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German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter III    
May 16 - 20, 2003

MECKLENBURG
Von Pressentin Family History - Prestin

Friday Afternoon, May 16 - Prestin Church & Chapel

The Prestin church was built in 1270 and is still in use, with services held every three weeks -- one pastor serves several small villages in rotation.

Friedrich-Franz and Chris gave us a tour of both the church and chapel. While the chapel is the sole responsibility of the von Pressentin Family Association, the church restoration is part of a government project.

Here are Chris and Friedrich Franz standing in the church by the gated pews. The von Pressentin family at one time had a private side entrance which gave direct access to their pews. There was probably once a balcony where the family would sit.

The Altar screen is a late Renaissance work incorporating VERY old carved figures (below) from an even earlier altar. An inscription on top of the altar says that those two important ancestors, plague survivors Bernd and Anna Dorothea von Pressentin, presented the altar to the church in 1697.

A lovely baptismal font, decorated with Biblical scenes is another museum-quality piece in the church. Carved from a large oak block with a brass font bowl, it was given to the church in 1856 by Adolph, the last von Pressentin to own Prestin. It replaced an even earlier baptismal font, which the von Pressentins donated to the museum in Schwerin. It is not on display, but in the museum's storage area.

My concept of "old" is constantly being revised here in Germany. The huge church bell that now hangs in a separate belfry has the date "1478" inscribed on it. In 1478, Columbus probably wasn’t yet planning his voyage to the Indies! There are also crude illustrations scratched into the bell. According to Chris, when most people were illiterate, these were a way of identifying the bell.

There were originally 3 bells hanging in the church tower. The original church tower collapsed in the "great storm" of December 8, 1703 and a small separate bell tower in front of the church was built to house them. The middle bell was removed and melted down during the "Great War" (World War I, we presume?). The small bell, uninscribed, and this large (3'6" diameter) bell still hang in the wood bell tower.

[That "great storm" must have covered a wide swath of Mecklenburg. Most of the other village churches that we saw also had their belfry in a similar structure at the base of the church.]

The chapel is now transformed inside as well as out. Once the basic work of repairing the foundation, removing the trees, replacing the roof, painting the exterior, etc. was completed, Friedrich-Franz and Chris have turned their attention to the restoration of the crypt, which is their major project for 2003. They have hand-sanded, cleaned and treated the heavy and ancient oak plank flooring covering the crypt-- they could not use a sanding machine because it would have ripped out the old hand-made nails.

They have also installed handles for lifting several of the planks to provide access to the crypt in the lower floor. At the time of our visit to the chapel, a metal ladder was the only way to reach the crypt. But later in the summer, Friedrich-Franz and Chris installed sturdy steps.

The crypt is almost filled with the caskets. Those that were at the rear, and up above the damp floor are in good shape. The ones nearer the opening have either been badly vandalized or sustained so much water damage that they are beyond repair. With my none-too-dependable knees I declined to go down the ladder, but we could clearly see some of the huge oak caskets, all painted black and adorned with coats of arms and other decorations.

This metal plate shows the coats of arms of the von Pressentins (left) and another of the noble families whose crest included the frog ("frosch").

Friedrich-Franz and Chris have installed two lighted exhibit cases in the chapel to hold the many interesting artifacts they have recovered from the crypt. A plate of dirt would be placed on top of the caskets, to represent "dust to dust." Stone eggs, like this one (to the left of the plate), which they found in the crypt, would be placed in a mother's coffin.

They found pieces from a variety of metal casket decorations, including a padlock in the shape of a bull, probably quite old, a footed glass bowl (for flowers, perhaps, or for earth), an unusual figure of the cornucopia, representing benediction, and a figure of the Grim Reaper with his scythe, pictured not as a skeleton but as a muscular, strong man.

They believe the coffin decorations probably date from the late 1700s and early 1800s; later coffins were undecorated.

This fall, Friedrich-Franz and Chris will again hold the biennial family reunion in the Prestin area. So, they feel a certain pressure to have all in readiness at the chapel for that event. I think they have a very busy summer ahead of them!