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German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter IV

May 23-25, 2003

TRIER and REIL
Butzen Family History

Reil, Sunday, May 25

Today’s breakfast fruit juice looked exactly like a bottle of wine! It seems the Arns also bottle fresh white grape juice and it was a tasty addition to Martina’s good breakfast.

Rainer Arns picked us up at his son’s home about 9:00 a.m. and we started off for Mass at a church that is part of a Carmelite Cloister, in Springiersbach, a few miles north of Reil, in the uplands bordering the Mosel River valley.

We ascended the narrow, steep road that switch backed up the hill, through the vineyards. Rainer stopped by some of his vineyards where the grape vines were well leafed out. When we asked if the grapes could be picked with machine, he said yes, but it is much cleaner to do it by hand--eliminating items such as bird nests from the grapes. They hire pickers for the harvest. It was almost breathtaking to look straight down from the road, through the long rows of grapes stretching almost to the river below. Wow! The slope is so much steeper from this bird’s eye view, than when seen from the village below. No place for anyone with a tendency to vertigo.

But, wouldn’t you know…according to Rainer, the quality of the grapes is much better when they are grown on these steep hillsides, rather than on the flatter areas below. When we asked Rainer how they could cultivate the grapes on the steep hillsides, he said it was because they were born with one leg shorter than the other! Rainer admitted that as you grow older, it gets very hard to work on the steep slopes.

The car finally negotiated the last switch back, the road crested the ridge and we found ourselves in rolling, wooded country. Rainer said that (probably in former times) the farmers of Reil would grow hay for their cattle in this upland, but the cattle stayed down in the village. Generally, a family would keep just a couple cows.

More evidence of the Roman occupation here: when they dug a gas pipeline to bring natural gas down here from the Netherlands, they uncovered an old Roman castle in the valley we were driving through.

We came into the small community of Springiersbach which contains the Carmelite Cloister and a beautiful Baroque church whose history goes back 900 years. In earlier times, this was an Augustinian monastery, very rich and powerful, with large landholdings. There was a hospice at the monastery and a little castle to protect the people. And, long before the religious order settled in Springiersbach, this must have been a Roman settlement. They found 400 Roman coins when digging around the cloister.

Website for the cloister and church: http://www.kroevmosel.de/uk/springiersbach.htm

Back in the mid-1700’s, the present church was constructed. An ancestor of Rainer, with the surname of "Arl" was the sculptor of some of the confessionals and the beautiful statues surrounding the altar. The Arns have long, long ties to this church. One of the godfathers of some of the Arns was the Abbot at the monastery in 1647.

Mass would not start for about 45 minutes, so Rainer gave us a quick look inside the church before driving on to the edge of nearby dense woods, part of a huge "Waldpark," belonging to the state, that stretches off as far as our eyes could see. There was a little entrance gate to the park, with covered picnic area. Apparently the park is a hunting preserve, and it is very expensive to go a' hunting in the woods.

Rainer said that in very distant times, there was a small settlement here near the cloister to protect the people from the Germans. Rainer once took a professor from Trier into the woods where there is evidence of old Roman ruins and they found a Roman coin. Later, I remarked to Rainer that we must all be descended from the Romans. He bristled at that suggestion, immediately declaring, "No! We were here long before the Romans. We are Celts!"

This church at Springiersbach reminded me of the one in Austria that was used for the wedding scene in "Sound of Music." Amazing, to find such a magnificent church, pretty much out in the woods, far from any city or town of significant size.

A special Men’s Choir from Wuppertal sang during the Mass today. It was a very impressive service and again, as in the little Evangelical Lutheran church in Zapel, in Mecklenburg, we felt privileged to be part of the activities of the local people. Reil is about 3 kilometers away, but according to Rainer, the Reil villagers have always come up to this church to worship, as well as at the church in the village. It would have been a tough climb with horse and wagon to get to this church, at the top of that steep, winding road!

On our return, we checked our slowly-drying laundry and then walked into Reil for Sunday dinner at the Linde restaurant recommended by all the Arns.

The Gosslers arrived right at 2 p.m. Arnold Gossler and his wife live on the south side of the Mosel River, in the village of Liesenich, which is in the uplands above the river valley. If you live in the uplands on the north side of the Mosel River, you live in the "Eifel" and if, like the Gosslers, you live in the southern highlands, you live in the "Hunsrück."

They gave us a very nice tour of the little towns and villages along the Mosel, downstream from Reil to Cochem--a most picturesque stretch of the river. We drove through "Zell" whose main claim to fame is its "Black Cat" wines. Only in Zell can you label your wine with the Black Cat which is known in the USA as a very good brand.

The Mosel appears to be a tranquil stream and we found out the reason for that when the Gosslers took us to St. Aldegund where one of the several dams on the river is located. With the river supporting so much river traffic, locks are a necessity and we went out to a viewing platform by the locks to watch a long, long barge be slowly lifted up to the next level of the river.

Next, we drove to Beilstein, a tiny village with picturesque shops and a church perched up the hill, 100 steps away. On any weekend, the number of tourists in Beilstein way outnumber its 150 or so residents!

We looked at the little shops, tucked into narrow alleys, then posed at the bottom of those 100 steps, trying to look like we had just descended from the top. Far, far above the village is a most romantic-looking castle ruin, once owned by the powerful Metternich family of Austria.

We had a pleasant "kaffee break" along the way, at an elegant restaurant perched high above the river. The Gosslers indulged in some of those wonderful German desserts that are way too beautiful--and they taste just as good, darn it. (Notice, I didn’t say they were cheap.) Karen and I declined, settling for just coffee, but I regretted that decision as soon as I saw what was on the Gosslers’ plates.

The Gosslers saved the best of the Mosel for last--Cochem, just the epitome of "cute and darling" Situated on the Mosel River with a castle on the hilltop above, a beautiful church with a triple onion dome, narrow little cobblestone streets,…Cochem has it all. And, ALL the Mosel river tour boats stop here for awhile. The town was full of tourists on this pleasant Sunday afternoon. We could see why Bruno and Marlene Kemmerich are charmed by the Mosel Valley and love to come here on their holidays.

We strolled through the narrow streets, lined with tourist shops. One souvenir was new to us--mini tee shirts to put over the neck of a wine bottle. They had various sayings printed on the little shirts, "Happy Birthday, Thanks," etc. We were very taken with these, but said, "Aw, we’ll see them everywhere else and will buy one later on." Wrong! We never saw them again. Cochem has figured out that the average tourist will NOT climb the steep hill up to the picturesque castle, so they provide (at a price) a van shuttle to the top. And, it was doing a good business too.

From Cochem, we retraced our route back to Beilstein, then went up, up the side of the valley, heading for the Gossler’s home in Liesenich. When we breasted the top of the hill, both Karen and I said, "Wow!" For, suddenly, the view opened up and it seemed that we could see forever, across the highlands of the region. After being down in the bottom of the Mosel river valley, it was a pleasure for the eyes to be able to see so far. I think we both felt we could even breathe easier up here. A very rural-looking region, with fields, forest, hills and valleys. We both agreed we’d want to live in the Hunsrück if we had a choice.

Herr Gossler worked right in his home village, as a banker, until his retirement. They have a most pleasant home, probably only a few blocks from the center of the village, but Liesenich is small enough that they can have an ample-size yard, big vegetable garden, and a lovely garden pool, which is Frau Gossler’s personal hobby, she said. And, one of their children and their family live right next door. Like the other homes we have visited on this trip, the Gosslers have a sun porch attached to their living room, and through its glass windows they have at least a 180-degree view of the beautiful highlands beyond.

Herr Gossler showed us his study, with computer and an impressive array of binders holding his research on those emigrants who left Liesenich in the 1850’s.

His walls were covered with maps of the USA and South America. Like the Arns, the Gosslers have traveled to South America to visit German emigrants who ended up on that continent. Frau Gossler did not accompany Arnold on his trip to the USA last fall. It obviously was a very successful trip for him and must have added much to his research on those 19th-century emigrants.

This website has a letter from Herr Gossler (in English) about the "forced migration" from the Mosel area. http://www.umstead.org/koblenzemigrants1852.html

Frau Gossler fixed us a delicious light supper of English muffins, topped with white cheese, ham slices and pineapple chunks. She warmed it up in the microwave oven. I think we had seen this same dish on restaurant menus with a name that included "Hawaii" but we never realized what it was. Very good.

After the Gosslers brought us back, we started toward the ice cream store in Reil, but enroute, we thought we should check in with Rainer Arns. We had said we would do so while with Gosslers, but there never was a chance.

We never made it to the ice cream store! The Arns were happy to see us again, and invited us in for wine, nibbles and more conversation. Rainer is a rapid speaker, and it really taxed Karen’s translator abilities to keep up with him and also give me at least brief one-sentence summaries of what he had just been relating in German. But, Rainer and Hannelöre had lots of interesting things to tell us, and we will always appreciate that Rainer took us to that beautiful church for Mass.

Some of the other information that Rainer shared with us during our conversations:

On his own family:
Rainer has 3 sons and 3 daughters. One lives on the border with Luxembourg. Another in Wurzburg has wine property. Others are in Trier and Bremen. One daughter is a teacher, as is her husband. Rainer said they have so many teachers in the family--they could make a small school!

One of Rainer’s direct ancestors was killed in Napoleon’s army when he was 50 years old. He left nine children. That ancestor wrote a journal about being in Napoleon’s army. He died in Dec. 1813. Hannelöre showed us a huge array of family history clippings, funeral cards, etc. Rainer indicated that at some time in the past, his family has had connections to the local nobility.

On the emigration of so many people from the Mosel Valley in the 1800’s:
From 1600 - 1700, there weren’t too many people along the river. Disease, such as cholera kept the population in check. But, after 1700 there was a population explosion. Then, in the early 1800’s when Napoleon came back from exile and started to rebuild his empire, there was a terrible war and bad times in the Mosel area. There was no industry, nothing for people to do. Along the Mosel everyone was pretty much involved in wine production, but wine is a luxury item, and with the general poverty there was no market for their wine. And, under Napoleon, things did not get better. According to Rainer, Napoleon made a big mistake--he made a law that you must divide your estate among ALL of your children and many families had ten children. After the division of estates, some pieces of land were as small as 3/5 of an acre, too small to support a family and too small to operate with farm machinery.

There were too many poor people, and many had to emigrate. Peter the First (in Brazil) had an Austrian wife and Brazil did a lot of advertising for Germans to emigrate to that country. Peter II also married an Austrian woman. At one time, ten per cent of Brazil was German emigrants. In Brazil, the emigrants stayed together, marrying within the German group. The grandparents over there don't speak Portuguese; they still speak the dialect of the Mosel Valley. [Rainer Arns’ and Herr Gossler’s explanations of the 1850’s migrations certainly agree.]

On the Arns relatives in North and South America:
Nicholas Arns was their relative who went to Brazil (probably in the 1840‘s or 1850‘s). In 1990, Rainer and his wife went to Brazil, Paraguy and Argentina to visit their relatives. They still exchange letters with the people in Brazil. Their South American relatives have huge farms there, some grow rice. Some live near La Plata River. They alternate rice and grazing grass for their cattle. Some live near Curitiba, at a higher, more pleasant elevation. Others live in the cities; one is a professor of German. Rainer showed us a picture of one Arns who was a cardinal in Brazil--he had a picture of the cardinal taken in Rome in 1970.

After the Civil War in the United States many also emigrated to the USA--to the big cities, like Chicago, Detroit, etc. Rainer had a list of those who emigrated to Brazil after 1824. (It was a long list). He didn’t have a similar list for USA emigrants.

On World War II:
Rainer did not have to fight in WWII; he got his draft letter right at the end of the war. We never learned the ages of Rainer and Hannelöre, but they are probably in their mid-70’s. Rainer’s father was in the war, and Hannelöre’s brother was killed in the war. We asked whether Reil was ever bombed. Yes, the bridge across the Mosel at Reil was bombed in the last months of the war.

On genealogy records for Reil:
When Napoleon came into this area, he took everything from the churches and cloisters, selling their property at auction. He created a big warehouse in Trier where the church property was stored. The church records prior to 1800 are in old German and hard to understand. After 1800 Napoleon required that all records be kept in the civil offices. So, genealogy records are split up between the older church records and the later civil records and it is not easy to compile a complete family history. But, somebody has done this and created a "Family Book." Both Rainer Arns and Arnold Gossler appeared to have similar books, apparently listing all the families in the Mosel Valley, by village or town. The Reil Family Book covers the period 1632 to 1800. It was by comparing entries in this "Reil family book" with the genealogy charts we brought with us, that we could make the connections between the Arns and the Butzens.

Name of the book: Familienbuch Reil (mit Burg), A-M, Ma-Z. 1632-1800. By Jens Kalfelz, Münster and Otto Münster, Bullay

REIL TO KOBLENZ

Monday, May 26

Another departure day, as we set off for Koblenz. We settled up for our room, 40 Euros per night, and then Martina drove us to Rainer Arns’ home which is very close to the train station. Rainer was still concerned that we didn’t have the Butzen-Arns genealogy quite correct, so he and Karen reviewed all the listings in his books, and they found the missing links. Karen made careful notes from Rainer’s histories and I’ll have to do a major revamping of my Butzen entries in the Family History Maker computer program with all this new information.

When it was time for us to go catch the "environmental" train back to Bullay, Hannelöre walked up to the station with us and waited until we took off.

At Bullay we took a train heading down the Mosel River to Koblenz. A pretty, sunny day and the train tracks stayed close to the river almost all the way to Koblenz, so we got a good look at more picturesque villages and those incredible vineyards, clinging to the steep hillsides above us. Sometimes we saw huge drain pipes coming down through the vineyards--managing runoff and preventing erosion in the rainy season must be a major job.

The train made a stop at Cochem, and while waiting there, we spied a river cruise ship passing by, with its decks crowded with tourists. Karen couldn’t resist the chance to have some fun with the German language, saying (about the tourists on the boat), "Well, there they go, fahrting along the Mosel." "Fahrt" means journey, or travel in German…doesn’t come out quite the same when used in an English sentence!

The Arns have their own website, and links to more information about the Mosel Valley.

Click here for a website with more Reil information

This is the end of the chapter on Trier and Reil, and Butzen family history.

An Appendix with emigration documents and information on the Butzens follows.

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