Hello,
Can someone educate me on the Lutheran churches that would have been
around at the time of the great migration? Say 1833 and prior? I have
always wondered if the missing records from the Catholic church of St.
Vitus would have been because those people converted to Lutherism.
I know very little of the state of the churches after Luther. I
did read somewhere that the Catholic church was trying to bring folks
back after Luther. At the time of the migration only about 20% remained
faithful to the catholic church.
Any idea's where I can read up? I am especially interested in
the area's of Visbek, Vetchta, (probably all catholic) Erlte, Hagstette.
I know Hagstette is a farm, . If these area's were ruled by the
Catholic church, and a Lutheran church did popup where would it of been?
I have ran across very few Heckmann's that were catholic.
Any help on a course of study would be appreciated. I am especially
interested in ANY information on Erlte and the surrounding areas.
Fred Rumps article was very informative. Since my St. Vitus stuff says
that Johann Heinrich Heckmann was a Heuerleute in Erlte. I kinda want to
explore what that is about.
Thanks,
Lorrie Heckman Smith smittysix@juno.com
May God be between thee and harm, in all the empty places you must walk.
Remember If God brings you to it - He will bring you through it.
Researching Heckman(n), Schillmoeller,Haas, Bergmann, Boecker, Berning,
Smith,Barga,Mertz,Dotson, Ratterman,Brussell,Keesee
Date sent: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 15:23:44 -0700
Hello,
Can someone educate me on the Lutheran churches that would have been
around at the time of the great migration? Say 1833 and prior?
The historical development of religion in South Oldenburg is too involved to go into
detail here but let it suffice that the regional adminstration of Vechta and
Cloppenburg which primarily composes this area was almost 100% Roman Catholic
when it was given to the Duchy of Oldenburg in 1803.
I have always wondered if the missing records from the Catholic church
of St. Vitus would have been because those people converted to
Lutherism.
I do not know of which missing records you speak but it would not be of any kind of
mass conversion.
I know very little of the state of the churches after Luther.
I did read somewhere that the Catholic church was trying to bring folks
back after Luther. At the time of the migration only about 20%
remained faithful to the catholic church.
During the Reformation it was not so much being Catholic or Lutheran but rather
other concepts which differentiated the people and their leaders. Eventually
separate reliogions emerged from the conflict but in the beginning everyone was
just simply Christian and the Roman Church was all anybody knew. But again this
issue is more complicated then it looks on the surface and I won't go into it.
The Niederstift Münster is the area we are dealing with here. It was ruled by the
prince-bishop of Münster until 1803 and he was a RC bishop. The rule of the game
was that the leader of the land decided what people were to believe. They mostly
followed. The difficulty we have is that the wordly ruler was a bishop in an area he
was not in charge of religiously. In other words the Niederstift was part of the
diocese of Osnabrück for nearly 900 years. This principality was a bit more
complicated (isn't everything?) in that it's rulers since the Peace of Westphalia in
1648 were alternatively RC and then Lutheran. It switched with every ruler. On top
of that Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen of Münster, in 1668, bought the
religious rights for himself for 10,000 Thalers.
In other words in 1668 the same ruler could decide both from a worldly and a
religious standpoint what belief his subjects were to adhere to. Out of this
circumstance grew and almost 100% Roman Catholic populace. Yet, it was pretty
much surrounded by Protestantism as they had other rulers. It was a diaspora of
Catholics in a Protestant sea. Typically the only Protestants which came into the
area were public employees like railroad and postal people.
Any idea's where I can read up? I am especially interested in
the area's of Visbek, Vetchta, (probably all catholic) Erlte,
Hagstette.
I know Hagstette is a farm, . If these area's were ruled by the
Catholic church, and a Lutheran church did popup where would it of
been?
After WWII millions of expellees from the former East Germany arrived in Western
Germany including our subject area. In many cases local farmers met their first
contact with one of these 'heathen' Protestants he'd heard about all his life. To this
day only about 17% of the population of the Landkreis Vechta is Lutheran. In
Visbeck itself the new Lutheran community did not build their own permanent
church (Emmauskirche) until 1997 with temporary quarters serving until then. Still,
even the new church only seats 180 people. The original NOTKIRCHE (emergency
church) was a wooden structure built in 1953 and was disassembled in 1997 and
shipped to Sidurgas in Lithuania where it was reassembled.
I have ran across very few Heckmann's that were catholic. Any
help on a course of study would be appreciated. I am especially
interested in ANY information on Erlte and the surrounding areas.
I would bet money that no Heuermann from Erlte was Protestant in the early 19th
century. The Bauerschaften were pretty much secluded and the same old families
would be found there. The population of Visbek in 1964 was only 8.68% Protestant.
This increased to 12.73% by 1998. .
You're supposed to be able to purchase a history of Erlte (Erlter Chronik) via email
at the Erlte website. Unfortunately it does not seem to work from here. In any case
the book is available under the Title "Unser schönes Dorf Erlte" at the 1111th
anniversary of the place at :
http://www.erlte.de/chronik.htm
The description:
Dieses Buch soll einen Einblick in das Leben unseres Dorfes Erlte geben.
Dazu haben wir einen in verschiedenartigen Textbeiträgen unser Dorfleben zu
beschreiben versucht, zum anderen alle Erlter Häuser (in der Reihenfolge der
Hausnummern) abgebildet und die Bewohner dieser Häuser namentlich aufgeführt.
Eine lückenlose Dokumentation sollte und konnte nicht Ziel unserer Arbeit sein;
vielmehr ist die Auswahl der Beiträge und Fotos durch die Personen erfolgt, die
federführend dieses Buch zusammengestellt haben:
Josef Langfermann, Heinz-Georg Kühling, Erwin Stubbe, Georg Pundt, Ludger
Tönjes und Alfred Gerdes:
an additional member of the contributors is one "Maria Heckmann".
Translation: This book should provide a view into the life of our village. We've tried
to assemble a variety of articles which describe this village life style. We've also
pictures all of the old Erlte houses according to their housenumbers and have listed
the current occupants. It was not intended to create a fully documented history,
rather it is an attempt to utilize what our contributors were able to provide via
articles and photographs.
Fred
26 Warren St.
Beverly, NJ 08010
FredRump@earthlink.net
609-386-6846
215-205-2841 (cell)