Note: This document is extracted from a larger work dealing with the ancestors and descendants of the author's great-grandparents, Louis and Sophia (Wetter) Riedesel. It is by no means a thorough history of the village, district or American emigration. Its intent is merely to provide some historical backdrop.
The earliest documented mention of the place we know today as Wunderthausen dates to the year 1303, though a settlement no doubt existed earlier. Virtually all of Louis Riedesel's ancestors and those of Sophia Wetter's father lived in the immediate vicinity for 200-300 years or more. Birth records exist only from the late 1600s and death records appear in the church registers only from 1740. However, the tax records of the ruling Sayn-Wittgenstein family are also helpful in tracing family ties.
The web site of the village includes a chronology of key dates in local history.
As a village (Dorf) of only a few hundred people, Wunderthausen can be found only on detailed road maps, such as the Michelin 312. The larger towns of Bad Berleburg (slightly to the west) and Siegen (further south and west) may be found on some general maps. The intersection of a line due north of Frankfurt and due east of Cologne (Köln) is very close.
Today, Wunderthausen is legally part of the town (Stadt) of Bad Berleburg, the district (Kreis) of Siegen-Wittgenstein, and the state (Land) of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nord Rhein-Westfalen). Its identity is still one of a farming village. Many people keep livestock and grow hay, but almost no one actually makes a living doing so. Most are employed in the businesses and factories of the larger towns of Berleburg, Hallenberg, etc. The timber industry remains important to the region, though the largest tracts of forest land still belong to the the Sayn-Wittgenstein family.
The county (Grafschaft) of Wittgenstein had a history dating back to the 13th century, and its people identify strongly with it. It is small (roughly 200 square miles) and geographically isolated. A topographical map reveals that it is mostly forested and mountainous. Two major streams--the Eder and the Lahn--flow through Wittgenstein, and much of the settlement lies in their narrow valleys. The northern town of Bad Berleburg is on the Odeborn. Numerous small villages cluster around smaller streams that feed into the larger ones. The region rarely lacks water but the climate is harsh and the growing season short.
Click here to call up a REALLY BIG black and white "gif" file. It shows towns, villages, many placenames, and abandoned settlements in Wittgenstein. It is much too big to display on a computer screen so you will probably want to download it and then print it on 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Printing it now through your browser will yield less satisfactory results. The map comes from the definitive history of Wittgenstein published by Gunther Wrede in the 1920s. (1)
Note that Wunderthausen lies in the northeast corner. Nearby Girkhausen and
Diedenshausen are important in our history. The earliest documented Riedesels lived at
Melbach, which is toward the center of the map. In this map, the
symbol indicates
one or a few houses which were not even organized into a village. Names without a symbol
are sites of earlier settlement but which were abandoned (they are known through early
documents). I don't have the exact scale of this map, but the distance from Wunderthausen
to Diedenshausen is only about two kilometers.
The most complete early history of Wunderthausen itself was written by Werner Wied in 1994.(2) Much else about village history comes from an out-of-print Dorfbuch.(3) According to experts, place names ending in -hausen had come into being by the year 950. We know that Wittgenstein itself was settled at Charlemagne's direction in the late 700s by Frankish people from Hesse. Wittgenstein is situated on what was the border between the Franks and the Saxons to the north. Thus Wittgenstein was a march (in the old English usage) or border region. Whether the site of Wunderthausen was occupied at this time, no one knows.
As of the late 12th century, Wunderthausen was a possession of a knightly family with a residence at Diedenshausen and a variety of other small possessions. In 1399, this line died out and the villages they controlled were abandoned in the following years. Wied notes that without the protection of the Diedenshausen knights, peasant life in the troubled 14th and 15th centuries in this remote border area was not possible. Other clans of minor nobility made claim to the same territory, if not for supporting peasants then for hunting and wood.
In the late 1400s, the Wittgenstein Counts staked their claim by re-establishing peasant villages at Wunderthausen and Diedenshausen. This brought them into conflict with the other knightly families, but the Wittgensteins eventually prevailed through the courts and the purchase of rights. It was only in the 1560s that the Wittgenstein Counts gained complete control of these two villages in the upper valley of the Elsoff. Since then (and only since then) have the people of Wunderthausen been fully Wittgensteiners. From this time until the 1890s when they got their own pastor, their religious obligations were in Girkhausen, a long and difficult walk.(4) There was a church in the village, but it was only used for special occasions. [Because of their small populations and limited state (sic) funds, the parish of Wunderthausen-Diedenshausen lost its resident pastor in 2007].
A question of considerable interest for local researchers was from where the new inhabitants of Wunderthausen and Diedenshausen came. On the basis of family names in the earliest existing lists of residents, it appears that Wunderthausen was re-populated from the area of Bromskirchen (to the east of Wittgenstein) while Diedenshausen drew more from the lower Elsoff valley. Tracing of family ties in the 15th and 16th centuries is very difficult. The churches did not keep birth and death records, and the Counts certainly did not. All that remain are occasional lists of the tax obligations for each household in each village.
In some respects, the late 1500s were the best times the peasants of Wittgenstein were to enjoy for a century or more. The outbreak of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was felt even in so remote an area as Wittgenstein. Though protected somewhat by geography, the people had no real protection against the motley armies of the Catholic League or the Protestant Union. The Counts in their palaces were relatively safe, but they did not have the means of protecting dozens of scattered villages.
Historian Karl-Ernst Riedesel wrote:
"Wittgenstein did not see military action during the Thirty Years' War, but it saw many armies marching through the counties and demanding high contributions, with soldiers looting and raping as they saw fit. Worst of all were the diseases which accompanied the armies, and above everything else was the plague which afflicted Wittgenstein more than once during this period. At the end of this war, the two Wittgenstein counties were completely ruined. Their population was reduced to one third of what it had been thirty years before, and the war had destroyed whatever wealth had existed in Wittgenstein. Many families had been exterminated by violence, famine or disease; complete villages had been deserted."(5)
The preceding political map represents the boundaries following the Thirty Years War and the Peace of Westphalia.
As can be seen, the immediately neighboring states were now Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt to the east, Nassau to the southwest, and Westphalia to the northwest. Then and now, Wunderthausen and Diedenshausen lie right on the border.
The area gradually recovered, but what little wealth had existed was long gone. That meant livestock as much as anything and it took many years to rebuild the stock. Few peasants owned horses but a team of oxen was a basic requirement. They provided traction for the plow, fertilizer for the field, and milk for the table. A breed, known as the Wittgensteiner Bleßvieh, was developed which served all three functions relatively well. Sheep provided wool, and pigs some meat. Goats, chickens and geese were also kept. Wheat did poorly where the growing season was either short or shorter, so the people existed largely on rye bread, butter, cheese, milk and a few fruits and vegetables. The introduction of the potato in the 1720s meant a significant improvement in the diet of the common people.
Our sense is that life throughout the 1700s was rather static. The population grew some, and some additional houses were built (which required the Count's permission to cut the wood, and the clearing of more pasture or crop land). Wrede made the following estimates:
| Year | Houses | Population |
| 1677 | 22 | 130-140 |
| 1700 | 23 | 140-150 |
| 1750 | 30 | 225 |
| 1800 | 39 | 350 |
| 1850 | 70 | 450 |
| 1875 | -- | 505 (official) |
| 1880 | -- | 484 (official) |
| 1890 | -- | 506 (official) |
| 1900 | 100 | 572 (official) |
| 1910 | -- | 563 (official) |
Still, life in a remote corner of a remote province was not easy. Our ancestors were unfree subjects until the mid-1800s, and owned little more than a few household utensils and a set of clothes. The houses and most of the land belonged to the Count, and were divided into a set number of tenancies. Rights to a tenancy were inherited, going to the oldest child of either gender. For instance, the first Riedesel in Wunderthausen married Anna Spies, and became the tenant on her father's death. Their oldest son, Johann Georg, eventually became the tenant. Most American Riedesels descend from the fifth child of this marriage, Georg Gabriel, who married into a different house (Weymers) and became the tenant there.
The Counts of Wittgenstein became Protestant relatively early and followed the Calvinist (Reform) path rather than the Lutheran orthodoxy. So, by law, did all the churches of Wittgenstein.(6) Most churches were (and are) quite simple. The church in neighboring Girkhausen became a Wahlfahrtskirche in the Middle Ages, a tidy word that means it was the goal of religious pilgrims because of an appearance there of the Virgin Mary. The Reformation was bad for this business and the large church could no longer be maintained. What are today a separate memorial tower and a small church were once connected under a single roof. This church is of significance to us as it is where our ancestors worshiped for the most part and where the church registers were kept. It is regarded as being an important representative of church architecture in the region. This elevation looks south.(7)
The common people of Wittgenstein were probably pious, as Calvinist theology was quite unforgiving. Just as importantly, the peasant community was very strong, a condition for enforcing any moral order. Modern eyes reviewing birth registers cannot help noting the frequency of illegitimate births (more common in the 19th century), but we are in no position to understand the meaning this had. Since most houses held extended families, it was normal for unmarried adults to live with their parents or married siblings. If they had a child, it would be in good company. Catherine Schneider and a younger brother were both born before their parents, Johann Georg Schneider and Luise Florentine Wetter, were married.(8)
Were they happy? Happiness, of course, is relative to expectations and they probably expected little. Childhood mortality was high, even in peaceful times. But some lived into their 80s and it is said that the Wittgensteiners were a hardy stock. There was certainly little diversion or variety in their lives. Making a living and providing the Count with his taxes and produce was a full-time job for the whole family, sunup to sundown, six days a week. Sunday was to be a day off, but that might mean walking two hours to Girkhausen and back for church. Most people probably lived their entire lives without traveling more than 20 miles from where they were born.
The turn of the next century, however, brought an acceleration of change which propelled dozens of inhabitants across the Atlantic to the New World (actually, there had been a trickle of emigration throughout the 18th century).
The catalyst for many of the changes was the French occupation of the Rhineland in the 1790s, including Wittgenstein. The Counts (recently promoted to Princes by the German Emperor) lost the sovereignty they had enjoyed for six hundred years or more, and the people of Wittgenstein were now subjects of the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. Young men from the area were pressed into French military service. Several from Wunderthausen and Diedenshausen were in the ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812 and the later "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig in 1813.(9) Eventually, the combined forces of England, Prussia and Austria defeated the French. In the ensuing Congress of Vienna (1815), the old order was re-established though the many petty German states were finally consolidated into a few larger ones. This included Wittgenstein, which became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Prussia strove to be a modern, centralized though autocratic state. The minor nobility, such as the Counts of Wittgenstein, kept most of their property but lost control over the lives and possessions of their peasants. The legal code was that of the King and was enforced through a complex bureaucracy. Tariffs and trade barriers between the petty states and towns were abolished (at least within the Kingdom of Prussia). Feudal duties and taxes-in-kind were converted to monetary taxes. A process began whereby peasant tenants purchased their land from the Counts. They were no longer serfs.
Among other things, this meant that people were free to move without getting official permission. Previously, a subject who wished go to America or Poland or Frankfurt had to get the Count's permission and pay a certain percentage of what he owned. The German states were slowly beginning to industrialize and this set off a great deal of internal migration.(10)
During the 1700s, the population of Wunderthausen grew somewhat and a few more houses (with their associated tenancies of land) were established. The Counts made some effort to improve economic conditions by bringing in outside artisans who knew how to make glass or paper. Yet the economy remained overwhelmingly extractive, which is to say based on agriculture and the forests. By 1800 the people were still regarded as being poor relative to inhabitants in other German states. In the 1800s and particularly after Wittgenstein was incorporated into the Prussian state, the economic complexion of the region changed in many ways. As the economy changed, so did everything else.
Where once only peasants with tenancy rights to land could occupy a house, those who worked for wages might be able to build a small house. Young men were freer to "commute" to jobs as masons or carpenters in neighboring regions; they might return home on Sundays. The residents of Wunderthausen began a cottage industry of carving wooden spoons and other utensils for the broader market. This was winter work for the whole family. No one got rich but it brought in a little more cash income. The Prussian administration did its best to keep a lid on any kind of democratic political dissent, but even in so remote an area as Wittgenstein it was known that other Europeans had some say in their governments.
Peasant boys were recruited as soldiers by means fair and foul for centuries, but the Prussian system of conscription took more young men away from home-and usually returned them. The morals of army life did not exactly match those of the peasant community. Even if they never saw a battlefield, the experience of life in a then-modern army in a then-modern state changed the mental cosmos in which these veterans lived.
It would that appear health conditions improved somewhat, as the population of Wunderthausen grew by over 25 percent between 1800 and 1850. Demographers say that death control precedes birth control in developing countries. Out-of-wedlock births became more common.
There were immigrants both earlier and later, but the bulk of emigration from the German states to America took place between the late 1840s and the late 1880s. My ancestors, Ludwig and Florentine (Althaus) Riedesel and their adult children were among the first in this wave.
Florentine was the Erbin (heiress) to the small house known as Haase. They had seven children, two of whom died in childhood. In 1844, their second-oldest son, J. Ludwig, went to America along with his first-cousin, Ludwig Dürr. Recent discoveries show that their aunt, Maria Elisabeth (Althaus) was living in Ohio with her husband, Christian Gerhardt from the nearby village of Elsoff. The cousins may have departed from Bremen, Hamburg or Amsterdam, and probably arrived in Baltimore. The following year, J. Ludwig's parents, living siblings, and his fiancée, Catherine Schneider, joined him there in Crawford County (near Galion), Ohio. His older brother, L. Henry, brought his Wunderthausen-born wife, Amalia Beitzel/Riedesel, and at least two children; sister Anna came with her husband, Franz Homrighausen.
Haase house was taken over by Johannes Müsse. We have no idea what the proceeds of the sale were, or if Ludwig had paid off the debt to the Sayn-Wittgenstein family in full. It is my guess that they in fact received at least enough cash to pay for their passage. Indentured servitude, as practiced extensively in colonial America, was no longer in use and the Riedesels appeared to be free to move about America. It was common for immigrants who had established themselves to sponsor others. They may not have been sponsored, but were probably joining one or more of mother Florentine's siblings.
After only two or so years in the New World, old Ludwig and Florentine were both struck down in what may have been a cholera or influenza epidemic in 1847-1848. Their daughter-in-law, Amalia (Beitzel/Riedesel), and a grandchild perished as well. They had traveled a long road. Ludwig and Florentine began their lives as serfs to the Count in Berleburg, became subjects of the French Republic, the French Empire, and the King of Prussia, but ended their lives on the free soil of Ohio.
Footnotes
1. Wrede, Gunther. Territorialgeschichte der Graftschaft Wittgenstein. N. G. Elwert'sche Verlagbuchhandlung. Marburg, 1927.
2. Werner Wied, "Beiträge zur Geschichte von Diedenshausen und Wunderthausen im 16. Jahrhundert." Wittgenstein, Volume 58, Number 2. June, 1994. Pp. 42-61.
3. Fr. Krämer, editor. Wunderthausen Diedenshausen. Vereins des Pflege der Dorfgemeinschaft Wunderthausen, 1978.
4. This Kirchweg through the forests is still well known today. A visitor is advised to walk it and think of his/her ancestors making the trek on a regular basis.
5. Riedesel, Karl-Ernst. "Causes for Emigration from the German Counties of Wittgenstein." Tulpehocken Settlement Historical Society, Volume 18, Number 1, November 1986. Pp. 56-60. This paper is also available at: http://www.riedesel.org/emigrate.html
6. A small Jewish population lived in Wittgenstein with the Counts' protection as did some Gypsy families. In the early 1700s, they also offered refuge to Pietists who were fleeing persecution elsewhere in the German states. The town of Berleburg was actually a center of publishing of Pietist literature and an edition of the Bible. It was not until the dislocation after World War II that there were any Roman Catholics to speak of in Wittgenstein. The first Catholic church since the Reformation was dedicated in 1950.
7. Copied from Fritz Krämer (ed), 750 Jahre Girkhausen. Gemeinde Girkhausen, 1970. Page 23.
8. Emma Wetter Hobbs "corrected" the date of marriage in her book.
9. Ironically, one of the Russian military heroes in the defense of Moscow was General Ludwig Adolph Peter Sayn-Wittgenstein, a descendant of a side line of the Counts of Wittgenstein-Berleburg.
10. A great deal of Romantic poetry and folksong from this time concerns the wanderer, the person far away from the Heimat. The poets were not necessarily displaced villagers, but they captured the popular sentiment. Good examples are the poetry of Joseph, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788-1857) and Wilhelm Müller (1794-1927), both favorites of Schubert and later Romantic composers.
11. Most of my account is based on a 1961 history written by Dr. Karl Siegmar Baron von Galéra entitled Vom Reich zum Rheinbund: Weltgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts in einer kleinen Residenz (Degener & Company, Neustadt an der Aisch). He worked from the extensive archives of the Riedesel family in Lauterbach. I also draw on a few other documents and personal correspondence. I describe the Riedesels of Lauterbach in more detail in my web page at: http://www.riedesel.org/lauter.html
© Paul Riedesel
Current as of 12/29/07