebody in a suit who had promised that he would have “no
trouble” with his bank card. We wish
John all the best and we are pulling for him in his next encounter with the
banking system. It was a little like the
bank scandal of a few years ago, all
over again for John on this fine day……
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