Chapter 2:
Germany (1736-1938)
How far back in time should a family history go? My decision was to go back to my great-great-great-grandparents.
This is the story of a number of families interrelated by birth and marriage into a clan. Unlike Scottish clans, they had no clan leader and they had a large number of family names. The family names of clan members that came to Canada included the Drewes, Fuhrop, Heuer, Kruse, Oelhorn, Proehl and Wischhoff families.
When the family first started leaving Germany in 1894, they were leaving a newly created country that was only 23 years old. Previously they had been citizens of the Holy Roman Empire (the Heilges Rumisches Reich, or the First Reich). This Empire was created by Pope Leo III, who crowned the Frankish (French) King Charlemagne as Emperor on December 25, 800 AD. This was the first recognized ruler of western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire 3 centuries earlier.
In 1037 AD, Emperor Conrad II established feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire. Feudalism was based on the possession of a piece of property held by an oath of allegiance between a Lord and a Beneficiary.
A ruling class was created by transferring ownership down from the Emperor to Kings to Dukes to Earls to Barons and at the bottom the peasants who worked the Hofs (farms).
The largest class of people were the peasants.
In the Germanic areas the concept of “Lehen”
Emperor Conrad II
Image from Wikimedia Commons
covered the ownership of a fief or piece of property, and its transfer between a Lord and a Benefactor. The original fiefs were declared heritable in 1037 by Conrad II. The peasants were considered part of the fief or property.
The peasants closely resembled slaves. They could not leave the area or domicile without the permission of the Lord. They had to work for the Lords and they were obligated to compulsory military service. They could be bought and sold and they were subject to corporal punishment. Punishment could include flogging, branding, mutilation and execution. Malnutrition was a constant. In winter it could extend into starvation. A third of the children died before 5 years of age. Child labor was a given. Schooling was a faraway option and in the year 1800 AD the average education was equivalent to Grade 2 today.
The number of German peasants was greatly reduced by the plague – the Black Death. Between 1348 and 1350, an estimated 50% of the population died. This loss of a workforce forced the upper class to slightly improve the living for the peasant class, with a shift from punishment to the use of an incentive or reward system.
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Martin Luther (1483–1546)
Image from Wikimedia Commons
With the spread of Martin Luther’s teachings, peasant uprisings started to occur. Martin Luther’s teachings included the concept that all men were equal in the eyes of God. This was interpreted to mean that you could not be a slave to another man. The German Peasant War of 1524-1525 became a civil war. The peasants wanted to end slavery and serfdom. They were defeated and about 300,000 peasants died.
The result was again a shortage of labor, but it resulted in the removal of some of the harshest treatment. Peasants were now able to own small plots
of land but they were required to pay an annual monetary tribute and work for the Lords. They were still captives of the “Herrschaft” (laws of feudalism) that would allow the intrusion of the church, state and nobles into their lives. They were still obligated to compulsory military service.
Families (clans) were the primary community and source of identity. Through membership in a family, a peasant had access to land, produce, and shelter. To reinforce this commitment, at the time of a baby’s baptism anywhere from 2 to 4 members of the greater family or clan would accept the role of Godparent. This was an acknowledgement of not only spiritual care, but temporal care as well. To quote Jane Howard,* “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family, whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.”
Within the peasant class, the really poor were the “house slaves” and they did not own any property. At a level above were “cottagers,” who had a small house and a small plot for a cottage garden. They still had to hire themselves out to gain subsistence. The reality was that they led a hard life.
Colored litho of the Battle of Austerlitz commissioned by Napoleon
By Carle Vernet and Jacques François Swebach
Image from Wikimedia Commons
The next big change for the peasants came during the Napoleonic Wars. In a decisive victory in December 1805 at the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon created a buffer state called “The Confederation of the Rhine”. This virtually ended the Holy Roman Empire, killing large numbers of the ruling classes and destroying their power. The previous French Revolution had been an attempt to have all people treated equally.
The defeat of Napoleon by the Russians, in the Patriotic War of 1812, would dump more chaos into the Germanic Feudal System.
The rise of Prussia as a nation state would spell the end of feudalism. The Battle of Leipzig in October 1813 ended Napoleon’s power east of the Rhine River. The combined forces of British leader Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Army led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher on June 18, 1815, in the Battle of Waterloo, would end the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1811 Prussia had emancipated the serfs and in 1815 emancipation would extend to all of Germany. This allowed peasants the right to own land. In 1831 feudalism was banished in the Kingdom of Hanover. By the year 1838 the process of turning peasants into full citizens was complete.
This now takes us to the early known family members. Yes, you can trace an ancestry through church records. What we know of them is that they were peasants struggling through life to survive.
We’ll start with a family member post-Napoleon, who was to see and live major change in his lifestyle. Christoph Heinrich Drewes was born August 17, 1771 in Sudbostel of the Dushorn Parish, and baptized August 18, 1771 in St. Johannes der Tauffer Church in Dushorn. On March 21, 1819 he married Anna Catharina Ilse Elling. Ilse was raised at Oerbke in the Fallingbostel Parish. Heinrich’s date of death is not known, possibly before 1859 and Ilse died Mar 21, 1859. Ilse supposedly died in her son, Casten Heinrich’s house in Fischendort. Heinrich and Ilse had three children, Johann Heinrich born August 22, 1820, Catherine Ilse born January 20, 1824, and Casten Heinrich born March 14, 1828. They would all be baptized in St. Johannes Der Taufer Church in Dushorn.
C. Heinrich and Ilse spent their life at Oberndorfmark. He was a farm laborer at Brock Hof, which was owned by the Wehrs family. Ilse’s clan connection to the Wehrs family provided them with a small cottage and garden. Their oldest son Johann Heinrich lived unmarried at Oberndorfmark all his life. On March 24, 1856 he would accept being Godfather to his oldest nephew Johann Heinrich Christoph Drewes, and would also pass on his name. The daughter Catherine Ilse did not marry, and spent her life as house slave at Hornbostel.
The youngest son Casten married Catharine Marie Elizabeth Ahrens on April 16, 1855. Casten and Marie would have 6 children. Johann Heinrich Christoph was born March 13, 1856; Friedrich Christoph Wilhelm January 6, 1859; Johann Heinrich Friedrich July 30, 1860 but died in infancy; Heinrich Wilhelm July 17, 1863; Georg Christoph Wilhelm February 10, 1866 and died at age 4, June 10, 1870; and Ilse Marie Dorothea September 7, 1869.
Casten and Marie and family lived at Obereinzingen, a small village that was on a line midway between Fallingbostel and Dushorn. Another small village Hanglub was nearby. Casten started out as a peasant without land, working as a farm laborer (anbauer). Both Casten and Marie passed away between 1891 and 1893.
Our story now has to detour to the northwest a couple of kilometers to Mackenthun Hof. In 1370 AD this Hof was bestowed (ribbeke) to Mackenthun. It would stay in the Mackenthun family until 1788. At this point the family had no male heirs and passed the hof on to a Mackenthun daughter. When she married Casten Eggersglus the Hof would go to him (einheirat). This Hof would go to Johan Casten Eggersglus in 1822, and to Hans Heinrich Casten Eggersglus in 1853. Over time and for various reasons the Hof had become highly indebted. The Hof was taken over by the lenders who sold/financed it in 1871 to a Friedrich Kruse. He appears to have been unable to earn enough and the Hof was held by August Behrmann as agent for the lenders from 1876-77.
Painting of Mackenthun Hoff (before 1900)
In 1877 the Hof was sold to Casten Heinrich Drewes. Since Casten had no down payment, the annual debt payments would have to be met. With young sons to help, it appears Casten would try to cut costs by not having to hire some outside laborers.
Two years later in 1879 the Hof would be resold to the oldest son Johann Heinrich Drewes. A comment on the personalities of the three brothers: J. Heinrich would have firstborn or paternal rights. He would share with his siblings, but not equally, always maintaining a larger share.
Friedrich was the ultimate conservative and was content in going through life doing the same thing. Wilhelm as a third son was always trying to do better. He was a promoter of ideas and schemes, in an effort to rise above the status of a poor peasant. The Germans would give him the title of Vorsitzer (the one who stands at the front of the meeting).
From the time that Mackenthun Hof was purchased by J. Heinrich, its future was always in doubt. The debt was just too large to be repaid or serviced. Further, in 1892 Kaiser Wilhelm II had purchased a large block of adjoining land for the Bundersehr (war machines). The Hohne-Belsen Block would constitute a training ground for the largest garrison of the German Army.
In 1883 a neighbour schoolmate Friedrich Fuhrop had immigrated to the United States. He was a second son and thus had no chance of inheriting land in Germany. On the ship from Bremen to New York he met his future wife Bertha Beltz. They first went to Defiance, Ohio and then moved to Glencoe, Minnesota. They worked in Glencoe, he as a carpenter and she as a housemaid. In 1893 Fuhrop and a number of friends went to the Northwest Territories in Canada, looking for farm land. In May 1894 he would purchase west half of 1-T52-R24 at Ellerslie. What is important was that he had kept in correspondence with the Drewes family in Germany, and advised them of the opportunity to buy land in Canada.
To raise money to go to Canada, J. Heinrich Drewes sub-divided Mackenthun Hof into ten hectare (20 acre) blocks, which he then proceeded to sell. He then sold the balance of the Hof to his brother Wilhelm. Wilhelm was able to create the equivalent of 4 more ten hectare farms, including the original Hof. He sold the Hof remnant and buildings to Friedrich Christian Eggersglus, who owned the Hof until it was confiscated by the Nazis in 1936. The Nazis expropriated a large part of the Heide to expand the Hohne- Belsen military block.
By selling off the land, and repaying the debt, the Drewes clan was able to finance the trip to Canada and buy land there.
So in 1894 J. Heinrich, his brother Wilhelm and their families, and his nephew Henry Kruse made their way to Strathcona (Ellerslie) in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Their sister Ilse Drewes would marry Henry Heuer March 30, 1894 in St. Martins Church in Dorfmark. In May of 1902 the Heuers immigrated to Canada, taking possession of land previously purchased by Ilsa’s brother Johann Heinrich.
Prior to the split up of Mackenthun Hoff by Heinrich and Wilhelm, some previous splits had been made. A split to a Fritz Ahrens would create a 10 hectare parcel that would pass on to his wife Marie Euhus. In 1889 Friedrich Drewes married their daughter. He stayed in Germany working the small farm until 1908 when his wife insisted they join the other families in Canada. They sold the small farm to Heinrich Wilhelm Wedemeyer. The farm then passed on to his son Friedrich Wedemeyer, who would lose it to the Nazis in 1935. (See “The Dark Side of History”)
Mackenthun Hoff (1919)
History of Mackenthun Hoff in German from the book “Die Heidmark”
*Jane Howard was an American journalist, author, and educator (1935 – 1996)
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