meandering Andreae clans

Digging into the ancestry of Anna Katharina Andrae (1742-1816) from Gebroth, we've established that her presumed great-great-grandfather Nikolaus Andrae (or Andreae) was the one who brought this name to Gebroth (where it is present to this day) when he took up the position as a vicar of this remote village in the Hunsrück in 1632. We have found half a dozen other Lutheran priests in his extended family, specifically including both grandfathers of his wife, as well as several ancestors of his daughter in law.

Although some of these in-law ancestries go back to the 15th century, we still don't know who his parents were. I have been following two leads, first geographically, as he was born in Enkirch on the river Mosel, I have been looking at the Andrae and similarly named families there, and then, as he seems to have been well-connected in the Lutheran clergy network, I wondered whether he also came from such a background. And I did find lots of Lutherans with that name. Note that it's not a very common name otherwise, so my suspicion is that it only originated as a family name whent protestant clergymen and teachers latinised their germanic names. I am looking at four separate groups of findings:

1) the Stuttgart/Tübingen clan

The name change is documented for the most prominent Andreae family, which goes back to a smith by the name of Endriss, whose son Jakobus latinised the name to Andreae and founded a whole dynasty of protestant intellectuals with very impressive biographies in Wikipedia:

Jacobus Andreae (* 1528 Waiblingen)

Johannes Andreae (* 1554 Tübingen)

Johann Valentin Andreae (*1586 Herrenberg)

Jacobus Andreae painted by Hans Ulrich Alt, Öl auf Holz, 1590, Sammlung Tübinger Professorengalerie

Each of them had lots of children (20, 8, 9 respectively), some of the sons were also clergymen. My Nikolaus Andrae is about the same generation as Johann Valentin, so could be eg his cousin. I haven't found an obvious connection yet, but it could still happen. Then again, as these men were very famous Lutherans in their time, a young priest from a less eminent family could have adjusted his name to bask in their reflected glory. Latinised names were all the rage at the time, so we find Schmidt turning into Faber, Raabe into Corvinus and Kaufmann into Mercator.

The well-documented members of this dynasty have largely remained rooted in the Wurttemberg region, but the Sponheim county where our Nikolaus was born isn't too far away, so a black sheep needing some a bit of distance from that high-flying family could easily have moved there.

2) the Saxony clan

A bit further afield, we have another dynasty of Lutheran priests in the vicinity of Halle on the river Saale (today's Saxony Anhalt). The nameline documented on Gedbas.de goes back to

Georgius Andrae * around 1500 in Geneva

then the parsons start with

Thomas Andrae + 1575 Halle

Elias Andrae * 1561 Halle

Laurentius Andrae * 1594 Halle and Thomas Andrae * 1598 Halle

There are no other carriers of the name listed in this submission, but the data don't look complete, so there could be other sons, and, again, our Nikolaus could be a cousin to the priests Laurentius and Thomas.

Intriguingly, a Tobias Andreae from Halle studied theology in Heidelberg in 1587, then became a parson in Lorsch, and from 1594 in Dillheim, may have stayed in the Rhine area (Monatshefte für Rheinische Kirchengeschichte 22 (1928)).

3) the Mosel valley clan

A lineage in the Mosel valley goes back to

Johann Andrae who is roughly the same generation as our Nikolaus as he had a child in 1640. Unfortunately no further info about him, apart from many generations of Andrae descendants who largely stayed in the Mosel valley. Can't find any priests among the descendants. Although the name Franz seems to be popular in this family, as it is among the descendants of Nikolaus Andrae in Gebroth.

4) ... and another clan in the Hunsrück area?

Johann Nikolaus Andrae * 1685 in Krummenau is a priest whose family connections are completely obscure - he may very well turn out to be a descendant of our Gebroth vicar but so far nothing links him to the place. He was vicar of Dörrenbach 1708-1728 and married Anna Eva Simon, daughter of the vicar of Kirn, Johann Daniel Simon, in 1710 (O. Penningroth in Monatshefte 1933).

Conrad Andreä was vicar of Winningen (Mosel) 1596-1599 elsewhere: 1586-1597, died of the plague which hit the town in 1597, with 206 casualties. Actually, I like this guy, he's on the right river, at the right time, to be the father of our Nikolaus. Apparently, Winningen was a lutheran enclave in an otherwise catholic region, and widely praised as a model protestant community. Conrad reportedly fought to keep his protestant flock away from the temptations of hitching up with catholics. There are two short (half-page) reports about him (Monatshefte 1909, 225-286; 1933, 275). ,

NB he could be the same person as the husband of Agnes Orth, (V 4 in the massive Orth clan) * …, + …, ∞ … Konrad Andreas, who died after 1586, and was a vicar at Koblenz, very close to Winningen. He could plausibly be a son of the following:

Magister Johannes Andreae vicar of Altenkirchen (Westerwald) 1589–1605 evicted from the town as it becomes a reformed parish on 9.10.1605 and he refuses to adhere to that creed (* 26. Dezember 1532 in Schönbach Dillkreis; † summer 1613 in Kastellaun) There is a lovely biography of him in the Monatshefte für rheinische Kirchengeschichte vol 22 (1928) which I'll translate in a separate entry. From a footnote to that bio, we learn that he had a son:

Emmerich Andreä called Schönbach (after his father's birthplace, which his father had also used after his name sometimes), who was a student in 1583 and a vicar at Bechtheim near Worms in 1618. So he would have been born in the 1560s.

I had this forth section under the headline "strays" initially, but I'm beginning to get a dynasty together here. Johannes's nameless father was also a priest and I am trying to find out if he was the first vicar of Schönbach (which still a Lutheran parish today, so there is a successor).

Note that our Nikolaus Andreae, the stray Nikolaus, the whole clan of the Mosel valley Andrae people under 3) and Konrad could all descend from Johannes A. from Altenkirchen. I'll explore this possibility in the next entry.

overtures from Fanny and Louise

I'm organising a Cowley Orchestra Feature Evening for next week where we will focus on:

Fanny Hensel (Mendelssohn): Overture in C major, H265 (1832)

Louise Farrenc: Overture No. 1 Op. 23 (1834)

Conductor: Elsa Vass-de-Zomba

That's happening Wednesday 18.3. at 7pm (play will start around 7:15) at the Oxford Academy, Sandy Lane West, Littlemore.

As always, all players of orchestral instruments welcome.

We have borrowed a complete professional set and score of the Farrenc, so can accommodate any number of players on that. For the Hensel I printed the score and one copy of each part, so if anybody is bringing in several players with the same instrument, (we could do with eg half a dozen violinists!) please do let me know so I can print more copies. Or print your own from HenselPushers.

I've also created a facebook event for those using facebook to share.

Videos of professional performances:

Hensel

Farrenc

from the vicar of Gebroth to the mayor of Marburg

In the Weiß Chronicles, Johann Gottlieb Weiß (1736-1800) the mayor of Pferdsfeld (see generation 8) marries Anna Katharina Andrae (1742-1816) from Gebroth. She is the paternal grandmother of the author of the chronicles but he did not supply any additional information about her. He was born around 1821, after she died. By 2000, we still didn't know anything about her. By 2013, we had found the names of her parents. Based on that information, my father hired a professional genealogist who came back with a report of six pages (including two pages from an earlier effort published by Ulrike Kühne in 1994 (Mitteilungen der WGgF Bezirksgruppe Mittelrhein). From that I extracted the names and dates that go into our official family tree but somehow I never got round to looking at it in depth and searching some of the new names that came up.

The main result of the professional report was establishing that, in spite of some gaps in the church books of Gebroth, the name line Andrae can be traced back to Nikolaus Andrae of Andreae, who was the vicar of Gebroth from 1632 presumably until his death, but records aren't all that complete in the middle of the 30-years-war. Although not all parent-child links are clearly documented, the genealogist made a convincing case based on mutual exchanges of godparents between families. Also, it appears that the name Andrae, which survives in Gebroth to this day (I checked 28.2.2026; see also their cemetery), was introduced to the village with the arrival of that vicar, so the lineage of our Anna Katharina must be going back to him even if one of the links may be a bit wobbly.

The genealogist also discovered a skeleton in the vicar's closet - there is a file about Nikolaus with allegations of domestic violence from 1613, during his earlier tenure as the vicar of Gödenroth. Apparently the church was so short of candidates with the right academic qualification willing to take up poorly paid posts in remote Hunsrueck villages that they couldn't dismiss him but gave him a second chance when he promised it wouldn't happen again. He stayed until 1632, when he was moved to Gebroth. His redemption appears to have worked out well as his nameline descendants remained in Gebroth and networked with everybody who was anybody and found some rather interesting spouses, including the granddaughter of the Strasbourg goldsmith about whom I raved last week. Incidentally, her brother Johann Conrad von der Rosen is the vicar of Gebroth

Some 13 years after the report came in I now looked at the earliest ancestors listed there again, because I had been looking into the social network of the vicars of Eckweiler and wondered whether there were any more to be found in the vicinity of the vicar of Gebroth. I found quite a few new ancestors, including four additional protestant priests (total now stands at 9, or 10 if I include the one listed as "probably" the father of another, below), as well as connections to the ancestries of Goethe through common ancestors in Marburg and, separately, Albert Schweitzer. Of course these links are too remote to be of any biological significance, but they are enormously helpful as these VIP family trees tend to be well researched and documented. Oh and I'm still discovering more things that will go into another blog entry. I do wonder why our old chronicler didn't show any interest in the family of his grandmother.

Merian engraving of Marburg in 1605, a time when lots of Orth people were active there. Unfortunately I couldn't find any interesting illustrations of Gebroth. The church has burned down and been rebuilt since Nikolaus Andrae was the vicar there and there aren't any historic postcards of the place online (although I have a tiny image of one in a web page that I printed out 20 years ago). Source.

So here we go, starting from Anna Katharina, generations 0-4 all born in Gebroth unless otherwise specified. The five protestant priests in her direct ancestry are set in bold:

1. Anna Katharina Andrae 1742-1816

2. Franz Nikel Andrae 1705-1765, juror in Gebroth
oo

3. Maria Magdalena Metzler 1711-1779

4. Johann Nikolaus Andrae from Gebroth appears as a godfather at christenings in nearby Winterburg in 1689 and 1700.
Intriguingly, the list of protestant parsons in the area has one by the same name born in Krummenau in 1685, but without a clear connection to Gebroth.

8. Frantz Nickel Andrae died before 1685. The genealogist argued that the combination of Franz and Nikolaus is rare outside this family, so this guy would likely be the grandfather of the eponymous ancestor number 2.
oo 21.2.1654 Winterburg

9. Maria Ottilia von der Rosen

16. Nikolaus Andrae, born in Enkirch on the river Mosel, an area where the name Andrae is more common; vicar of Gödenroth 1609-1623 and of Gebroth from 1632 until his death before 1643
oo

17. Amalia NN in the genealogist's report, but nowadays, various online sources identify her as Amalia Orth, from an ancient family from Hessen (Marburg / Butzbach) traced back to before 1400, which also appears in Goethe's family tree. After Nikolaus Andrae died, Amalia became the third wife of the clergyman Johann Valentin Corvinus who had also been married to two other Orth women before. The Goethe pages (see VI 59) note that one was her sister, the other her cousin.

18. Johann Conrad von der Rosen born 1599 Strassburg, died Winterburg 13.9.1656
oo 1628 Winterburg

19. Elisabeth Nesselius born 1606 Winningen

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NB From here on we leave Gebroth behind and the known lineages mainly involve relatively famous ancestries easily found online, so I'm only listing them as far as necessary to demonstrate the connections to the four additional clergymen I just discovered:

32. the quest for further Andreae ancestry continues, watch this space!

34. Heinrich Orth, , * Kirn ca. 1561, + … 1612/15, Braunsberg, Amtmann des Grafen Wilhelm v. Braunsberg, in Merxheim.
oo

35. Katharina Caesar (Kaiser?) ,

36 Franz Bolion von der Rosen, the goldsmith of Strasbourg
oo 21. November 1581 Strassburg,

37 Ottilie Flach born in Schlettstadt, Alsace, from the Flach family that also features in Albert Schweitzer's ancestry.

38 Georg Christian Nesselius vicar of Winterburg, Kaplan at Winningen, Diacon at Birkenfeld. Studied at Strasbourg.
oo 15. August 1602 Birkenfeld

39. Ursula Conon

68.Johann Balthasar Orth, *ca. 1526 Bingen, + Kirn/Nahe 5.1.1569, Kaplan 1555, From 1560 until his death in 1569 he was the second protestant vicar of Kirn. As it happens, his predecessor, Peter Siegel, is in my family tree too, though through the Imig rather than the Kauer route. See further Orth ancestry here. Johann Balthasar is IV.43, and apparently there are three different lineages that are proposed for his ancestry, but all lead back to Antonius Orth, below.

70 Konstantin Caesar / Keiser Vicar in Sien (1585), Enkirch (1593-98), Dill (1598-1600)
oo

Sara NN

72 Humbert von der Rosen, from Liege

74 Gabriel Flach * 1525 Schlettstadt May be related to the Strasbourg printer Martin Flach who died in 1500?

78 Johann Conon (ca. 1542-1602) vicar of Trarbach, Dill, Birkenfeld; born Reichenbach, Vogtland, studied at Rostock and Strasbourg. Note that a couple of generations earlier there was a monk with that name who was praised by Erasmus.

140 ? Sixtus Caesar O. Penningroth writes that 70. Konstantin Caesar was "probably" the son of Sixtus Caesar, who was a vicar at Demmingen and Salzungen (Monatshefte 1933). Not sure how reliable this guess is, but I'm adopting him, so stay tuned for a blog entry dedicated to the lives of the Caesars!

For the common ancestor with Goethe, I have to go 3 generations up from the vicar of Kirn to generation I in this Orth genealogy, arriving at:

544. Antonius Orth, (Donges) * Butzbach or Wetzlar + 1486/93 Marburg , Bürgermeister of Marburg 1463/64, where he was a merchant, and where his seven children were born.
oo ca. 1454

545. Grete from Mardorf

This couple sits at the top of three different lineages leading to Goethe (and probably everybody else with ancestors in Hessen).

---

Note that Anna Katharina, with five vicars in her family tree (six if we count Sixtus Caesar, and there may be more, I'm still digging!), went on to marry the son of a vicar, who had several more in his extended family. Oh and the Johannes Andrae from Gebroth who went to study theology at Gießen 1767 may well have been her brother.

Makes me wonder to what extent she was aware of her family history, and why none of this information percolated down to her grandson.

I'm chuffed to have found this connection to Marburg actually, going back to the time before the university was founded in 1527.Antonius Orth lived there exactly 500 years before I went there to study.

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Who is who? - see my new name index for all things family history.

the mysteries of syphilis

Many infectious diseases have managed to establish themselves in human populations after the advent of agriculture, when dense settlements enabled them to spread and persist. Later, trade and warfare carried them around the world, typically from densely populated Eurasia to other parts of the world where the lack of immunity led to catastrophic consequences.

Syphilis is the great exception to this scenario. It likely originated in the New World (if it hasn't spread with humans since the expansion out of Africa) and has now been shown to predate intensive agriculture and dense settlements. The pathogen Treponema pallidum has been challenging researchers, but ancient DNA is now showing up that clarifies the origins and early evolution of this disease, which has terrified Europeans since Columbus came back from his transatlantic voyages.

Read all about it in my latest feature which is out now:

An ancient disease from the New World

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 5, 9 March 2026, Pages R171-R173

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(Unfortunately, this year's features will no longer become open access one year after publication - do contact me if you would like a PDF. Last year's features will still move to the open archives as this year advances.)

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky.

Last year's thread is here .

Treponema pallidum, which causes several diseases including syphilis, has proven difficult to cultivate and to study. (Image by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.)

a goldsmith at Strasbourg

I recently revisited the family history around the Weiß chronicles, which I hadn't touched in a long time, and discovered quite a few new things and some old things that I knew superficially but never investigated in depth. Among the latter is an ancestry line that came to the Hunsrück from Liège via Strasbourg and included a goldsmith or three.

Specifically, my (presumed) ancestor Johann Conrad von der Rosen was born 1599 in Strasbourg, came to Winterburg (not far from Eckweiler) and married Elisabeth Nesselius (daughter of another protestant priest, more about that in a separate entry) and settled as an innkeeper and "Gerichtsherr" (juryman?) at Winterburg where he died in 1656.

His father, Franz Bolion von der Rosen is the goldsmith whose story I want to explore here. He worked at Strasbourg from 1579, so quite possibly in the rue des orfèvres, just northwest of the cathedral. Although it was only named thus in 1680, this street housed goldsmiths since the Middle Ages.

Photo: Par Nikolai Karaneschev, CC BY 3.0,

According to old family histories where he pops up, he was world famous in his time, see for instance this text from Karl Heinz Armknecht from the 1950s. As one of the genealogists who mention him pointed out, he has an entry in Thieme-Becker Künstlerlexikon, where I could track him down. As they spell him as Roosen, he appears in vol 28: Ramsden–Rosa. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1934, on pp 583-584:

Basically the entry lists like a dozen sculptures by him that were known to be in the art collection of Elias Brackenhofer (1618-1682). I love they way the author specifies for each single item that the figure is naked. With classical sujets like Venus, Cupid et al. you would rather expect that they aren't wearing too many clothes but this entry spends a significant fraction of its word count on spelling that out every single time. Note also that the dictionary has nearly 150,000 entries so being included doesn't quite make you a household name.

Apparently he had to flee from Liège to Strasbourg where he is recorded in 1579 (although I've failed to find a specific event at that time that might have endangered his life in Liège). At that time he was simply Franz von der Rosen. The Bolion being an extra he acquired upon acceptance into the goldsmiths' guild in Strasbourg, which happened before his marriage to Ottilia Flach on 21.1.1581 in St. Thomas church, Strasbourg. Which is interesting because ... Ottilia is from the Flach family that appears in Albert Schweitzer's family tree (his maternal line great-grandmother was nee Flach), and Schweitzer used to play the organ in St. Thomas church when he studied in Strasbourg some 320 years later. (Find Ottilia on GedBas too.)

Anyhow, what troubles me is that the world-famous goldsmith has been completely forgotten outside the circles of genealogists who proudly present him in their family trees. While there is a family "de Rosen" in Liege, the members who turn up online tend to be much more recent than our refugee, apart from the earliest ancestor, Pierre Rosen, who was a citizen of Liège in 1520. So he could theoretically be the father of our earliest ancestor, the father of the Strasbourg goldsmith:

Humbert / Humprecht Bolion von der Rosen born ca. 1530 in Liege, mentioned 1544-53 as an engraver in the guild list of the goldsmiths of Liège, married Gertrud de Pealier before 1560, then Ursula Meyer in Strasbourg in 1562, which seems to suggest that he came to Strasbourg earlier than the first date noted for his son.

One generation on, we're running out of Roses, but his father in law, Jean de Pealier, was mentioned as an engraver and member of the goldsmiths' guild at Liège from 1548-54. His wife was called Marie Surdelle (which sounds like a made-up name as it translates as "sure of herself").

So we have a whole lot of goldsmithery going on here across three generations, shame that these people have fallen into oblivion.

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Who is who? - see my new name index for all things family history.

NB these folks are completely unrelated to my great-grandparents Heinrich (the cellist) and Maria, who met at Strasbourg in 1903 and gave the place a prime position in my lost cities series.

Update 12.3.2026: The connection between these Strasbourg ancestors and those in the Weiß Chronicles is now outlined in this new blog entry.

Update 13.3.2026: I've just discovered two descendants of the goldsmiths have Wikipedia entries: Philipp Caspar Roos (1717-1805) and his son Johann Philipp Roos (born 1754). The first one includes a footnote listing the ancestors of Philip Caspar back to our common ancestor Johan Conrad von der Rosen, who came to Winterburg from Strasbourg.

fiddles fixed in February

Pirate Luthier update

After crack repair, successful reassembly and setting up of the quite lovely violin number 30, I turned to some less beautiful specimens.

First to finish off the number 13 which served as a guinea pig for the repair I did on number 30. When I had it assembled and started tuning up the strings, the neck fell off, which was completely unrelated to the problems I fixed before (and just serves as another warning not to buy fiddles from Facebook Marketplace). I've refitted the neck now and the strings have been on for a few days now, so I'm hoping it holds this time.

In an effort to make the old fiddles more user-friendly to modern players, I ordered in a few tailpieces with integrated adjusters, so I'm now fitting these to the instruments that came with no adjusters or just one. Have done that for number 30 and 13 above, and also for the czechoslovakian student fiddle number 27.

Right now I'm setting up the 3/4 Lark violin (number 33) I recently bought for £ 5, which I believe reflects its value. I'm cutting a bridge and putting on new string and will have to find a chinrest for it.

All of which isn't generating any particularly interesting photos, so I'm sharing one from my early years in woodworking instead:

The funny thing about it is that I still have most of the tools from the toolset you see on the wall behind me, so I arranged them for a still life:

If I ever decide to make a violin from scratch, I'll cut the f-holes with that fretsaw ...

NB I've now moved the list of instruments that pass through my pirate luthier workshop to a permanent page which I will update whenever necessary, independent of the blog entries.

the vicars of Eckweiler

After revisiting the Weiß Chronicles including the biography of Johannes Weiß, the vicar of Eckweiler from 1740 to 1772, I had another look at the history of the village, which unfortunately disappeared from the surface of the Earth in the 1980s, leaving nothing but the little church and an old chestnut tree.

It reminded me that the Lutheran village clergymen in that area formed an interesting kind of network between neighbouring parishes and across generations. For instance, the next vicar of Eckweiler taking over from Johannes Weiß, was his son in law. Four of my direct ancestors played parts in that game regionally. Johannes Weiß at Eckweiler was the most recent one, then there's his father-in-law Philipp Nicolaus Ebner at Alterkülz, then the great-great-grandfather of his daughter-in-law at Gebroth, and finally Peter Siegel, who studied with Martin Luther and brought the Reformation to Kirn, was the earliest.

In an effort to better understand the culture of these networks, I'll list all the vicars who held the parish of Eckweiler in a timeline from the Reformation through to its dissolution, to see if there are any further connections with people we know (names of interest in bold).

My main source for this endeavour is the book:

Eckweiler: Eine Kirche ohne Dorf
Monika Kirschner, Hans Werner Ziemer
2005 (printed privately, no ISBN number

referred to as "the book" below, but in an earlier effort to draw up a family tree of an Eckweiler person not (yet) related to me, I also used the Einwohnerbuch Eckweiler-Daubach, which I don't have at hand right now. That ancestry of Johann Nikolaus Fuchs also includes several of the clergymen listed below.

timeline

1557 16.7. official date of the Reformation in the Hintere Grafschaft Sponheim, the microstate to which Eckweiler then belonged. (While the book says it belonged to Hintere (Eastern) Grafschaft Sponheim, Wikipedia says at least in the initial partitioning it was part of the Vordere (Western) Grafschaft Sponheim. It may have been reshuffled to the other part at some point, but the Reformation came to both parts simultaneously, which were otherwise surrounded by mostly catholic areas.)

1557-1586 Remigius Thiel is the first Lutheran vicar of Eckweiler. He died at Eckweiler 9.1.1602 aged over 80.

1586-1593 Johannes Ries, then moved on to Gebroth.

1593-1599 Melchior Beerwein. He ran into trouble and disappeared without a trace.

1599-1621 Johann Valentin Faber. He died in Eckweiler January 1621. His son and grandson also were vicars, more info about the family here. According to that forum contribution, his wife, Juliane Teutchag, was the daughter of the vicar of Wallhausen, from a long line of clergymen in Hessen. The unusual name may be a misreading of Tautphoeus, which originated from a latinised version of the village name Dautphe (near Biedenkopf, Hessen) where that lineage came from.

1621-1635 Nicolaus Mohr Now that's interesting because I think he may very well be related to our Landschreiber Mohr in the same generation. Both are believed to have died from the plague which hit the area in 1635-36. The village of Daubach near Eckweiler was reported to have no residents left for about a decade.

until 1663 Johann Jakob Faber, grandson of Johann Valentin Faber, listed above, was the vicar. Not sure when his tenure started as the 30-years-war and the plague may have interrupted village life and church services. The earliest mention in the book is from 1650. From 1663 until 1677 he was the vicar in nearby Pferdsfeld, which meant he oversaw the burial of the next vicar of Eckweiler:

1663-1674 Johann Michael Becker who died 30.4.1674 aged only 37. According to Gedbas he married Anna Katharina Hauth (from a long lineage of clergymen, who married two other colleagues before and after this one) and had a son called Johann Friedrich Becker born 28. May 1673 in Eckweiler. NB I have an ancestor Anna Eva Becker from Laubenheim who married in 1671 at Horn. Her father was Wendel Becker from Laubenheim.

1674-1690 Johann Justus Leyendecker. Born ca. 1642 in Trarbach, died 28.11.1699 in Weiler. That is funny - he appears in a family tree we once drew up for somebody else who's not related to me (yet) but whose ancestors in the Hunsrück area moved very much in the same kind of social circles as mine. (That's the ancestry of Johann Nikolaus Fuchs, born 24.8.1820 in Eckweiler.) And oops, the Fabers mentioned above are also part of this family tree, as are the Schauss family who held the post station and inn in the village.

1691-1697 Johann Heinrich Brach

1697-1740 Johann Philipp Forst. According to this page, he married Elisabetha Margaretha Liernur from a family that produced multiple clergymen. Her Father was Johann Albert Liernur, who was the vicar of Bergen from 1678 to his death 31 Mar 1707. Johann Philipp Forst died 30.1.1752 at Eckweiler aged 77.

1740-1772 Johannes Weiß (1704-1772). My ancestor - see the Weiß Chronicles for his short biography. Note that his wife, Katharina Elisabeth Ebner (1712-1790), was the daughter of a Lutheran priest as well. She came from Trarbach, where her father and grandfather hat taught at the grammar school (Lateinschule) which still exists today.

1773-1818 Philipp Jacob Bauer, who was married to Maria Elisabeth Weiß (-1819), the daughter of his predecessor, so he also appears in the Weiß Chronicles, with the claim that they had no children. The residents register of Eckweiler notes two children, however, who both died before reaching school age. According to the book, Philipp Jakob Bauer died 27.7.1818 aged 85, having retired from the vicar's job earlier that year. According to GedBas, however, he was born 24.11.1734 at Enkirch (on the river Mosel, just downstream of Trarbach) and died 29.8.1818 in Eckweiler which would make him 83. He is part of a very extensive family network on GedBas, with a complete set of eight great-grandparents and name line ancestry (wine growers at Enkirch) going back to the 16th century, but no obvious link to any of my Bauer ancestors in the area. Funnily enough, I have another protestant priest from Enkirch among my direct ancestors, Nikolaus Andreae, who became vicar of Gebroth (not far from Eckweiler) in 1632. And his great-great-granddaughter married a son of Johannes Weiß. It's all one big network, I'm telling you.

1818-1822 The vicar of nearby Pferdsfeld, Markus Mitscher, also serves Eckweiler, but the parish resists being permanently merged into that of Pferdsfeld and having to commute for services.

1822-1827 Georg August Ludwig Schmidtborn, who moved on to Kirn after his brief tenure. He went on to have a rather stellar career in the church administration, see his Wikipedia entry.

1827-1829 Georg Röbenacke, who followed a call to Wetzlar after only two years in office. There he drowned in the river Lahn. Could have lived a long and happy life in Eckweiler ...

In 1828 Regina Katharina Weiss (born 10.9.1779), granddaughter of the vicar Johannes Weiss, and daughter of the mayor of Pferdsfeld, married Johannes Fuchs in Eckweiler. She was 49 years old at that point, so probably married to somebody else before?

1829-1844 Johann Wilhelm Arnold Mebus He died 25.3.1844 freezing to death at age 81 when travelling on foot from Winterburg to Eckweiler and caught in an unseasonal snowdrift.

1845-1847 Konrad Cörper Died 28.9.1847 aged only 39.

1848-1859 Gustav Adolf Lang, moved on to Hottenbach

1859-1862 Karl Heinrich Noel. Died 22.11.1862 at Eckweiler, aged 44.

1864-1888 Gustav Heinrich Roffhack. Died at Eckweiler 15.4.1888 aged 76. During his tenure, in 1881, the teacher Valentin Klee took office in the village, who left detailed comments about many aspects of village life. He was not impressed with Roffhack's work but liked the work of his successor better:

1889-1900 Johann Wilhelm Vogelsang. He moved on to Kirn. First to be represented with a portrait photo in the book.

On 28.8. 1891 Christian Gottlieb Weiß (* 29.5.1819), great-grandson of our vicar Johannes Weiß, wrote down the Weiß Chronicles, stating explicitly that he was living at Eckweiler at that time. Based on that date, our family connection with Eckweiler lasted for at least 150 years, from 1740-1891. However, his daughter Sophie married Franz Philipp Kehrein in Eckweiler (his family seems to have had a farm in Pferdsfeld). Their older son (born before 1880) appears to have stayed in Eckweiler had five children there (and Christian Gottlieb may have been living with them when he wrote down the family history, seeing his wife had died in 1886), so for all we know there may have been descendants right through to the time the place was evacuated. Their younger son Karl Kehrein (1880-1942) was a baker at Kirn, where my great-great aunt Johanna borrowed the Weiß Chronicles from him and made the copy we still have today (the original has gone missing). Incidentally, Karl Kehrein was married to Lina Martin, who according to our records was also a cousin of Johanna's via the Kauer family (Gedbas disagrees though). According to this newspaper clipping, Artur and Else Kehrein refused to leave Pferdsfeld when the villages were cleared in the 1980s. Artur died in 1994 and Else eventually moved to a care home in Sobernheim where she died in 2014, but their house was only demolished in 2022, long after the military airfield ceased to exist. So between the two villages we easily get to 250 years of family presence.

1900-1906 Wilhelm Rheingans. In 1906, he published a short history of the parish of Eckweiler which I haven't got. Then he moved on to the new industrial city Oberhausen in the Ruhr area (not to be confused with the eponymous village in the Hunsrück). According to Gedbas he had four children and died 7.2.1914 in Elberfeld, aged 43.

1907-1934 Otto Jungjohann. Building work on the church that was planned under his two predecessors finally started happening in 1908, always accompanied by the critical remarks of teacher Valentin Klee in his school chronicles. Both his predecessors came for the grand inauguration ceremony on 2.12.1908. On 9.2.1915, the village was connected to the electricity network.

1935-1942 Eduard Jungjohann, son of the predecessor. Retired for health reasons and died the same year at Ulm.

1943-1952 Ernst Altenpohl

1952-1952 Eduard Otto Heinz Hinnemann (GedBas entry) Died suddenly on 16.11.1952 while the bells were ringing for a service he was due to hold.

1954-1956 Erich Lotze. Moved to Wuppertal.

1956-1957 NN Theunert. Died 26.9.1957. Didn't even leave a record of his first name.

1959-1976 Peter Schumacher. The last one officially appointed to this parish. As the increasing problems with the nearby airfield made people move away, the remaining residents were served by priests from neighbouring parishes until the evacuation.

10.6.1979 the villages of Pferdsfeld and Eckweiler officially cease to exist. In Eckweiler alone, the last 302 residents were resettled and 51 houses demolished, leaving only the church standing.

---

Other Eckweiler-related VIPs include Friedrich Wilhelm Utsch, who may or may not have been the inspiration for the folk song "Ein Jäger aus Kurpfalz", and who used a hunting lodge at Entenpfuhl, which the book claims as Eckweiler territory. A later reincarnation was built on Pferdsfeld's land in an effort to save tax, apparently.

Leads for further study:

• This genealogy wiki has short biographies of many parsons (more than 50 family names) in the Hunsruck area in English - sadly not including any of my ancestors or in-laws. Although the Andreae person at the top of the list must be related to my ancestor Nicolaus Andrae who was vicar of Gödenroth and Gebroth (Gedbas), who is mentioned under Corvinus, see below.
• Stop Press, clicking through from that Gedbas entry I found another clergymen in my family tree, Johann Balthasar Orth, vicar of Kirn from 1560-69, thus the direct successor of Peter Siegel. (Oh, and related to Goethe.) And another one, Valentin Konstantin Keiser. Basically both grandfathers of Nicolaus Andrae's wife were vicars too. And after his death, she married another one, Valentin Corvinus, who appears in that wiki list linked above. The Corvinus guy married three Orth women in succession, two sisters and their cousin. All of which calls for a separate blog entry or two.
• books I still have to find:
  Eckweiler Geschichte eines Dorfes by Engelmann, Uwe Karlsruhe 1983
  Die Geschichte der Gemeinde Eckweiler-Daubach by: Rheingans, Wilhelm, 1906

---

Who is who? - see my new name index for all things family history.

another family tree from Eckweiler

... rescued from my ancient website which is now offline. Looking at this again after around 15 years, I've discovered a few things to add, including new ancestors 768, 769, 2900 and 2901 and some details found online. (I needed this genealogy to be online because of this Eckweiler entry where I refer back to it.)

Early 20th century photo of the inn Gastwirtschaft "Alte Post" (former post station on the route Brussels to Innsbruck) held by the Schauss family over several generations. The chestnut tree is still standing. Source.

Ancestors of Johann Nikolaus Fuchs, born 1820 at Eckweiler compiled by Jörg Groß and Michael Groß based on the book: Einwohner Eckweiler Daubach 1519-1900. Heimatkundliche Schriftenreihe der Verbandsgemeinde Kirn-Land, Bd. 28 NB these people are not linked to my ancestors yet, but as they inhabited an area that was crawling with my folks (specifically the Kauer and the Imig clans), and both sets of ancestors were of similar social standing and even held the same job at different times. For instance, the Faber men below were vicars of Eckweiler like my ancestor Johannes Weiß and his son in law Philipp Jakob Bauer in the Weiß Chronicles, which were actually written in Eckweiler. Hence I reckon there must be a link somewhere, it's just a question of finding it. Further details regarding some of these people (e.g. professional careers, descendants) are available upon request.
Number	name, first name		birth date, place	death date, place	marriage date, place
1	Fuchs, Johann Nikolaus		24.08.1820 Eckweiler		emigrated to the US
2	Fuchs, Friedrich Adam		27.03.1785 Eckweiler	12.08.1861 Eckweiler	05.04.1807 Eckweiler
3	Schauss, Maria Katharina		21.03.1791 Eckweiler	17.09.1845 Eckweiler
4	Fuchs, Johannes		~28.04.1759 Allenfeld	31.03.1835 Eckweiler	18.05.1784 Eckweiler
5	Böhler, Anna Sophia		01.06.1766 Eckweiler	29.12.1824 Eckweiler
6	Schauss, Johann Adam		04.01.1756 Eckweiler	26.05.1794 Eckweiler	26.04.1774 Eckweiler
7	Enders, Catharina Elisabeth		12.12.1756 Eckweiler	05.10.1805 Eckweiler
8	Fuchs, Johannes				31.01.1758 Allenfeld
9	Beuscher, Maria Margareta		~24.01.1740 Allenfeld
10	Böhler, Friedrich Adam		1718 (calc.)	16.09.1797 Eckweiler	11.01.1740 Eckweiler
11	Leyendecker, Maria Ursula		1723 (calc.) Eckweiler	23.11.1800 Eckweiler
12	Schauss, Peter		28.01.1728 Eckweiler	18.02.1818 Eckweiler	1751 Eckweiler
13	NN, Anna Maria		ca. 1730 Eckweiler
14	Enders, Samson		~ 12.04.1726 Eckweiler		1756 Eckweiler
15	Reiniger, Anna Katharina		05.01.1728 Eckweiler
18	Beuscher, Johann Peter
19	NN, Maria Elisabetha
22	Leyendecker, Johann Jost		~ 17.12.1690 Eckweiler		07.09.1716 Winterburg
23	Jung, Maria Johanetta		~ 28.10.1695 Winterbach
24	Schauss, Johann Heinrich		~ 07.02.1694 Eckweiler	21.08.1772 Eckweiler	before 1717 Eckweiler
25	NN, Anna Katharina		1695	04.02.1741 Eckweiler
28	Enders, Hans Valentin		~24.6.1677 Eckweiler	[]28.1.1743 (calc.) Eckweiler	30.1.1713 Eckweiler
29	Schanzenbach, Anna Katharina		~5.8.1691 Eckweiler	24.1.1774 Eckweiler
30	Reiniger, Hector		ca. 1700 (est.)		before 1723 Eckweiler
31	NN, Anna Katharina		ca. 1700 (est.)
44	Leyendecker, Johann Franz		ca. 1665		03.01.1690 Eckweiler
45	Bauer, Maria Elisabeth		27.12.1664 Eckweiler	before 1715
46	Jung, Johann Gabriel				20.4.1669
47	Spang, Elisabeth Engel		~
48	Schauss, Hans Christoph		~ 18.10.1663 Eckweiler
56	Enders, Johann Georg		ca. 1645 (est.) Eckweiler		20.4.1675 Eckweiler
57	Schmidt, Maria Margaretha		~24.1.1655 Eckweiler
58	Schanzenbach, Melchior		1652 Eckweiler		01.06.1683 Eckweiler
59	Schlarb, Gertrud		ca. 1660 (est.) Winterbach
60	Reiniger, Gottfried		ca. 1680 (est.)		before 1704 Eckweiler
61	NN, Maria Ursula		ca. 1680 (est.)
88	Leyendecker, Johann Justus		1642 (calc.) Trarbach	28.11.1699 Weiler	before 1660 Niederbrombach (?)
89	NN, Katharina		1639 (calc.)	20.03.1710 Weiler
90	Bauer, Eberhard		21.09.1638		18.08.1663 Eckweiler
91	Enders, Katharina		ca. 1645 Eckweiler
92	Jung, Hans Jacob		Gebroth	18.12.1666 Winterbach	7.6.1636
93	Spengler, Anna Elisabeth
94	Spang, Heinrich				9.1.1648 Winterburg
95	NN, Ottilia		Johannesberg
96	Schauss, Johann Gabriel		23.01.1625 Eckweiler	09.07.1678 Eckweiler	30.01.1644 Simmern
97	Klein, Maria Magdalena		ca. 1620 Simmern
112 =182	Enders, Valentin		23.09.1617 Eckweiler	01.04.1667 Eckweiler	before 1645 Eckweiler(?)
113 =183	NN, NN		ca. 1620 (est.)
114	Schmidt, Hans Martin		ca. 1630 Winterbach		24.01.1654 Eckweiler
115	Bauer, Ursula		ca. 1630
116	Schanzenbach, Hans Bernhard		17.9.1616 Winterburg	5.12.1681 Eckweiler	24.6.1651 Eckweiler
117	Kilian, Anna Katharina		~6.8.1620 Eckweiler	11.2.1663 Eckweiler
118	Schlarp, Theobald
119
180	Bauer, Hans		15.08.1591 Eckweiler	05.01.1662 Eckweiler	before 1637 Eckweiler
181	Faber, Anna Bärbel		19.08.1612 Eckweiler
182 =112	Enders, Valentin		23.09.1617 Eckweiler	01.04.1667 Eckweiler	before 1645 Eckweiler(?)
183 =113	NN, NN		ca. 1620 (est.)
186	Spengler, Hans Peter			16.11.1654 Winterbach	3.1.1609 Winterburg
187	Beuscher, Gertrud
188	(Spang)
189	NN, NN			10.12.1660
192	Schauss, Melchior		24.02.1595 Eckweiler	24.06.1628 Eckweiler	04.12.1621 Eckweiler
193	Anthes, Helena		ca. 1600 Schönberg
194	Klein, Theobald
224 =364	Enders, Johannes		28.06.1580 Eckweiler		05.06.1615 Eckweiler
225 =365	Kilian, Agnes		~15.09.1590 Eckweiler	20.05.1657 Eckweiler
228	Schmidt, Johannes
230	Bauer, Hans		ca. 1606	15.01.1662 Eckweiler	before 1623
231	NN, Philippina		ca. 1600
232	Schanzenbach, Christoph				25.1.1614 Winterburg
233	Beier, Ursula
234	Kilian, Valentin		~11.11.1594 Eckweiler		before 1616 Eckweiler
235	NN, Elisabeth		ca. 1595 (est.)
236	Schlarp, Johann(?)
360	Bauer, Hans		ca. 1560		before 1587 Eckweiler(?)
361	NN, Maria Elisabeth		ca. 1560 (est.)
362	Faber, Valentin		1580 (est) Eckweiler	12.1.1621 Eckweiler	4.8.1607 Eckweiler
363	Schauss, Agnes		3.8.1589 Eckweiler	12.1.1621 Eckweiler
364 =224	Enders, Johannes		28.06.1580 Eckweiler		05.06.1615 Eckweiler
365	Kilian, Agnes		~15.09.1590 Eckweiler	20.05.1657 Eckweiler
374	Beuscher, Franz
384 =726	Schauss, Hans Velten		ca. 1560 Eckweiler	25.3.1644 Eckweiler	1584 Eckweiler
385 =727	Plezena, Katharina		ca. 1565	5.4.1609 Eckweiler
386	Anthes, Hans
448 =728	Enders, Hans		1534 (calc.)	27.2.1614 Eckweiler	before 1570 Eckweiler
449 =729	NN, Ena		1550 (calc.)	1586 Eckweiler, 36 y.o.
468	Kilian, Adam		ca. 1555 (est.)		before 1580
469	NN, Agnes		ca. 1560 (est.)
724	Faber, (Johann) Valentin		1553 Erbesbüdesheim	Jan 1621 Eckweiler	ca. 1580
725	Teutchag, Juliane		before 1555	before 1607, 52 y.o.
726 =384	see above
727 =385	see above
728 =448	Enders, Hans		1534 (calc.)	27.2.1614 Eckweiler
729 =449	NN, Ena		1550 (calc.)	1586 Eckweiler, 36 y.o.
730	Kilian, Hans		1550 (calc.)	4.9.1626 Eckweiler, 76 y.o.	before 1577 Eckweiler
731	NN, Else		ca. 1555 (est)
768 =1452	Schauss, Hans Jürgen Bregh		ca. 1535 Eckweiler	2.11.1582 Eckweiler	source
769 =1453	Hoelfeldt, Johanne Margrethe		ca. 1540 Eckweiler	1.11.1582 Eckweiler
896 =1456	Enders, Hans		1510 (calc.)	17.6.1588 Eckweiler 70 y.o.
897 =1457	NN, Elß		ca. 1510 (calc.)	7.5.1580 Eckweiler 70 y.o.
936 =1460	Kilian, Hector		1525 (calc.)	24.7.1572 Eckweiler, 47 y.o.	ca. 1550 Eckweiler
937 =1461	NN, NN		1521 (calc.)	23.3.1607 Eckweiler, 86 y.o.
1450	Teutchag, Jost =? Justus Jacobi Tautphoeus, vicar of Wallhausen			11.5.1617	source for the Tautpheus
1456 =896	Enders, Hans		1510 (calc.)	17.6.1588 Eckweiler 70 y.o.
1457 =897	NN, Elß		ca. 1510 (calc.)	7.5.1580 Eckweiler 70 y.o.
1460 =936	Kilian, Hector		1525 (calc.)	24.7.1572 Eckweiler, 47 y.o.	ca. 1550 Eckweiler
1461 =937	NN, NN		1521 (calc.)	23.3.1607 Eckweiler, 86 y.o.
2900	Tautphoeus, Johannes Jacobi, vicar of Wallhausen				source
2901	Walther, Margarethe

Notes

725, 1450 The name Teutchag only occurs in the residents book of Eckweiler referring to the daughter of the vicar of Wallhausen, whose name was in fact Tautphoeus, so I assume that this is just a misreading of a very unusual name, which the ancestors derived from the village of Dautphe near Biedenkopf, Hessen.

2900/01 the Tautphoeus / Jacobi and Walther ancestries lead away from the area of interest (specifically to Biedenkopf in Hessen) but is apparently well-researched and both lineages have lots of clergymen. See this biography of a son of 2900/01. Some of their descendants have Wikipedia entries and apparently became catholics at some point.

eagle issues

There are animal species, often apex predators, which many humans seem to worship for their fierce power, such as lions, cheetahs and eagles. Sadly, this connection, often engrained in cultural traditions over centuries, doesn't automatically protect the admired animal. Although eagles are generally faring better than the less admired vultures, there are a few conservation concerns which I have covered in my latest feature which is out today:

Keeping an eye on eagles

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 4, 23 February 2026, Pages R105-R107

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(Unfortunately, this year's features will no longer become open access one year after publication - do contact me if you would like a PDF. Last year's features will still move to the open archives as this year advances.)

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky.

Last year's thread is here .

Eagles like this golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) have symbolised power since Roman times.
(Photo: Susanne Nilsson/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

a world gone mad

Some thoughts on:

A world gone mad
The wartime diaries of Astrid Lindgren
book (2016) and film (2025)

I started reading the English edition of Lindgren's wartime diaries on my recent trip to Dusseldorf, and when I was in the middle of it, I had the opportunity to watch the film in the subtitled version. So here's a combined film and book review.

The English book contains only the translation of the diary entries mainly describing the course of World War II from the perspective of neutral Sweden, which is an interesting angle, especially for those of us, who are like most Europeans used to the perspective from warring factions on one of the other side. Although I haven't been able to locate a copy, I believe the German edition, which has more than twice as many pages, also includes facsimile pages of the original diaries, with clippings and all.

Family life only shines through very sparingly in the English edition, mainly on the occasion of family events such as her daughter's birthday and Christmas, when the presents are listed and menus as well. The family doesn't really come alive from that, so you have to be really interested in the recounting of the war from an unusual angle to make it through this book. Although it is also relatable in the sense that we are now again living in a world gone mad, with surging fascism and wars going on elsewhere, so the feel of watching disaster unfolding from the sidelines does resonate, although there is no real solution on offer.

The film by contrast, puts the family in the centre, with long appearances from several descendants, and lovely visits to the relevant properties, including Lindgren's flat in Stockholm (Wikipedia says it's open for visitors), their summer house, and the house of her parents, which I believe she bought later in life to keep it in the family. Seeing that her daughter Karin was ill for about half the duration of the war, it is good to see her fit and well at age 90.

The film also gives the origins of Pippi Longstocking more time than the diaries did. Apparently, young Karin conjured up the name out of thin air when asking her mother to tell her a story (according to Karin, not in the diaries), and while Astrid Lindgren was herself off work with an injury, she found the time to write it up. Spare a thought for the first publisher who received the manuscript and rejected it. I believe the second one took it on and the rest is history. I read the books multiple times as a child and may have retained an anarchist streak from the exposure

Passages from the war diaries are only used very sparingly in the film, read by an actress playing the writer reading or writing the diaries or engaging in family activities. So, altogether, although the book was useful in keeping track of what is or isn't in the original diaries, I found the film a much more enjoyable and enlightening experience than the book.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a UK release in the pipeline.

not understanding quantum mechanics

As a chemist, I have of course used quantum mechanics in various ways and learned the essential textbook equations, but like everybody else on the planet I don't really understand it. I find comfort in the wise words of Richard Feynman that went something like "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

After a few decades of not using my non-understanding of quantum mechanics on a regular basis any more, I found the book Why Nobody Understands Quantum Physics by Frank Verstraete and Céline Broeckaert a welcome refreshment of nearly lost memories.

My review of the book is now out in the February issue of Chemistry & Industry:

Quantum understanding

Chemistry & Industry Volume 90, Issue 2, February 2026, Page 34

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

As always, I can send a PDF on request.

To sell books about quantum mechanics, you have to have Schrödinger's cat on the cover. It's the law.

a book for our time

Some thoughts on

Mein Opa, sein Widerstand gegen die Nazis und ich
(My Grandfather, His Resistance Against the Nazis and I)
Nora Hespers
Suhrkamp 2021

Nora Hespers grew up rolling her eyes at her father’s outrageous stories about how his father was an important resistance fighter against the Nazis from the very beginning and how they executed him by hanging him from a butcher’s hook. After her father left the family and disappeared from her life, she never heard the name Theo Hespers mentioned again, as nobody outside the family seemed to be aware of his story. Until the fateful day when a colleague at the broadcaster where she worked casually mentioned that he had written his PhD thesis about her grandad and would she perhaps like to take part in a radio show about him?

This jaw-dropping moment sparked a blog, evolved into a podcast, and eventually crystallised into this very impressive and deeply moving book, which intersperses Theo Hespers’ biography with the journey of discovery undertaken by his granddaughter after she began to realise that the wild stories she heard as a child were largely true, actually. The learning experience that started in autumn 2012 and snowballed through to the completion of the book in 2020 became all the more dramatic as some of the history repeated itself in ways that were unconceivable at the beginning, making it all the more important to pay attention to the lessons of the past.

West Germany honoured the resistance of a very few select people including the White Rose circle around the students Sophie and Hans Scholl, and the July 20 (1944) coup attempt led by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. The famous book Das Gewissen steht auf by Annedore Leber, which we had on our shelves when I grew up contains biographies of 64 members of various resistance efforts. (An English version has been published as Conscience in Revolt) In the GDR, the emphasis was naturally on communists fighting the Nazi regime, including the group known (in Nazi documents, not in their own understanding) as the Rote Kapelle (featured in the recent movie From Hilde, with love).

As Nora Hespers notes, the resistance of the July 20 movement only awakened at the time when it was obvious that the war was lost. The officers involved had previously served Hitler’s army without resisting too much. In contrast, her grandfather, motivated by a deep Christian humanism (but also critical of church officialdom) recognised and militated against the sheer inhumanity of nazism from the very beginning. Therefore he and his family had to flee to the Netherlands as early as April 1933 and had to flee further when the Netherlands and Belgium were occupied. At one point, Theo had the opportunity to escape from Dunkirk to England but would have had to leave his family behind, which he refused to do.

This early anti-fascist engagement makes it practically inevitable to compare his story to the modern developments. At the stage where we are now, the likes of Theo Hespers are shouting from the rooftops that we have to stop fascism. Other early resisters around him who also feature in the book include Hans Ebeling (nickname Plato) from Krefeld, Max Behretz (executed 1942), Josef Thome, Josef Steinhage (cofounder of the antifascist paper Der Deutsche Weg, Peter Lütsches, Selma Mayer. Many of Hespers contacts were from various catholic movements, but he didn’t fundamentally object to working with communists united in the cause against fascism.

I read this sort of books partly as examples of how to turn family history into something that is relevant and interesting to humans beyond the family circles in question (which worked out amazingly well for the Hespers family). In this case there was an additional overlap of interest as Theo Hespers’ family lived near Mönchengladbach, in the village of Dahl, which is between Mönchengladbach and Rheydt. (Rheydt was merged into the bigger city in August 1929 and demerged at the specific request of Joseph Goebbels, who hails from there, then merged again in the 1970s.) My grandmother Ruth went to school in Rheydt, and the family lived there from 1923 until they moved to Königsberg in 1935. I didn’t spot any familiar names in the book, and she wasn’t quite the same age as Hespers (she’s from 1908, he from 1903) but I love the idea that with enough info about the social networks around both, one could probably find a connection with fewer than the famous six degrees. I was also intrigued by the very fleeting mention on page 53) that Nora Hespers’ great-grandfather might have ended up owning Kaiser’s Kaffee (a chain of grocery stores originating in Viersen).

Speaking of which, I think a book like this should definitely have an index - if only to save me the trouble of noting down all the names and page numbers. The other thing I missed was: What did that colleague write about Theo in his thesis? I may have missed something but I didn't see it mentioned or cited as a source again.

Nora Hespers launched her blog and podcast as Die Anachronistin, a word merged from the German versions of a (female) chronicler and anachronism, as she describes herself as a chronicler fallen out of the time she's writing about. Unfortunately the times have somehow looped back since then, such that this book about how brave people resisted the Nazis in the 1930s has turned into a very important book for our time, not anachronistic at all.

PS This English-language web page from her publishers seems to be an attempt to sell translation rights, which doesn't appear to have worked so far. Would be good to see more international publicity for this story though.