Location: A hotel near the Neustadt Bahnhof
Listening to: Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6
As I just said to Herr Herrman, this was a day I will never forget. I’d rather just go to sleep and write in the morning, but I don’t want to forget anything. I’ll jump right into it.
I had a lazy morning because I knew the church in Mariensee didn’t open until 10 am. When I finally got there, it was a fairly chilly, rainy, gray kind of morning and I wasn’t too hopeful. You can read about this in the last post, which pretty much brings you up to 5 pm - and that’s when things got interesting.
I met the pastor (and her very large dog) after I rode the bus up to Mariensee. I’ve already forgotten her name - I met more people in the last seven hours than I thought I would this whole trip. She showed me the church’s birth records, where I found the birth date of my ancestor Karl. Karl’s father, Friedrich, brought him over to the states when he was about fourteen. Friedrich settled near Illinois, but Karl was the one who brought my family line to Minnesota.
-----(I fall asleep here)
Location: Neustadt Bahnhof
Listening to: Beethoven - Symphony No. 5
Evidently yesterday tired me out a little more than I anticipated. I missed my alarm, but still got up in plenty of time to make my 7:45 train. When I got down to breakfast, I decided I’d take it a little easier and just hop on the 8:30 train. Unfortunately, at about 7:45 I spotted a piano in the corner. I’ve seen others in restaurants and hotels, but I haven’t found a playable one since I left Valpo. This little upright was tuned beautifully and I was done for. When I looked up from my hands it was 8:15 and I hadn’t packed. I made it to the station just in time to watch my train pull away, so now I have another half-hour to write before the next one gets here. Se la vie.
Picking up where I left off, the pastor showed me these records. This would have been worth my trip to Mariensee, but the real fun hadn’t even started yet...
“After you came in this morning, I called a friend in Empede. He said you must come right away so he can show you where your grandfather lived. I will take you there - now.”
This was very exciting, but I hadn’t seen the inside of the church yet so she let me in and gave me a private tour. The pictures you can see are literally what my ancestors would have seen every Sunday - except for a new bowl in the baptismal font and a new organ, the church hasn’t changed in 800 years. I would love more than anything to sing a concert here - the acoustic was absolutely incredible. The picture of my hand is the old baptismal font, the one where Karl and probably Friedrich would have been baptized.
After the tour, she drove me to Empede. I found out on the way down that this gentleman also happened to be the former mayor of the town. I could tell by his handshake that we were going to get along well, regardless of any language barrier. He and his wife invited me in, sat me down, and immediately gave me a pamphlets and books (and a beer). The pastor was kind enough to stay for a while and translate. They told me there was a street named for the Bodes, and that he knew where they had lived, but that there weren’t here anymore. Evidently Friedrich took them all when he went.
Mr. Herrman (that’s his last name) then began taking me around town, first pointing out the old Bode place which was bought by his wife’s family (the Büsing family) when Friedrich left. He then showed me a barn only a hundred meters or so away with Marie Louise Bode’s name written across the top (see pictures). If I have my dates right, she was probably Friedrich’s younger sister (Karl’s aunt), and evidently she married one of their close neighbors. The older farmer in the picture is actually related to me via that marriage - he’s a descendant of the man who married her.
After this, we went to another house and met another (much older) man. He had battle diagrams and a town layout for the New State (Neustadt) as drawn up by Napoleon - totally unrelated and a hundred years too soon, but very cool. He also gave me a photocopy of a registry entry by Johann, Friedrich’s father, showing our farm was #20 out of the 28 farms in Empede by size/wealth. The older portion of his house was also there in the 18th century - Friedrich and Karl may well have stood in the same rooms I did.
We drove around and he (Herrman) pointed out a few more streets and places, and then we crossed the railroad tracks into Himmelreich (“Heaven” in English). I joked with him that anyone who’s sung as much Bach as we have had better know that word. He owns a small housing complex with a large barn that functions as a sort of community center. This Friday, they’re throwing some kind of party with a theater production and a lot of food (and beer). I told them I’d try to come back, but that it could be very difficult, and they just smiled and said, “No, you will come.” Anyway, I met probably 15-20 people. There was a nine year-old boy named Johann and a ten year-old girl (can’t remember her name) who kept hiding from me, running up and asking a very practiced question in English, talking for 5 seconds and then running off again blushing. It was hilarious. There were a few girls a bit younger than me, but then everybody else was probably 35 or older. Again, they kept giving me beer - and I didn’t want to be rude :) I had a great time there and I tried to go back after supper, but they were all gone by then. I’m extremely upset with myself for forgetting to take any pictures until we were driving away. I really hope I can figure out a way to get back - I’ll have to do some talking at the Bahnhof tomorrow.
After the barn, Mr. Herrman took me to meet his daughter (who spoke very well in English). They asked me what I’d been paying for hotels, I told them, and he told her to tell the hotel managers I was his personal guest and they should let me stay for under 50 Euros (with breakfast). With that, he pushed me out the door and left her to find the room.
He took me to his home again, where his wife had supper on the table - way more than any of us could actually eat. Again, I received several beers and we worked on our German/English together for a while. They were so nice. After supper, we went back to Himmelreich and then to the hotel in Neustadt. My stay cost me 48 euros.
I tried really hard to write this entry last night, but I was out after those first couple of paragraphs. It might have had something to do with the beer - no complaints here. After I made it to Hanover and had a brief layover, I was on my way to Berlin. Unfortunately this train was severely overbooked so I was lucky enough to stand...the entire trip. I wasn’t too annoyed by this at first, but eventually there were 4-5 of us standing in the little connection between the cars at a time, plus all of our luggage. To top it off, the baby in the car to my left was evidently even more pissed than we were. They have these automatic sliding doors to get into the cars, so every time someone moved in front of the sensor a sonic tidal wave hit us like a freight train (pun intended). Needless to say, we moved as little as possible. I actually hopped off at one of Berlin’s western stations and took another train half an hour later just to get away.
Unfortunately, my luck with the trams was even worse. Twice today I hopped on a tram going in the wrong direction and two other times the tram just stopped at a random point and made us get off and wait for the next one. Overall, not my best day with public transport.
One of the main reasons I came to Berlin was to see the Bodemuseum. If you can’t figure out why that’s significant, please read any of my last 5 entries. This Bode, Wilhelm von Bode, is a very distant relative and not one of my ancestors (but it’s still pretty cool). I made it over there this afternoon and the whole area surrounding Museum Island is just gorgeous. I snapped a few pictures, but they won’t do it any justice. I’m not sure if it was the train or if I’m getting sick or what, but I just couldn’t really focus inside the museum today. Normally I’m a real nerd in those places and can’t stay long enough, but I was just out of it. Anyways, now I’m back at the hostel, about ready to find something to eat. I’m in a shared room with three girls, two younger and one older than me. They’re nice, though one of the younger ones sounds like a valley girl. I’m not sure exactly what tomorrow will look like. The people in Empede suggested I go north to see the port where the Bodes probably sailed from Germany - I’ll have to look at that once I find an internet signal.
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