09/05/2007    |   Aschermann E-Mail  | 

Dr. Jerry R. Aschermann

 

 

Following are the individual webpages for "Return to Germany"

 House in Wehringdorf  |   Pre-historic  Burial  |    Osnabruck  Germany  | Pictures | Maypole| Cemetery|

 Oak Trees-2  |  Countryside  |  1773 Chest  |   Oak Trees     |   Germany   |

 

Aschermann Family Tree   click above to view pdf file Johann Hermann Aschermann d. 1748 Margarete Elise UfnLammersbrink d. 1747 The North American Aschermann family is found in the box above the bottom right corner Ernest Heinrich Aschermann Carl Friedrich Aschermann Friedrich Wilhelm Aschermann The three brothers moved to the Rising Sun, Indiana region starting in 1846.  [Southwest of Cincinnati 25 miles]

 

Open above for better location of St. Joseph, Missouri the home of Jerry Aschermann. b. 1942

Click on the Above Map

 

.... Return to Germany

1846 to 2004

Jerry Aschermann and Karl-Heinz Aschermann

Western Hemisphere   Eastern Hemisphere Aschermanns

Wehringdorf Lower Saxony Germany

May 2004

click to open above page

See the village of Wehringdorf Lower Saxony and the Aschermann Home

The red arrow points to the Aschermann House.

Carl                                   Jerry                                     Wilhelm

     

Aschermann

To learn how this all fits together, refer to an earlier set of webpages:

North American Aschermann Family

As far as it is known, no Aschermann living in North America visited Germany until 1944.  In 1944 time did not allow the great grandsons of the German immigrants to search for relatives. 

A reasonable assumption is that Frederick and Charles at one time corresponded with the people that remained in Germany.  Frederick was born in July 1829 and passed in 1904.  Charles was born in 1838 and passed in 1914.  No documented correspondence has been located to confirm that letters "home" were written by either Frederick or Charles.  It is "assumed" that at one time there were letters.

In February 1852 Henry Aschermann appeared before the Clerk of Dearborn County and was recognized as a Citizen of the United States.

 The oldest of the three brothers that migrated --Ernest Henry -- passed in 1866.

Family Pictures in Indiana

The matriarch of the "Illinois branch" of the family --Mary Sudbrock Aschermann Folmer Miller -- did not pass until 1924.  She may or may not have had any contact with Europe.

 From the work done by Wolfgang Dreuse it can also be assumed that Mary Sudbrock would have had contacts with Germany.  Dreuse found that many of the German people living southwest of Cincinnati, Ohio in the Rising Sun, Indiana migrated from the same region of Germany.  Demographers have also pointed out that when people migrate the tend to first settle where friends from the Old Country have settled.

NOTE:  based upon seeing the name--- Aschermann --- in Germany and on documents, the correct spelling of the name is with NN rather than N as some people do.  It is known that 95% of the Jewish Ascherman people use but one N. Some Western Hemisphere Aschermann people who come from Northern Germany have dropped one N "because NN looks Jewish" to them.

On the return journey from Moscow to Missouri in April and May of 2004,  I made a pilgrimage to the original hearth of many of the North American Aschermanns.  I went to Germany to visit the part of the country from whence our Aschermann relatives migrated from after 1846 and several years following.

The North American Aschermann Family located above explains the stories of the three Aschermann brothers who migrated from Wehringdorf to Rising Sun, Indiana.

The journey was from Amsterdam to Osnabruck on the train for a three hours.  It was very interesting to see the country side from the North Sea to the interior of towns/cities of the Netherlands and Germany. 

The European land use system could easily be seen:  on the edge of all the cities and towns the local people have gardens where they can play in the soil and grow fresh vegetables.  With this land use they can return to Mother Earth.

The train definitely leaves on time.  At one stop six young men got off the train for a smoke.  At the appointed time the train's doors closed and the train left--- with the young men running down the platform for the train to stop.  [They were left behind!  Their baggage continued the journey.]

Amsterdam to Osnabruck via European train-- 150 miles & 70 dollars

 

 Click on the Above to See the Route from Amsterdam to Osnabruck

What route did the Aschermann migrants follow?  It is assumed that they probably

went north to Bremen.  [Still questions are are unanswered.]

Countryside

Click on the Above to View the Topography

The topography east of Amsterdam is definitely flat.  The land closer to Osnabruck has rolling hills

For more information about the region...

Thanks to Wolfgang Dreuse for the history of the region

Short history of the region.  Photographs of the Region

 

The return visit to the hearth was fantastic--- much like the return of the prodigal son to the family hearth.

I traveled by train from Amsterdam to the German city of Osnabruck.  I wonder how our relatives traveled from Wehringdorf or Osnabruck in the mid 1800's.  They probably went north to Bremen.  Did they walk or ride a train?  What did they find in Bremen?  What ship?  What was the journey like?  [Refer to the original webpages for the description of the journey by other German migrants to America.]   I wonder what their thoughts were during the long ocean journey.  [At one time we assumed that all brothers ranging in age from 26 to 9 entered the US at the same time.  Documents that were obtained in Germany show that they came at three different times.]

I met our good friend Wolfgang the day that I arrived in Osnabruck. Wolfgang is a very pleasant person:  seemed like I had known him all my life.  We immediately moved to a "refreshment house" in Osnabruck.  With the popular beverage came some little loaves of good German bread. 

[An interesting custom in Germany.  Along with the bread came a container of "butter."  I put the "butter" on the bread.  It did not taste like butter.  I asked Wolfgang was it was.  He told me three times before I could understand him and then process the information that he was giving. He said that it was "lard."  Imagine the cakes of lard that some people buy for the birds in the area... same thing in Germany.  Within the lard were a variety of seeds.  When in a new cultural area "do as the Romans do."  So, I put the lard on my bread... it tasted like lard."

 Thank goodness that Wolfgang speaks english-I don't speak German. [I am a mono-lingual americano gringo.] Wolfgang is employed by a food service company and does a lot of traveling to areas within the European Union.

Wolfgang introduced me to Karl-Heinrich Aschermann

 

 

Karl-Heinrich is 71 years old. [b. 23.1.1933]  NOTE:  The European modus operandi for dates is day-month-year.  So the above would be listed as 23 January 1933. 

The Aschermann people live in Wehringdorf is a small rural "crossroads" community of several houses and an old school.  See below a graphic showing the village of Wehringdorf.

The family members I visited were Karl-Heinrich Aschermann,  Wilhelm Aschermann and Christa Aschermann:  brothers and sister.   It is interesting to note that all three had very blue eyes.

Carl & Sister Christa b. 29.10.1933

Carl & Wilhelm  b. 16.6.1930

 Karl lives in the Aschermann house that was built in 1820.  Click below to enlarge the family house.   Other barns and houses in Wehringdorf look very similar to the Aschermann build.  Below will be graphics that show the inscription above the doors.

       Enlarge House__

   

click on the above small photos to make the photo larger

The builders of yesteryear planned for the future.  At the time the house was built four oak trees were planted on the property… the idea was that the trees could be cut for lumber when the house needed to be rebuilt.  Many of the rural houses in the area had big oak trees close to the barn-house.    Our German ancestors planned for the future! [click on the trees above to see an enlargement]

The three brothers who settled near Cincinnati and Carl-Heinrich’s part of the family come from Friedrich Wilhelm Aschermann who was born in 1785 and died in 1841 or  several years before the oldest of the brothers came to the Western Hemisphere.:  Ernst Heinrich or Ernest Henry came to America in 1846.   Brothers Carl and Friedrich came to America approximately five and ten years later.

Carl made an interesting comment about inheritance.  When Napoleon conquered the region the older inheritance process was terminated.  In order to avoid  paying taxes the land was inherited by the youngest son who logically would live longer than the older sons.  This way there was a greater number of years between when taxes would have to be paid.  In our case, however, the oldest son seems to have inherited the land and the three younger brothers moved to the US. 

If a farmer did not have any sons but had daughters, the land would be inherited by a son-in-law….. if he would change his name to the surname of the daughter.  This kept the family name going for the generations to come.

With the ultimate passing of Karl-Heinrich it seems that there will no longer be an Aschermann to inherit the farm that seems to have been in the family since the early 1700's.

The German people are fond of sweets, pastry and coffee---  two different pastries and coffee at Karl’s house [prepared by his sister], brother Wilhelm’s house and Wolfgang’s house.  These German people lived up to their reputation of being outstanding hosts.

Karl has not been farming for several years.  He reports that his land holdings were not large enough to make a living with in the 21^st century.  As happened frequently in Europe, a farmer’s land could be found in several areas in the neighborhood or region. 

   Sometime in the last few years the “barn” was changed with the animal stalls being bricked up.  I noticed that the farmers in northwest Germany and the Netherlands use the “long row” type of farming.  Back in the olden times it was difficult to get the oxen moving and to turn around with the plow.  So the farm lots are long and narrow.  "Don't stop if you get the animals moving in the right direction!"

Remember the story about the people of the Netherlands using wooden shoes--- I noticed that Karl had a pair of wooden shoes. 

On the way to Wehringdorf Wolfgang showed me some burial mounds of people living in the area prior to 1000 BC.   Massive stones were moved from several miles away to cover the actual burial site.  This was then covered with sand that washed away over the years.  Look at the "burial mounds" page for additional early history of the region.  [The above hyperlink also contains webpages that tell about the various periods of history in the region.]

Do you remember reading about the Thirty Years War? A terrible European war that became a civil war in the German region. The religious war decimated the population of Germany:  Protestants vs. Catholics.  A terrible time when some villages were totally destroyed and all inhabitants killed in the name of religion.   The war finally was concluded and the peace treaty was signed in Osnabruck.  

How would we describe the physical nature of the land around Wehringdorf?  Farms & Forests   Look at these pictures of the country side.  Mid May is a fantastic time to visit Germany.  Flowers blooming everywhere.

Rite of Spring.  As in many world rural areas, the rural region near Wehringdorf is a region where people maintain old customs and practices.  The May Pole is one of these.  Interesting how pagan or ancient customs are passed down from one generation to the next generation and over hundreds of years.

     Click to open the May Pole page and read about the ancient custom that has been accepted by modern peoples.

 

The Osnabruck had a major rail crossroads and airplane factory in the 1940’s.  The english bombs caused the town to be rebuilt after 1945.  Wolfgang mentioned that within the past several months someone was doing some moving of the earth and found a bomb that had been covered up for nearly 60 years… it still went bang after the bomb people did a little tweaking with the trigger.  [During the spring of 2004 I also read about World War II ordinance being found in england and Russia.

 

Charlemagne established an Episcopal see in Osnabrück about 783. The city later joined the Hanseatic League which was a commercial group that ultimately became very wealthy.   The population (1997) is 168,050.

WebCam for Osnabruck    http://www.neueoz.de/etc/webcam_city/index.html  It is amazing what we are able to do today.  Click on the above link to actually see what is happening in Osnabruck at this minute.  [Think about the time of day-- starting at the middle of the afternoon in many places of North America it will be dark in northwest Germany.]

       FIND OUT ABOUT OSNABRÜCK TOWN Information Provided to UK troops living in Osnabruck.  A major surprise to me that British troops are still in Germany sixty years after the end of World War II.

            

 Click on the above to make the image larger

 

My hosts for a very wonderful weekend in Germany

auf Wiedersehen

 

Dr. Jerry R. Aschermann

St. Joseph, Missouri --USA

jerrystjo2000@gmail.com