Return to Riedesel Home Page

• The village of Wunderthausen has a web site with many current photos and then some more. The phrase "Zum Vergrößern bitte anklicken" means to click on the picture to enlarge it.
• A view of Wunderthausen looking northeast
• A more recent view with the five wind-driven power generators that now overlook the village from the east.
• Weymers Haus, from which several Riedesels emigrated and in which more of us had ancestors; in the foreground is John Riedesel (1919-1995) of Glidden, Iowa.
• Weymers Haus, 1906. Pictured is the family of George and Catherine Riedesel.
• Haase/Müsse Haus, around 1900
• Along the Elsoff on Hallenberger Strasse. Two mountain streams--Bubenkirchebach and Schoppenwasser--converge in Wunderthausen to become the Elsoff. This stream flows south through Diedenshausen, Alertshausen, and Elsoff before joining the Eder. This 1987 picture looks more or less northward in the direction of Hallenberg with Diedenshausen 2km behind.
• Inside the church in Wunderthausen. This structure is relatively new but the style is traditional. You can see the inscriptions and colorful painting, but the works of art associated with even small Catholic churches in Germany are absent from this (and most other) churches of the Reformed (Calvinist) movement.
• Map of Wunderthausen streets today (Adobe Acrobat pdf format)

• This was the birthhouse in Erndtebrück of Karl and Louise Riedesel who came to America. It passed to their brother Heinrich (below).
• Heinrich Riedesel (1850-1931) and his wife Sophie (Afflerbach) Riedesel (1851-1938). They lived in Erndtebrück in the house shown above. He was the brother of Karl and Louise, and a nephew of August and Ludwig in Texas.

The branch of Riedesels that included family members in Alsace/Lorraine (Thionville), Belgium, France, Luxembourg, New York state and points west, as well as in Germany has a common root in the village of Winnen near Marburg (although the connection goes back to Girkhausen). Christian Friedrich Riedesel built a substantial house for the time around 1750. His son Johannes was born here in 1766, served as a Corporal in the regiment of the Hessian state, and eventually settled at Leidenhofen. As far as I know, there are no living Riedesel descendants of this branch other than through Johannes.

• The former Riedesel house in Winnen.
• Another view of the former Riedesel house in Winnen.
• This is a map of the former villages that now make up the community of Ebsdorfergrund. One of them is Leidenhofen and it was the ancestral home of the Riedesels who moved on to Diedenhofen (now Thionville).
• This picture shows the family of Balthasar Riedesel (the elder) and Anna Katharina Schomber. 
• Balthasar had one son, Konrad. This photo from the 1920s shows the family.
• Konrad married Katherine Bier. Katherine Bier in around 1918 wearing a traditional costume dress.
• This page shows photos of her in the 1920s and then again in the 1960s.
• This picture shows Konrad (1903-1937) and his cousin, Friedrich Weimer (1902-1986).
• This picture shows the Riedesel house in about 1950.
• The oldest daughter of Balthasar Riedesel and Anna Katharina Schomber was Katharina, who married Daniel Weimar. This picture shows the couple with two of their children, probably during the time of World War I.
• Another daughter, Elisabeth, married Balthasar Lemmer. They are shown here with two children and Anna Katharina (Schomber) Riedesel.

Peter Riedesel (1839-1891), born in Leidenhofen, moved to the then-German area called Diedenhofen in what is now called Thionville in the  French province of Lorraine. He had ten children from two marriages; three from the second marriage eventually went to America.  (Do not confuse this location with Diedenshausen, a neighbor village to Wunderthausen).

• Elisabeth/Elise was the oldest child of the second marriage, and settled in Schwerin with her husband, Richard Hinrichs; these are earlier and later portraits of the couple.
• Johannes Riedesel (1872-1927) as a young man. (Youngest child of first marriage)
• Johannes with his second wife, Louise Veth, and others.
• Heinrich and Peter Riedesel, sons of Johannes and his first wife, Margaretha (Ferry).
• (Marie) Luise Riedesel, who emigrated to North Dakota, daughter of Johannes and Margaretha.
• In 1972, Marie Luise returned after 50 years to visit her family in Brussels
• Marie Luise with her sister Josephine and brother Peter
• This photo shows the three siblings and other family members.
• Marie and Léonie Riedesel, daughters of Peter, with Aunt Josephine
• Marie, Micheline and Léonie Riedesel as young girls
• Scene at a Gasthof between the wars: Léonie, Marie, Henrí with others
• Josephine Riedesel married Harry Schreiner; this shows them with their son Henrí, her brother Peter and father Johannes

To this day, Riedesel is revered as a master craftsman and builder of his era. Ten of his structures are still known to exist in Wittgenstein

• The Ludwigsburg in Bad Berleburg Built for a side line of the ruling family.
• The Ludwigsburg in Bad Berleburg ( detail of door)
• Distance view of the Ludwigsburg in winter
• The Schulkapelle in Sassenhausen Church, later to converted to include a schoolroom
• The Schulkapelle in Sassenshausen (inscription over entrance)
• Lotzes/Fuchs Haus in Wunderthausen--one of the few remaining half-timbered houses there
• Another view of Lotzes/Fuchs
• Hof Dambach near Girkhausen, now a cozy Pension.
• The south (front) side of the Dambach guest house
• Intricately carved corner post of Hof Dambach. Such decoration was typical of Mannus Riedesel and other builders of his time.
• Stolzes Haus in Puderbach
• Stolzes Haus in Puderbach