Meeting Schaefers in Germany

I recently returned from my journey to Germany, and I'm still trying to process all the wonderful places and people who are now part of my life. This post attempts to give some idea of the adventure.

Having arrived in Frankfurt, we took the train to Rudesheim where we then took a boat up the Rhine River to Boppard. This area of Germany is a World Heritage Site so the scenery is just constantly spectacular. The weather was lovely and it was a wonderfully relaxing way to take in so much great history all along river.

We were met in Boppard by our hosts who not only put us up while we were there, but who also took us touring around the area. I can't say how precious a gift this was, to have local residents show us around. As tourists getting off the boat in Boppard, I am very certain we would not have experienced even a fraction of the local culture that we did. To Trudel and Wilfried, I send my never-ending thanks, and count myself blessed to have such wonderful new friends in my life.

So first, let me show you the lay of the land. In the following map, you will see that Udenhausen is between the Rhine River on the east, where we arrived at Boppard, and the Moselle River on the west. We were surprised to discover that Udenhausen is actually at the top of rather steep hills going up from both rivers. We learned that area is part of the Hunsrück, and indeed the region has its own dialect (not that we would know the difference since our German-speaking ability was minimal). What this meant was that there were always great views and cool breezes from Udenhausen!

I have highlighted Herschwiesen on the map because I discovered that this might be the location of the church that our Schaefer family attended. The church in Udenhausen was only a chapel at the time our family lived there, so they would have gone to Herschwiesen to attend church, which was something I learned that they did every day, walking. I did not have the opportunity to visit that church, but I am told that is likely the place where Schaefer family would have been buried. The tradition was that the graves were pointed toward Udenhausen where they had spent their lives. Here is a picture of the countyside outside Udenhausen, and the church at Herschweisen can be see in the distance.

The other highlighted place on the above map is Alken, a village along the Moselle River to the west. We were met there by Walter (pronounced VALter) and Pia, who are my fourth cousins. Here is a very simple explanation of our relationship:

Johannes Schafer and Margareta Gipp:

   Paul Schaefer - remained in Germany

   Peter Schaefer - our relation who went to America

I am the gg-grandaughter of Peter, and Walter and Pia are the gg-grandchildren of Paul. Both are a bit younger (born 1960s), and both speak good English whereas nobody else we were to meet could, so I'm sure the younger Schaefers were sent ahead as the ambassadors! Walter has just been re-elected as the mayor of Alken and is a bit of a history buff so he gave us a great walking tour of the village explaining its history all along the way. Then we went to visit St. Michael's, built some time before 1015, which was opened just for our visit. To our great surprise, as we came in, there were Rosa and Leo Escher, the parents of Walter and Pia - Rosa being the one who was born a Schäfer, and who had written to America after the War to inquire after Schaefer relations who had emigrated only to get no reply. Rosa can speak not a word of English, but she was clearly happy to meet me/us. We finished touring the old church and then continued our walking tour into one of the old towers of the wall that had once surrounded the village. Rosa and Leo came along the whole way; they were both happily vibrant. Finally we ended up at Rosa's house where she served apricot cake with sour cream frosting, a strudel, and strawberries - all of which were wonderfully good.

So next Walter and Pia took us to tour the Castle Thurant which found some of us climbing to the top of the tower for the best view down to the River Moselle - fantastic.  Then we made our way back to Udenhausen for a little time to recharge before meeting again at the Udenhausen Museum which was founded by Trudel's sister Barbara. As we arrived, there was a lovely sign in front welcoming the visitors from America.

(My rough translation of this is "a hearty welcome to guests from America with relatives")

And right on time, here came the other Schaefer relations: Klaus who is a working farmer in the area and who brought his young son Johannes, and Franz who came from a place called Rhens, both being first cousins to Rosa. A big dining table had been set up in the museum, and Barbara had prepared a feast. I sat next to Walter in hopes of getting the occasional translation of all the conversation going on - and certainly there were some stories being told that I don't think I half understood.  But Franz and Klaus and Rosa had all brought some old pictures of their families, so that was exciting to see and share.

After dinner, we took a great tour of the museum and had more fun conversations looking at all the old things that once were part of everyday life in Udenhausen.  Then as the evening wore down, we posed for our new family photo outside the museum.  Rosa had found an old chalkboard and wrote in big letters the Schäfer name in the old German script that she had learned to write as a girl, and her daughter Pia is holding that sign in our German Schaefer family photo.  

All in all, this was a very special visit for me personally and for our family's history. Before this day, Rosa had lost touch with her cousins, and certainly everybody in Germany had lost track of those who came to America. Not only did I never dream there was such a place as Udenhausen, I never imagined there would be people who still belong to this place to offer us such a fantastic welcome. Walter and Pia have been invited to Boulder, and they both seem excited to accept the offer. I think in 2015, we might be hosting a reunion in America!