In 1986 my family was contacted about a celebration that was to occur two years later in Germany. It seems we were related to a notable German. Here is my story of “meeting” Uncle Friedrich.
It came in the mail one day in May 1986. A brown envelope full of questions and a few “new” ancestors to add to the family tree. The sender was the Police Department of Sedalia, Missouri. The subject: “Family Tree Information on Friedrich Wilhelm and Carl Christian Raiffeisen.” The Chief of Police James E. Carter, had received a request from the German Consulate in Chicago to locate living relatives of Raiffeisen.
Chief Carter went above and beyond. He (and perhaps his staff) conducted research needed to find the relatives. The focus was on the family members who still carried the Raiffeisen name, but Carter added the descendants of Carl’s only daughter who married and raised a family in adjacent Morgan County, where Carl Raiffeisen had lived out his life. While Charlotte Raiffeisen had given birth to at least eight children,[1] only four of them had children and Marie Charlotte was the only girl who had done so.
In 1885 my great grandmother Charlotte (as Marie Charlotte was known) married John Peter Siegel, who later changed his name to W. Peter Siegel (1858-1938). Together they had five children: Ida Marie (1886-1974), Carl Christian (1887-1964), Florentine Magdalene (1894-1974), Edna Louise (1896-1974) and Emma Amalia (1900-1985). Carl Christian is my grandfather. My uncle Paul, as well as relatives of other descendants, attended the celebration in Germany.
Being the packrat that I am, I kept the papers from the German Consulate, as they held family information (including family trees) that was interesting and some of which was unknown or forgotten in our family. On my first trip to Germany in 1992 I tried to look for more information – with little success. When Mom and Dad came for a visit in the spring 1993, we discovered a statue of “Vater Raiffeisen” (Father Raiffeisen) as he is known in Neuwied, one of the towns where he was mayor. We took pictures of the statue and made tracings of the sayings on the sides – many of which were quotations from the Bible. I also found a few brief snippets about Raiffeisen in the library in Neuwied, Raiffeisen’s last home before he died in 1886.
In 1999, I returned to Germany on a professional fellowship supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation. (If you have a Bosch dishwasher, spark plug or washing machine, I thank you for your support!) While I was really excited to be back in Germany as a professional, I was doubly excited to spend the first few months in the Cologne/Bonn area, not far from the birthplace of my Raiffeisen ancestors.
The following text is taken from a diary entry I wrote at the time:
One weekend shortly after I had arrived in the country, I sat down and began to record and organize what we knew about the Raiffeisen family from our family records (mainly Grandma Roma’s notes) and the information provided to us in 1986. I learned that Friedrich Raiffeisen was the mayor of three different towns: Heddesdorf (part of Neuwied), Weyersbusch (1845) and Flammersfeld (1848). Raiffeisen was born on March 30, 1818 in Hamm an der Sieg. He was the seventh of nine children of the mayor and he is buried in Heddesdorf cemetery in Neuweid. Given his stature, his grave still exists and is maintained, unlike many graves in European countries.
Friedrich’s father, Gottfried was mayor of Hamm an der Sieg. “An der Sieg” means “on the river Sieg” and this designator is vital because there is another town called Hamm in North Rhine-Westphalia with a population of nearly 180,000. I located Hamm an der Sieg on a map. It lies north of the area from where some of my other maternal ancestors (Siegel & Schupp) hail, but south of Hannover from where my Rasa family emigrated.
Hamm (Sieg) is not far from the Cologne/Bonn area. I looked it up on my trusty German road map and I found Raiffeisen Street (Raiffeisenstrasse)! It connects Hamm an der Sieg, Weyersbusch, and Flammersfeld with Neuwied.
After I had read up on F.W. Raiffeisen, I went to the train station in Cologne and browsed through the bookstore. This was before ready-access to the internet, so if you wanted to learn about something you bought a book! I was looking at the travel section and found an interesting tome on restaurants in the Cologne-Bonn area and what astounded me was that Hamm on der Sieg was listed. What from this small town could be included? No less than the Raiffeisen House. It was listed as a four-star restaurant and hotel called “Alte Vogtei” (the old governor).
The next weekend I traveled there. I rented a car and departed Köln (Cologne) at about 7:30 p.m. on a Thursday night and I knew that the restaurant in Hamm was supposed to close at 9:00. I figured I had plenty of time, as I didn’t think it was that far. Well of course, as the crow flies it isn’t, but on this road, it was over 100km – around 60 miles of curvy narrow road and I rolled in at about 8:50 p.m. I walked up to the half-timbered double door, which was closed. It looked a little dark…a bad sign. Sure enough, posted on the door was a sign saying that the restaurant was closed, however, the sign also said that the hotel guests could ring the bell for admittance. So, I rang.
After a few minutes an older man popped his head out of the nearby window and asked what I wanted. I told him I wanted a room for the night. I could tell he was a little more than skeptical of this young woman standing in front of the door with no luggage and an American accent. He let me in and immediately asked me for a credit card (trust, but verify!). I told him I had one as I began to look around the historic place. It was amazing. Pictures of the town and documents relating to Raiffeisen covered the walls. I told him that I was interested in Raiffeisen history and he asked me why. When I answered I was a descendant, the flood gates opened and we talked non-stop for the next three hours.
The consummate host, Mr. Wortelkamp, sat me down in the empty restaurant and continually fed me on a lovely dinner he quickly whipped up, seasoned with history about Raiffeisen and Hamm and its environs. Then he showed me around the “house.” He was clearly very proud of it. I believe his family bought it from the Raiffeisen family in 1862 (but I may have missed a family or two in between). Initially the Wortelkamps made it into an inn and butcher shop. Perhaps an odd mix, although probably not that strange for Germany. He showed me the part of the house that was original to the Raiffeisen era. Friedrich Raiffeisen lived in the house, may have been born there, and since his brother Carl Christian was just two years younger, it is certain that he too lived there. Raiffeisen was also baptized in the local Protestant church, again very likely that Carl was as well.
The Wortelkamps have decorated the house with many antiques – a huge spinning wheel under the stairs, a wall clock from that time period. There is a little ceramic tile stove in the breakfast room, that reminded me of a miniature version of what I imagine the Hummel stove looked like in Florence, Missouri (a story for another day). There are chandeliers, pie safes, and more wardrobe-type cabinets than I could count. He said some of them dated from the Raiffeisen era. The next morning, I ran around taking pictures all over the hotel. The historic artifacts complement rooms with very modern conveniences. Some of the hotel rooms have bathrooms bigger than the room I had in Köln at the time – and Mr. Wortelkamp was rightly very proud of them. The old meat locker is a bricked room with a rounded ceiling with old meat hooks in it. Very interesting as it is now a banquet room! They also have a one-lane bowling alley.
There is a local controversy, in which I do not take sides. A nearby house has been dedicated as the Raiffeisen museum. Apparently, there was quite a dust-up over the fact that for many years, it claimed to be the birth-house of Raiffeisen (and still does) because it was the home of a Raiffeisen relative who was a midwife. Some believe it to have been proved false; others disagree. Either way, there is no doubt that the Raiffeisen family played a vital role in Hamm and to visit the town is an incomparable experience.
In 1952 the Wortelkamp family discovered a receipt in the attic of the Alte Vogtei. It is a pharmacy note or doctor’s note to Raiffeisen’s father in 1831. Gottfried Raiffeisen was not a healthy man. He suffered from severe bouts of depression. At that time, of course, they had no clue what to call it or how to treat it. But it is so heartening to note that he was known as a sick man, yet he was well respected mayor or Hamm for several years.
This story is a reminder to never fail to thank our forebearers – those who unselfishly did research unrelated to their own family and lives. To Chief of Police James Carter, I send my heartfelt thanks. He sent copies of the request and his research to those descendants who did not carry the name, but were descendants all the same. While I would learn about my ancestors in the coming decades, our family would likely have not known about the 1988 Raiffeisen celebration in Germany, nor would I have chased down Uncle Friedrich myself while I shared his environs in 1999.
Stay tuned because you know there is more to this story!
[1] The 1900 census indicates Charlotte had given birth to nine children, eight of whom were living in 1900. “Charlotte Raiffeisen.” 1900 Federal Census. Mill Creek, Morgan, Missouri; p. 8; ED 74; FHL microfilm: 1240877. Accessed on Ancestry.com, 30 Oct 2024.