Hi,
I and my family will visit Mecklenburg this July to see the area from
where my wife's 5xgreat grandfather August Friedrich von Rappe came to
Norway in 1718. He was one of many (probably poor) Mecklenburg noblemen
who took service as officers of Scendinavian armies in the 17th and 18th
centuries.
The von Rappe family was a small noble family living mostly in Sternberg
and the area around from 1500 to about 1700 when it got extinct. The
first known member of the family in Mecklenburg was Hans von Rappe who
was Bürgermeister of Sternberg in the first half of the 16th century.
August Friedrich von Rappe was baptized 6 September 1692 on the Gut
Pentzlin in Kirchspiel Kuppentin (this Gut was owned by an August
Friedrich von Dessin who most probably was a relative, A.F. v. Dessin
was A.F. v. Rappe's godfather).
August Friedrich v. Rappe (whose father's name was Berend Hartwig von
Rappe) most probably was the grandson of Berend Hartwig von Rappe (dead
before 1688) who was the owner of the Gut Necheln near Brüel until he
sold it in 1660.
A brother or cousin of August Friedrich v. Rappe was Cuno Joachim v.
Rappe who was baptized April 8, 1695 in Kirchspiel Teterow. He also
served as an officer in the Norwegian army.
Another branch of the Mecklenburg von Rappe family also ended up in
Norway, and I am also interested in them:
Caspar Joachim v. Rappe was the son of Hans Jürgen v. Rappe (ca. 1611 -
after 1697) and his first wife Margratha Dorothea von Kerberg (or
Kardorff?). He came to Norway in 1669, and became a colonel (Oberst) and
commandant of the fortress Frederiksten. He was married to Agathe
Elisabeth von Winterfeldt. He died in Norway in 1699. He had inherited
the Gut Weselin in Kirchspiel Brüel from his father. Caspar Joachim and
Agathe Elisabeth had 4 sons and 1 or 2 daughters who were born in
Norway. The oldest son, Friedrich Otto von Rappe, stayed in Norway and
became a very prominent person in Norway and Denmark. The two next sons
Jürgen Caspar and Gustav Ernst both became officers of the Danish army
and died in battles during the War of Spanish Succession (Jürgen Caspar
during the siege of Trabach, Gustav Ernst at the battle of Malplaquet).
The youngest son Christian Ulrich was insane or mentally retarded. After
the death of her husband, Agathe Elisabeth moved back to the Gut Weselin
in Mecklenburg with her daughter Antoinette Juliane, perhaps one more
daughter and her two youngest sons. In 1708 she sold the Gut Weselin to
Joachim Jürgen von Holstein for 5226 Taler.
Agathe Elisabeth probably then lived on in Sternberg or nearby (perhaps
Zülow or Brüel?). I am not sure when she died. Perhaps she is the same
person as the Frau von Rappe who was buried in 1730 in Herzberg.
Antoinette Juliane never married, and received a pension from her
brother Friedrich Otto in Norway to care for herself and her brother
Christian Ulrich (according to Friedrich Otto's will, where he says that
they live in Sternberg in Mecklenburg). Christian Ulrich v. Rappe was
buried in Eickelberg January 23, 1751. Antoinette Juliane v. Rappe was
buried in Sternberg 21 February 1762 at the age of 84. She was probably
the very last von Rappe in Mecklenburg.
I would like advice on where to stay in that area. Any nice inexpencive
hotels, pensions or Feriewohnungen? We will prbably stay for about 3-5
days in the second week of July. We of course want to see Sternberg,
Brüel, Pentzlin (in Kuppentin Kirchspiel), Schwerin and Güstrow. Are
there other places we should visit? Are there still any Gutshaüser left
that has been in the von Rappe family ownership and would be worth
seeing (Weselin, Ravensberg, Necheln)? Unmarried women of the family
lived in the cloisters Rühn and Dobbertin. Are any of these worth
seeing?
I can easily read German, but I write so bad German, that I think it is
preferable that i write in English.
Yours,
Per B. Lilje
Oslo, Norwegen
E-mail: per.lilje@astro.uio.no