OUR VON PRESSENTIN ANCESTORS
IN GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES

1. Websites with helpful background information

I. A website with general background on the history of Mecklenburg, role of the nobility as landowners, migration from Mecklenburg in the 19th century, etc. see: German Genealogy: Mecklenburg - Vorpommern

II. A brief historical background on Pomerania: http://www.genemaas.net/Pommern.htm

III. Dr. Bodo Koglin's website with background information on Hoelkewiese. http://hoelkewiese.de/
Dr. Koglin even has a detailed map of the lots in the village. Bernhard Friedrich's former holdings in Hoelkewiese may be shown on this map— but I haven't been able to find any specific information about what he owned or exactly where his house was located.

IV. The Skagit River Journal has published many stories about the von Pressentins who settled in the Skagit River valley in northwest Washington state.

2a. Books of Interest

The Vanished Kingdom; Travels Through the History of Prussia

Here is an excerpt from a book on the Prussians, entitled:The Vanished Kingdom; Travels Through the History of Prussia, by James Charles Roy, 1999, Westview Press. Hardback, 380 pgs.

Chapter 4, "The Knights Repulsed" Page 91, How Prussian nobility earned their money:

"The whole point was to make money, and besides farming and forestry, the military was the job through which you earned it. You were rewarded in either land or money, and as for property, it was for a long time not their property but something we call laise land, very much along the lines of leasing a car today. The Crown or the Duke or the prince or the grandmaster bestowed on somebody a certain amount of acres -- farming, forestry, including villages and so on -- and the fellow agreed to pay 1/10 of the income to whomever had given it to him. He did not own the property, he just had it, and his tenure was prolonged so long as he did a good job. He had to provide for the safety of the people and take care of Armed Forces. He was in charge of local welfare, and he collected revenues like a small king. It was his kingdom and my forebears were very successful. Often times the laiseherr -- the king or whatever -- he borrowed monies from these captains, and if he couldn't repay them….they got part of the laise land in return, and that's really how these great estates came into being and developed. Getting property for my family has always meant either being successful in war or being successful in business."

"But owning property, as we say in German , can be "a golden noose." It is great in value but little income, little cash, which is why we were always soldiers, diplomats, secretaries, or whatever, to earn the additional money. But the special thing for us is that no individual was thought to "own" the property. You inherited it, and you have to turn it over to the next generation. You're not allowed to reduce it or to sell it; it's part of the family and not be separated, in Prussia especially. In southern Germany it was each time divided between the children, so you have there small pieces, but in Prussia the aim was to buy more if you could, inherit it, or marry into it. So property was kept. You did not change your land just to get better land. What you had was part of yourself. My father always told us, "the land we have, you wouldn't rent, you wouldn't buy, you shouldn't rent, you shouldn't buy, but we have it since 800 years ago, so, children, take care!"

"We had another expression too: you can have our wives, but not our land!"

2b. Books of Interest

A Terrible Revenge, The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans
by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

Originally published 1986, revised 2006, 182 pgs., paperback. The author is a human rights specialist who worked for the UN for over 20 years as Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee. Website: www.alfreddezayas.com

From back cover: "This is the story of the ethnic Germans who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some 2 million died and 15 million were displaced--driven from their lands by those opposed to anyone and everything German. De Zayas's moving plea is that one's home should be a human right." --London Times review.

De Zayas documents how the closing phase and the aftermath of WW II saw millions of refugees and displaced persons wandering across Eastern Europe in one of the most brutal and chaotic migrations in world history. The genocidal barbarism of the Nazi forces has been well documented. What is little known is the fate of 15 million German civilians who found themselves on the wrong side of new postwar borders. All over Eastern Europe, the inhabitants of communities that had been established for many centuries (700 years) were either expelled or killed. Some of these people had supported Hitler, but the great majority did not. This new edition includes an updated foreword, epilogue and additional information from recent interviews with the children of the displaced. Disasters mentioned: (1) sinking of the refugee ship, Wilhelm Gustloff on Jan. 30, 1945. Sunk by Soviet submarine, while carrying more than 10,000 refugees. Barely 1100 were saved; (2) Destruction of Dresden by fire-bombing of 1400 British bombers on Feb. 12, 1945, followed the next afternoon by 450 US planes, both dropping incendiary and high-explosive bombs. An estimated 100,000 died and 400,000 were left homeless. At least 200,000 refugees from Silesia were in Dresden at the time. This air attack did not accelerate the end of the war by even one day. The massacre was militarily meaningless.
(3) Russians, Poles, Czechs all killed & tortured the Germans--mostly children, women and elderly men.

The author says: "The responsibility for the decision to uproot and resettle millions of human beings is also a war crime for which individuals bear responsibility." The individuals were: Winston Churchill, & Franklin Roosevelt who at the Yalta Conference gave permission for Stalin (Russia) to use the Germans as workers, in reality slave labor. This was Feb. 1, 1945. In July 21, 1945 Pres. Truman & Churchill reluctantly agreed to Stalin's demand for the transfer of the eastern Germans from restored Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

2c. Books of Interest

The Three von Pressentin Family History Books

Book I. [Title Page] History and Family Trees of Members of the Family von Pressentin (Prestin).
According to the Collection of Chief District Magistrate Karl von Pressentin at Dargun, edited by Wilhelm von Pressentin, Lieutenant in the Count Bose Infantry Regiment, (1st Thüringer) Nr. 31. Schwerin 1899. Printed by Bärensprung Press.

There are 2 Sections:

Section I: Early references to Pressentins and history from founder, Petrus (1) to the family of Bernd (37) and Anna Dorothea, who were the only two surviving von Pressentins at the time they married.
Section II: Descendants of Bernd (37) and Anna Dorothea, divided into separate Houses for each of their sons who had children. Males were re-numbered from this point on, each of Bernd's sons being #1 of their respective Houses.

 

Book II. History of the Family von Pressentin [respectively] von Pressentin called von Rautter.
Written by Klaus Gerd v. Pressentin, Lüneburg, 1935, 500+ pages.
Book II is beautiful, with photographs and extensive appendices on the various family estates. It is also huge, and all written in old-style, hard-to-decipher typeface. Apparently very few copies still exist. Karen Halliday has completed translations for direct ancestors of the North American line but translation of the remainder of the book is still "in progress."

Book III. History of the Family von Pressentin [respectively] von Pressentin called von Rautter.
Written by Klaus Gerd v. Pressentin, Hannover 1962, 203 p.
Book III covers World War II and beyond, and includes a number of dramatic stories as our relatives struggled through the war years and the aftermath

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