The first rays of sunlight fell through a crack in the high windows and woke the child's face. He opened his eyes and looked searchingly through the dim darkness of the room towards his grandmother's bed, who was lying there quietly with her eyes closed, so that it was impossible to tell whether she was still asleep or already awake. She often lay like that, apparently in a deep sleep. But the child knew that this impression was usually deceptive. He knew that behind the old woman's calm forehead, her thoughts often wandered back to times long past. As always, she quietly slipped out of bed and scurried to the other side of the room. Without saying a word, it crept cautiously to the quietly lying woman under the thick duvet, only to ask quietly after a while: „Grandma, are you awake yet?“

Only now did the grandmother move, interrupted her encounter with the past, opened her eyes and turned to her granddaughter. The girl sensed that the figures with whom the old woman had held a silent dialogue were still very close. So she took the opportunity to ask, as she had often to ask: „Tell me about the old days.“

This is how the child learnt about the time, long before the turn of the century, when her grandmother herself had been small. With the words of the old woman, the old farmhouse, which no longer exists at former neighbourhood, came to life before his eyes. He saw before him the low rooms, which were filled with people, some familiar, some strangers. He looked at the old furniture in the rooms: from the heavy, oak dowry chest to the larder cupboard in the pantry. Listening to her grandmother's stories, she walked the long way to school over the rough heath, believed with her that she had lost her way, and felt fear when in autumn the rising mists gave every juniper bush a ghostly shape. It told stories of good and bad days, of illness and hardship, resentment and quarrelling and helplessly enduring bad blows of fate.

From the grandmother's lips, the child heard how, throughout the ages, despite the struggle for survival, people were guided by the same motives: faith in God, whose will creation had to subordinate itself to of hope for a better life in the hereafter, which helped to endure the earthly vale of tears, of love for one's neighbour - but also of hatred, envy and despair.

And God had seen them all, every single one in the long line of ancestors; he knew them all from the beginning. „A thousand years are like a day before God,“ the astonished girl learnt.

The door opened. AuntTrudchen, the eldest, unmarried daughter of the house, came in with the breakfast tray for her grandmother. She opened the shutters, and

[11]

and the bright morning light flooded the room. The quiet hour of remembrance was over. While her aunt was still talking to her grandmother, the child got up and got dressed. The day had begun.

In those very first years after the war, the spacious red brick house was very busy. It had been built at the beginning of the century, in a hurry after the old house had burnt down, with high, large rooms in keeping with the taste of the time. It didn't look like the other farmhouses in the neighbourhood, if only because of its size. Many people lived together under the high tiled roof: There was the tenant couple who had been running the pub in the front part of the house for many years; there were various refugee families who lived in a few converted rooms on the attic floor and helped out on the farm until they found another job; there was the large farming family including parents, children, aunts, servands and maids; there was the grandmother, who only a few years ago had handed over the reins of the whole business, which she had run since her husband's early death.

The child stopped briefly at the parents' bedroom to take a look through the door. It was empty. Next to the mother's bed was a freshly prepared bassinet. Perhaps tomorrow the mother would return from hospital with her little sister. I wonder what it looked like?

In the bathroom next door, the nanny was busy dressing her younger brother Konrad. The two were almost finished. „Wait, Maria“ called the little boy, but the girl was already jumping down the stairs.

In the spacious dining kitchen, the refugee woman was preparing the second breakfast and wrapping stacks of sandwiches in newspaper. A large enamel pot of steaming malt coffee was already ready. They were in the hay harvest. Breakfast was taken to the meadow so that no working time was lost.

In the so-called children's room, a small living room where they played, sewed and ironed, his brother Paul, who was two years older, sat doing his schoolwork at lightning speed, hoping that he would then be allowed to go to the hay meadow. The girl looked lovingly at her own school bag, which still looked as good as new. A few weeks ago, she had started school herself to finally learn to read. Lessons in the small one-class school with the old teacher, who had already taught the children's parents, didn't start until the afternoon for the first four classes - still plenty of time if you had nothing else planned.

Before the child finished his tour, he took a look in the cellar. Katharina, her grandmother's unmarried younger sister, was standing at the large wooden baking trough. Her arms were up to her elbows in the dark dough

[12]

dark dough for the heavy Westphalian „Pumpernickel“ brown bread. She was about to form two huge loaves on the baking board and then take them to the neighbouring bakery on the wheelbarrow. Their own brick oven next door had long since only been used for special occasions because it took too long to heat up.

The child decided to steer clear of this aunt today. She had a damp cloth tied round her forehead, an unmistakable sign that she was suffering from a migraine. Normally she could get terribly angry and scolded very easily, but on days like this, when the signs were so clearly pointing to a storm, it was best to avoid her altogether. This great-aunt, who nobody called „Auntie“ by the way, but was only ever called by her first name, had something of a natural phenomenon about her. Her mood was like a constant thunderstorm and nobody could predict when the constant rumble of thunder would suddenly be joined by a violent flash of lightning.

When Maria returned to the kitchen, she found her little brother sitting at the long dining table. The nanny had prepared the breakfast for both siblings: a pot (*1) with warm milk, in which the Habback (*2) was dipped, with grey bread, butter and turnip cabbage (2b*).

While they were eating, Aunt Liesbeth entered the kitchen. She was also one of her mother's sisters, her grandmother's second eldest daughter. She was actually the prettiest of all the aunts. She could hardly tame her luxuriant abundance of long, brown hair into a knot. Her beautiful, even face, in which her mouth and chin were particularly striking, seemed strange in a certain way. No one in the family resembled her. She was relatively tall and slender, like all the women in the family except her mother. Her harmonious movements, however, seemed slightly sluggish, which was emphasised by the careless way she dressed. She displayed a conspicuous piety and always served everyone with unsolicited good advice. But she could also be a marvellous storyteller, at least if you hadn't heard her stories too often. She actually lived in a small new building nearby. But as her husband had not yet returned from being a prisoner of war and she had no children, she preferred to spend her days in her parents' house and only went to her flat to sleep. The rest of the house was rented out.

Aunt Liesbeth was on kitchen duty that week, which meant she cooked lunch. She alternated this job with Aunt Trudchen every week. Although there were very simple meals on weekdays - mostly stews with a milk or fruit dish for dessert - cooking for the large number of diners took almost the whole morning. Potatoes had to be peeled by the bucketful. Vegetables were fetched from the garden in large baskets. The pots on the sprawling iron coal cooker were of enormous size.

(*1) small bowl

(*2) dry, unseasoned yeast pastry.

(*2b) Sugar syrup from beets

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While Aunt Liesbeth began to work, Katharina - back from the bakery - came in and immediately began to criticise her aunt's preparations. The children knew this because it often happened like this. Great-aunt Katharina was more than thrifty; she was stingy and always thought that everyone else was a spendthrift. She begrudged herself and those around her nothing and could become very irascible. The adults said that was the reason why nobody married her, even though she was very pretty. She was soon to be 70, but still quite handsome: small, slim, almost delicate, with reddish-blonde, frizzy hair that always curled out of the topknot, a fresh face colour and nimble, light movements. It was easy to imagine that many men had once looked her over.

Yet she was still extremely hard-working, had always worked like a man and, after her grandfather's death, had managed the manless farm until her father came to the farm. The servants still cowered before her, and the child had often enough seen her herself throwing a rake or a clog at lazy and cheeky farmhands.

Aunt Trudchen joined them. She intervened in the dispute between the two women and intensified it. She didn't like Katharina; everyone knew that. Despite the similarity in their external living conditions, these two relatives were like natural opponents in a constant battle: both unmarried, equally dissatisfied and sharp-tongued, they nevertheless differed considerably in appearance and temperament. Around twenty years younger, Aunt Trudchen was just as slim as Katharina, but seemed taller. Her face with its tightly combed back grey hair looked rather stern, her grey-blue eyes a little piercing. It was well known that she had avoided all men all her life, although there had supposedly been no shortage of suitors.

Less impulsive than Katharina, she only needed to use her cool, sharp mind in her arguments with her to get her in a rage at any time. She obviously enjoyed arguing with the older girl. The child noticed that the two of them were always looking for reasons to annoy each other. She suffered from the frequent loud arguments, as did her parents, especially her father, who, as a „married man“ (*2c), was not listened to by either of them.

At last the grandmother came downstairs. Without raising her voice, she commanded calm, and as she was still the first authority in the house, after some back and forth the squabblers went their separate ways, each to her work.

The nanny had long since left the room quietly with Konrad. Maria took her grandmother's hand and went out with her.

It was very nice outside now. The tall oak trees overshadowed the whole courtyard, so that it was pleasantly cool despite the burning sun. The long bench next to the front door was always a favourite resting place.

(*2c) a man who marries the heiress of a farm

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The „pleasure garden“ opposite, adjoining the courtyard, was an ideal playground in summer, albeit a peculiar feature not found on any other farm. It was a small park, laid out by the grandfather shortly after the turn of the century, with unusual trees, ornamental shrubs, lawns, footpaths and an arbour overgrown with wild vines.

Next to it was the normal house garden, which looked like any other country garden with roses, flower beds, berry bushes and vegetable patches, all neatly edged with boxwood.

Behind it stretched as far as the railway line of the „Teutoburger Wald Eisenbahn“ on one side and the small „Flut“, a drainage ditch that flowed into the nearby Olbach stream, on the other, the orchard, in which there were wide rows of different varieties of apple, pear and plum trees. They were all overlooked by a group of five ancient, huge pear trees that seemed to come from another time. Grandmother had told us that they had once belonged to an old farmhouse that had stood here a long time ago. She had also said that her own grandmother had been born there and mentioned many names that were confusing and impossible to remember. But the child was supposed to memorise the name of this former farm. It was called „Meier to Krax“. The farm had been divided up and sold, the house had been demolished a lifetime ago. But the trees remained and still bore plenty of fruit.

Behind the old country road, which ran along the back of his parents' farm and connected the towns of Gütersloh and Bielefeld, was Aunt Liesbeth's little house in an unusually large and beautiful garden. Here, too, there was a group of huge old pear trees that seemed to compete in height with the large oaks around them. There, by these trees, was the former farm „Hemken to Krax“. This was where her grandmother's birthplace had stood, the old farmhouse where her thoughts often dwelled, which had burnt down on a terrible night many years ago.

The morning flew by. Shortly before midday, the nanny called to see if there was any schoolwork to be done. Lessons started at one o'clock, so there wasn't much time. The slate was quickly filled up on both sides. Done! There was no more room! Washing. Changing clothes. Maria was in the kitchen just in time for lunch.

The father came in the door. He was followed by the servants. At least a dozen people gathered around the long oak table every day, but usually more. The grandmother sat at one end of the table, the father at the other. The seat next to him, usually occupied by his mother, was empty today. The children, aunts and nannies lined up next to them, and on the other side of the table were servants, maids and whoever else needed a seat.

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The food - usually a filling stew on weekdays - was served in huge bowls. There was hardly any meat, usually a plate of bacon and smoked meat or smoked sausage cooked in the large pot to flavour everything. Before everyone was allowed to tuck in, grace was said - usually the mother's job, now the grandmother's. There wasn't too much talking, everyone was hungry and hurried to get their share. Things slowed down a little for dessert. Instructions for the afternoon were given and everything necessary was discussed. As soon as the last bite was eaten, another prayer was said. Everyone was in a hurry to leave the table: some to take a short break, others to do the washing up, the children to make their way to school.

On the way to school, big brother, who was already in third grade, walked far too fast again. The little sister tried to keep up, but always stumbled a few metres behind. Lessons began. The afternoon dragged on.

After school at four o'clock, the two siblings were in a particular hurry today. If they got home early enough, they could certainly take the harvest cart to the meadow on the „Sürenheide“ (*3) to ride on the last load of hay. That was a marvellous pleasure! You sat high up in the fragrant, warm grass, from where you had a wide view of the countryside.

As long as the hay cart was in the „Sürenheide“ area, the field of vision was limited by the neighbouring dense spruce and pine forest, but as soon as it reached the Gütersloh road, which - as if built on a dam - cut the two parallel arms of the Ölbach, the so-called „Old Brook“ and the „New Brook“, at right angles, you could see far into the countryside over the lowland meadows.

To the west, the view extended as far as a large group of oak trees, behind which various buildings were concealed. This was the „Delken Mühle“, situated on the Neuer Bach, where the children knew their way around. They had visited it often enough because their father's parents lived there.

On the other side, to the east, the meadows stretched almost endlessly and seemed to reach as far as the distant Teutoburg Forest, which bordered the horizon on a clear day. With a little imagination, the children could recognise snow-covered high mountains in the white clouds towering above them and imagine the whole wide world beyond.

The heavy carriage swayed in every bend, so that the two of them sometimes had to hold on to the „Wiesbaum“ (*4). When they lay down on their backs and looked up at the blue sky, they could indulge in the most marvellous thoughts during this rocking ride.

(*3) „Sürenheide“ = old field name; means „acidic“ heath.

(*4) Tree trunk that is laid lengthwise over the hay for fastening.

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There was only one way for the children to gain an even wider view of the world. There was a copper beech tree in the pleasure garden that towered over all the other trees around it and seemed to have been made to tempt the children to climb it, despite all the prohibitions. It was quite easy to get up to the highest, swaying top. Although the descent was usually fraught with fear and sweaty hands, the effort was well worth it in clear weather.

To the north-west, you could see the neighbouring villages and towns spread out across the vast meadows and fields as if on a sloping stage - or at least their church spires stood out: Spexard, Varensell, Gütersloh, Wiedenbrück, Rheda - the world was at your feet.

The next day, the mother returned home. The newborn was still unusually delicate, and the joy of the mother's return was soon dampened, after curiosity about the little sister had been satisfied, when the three older ones realised how much of their mother's time was taken up by this new family member.

A few days later, a child's baptism was celebrated. For such special occasions, the good two-horse „Landau“ carriage was used for the journey to church. Made entirely of elegant black leather on the outside, it was lined with dark green velour on the inside. As there was no comparable elegant carriage for miles around, it was a special treat for little Maria to be allowed to ride in it.

After the church service, in addition to the godmother, the father's mother, all the neighbours' wives were invited for coffee. There was no bean coffee, which you couldn't find anywhere in this first year after the war, but home-roasted malt coffee. But the large slabs of crumble cake were wonderfully fresh, and the sponge cakes even contained sultanas. When a few glasses of liqueur were served, the mood in the group rose and the conversations became more and more animated.

The child loved these opportunities. If you kept a low profile, you could listen undisturbed everywhere and learn the most amazing things. You didn't understand everything, but that was no less exciting. Even if you could only observe the adults in silence, that was interesting enough.

As she had often done before, the girl noticed how different her grandmother was from the other old women. She was very slim, almost skinny, like the others, but much taller, or at least it seemed that way, because she held herself very upright and didn't have a hunched back like them. Her long white hair was plaited into an unusually thick knot at the back of her head, which made the other women's sparse buns look almost ridiculous. The protruding cheekbones under the narrow, high forehead were particularly striking in her even face. The grey eyes

[17]

always looked a little serious, even when she smiled. Although she was dressed just as simply and darkly as everyone else, she looked more distinguished than them in a strange way. No doubt she had once been strikingly beautiful and even at her age looked better than most younger women.

Maria was disturbed in her reflections. The adults' conversation had apparently turned to a topic they didn't consider suitable for children. Someone had noticed the girl and sent her away.

The summer brought many other changes in its course. After the school holidays began, the house became even more crowded for the rest of the year. Friends of the parents from a big city came to visit for a few weeks; others who had already lived on the farm during the war as evacuees - the children had a somewhat hazy idea of this term - returned. They all wanted to be able to eat their fill for a while. Despite the many rooms, people had to move very close together in the house.

The visitors tried to make themselves useful everywhere: in the house, in the garden, with the grain, fruit and potato harvests. Huge quantities of garden crops were preserved for the winter by the women during those weeks: cucumbers were pickled in large stone pots, green beans were layered in barrels for souring, sauerkraut was mashed and apples, pears and plums were both dried and boiled down. In the large vat in the laundry room, they even made turnip cabbage that year, as the honey yield from the few bee colonies, which were tended and cared for by Aunt Liesbeth and feared by the children from painful experience, was nowhere near enough for the large number of people.

For days on end, all the women would sit around the front door in the courtyard, cleaning, peeling and chopping vegetables and fruit. They sang to pass the time: many songs that everyone knew, and no sooner had the last verse of one faded away than someone was already singing another.

At lunchtime, beggars often came by asking for food. If they were lucky, there was still a plate of stew or even a piece of bacon left. Otherwise they had to make do with a sandwich. Katharina usually watched them with mischievous eyes. The children had watched her quickly grab the last piece of sausage herself out of sheer resentment, just so that it wouldn't be given to a stranger. Of course Aunt Trudchen knew this too, and she practised charity less out of charity than to annoy Katharina. Arguments often broke out over this. In such situations, Aunt Liesbeth used to spice up the atmosphere with a pious saying, and so many a meal was accompanied by sharp jibes, angry retorts and furious ranting. The tense relationships between these three women left their mark on the whole family. If the grandmother didn't intervene, the father and mother were powerless.

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Grandma, however, was tired of having to constantly act as the arbiter of this petty squabble, as she had other things to worry about. She was in her mid-seventies and thought it was high time to settle all worldly matters.

She had been the owner of two neighbouring farms. One of them, the farm "Cord to Krax", on which everyone lived and which had been owned by her grandfather, had been given to her mother years ago. There was no long deliberation on this point, as it was an old tradition that the youngest son or daughter - if there was no son - inherited. This is why the mother had always been considered the heir to the farm.

But there was still the farm "Hemken to Krax", her parents' farm, which she had inherited. In a will, she intended to leave it to her unmarried eldest daughter Trudchen so that she would also be provided for.

But then Aunt Rosa, the third eldest of the grandmother's four daughters, who had been married for years on a farm a few kilometres away, came into action. She was the most determined of all the siblings. Gaunt and stern-looking, it was hard to imagine that she was ever capable of a joke. In her extreme thriftiness she was only surpassed by her much older husband.

Aunt Rosa was of the opinion that her eldest sister, being unmarried, did not need a farm. As she had no children, Aunt Liesbeth was also out of the question as an heir. The youngest sister was already provided for with the one farm and therefore the grandmother had a moral obligation, so to speak, to bequeath the second to her and her six children. The grandmother did not readily agree with this view. She was worried about her eldest daughter, who was single, and Aunt Liesbeth's financial future also seemed unclear as long as her husband had not yet returned from being a prisoner of war. She also pointed out that her daughter Rosa had long since received a corresponding monetary settlement before the war. In order to change the old woman's mind, Aunt Rosa, together with her husband, began to reproach her grandmother in endless conversations.

But the other aunts did not accept this without a fight. In the evenings, when Maria lay in bed for a long time and appeared to be asleep, Aunt Trudchen talked to her mother to assert her and Aunt Liesbeth's claims and often only gave up when the old woman burst into tears. The grandmother was insecure because she wanted to please everyone and not put anyone at a disadvantage. She also struggled with increasing tiredness and forgetfulness. She found it increasingly difficult to make decisions, especially as she couldn't really consult with anyone, as almost everyone was interested in her in one way or another.

The father kept out of all discussions as far as possible, knowing from experience that any objections he could raise would be met with the whole clan shutting him up as the „married man“.

Meanwhile, her mother had the feeling of being caught between two stools and wanted to keep peace in the family at all costs. She was very close to all her

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She was very close to all her sisters and yet, for all their similarities, she was very different. She was clever, but not with the sharp intellect of Aunt Trudchen, and also more impulsive than her. She looked good, but she didn't have Aunt Liesbeth's beauty. She wasn't quite as pious either, but she was more diligent and hardworking. She was thrifty, but not as extreme as Aunt Rosa, and above all much more cheerful. There was hardly anything she hated more than the quarrels between the women of the house and yet she always let herself be infected by them.

But it wasn't just the daughter who was getting on her grandmother's nerves; other people also seemed to think that a cake was being handed out here, from which they could possibly get something, because after all, the grandmother still had the inn and presumed other assets to inherit. And so hardly a Sunday went by without some uncles, aunts, nephews or nieces coming to visit. It was not difficult to guess that they were all driven by the same hope. They wanted to inherit something: a meadow, a small field, a building plot or rent money.

In order to gain some distance and protect herself from the constant pressure, her grandmother went to the hospital in the neighbouring village of Neuenkirchen for a few weeks. She wasn't actually ill, but just in need of recuperation; in the past she would have travelled to the spa instead. The pious sisters who ran the hospital were grateful for her many generous donations and were happy to make a room available for her. She spent many hours there in the hospital's small chapel, hoping to find the right solution in peace and prayer.

In the spacious attic of the house there was a small, separate room where, apart from the best shiny horse harness for special holidays, old chests and boxes were kept that had long since aroused Maria's curiosity. One day, unnoticed, she set about examining them thoroughly.

The first find was sensational. She discovered the complete St Nicholas costume with embroidered bishop's cloak, mitre, beard and gloves. The dreaded thick, golden book, in which all deeds or misdeeds were supposed to be recorded, contained nothing but yellowed photographs. The child suddenly realised many things. Disillusionment at the end of an illusion mingled with a satisfied thirst for knowledge.

The other finds were not so easy to categorise. Above all, there were many apparently very old documents, some of them half decayed, none of them legible. They were apparently all written in the angular script used by the grandmother and all the old people. Maria decided to learn these unfamiliar characters. She found one of her mother's school reading books in which the old and new characters were juxtaposed. Her grandmother was delighted with her granddaughter's intellectual interest

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granddaughter's intellectual interest and helped her to learn to read the old script just as fluently as the new one in a short time.

During her next inspection in the attic, the girl was able to decipher the documents, but she didn't understand the contents. She only realised that they were old contracts, court records and the like, some with stamps, seals and illegible signatures; documents that had probably been very important at some point. Maria's interest in the papers had faded for the moment, but she knew that when she grew up, she would take them out again and then surely understand them. They seemed to her like an unknown treasure that she would one day unearth, and she decided not to talk about them to anyone.

This winter, her grandmother complained in particular about her cold left foot, which had a peculiar problem. The foot wasn't really cold at all; Maria had felt it several times. But her grandmother felt it was cold and kept trying to warm it. She had suffered from this cold feeling ever since the terrible event when she had fainted. Maria knew the story well; her grandmother had told it to her often enough. She had been a young woman at the time, around the turn of the century, when the old buildings on two Kraxter farms, Hemken to Krax and Cord to Krax, burnt down within a week. In the first fire, on the Hemken to Krax farm, which occurred in the middle of the night, she believed that her two young daughters Elisabeth and Gertrud, who were sleeping with their grandmother on the neighbouring farm, had perished in the flames and collapsed. She only owed her life to the quick intervention of a young maid, the doctor later said.

The residents moved to the Cord to Krax farm with everything they had managed to save. A week later, when they had barely recovered from the initial shock, a fire broke out there at night. The entire building, a typical Lower Saxon hall house from the 16th or 17th century, was engulfed in flames; hardly anything could be brought to safety. Rumors immediately arose that arsonists had been at work, but this suspicion was later neither confirmed nor completely dispelled. One of the grandmother's brothers, who was also suspected, gave in to the pressure of the incriminating opinions and emigrated to America.

So the old century had come to an end. With it, the old days had gone, the traces of the past on the Kraxter Hofen had been largely erased. Since then, the grandmother had felt an unsuppressible chill in her left foot and tried in vain to warm it.

Every now and then, some old men who had been drinking their beer or corn at the front of the pub would come and talk to their grandmother. They knew many stories and talked about earlier times when they were still young

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and when everything looked different. They called the grandmother „Jenny“, which was the Low German pet name for Marianne. That's what her grandfather had called her at the time. Grandma was happy to receive visits from her old friends, but her eyesight was deteriorating noticeably, making it increasingly difficult for her to read and she often felt a little alone amidst all the hustle and bustle.

She was all the happier to tell her curious granddaughter about the old days: about the poverty of most people back then, how people had to starve even on the farms, about the hard living conditions, especially for the little people; about the lung disease that killed many prematurely, about piety and fear of God, but also about quarrels and discord over generations.

The child listened carefully, but without asking questions about details. Much of it sounded strange and incomprehensible and yet fascinating, even if there was little that was funny.

With the end of winter, the house became a little emptier again. Spring brought plenty of work for everyone, and in summer the mother gave birth to another baby girl. It was the fifth child. Maria, who hardly ever missed a thing, didn't notice until one morning the sound of a baby's cry rang through the house.

A week later, the father's mother, who had come to visit shortly before in good health, died. The grandmother felt reminded by this sad event to put her own affairs in order.

In the following period, the notary was a frequent guest of the house. The farms were transferred - one to the mother, one to Aunt Rosa. The transfer was arranged and the compensation for the others was determined.

Only one thing changed for Maria: she had to give up her father's short surname and, like her father and all her siblings, adopt the long and difficult-to-spell old farm name. The grandmother had attached this condition to the handover. The children practiced for a long time until the name, new to them but in reality old, was spelled perfectly and in beautiful script: Cord to Krax.

The house filled up again in the fall. Many people in the cities were still homeless and many went hungry that winter. Logs were marked in the small forest nearby; people with certificates of entitlement came to get their allotted amount of firewood. On the farm, certain quantities of the grain and potato harvest had to be given away, and meat was rationed, as everywhere else, but there was always enough food on the table to feed everyone. And so, in this third post-war winter, new housemates once again lined up around the long dining table.

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The currency reform took place the next summer. Maria accompanied her father when he collected the new money for each member of the family one Sunday morning after church. The following winter, for the first time since the war, there were no guests from the city, but the house was still filled with servants of all kinds and refugee families looking for better opportunities to earn money than the farm offered.

Meanwhile, her grandmother withdrew more and more from daily life. Not only her eyesight, but also her hearing deteriorated noticeably. She seemed to grow considerably smaller and her memory deteriorated alarmingly. It was as if she had lost all vitality and desire after completing her tasks.

She spent a lot of time on her own - thinking or praying. When the grandchildren came to her, she used to sing with them. She knew many old folk songs and knew all the verses of the long church hymns by heart.

She hardly ever talked about the past, but sometimes talked to herself. Only the story of the great fire at the Kraxter Höfe, which destroyed the old buildings, she still told, even though everyone knew it long ago.

Then came an unexpected visit from America: a daughter of the emigrated Uncle Heinrich had been instructed by her elderly, homesick father to look around his old homeland, to visit relatives he had never seen again and to report back to him.

As much as the grandmother was looking forward to her niece's visit from America and a sign of life from her brother, it was a disappointment. The visitor spoke no German and the grandmother could only talk to her through third parties. How was she supposed to find out how her brother was really doing, what he had experienced and what he thought about the past!

People said that her grandmother was returning to her „childhood“. Maria didn't want to believe it, but she couldn't ignore the signs that pointed to a rapid decline. Her grandmother's old friends died, one after the other. However, it no longer seemed to affect her much. Her thoughts were either ahead of time, at her own end, or very far back in the past.

The older children already had to look after her, just as she had once looked after them, because she became more and more confused and mixed things up.

Slowly, very slowly, her life went out. For months she only dozed off. The spirit had long since detached itself from the tired body when death announced itself for all to see. Her left leg, which had always made her feel cold

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had always complained about, suddenly turned black. Everyone who saw it now believed her complaints from the past. The doctor only confirmed what the family already knew: the end was imminent.

As she lay in state in the small room behind the living room among candles and flowers, she seemed so infinitely strange that Maria was afraid to touch her again. But when, in an unobserved moment, she forced herself to stroke her forehead and hands and felt the waxen, pale cold, it was like a liberation. She knew that what would be laid to rest in a few days was no longer her grandmother, of whom she had a completely different image. She was almost ashamed when she didn't even have to cry at the funeral.

Picture 3

Fig. 3: The orchard at Hofe Cord to Krax with the large, old pear trees, the last witnesses of the former Hofe Meier to Krax (photographed around 1935).

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Picture 4

Fig. 4: View of the Cord to Krax residential building from the „Lustgarten“ (photographed around 1930)

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Picture 5

Fig. 5: Visiting relatives: Aunt Katharina on the far right - an extremely self-confident woman

Picture 6

Fig. 6: Coffee break during the harvest (around 1935)

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It was an early summer evening in the „Saxon Sinithi-Gau“ (*1) towards the end of the 11th century. The inhabitants of a lonely rural estate were preparing for the approaching darkness.

The old Saxon nodded his head in satisfaction as he finished his evening tour of his homestead. The house and yard were well-ordered and in good condition, protected against intruders - whether animal or human - by a solid fence.

The elongated house stood at the center of the entire complex. The wattle and daub walls were supported by sturdy posts and sealed with a thick layer of clay plaster. The interior of the building consisted of a single large hall, probably around 70 feet long and more than 15 feet (3 feet = 1 m) wide, in the center of which was the stone-shielded fireplace. The room was open at the top up to the thatched roof ridge, under which the smoke from the hearth gathered. (*2)

A number of other buildings, which were of great importance for life on the farm, were grouped around the house: Storehouses, stables, workshops for pottery and blacksmithing as well as small pit houses used for spinning and weaving. Around 20 people, old and young, belonged to the household of the single farmstead and formed a large family that had to produce all the things that were part of daily life, such as food and clothing, tools and utensils, and provide themselves with all the necessities of life.

This required great care and responsibility from the head of such an estate. And indeed, the old man had not lacked it in all the long years since he had been responsible for the welfare of the residents. He had every reason to be proud of the modest prosperity that was evident everywhere.

When his ancestors entered the wilderness of the Crakeshart (*3) a few generations ago to clear the dense forest, it had been a great risk. You could still appreciate it today if you followed the „Ölbach“ for even a short distance to the east, where few human settlements had yet penetrated. The battle with the wilderness had taken all their strength. It had taken almost unimaginable effort to reclaim large enough areas of the

(*1) „Gau“ = district / the „Sinithi-Gau“ comprised the old district of Wiedenbrück

(today the southern part of the district of Gütersloh)

(*2) the reconstructed model of a Saxon farmhouse in the Museum of Archaeology in Münster, which was excavated near Warendorf. Saxon Farmhouse / "Longhouse"

(*3) Crakeshart = Crow-Forest.

(*4) Ölbach = Prefix „Öl“ means moist, low / „Bach“ means brook

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thicket and make them usable as farmland, and generations had gone by. His forefathers had had to defend what they had achieved time and time again against nature's transformations, wild animals and human attacks.

But then, long ago, a development had begun that was only known from stories, which threatened to rob the farmers of all the fruits of their labors. After the Frankish kings ( Charlemagne ) had conquered the territory of the Saxons, brought it into their possession and converted it to Christianity, they soon set about dividing up the whole country. The Frankish rulers claimed part of it as crown estates for their own courts, another part they gave away to churches and monasteries, and the rest they largely distributed to noble families as loans or fiefs.

With this division of the land, not only the unfree and semi-free peasants, who had always existed, but also the free peasants were left with few opportunities for expansion and rights.

In addition, a circumstance had arisen that threatened the living conditions of the free peasants in particular. They were obliged to provide military service to the noble lords appointed by the Frankish kings and to follow them on their military campaigns. However, as many of these counts and sovereigns were constantly involved in feuds and military conflicts in order to assert their power, defend their rights, out of arrogance or in retaliation, many peasants had to abandon their courts for long periods of time in order to fulfill this duty. Meanwhile, their fields could not be cultivated, their livestock was stolen and their families were in dire straits. As a result, almost all the peasants who had previously been free felt compelled to make themselves dependent on the nobles by transferring their war duties to them and paying levies in return. (*5)

Thus the farmers from the farm in Crakeshart had also become dependent on a noble family and later, probably through a donation, fortunately came into the possession of the canon monastery of Rossabrock (*6) - fortunately, because dependence on a spiritual lordship alone promised a high degree of stability, while the farmers who were dependent on the secular lords had to reckon with a change of ownership and at the same time increased taxes and burdens with every succession in the lordship's family. And thank goodness the monastery was far away - a good day's journey to the west - because a distant lordship with whom one had little to do was always the best lordship.

(*5) Cf. Rosener, Peasants in the Middle Ages

(*6) Rossabrock = Herzebrock / The farm at Crakeshart is already listed in the „older Heberolle* of Herzebrock monastery. According to various authors, the front of this Heberolle dates from between 1068 and 1088, while the back, on which the farm „de crakcashart“ is recorded, dates from shortly after 1100. The farm currently supplied 17 bushels of rye to the monastery.

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Here on his farm by the Ölbach, the old farmer had been the acknowledged master for many years, as his father and his father before him had been since they had settled this land.

And indeed, his ancestors had not chosen a bad place. The fish-rich stream, which reliably provided plenty of water for people and livestock in both summer and winter, had its source less than a day's journey away in the desolate, uninhabitable Senne at the foot of the elongated high range of the Teutoburg Forest, where the ancestral gods had lived or perhaps still lived. In the area of the Crakeshart farmstead, the winding course of the stream flowed through a wide, damp lowland where enough grass grew between groups of alder and ash trees to keep a dozen cattle and cows to feed the large household as well as a few strong draught oxen.Just behind the slightly higher Gehoft, a sparse oak and beech forest provided a large number of pigs with plenty of fodder. On the light, sandy soil rising further back to the south, barley, oats and rye could be grown on fields carefully protected by hedges. In good years - like this year - if the winter wasn't too long and the summer wasn't rainy, you could expect three or sometimes even four times the yield of what was sown. This gave rise to a very simple economic management concept: 1/3 of the grain had to be stored for the next sowing, a good portion of the remaining 2/3 went to the monastery and the rest was left for their own consumption.

Beyond the stream to the north of the estate and upstream to the east, there were still large areas of the old crow wood that had given the farm its name. As one penetrated deeper into it, the beech trees receded more and more, giving way to oaks and birches and a variety of undergrowth. In addition to smaller game species, roe deer and stag, bear, wild boar and wolf were also at home there.

The „Hufe“ of the farm in the Krähenwald was unusually generously proportioned. At the borders of the settlement, where people had to fight day after day for their survival in a hostile environment and against the threat of natural forces, only large and strong estates had any prospect of survival. The bailiff of the monastery at Rossabrock, who administered the extensive property of the canonesses, had given the farmers in Crakeshart a number of advantages that favored them over other dependent landowners.

Although the landlord's levies of 16 „modius“ of grain were high enough, the generous endowment of hereditary land meant that the

(*7) „Hufe“ = measure for a full farm. The actual size could vary greatly depending on soil quality and other criteria.

(*8) „Müdde“ or Latin „modius“ = old Latin hollow measure (bushel). The measure „Müdde“, commonly used in the Rietberg region, was derived from this. 1 Müdde = approx. 36 kg of rye. The so-called „younger Heberolle“, which is said to have been written around 1208, contains a list of goods and fiefs. In it, the dues from the Crakeshart court are listed as 16 „modius“ of grain. The farms listed in the following paragraphs are also mentioned in these „Heberollen“ (= Tax Code).

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picture 7

Fig. 7: The old tower of the former Herzebrock Monastery from the 12th century. Founded around 860, the canon abbey was converted into a Benedictine Monastery in 1209. It was dissolved as a result of secularization in 1803. Its assets fell to the Prince of Bentheim-Tecklenburg.

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generous endowment of hereditary land, the overall burden was not as oppressive as in many other cases. In addition, as „Litonen“ (*9), the inhabitants of the estate, who did not belong to any landlord's „Villikation“ (*10), did not have to perform any burdensome feudal service and were able to live relatively undisturbed.

A number of other farming settlements north of the Krähenhof, which were also owned by the Herzebrock monastery, were subject to similarly favorable conditions. The nearest of these was the farm in „Spechtashart“ (*11), then a little further on the farms at „Padanstedi“ (*12) and „Norhthornon“ (*13), to the west the farm at „Thruflon“ (*14) and others.

Despite the relatively light load, the people on these farms had had to work hard enough in the past to make a living. The sandy soils were not very productive, and in years that led to poor harvests due to unfavorable weather, grain yields fell far short of expectations. After the interest payments to the monastery, there was hardly any grain left for their own consumption if they did not want to use up the seed for the following year. In such years, porridge and flatbread became scarce and the farm inhabitants had to cover their food needs by eating more meat and forest fruits to avoid starvation. If several bad years followed, the livestock numbers were reduced to such an extent that meat was also in short supply. Fortunately, even then the gaps in the food supply could usually be filled by hunting and fishing, so that there was hardly any need to fear very bad times of need.

For some years now, there had also been incredible progress in grain cultivation. New iron plows had appeared that not only tore up the soil as before, but turned it over. Yields had visibly increased since then and allowed reserves to be built up in good years, enabling a larger number of people to be fed on the farm.

The old farmer sat down on the bench in front of the house and looked around. He had only built most of the buildings in the last ten years with his sons and grandchildren, so they would easily last another 30-40 years. They had chosen the best, hardest posts the Crakeshart had to offer to build barns, sheds, granaries and bakehouses. They had taken the greatest care in building the dwelling house. The posts were sunk deep and firmly into the ground and the wattle and daub walls were thickly sealed with straw and clay. The steep thatched roof over the undivided room, which resisted rain and snow, was pulled out as high as possible and provided with a hatch at the side so that the ever-present smoke from the hearth fire did not weigh too heavily on the inhabitants.

(*9) Litonen = Semi-free

(*10) Villikation = The „Fronhof“, also known as the Villikation“, spread throughout the Frankish Empire from the 7th century onwards and shaped the landlordly constitution of early medieval rural society in Western and Central Europe. The word derives from the Old High German frô („lord“). In Latin sources, the „Fronhof“ is usually referred to as villa or curtis dominica.

(*11) Spechtashart = Spechtswald = Meier zu Spexard

(*12) Padanstedi = Meier zu Pavenstädt

(*13) Norhthormon = Meier zu Nordhorn

(*14) Thruflon = Meier zu Druffe

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A young granddaughter came and handed the old man a jug of mead and a piece of black bread. The girl knew that the old man could no longer bite so well, so she had cut an extra soft piece from the middle. He gave her a friendly look and thanked her. While he ate thoughtfully, he was able to let his eyes wander and his thoughts run free.

Further downstream to the west and south, where the soil became increasingly fertile, there have been a whole series of clearings and settlements since time immemorial. In addition to a number of farming estates owned by the Bishops of Osnabrück and Münster, there was the free farm at Varensell and the property of the Counts of Arnsberg, who owned almost all the other farms in the surrounding area. These counts had built a fortified castle on the upper reaches of the Ems near the Rietbeke in reedy, marshy terrain.

Halfway there was the „Nigge Kirke“ (*15), which had recently been built in honor of St. Margaret as a daughter church of the old church in Wiedenbrück. The foundation of the new parish by the bishop in Osnabriick had made life much easier for the country folk on the farm at Crakeshart, as they now only had to travel just under an hour's drive to attend Sunday mass. When the wind was favorable, you could hear the bell ringing in time for the service.

In addition, a number of merchants and craftsmen had settled around the church, which was located on the road from Paderborn to Münster, and their services were occasionally required. So going to church often also served practical purposes, as there was no better place to do business of all kinds. In addition, the church square was of course also the place where news was exchanged on Sundays after mass; after all, nowhere else could you meet so many people from all parts of the wide parish, nowhere else could you look so well for suitable marriage candidates for your sons and daughters.

From time to time, travelers told of events in the wider world. They heard about King Henry's quarrel with the Pope, the Pope's ban on him and the humiliation and prostration at Canossa. Others told of a Turkish invasion of the holy city of Jerusalem and of the Pope's plan to come to the aid of the Christians there. Many other events were reported, about plagues, wars and miraculous occurrences.

All this news was so exciting, some of it so unbelievable, that the old farmer from the Crakeshof farm did not miss the chance to go to Neuenkirchen Sunday after Sunday until recently, even though he often found the journey quite difficult. His strength was failing and he knew that it would not be long before he would close his

(*15) = Nigge Kirke = Neuenkirchen = New Church

The Neuenkirchen Church "Sankt Margareta" was founded around the middle of the 11th century at the latest.

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eyes forever to enter the heavenly Jerusalem, as the priest in Neuenkirchen promised all orthodox Christians who repented of their sins and did sufficient penance.

He occasionally asked himself whether he met the strict conditions that had to be fulfilled in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Often enough he had rebelled against worldly and spiritual power, had cursed and blasphemed and shown no sense of repentance, because the life of a countryman seemed hard enough to him as it was.

Sometimes the differences between the new Christian religion and the old pagan religion, to which his ancestors still adhered when the Christian missionaries had long forcibly converted the whole country, became blurred for him. The gods Wotan, Freja and Donar were still worshipped long afterwards in sacred groves, where they were offered bloody sacrifices and mystical fires were lit to drive away fiends and evil. With some customs still practiced on the high holidays, no one was quite sure whether they originated from the old or the new faith.

The eldest son of the farm sat down quietly with a mug of mead and joined his father. his father. He was the old man's successor and heir and was in the middle of of his life. Healthy, strong and prudent, he was exactly what one would wish for in a son. He had long been the head of the house for the whole family and and took care of everyone's well-being. From the youngest grandchild to the oldest man in the household, from the matriarch to the unmarried siblings, everyone was under his care. (*16) The fortunes of all and the future of the Crakeshart farm were in good hands with him.

The old farmer nodded again: indeed, everything was settled; he could actually resign. Nevertheless, he hoped that he would be granted just this one more summer. To be able to experience once more how everything grew and ripened under the warming sun, which was so good for his tired, gouty limbs; to be able to watch once more how the harvest was brought in with great effort in the summer heat; to be there once more when a short time of celebration and well-being began after the efforts of the summer!

At the end of the fall, when the huge flocks of crows that returned year after year settled in the tall oaks behind the courtyard, flying up again and again with hoarse caws and circling the treetops, he wanted to be ready to close his eyes for good. - Winter with its cold and darkness was no time for an old man like him.

(16*) = The father of the house was not only responsible for managing the the peasant economy, but also head of the household and head of the family with far-reaching rights. The decisive factor for belonging to such a family of the 'whole house' is less a blood relationship than living together under one roof. see Rosener, Bauern im Mittelalter, p. 176 ff.

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picture 8

Fig. 8: St. Margaretha, the „nigge Kirke“, around which the village of Neuenkirchen has grown since the Middle Ages (photo from 1902, Heimatverein Neuenkirchen)

picture 9

Fig. 9: Rietberg Castle, demolished in 1803, according to an engraving made in 1853. This castle, „Eden“, built in marshy terrain, was commonly referred to by the called „dat Dreckslot“, the dirty Castle.

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More than a hundred years had passed before Lutbertus (*1) became a farmer on the Crakeshart farm. Much had changed in the meantime. New settlers had settled everywhere, and several new farmsteads had sprung up along the Olbach. Land-hungry farmers had cleared the forest even where the soil was barren and promised little harvest. (*2) The land was cultivated almost as far as the deserted Sinede (*3).

At the headwaters of the Olbach stream, less than an hour's walk from the Crakeshof, a small settlement of other farms had developed alongside the main farm at Verlo (*4). To the north of the Ölbach stream, in addition to the old farmsteads of the farmers of Berensell (*5), Fürberen (*6) and Brummlo (*7)(*7b), several others bordered the Crakeshart.

All clearing farmers were helped by the advanced technology of plowing with the bed plow, which enabled them to cultivate land that was previously considered too unproductive. Another contributing factor was the introduction of a new type of harness, which made it possible to better utilize the power of the draught animals by means of a yoke (*8) instead of the old neck yoke. Finally, in some places the faster and more enduring horses were used instead of oxen. (*9)

Indeed, much had changed in just a few generations. Large parts of the Krädhenwald forest, which had given the Crakeshart farm its name, had also been cleared to meet the growing family's increasing demand for grain.

A new house had been built on the farm itself, which differed fundamentally from the old buildings and housed crops, people and animals under one roof (*9). The posts and pillars were no longer dug into the ground as before, but stood on firm foundations. Such a new house could have a very long life, probably a hundred years or more. The two rows of strong posts that supported the roof formed separate areas that provided

(*1) Lutbertus de Crakeshart lived at the beginning of the 13th century. Cf. Klueting, Kloster Herzebrock, p. 168.

(*2) see Rosener, Bauern im Mittelalter, p. 31 ff. and p. 51 ff.

(*3) inede = Senne

(*4) Verlo = Verl

(*5) later the „zu Berens“ farm.

(*6) later the „Feuerborn“ farm.

(*7) later the „Brummel“ farm.

[(*7b) In 2023, "archaeological finds" in the western part of the city, in the middle of the „Brummel farms“ around Leinenweg, showed that there were already rural settlements in Verl in the 9th and 10th centuries. (M.Erichreineke 2024)]

(*8) Kummet = harness in which the pressure is shifted to the animal's shoulders.

(*9) Röesener, Farmers in the Middle Ages, p. 33

(*10) „ p. 73 ff. The Low German hall house originated in the High Middle Ages and had already become widespread in northern Germany in the 12th/13th century

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space for people and animals. A beamed ceiling above made it possible to take the growing harvest supplies into the house to keep them safe and utilise the space up to the roof. Only above the open fireplace at the front of the house, where the acrid smoke rose, was this false ceiling left out. The abundant meat supplies were hung there at a lofty height, safe from the reach of all the pets, where they were smoked and thus preserved at the same time.

The old people would have been amazed and marvelled if they had seen this house, thought farmer Lutbertus.

However, he was not in the mood for self-satisfied contemplation today. The day before, he had travelled to Herzebrock in his two-wheeled cart to deliver the rent due at Michaelmas in the form of 16 „modii“ of rye to the monastery. The monastery bailiff had made him an announcement that concerned him greatly: the Crakeshof was to be divided; the large estate was to be split into two still full hereditary farms. (*11)

On the way home through the alder- and willow-covered meadows surrounding the monastery, he had been so lost in thought that his horse had almost bolted when a herd of wild horses, startled by him, suddenly galloped off.

The incident with these animals, which were found in large numbers in the region and had given the monastery its name (*12), had taught him that he had to collect his thoughts and focus his attention on the path. It was too easy to stray from the solid path with his wagon and get stuck in the boggy terrain; too many dangers from robbers and wild animals lurked in the dense forests that adjoined the quarry meadows on both sides of the Ems to the east. It happened all too often that vagabond „Havenots“ attacked lonely travellers.

Times had become turbulent since the Guelphs and Hohenstaufen had fought over the kingship after the death of Frederick Barbarossa and his son Henry. Although the Hohenstaufen Frederick II finally prevailed, he soon came into conflict with the Pope in Rome after his coronation as emperor and was banned. Meanwhile, in the emperor's absence, the disputes over rule continued with great vigour. Both parties had been fighting each other for years and sought, in part

(*11) According to Gürteler, the first division of the tribal farms in our region took place in the 12th or 13th century. Cf. Gürteler, book „Mitte der Senne“, p. 19. It seems realistic to assume that the Crakeshart farm was also divided for the first time in the 13th century. At least there is talk of only one farmstead before that and then two in the 14th century.

(*12) Herzebrock from Rossabrock = „Brock“ = „lowland“ where horses graze. (Rossa = horse)

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the increasingly powerful cities and the princes by granting them privileges, so that the country never came to rest.

Lutbertus had therefore spurred his horse on to a faster pace in the hope of catching up with the wagons of some other farmers who were travelling far ahead of him, who were also liable to pay tribute to the monastery and had paid their rent on time. He was able to cover a large part of the distance to Druffel and Neuenkirchen together with them and thus feel safer from the dangers of the hostile nature and from attacks by highwaymen (robbers).

He had almost reached the bridge over the Ems north of the Rheda estate when he caught up with the carts of his companions. He breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could slow down his pace and continue to pursue his thoughts, which immediately turned back to the plans of the monastery bailiff.

The reasons for considering the division were obvious: two families could cultivate the land more intensively than one; they would have to clear the forest further and develop new farmland to feed a larger number of people. The monastery could collect more taxes from two farms than from one. The income of the ever money-hungry convent would increase and the wealth and power of the abbess (*13) would grow through the increased efforts of the country people.

The neighbouring Counts of Rietberg, who as a branch of the Arnsberg dynasty had resided at their castle on the Ems since 1237, had already done something similar with a number of the surrounding farms they owned. They had divided the large old hereditary farms into two or more hereditary estates. This increased the number of subjects who could start a family. The land was reclaimed in ever more remote regions in order to harvest enough to feed the hungry mouths. The families of the nobles and the monasteries had thus found a way to increase their income according to their needs and to finance their feuds and wars.

In doing so, they could be sure of the consent of the enslaved and dependent population. The farmers' hunger for land was just as great as the powerful's hunger for money. For every newly created farm, there were many applicants hoping to establish their own livelihood and start a family.

Only those who owned land had any hope of being able to feed their wives and children; there was no other way for the sons of the farmers.

(So also the emigrant sons of the 19th century to America)

Lutbertus selbst hatte eine Reihe fast erwachsener Söhne. Der älteste namens Gerdt wartete bereits darauf, daß der Vater ihm das Anwesen übertrug. Doch auch der

(*13) The former canon monastery of Herzebrock was converted into a Benedictine convent in 1209. The first abbess, Beatrix von Oldenburg (1208 - 1212), was a sister of Bishop Gerhard von Osnabrück and Bishop Otto von Miinster. Cf. Klueting, book „Kloster Herzebrock“, p. 47

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jüngeren suchten begierig nach einer Möglichkeit, ein eigenes Hauswesen schaffen zu konnen. Hatten sie bisher nur die ungewisse Hoffnung gehegt, in eine andere Hofstelle einheiraten zu können, so bot sich einem von ihnen jetzt eine reale Chance.

Lutbertus very quickly drew up a plan and presented it to the monastery bailiff. Gerdt, his eldest, was to apply to be enfeoffed with the new inheritance. He was old and capable enough to take on this task, which involved risk and hard labour. He wanted to bring his son with him to the next lease appointment, who could then seal the deal by paying the „wine purchase“ (*14). - He proposed his youngest son Joan as heir to the family farm. Until he was old enough to become his successor, he wanted to run the household himself, as he still felt sprightly enough.

The monastery bailiff had had no objections, and Lutbertus could be satisfied that this turn of events had solved some personal problems for him. He was still fairly young himself and had previously felt no desire to give in to his eldest's insistence and place the management of the house in his hands. Now he had gained a few years until his youngest was grown up.

Then there was another aspect: times had become very unsafe since people had been found wandering around in many places. Another property in the immediate vicinity of his farm meant more security.“ In future, if there were two families on the Crakeshart land, they could support each other in times of need and rush to help in case of danger.

All in all, Lutbertus was very pleased with how things were going and was looking forward to sharing the news with his family.

It had already begun to get dusk as the group of wagons approached the settlement of Neuenkirchen and Lutbertus had parted company with his last companion, who was continuing his journey home in a different direction.

Lutbertus had once again spurred his horse on to make it home before nightfall, and although he knew every bend or turn, every bump and every watercourse on this last stretch to his homestead, he had been relieved when he finally saw his house at the end of this eventful early autumn day and heard the first sounds from the farm in the Crow forest.

(*14) According to Karl Philipp Schwertener's „Supplement to the Rietberg Land Law“ of 1804, the „Weinkauf“ is „a cammeraliter accordirtes“ piece of money which the person or persons who are placed in possession of the inheritance and „respective“ must pay to the most gracious lordship in „recognitionem domini directi“; in return, they acquire the „jus colonarium“ for themselves and their children. Book: Schwertener, County of Rietberg, p. 72

(*15) Röesener, Farmers in the Middle Ages, p. 169

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All this had happened yesterday. In the meantime, Lutbertus had once again had plenty of time to think. Dusk was falling again and the day's work was done. Now he wanted to call his family together and discuss everything with them.

The day before, he had already instructed his housewife to prepare a feast for the evening, with no shortage of meat and drink. And so she had been working with the maids and daughters since early morning: she had had chickens, geese and a young calf slaughtered, fresh bread baked and mead and cider chilled. The delicious aroma of roast and boiled meat had been in the air for some time.

When Lutbertus entered the house, the long oak table in the front part of the parlour next to the hearth was already set. The benches on either side of the table could seat around twenty people, or more if necessary. Large, well-stocked beer mugs and baskets of fresh bread were spread around the table, along with rough wooden mugs and carved spoons for everyone. The glow of the hearth fire cast its flickering light on the scene, while the last rays of the setting sun could do little to illuminate it from outside.

While Lutbertus took his place at the head of the table, the women took the soup pots from their kettle hooks above the fire and spread them around the long table so that everyone could reach in comfortably with their spoon. There was barely enough room in between for the large plates of roasted and boiled meat. That was just the way it should be for a feast.

All the members of the house had now arrived and sat down on either side of the table. At a signal from the father of the house, the general feasting began. A cosy slurping and smacking, gurgling, gulping and belching began, which drowned out the monotonous grinding sound of the cows chewing their cud at the back of the dining room. The abundant flow of beer lightened the mood even further, and after the first hunger had been satisfied, the conversation became increasingly lively and loud.

In the meantime, a heap of gnawed bones had piled up in front of every seat, and the yard dog lounged near the table to snap at the falling chunks. He only allowed himself to be disturbed from time to time to chase the curious cats across the floor through the open hatch to the hay and straw loft.

Now it seemed time for Lutbertus to tell his people the good news. He told them about the opening of the monastery bailiff and outlined his plans for the future. As expected, everyone was speechless at first. But then the youngest son's eyes lit up and the eldest was desperate to find out more. How should the division take place? Where would the border run? When did they want to start? The conversation became loud and lively because everyone wanted to talk at the same time.

Many questions had to be discussed until everyone was satisfied. The biggest winner was young Joan. He now had the certain prospect of starting a family of his own.

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family of his own. Not much had changed for Hemmeke and Cordt, the two middle ones. They could still only cast furtive glances at the daughters of the neighbouring farms, always hoping that one day an intermediary would offer them marriage into another estate. Until then, they would be in the service of their more fortunate brothers on their farms and belong to their families. Gerdt, the eldest, on the other hand, did not have to wait any longer to become his own master and marry. In return, he gladly took on the hard labour that awaited him until his new estate was firmly established.

One of the older farmhands, who knew how to play the fiddle (similar to a violin), had meanwhile fetched his instrument and started to play. The children had just been waiting for this moment to jump around to the beat of the music. Soon all the younger people joined in, and the hard-packed clay floor of the Deele echoed with the stamping feet of the dancing couples. A few lamps set up provided a sparsely flickering light. Singing and laughter filled the air. The furthest corner of the large hall, where hardly a ray of light penetrated, was the liveliest.

The following winter months were spent on planning and preparatory work. Without pre-empting the monastery administration, a lot of preparatory work for the construction of the new farmstead could already be initiated.

This is how the site for the new farmstead was chosen: a few stone's throw away up the Ölbach stream; not too close so that they didn't get in each other's way, but close enough to help each other and defend each other if necessary.

The tree trunks for the future building have already been felled to allow time for drying and storage. Once again, the Krähenwald was thinned out for the best logs for construction. Where the forest receded, the ground was to be cleared and new fields created.

The next interest day at Herzebrock Abbey brought the hoped-for decision: Gerdt was enfeoffed with the new, separated part as a „full inheritance“ (*16) and could now finally set about building up his farm. (*16b)

Busy months and years lay ahead, characterised by the hardest work in summer and winter, by tenacious efforts to prevail against nature, by restrictions and hardship, by hopes and successes. But the goal they were striving for made all the hardship seem easier.

(*16) Until the 17th century, class designations for large farmsteads were: „Heele Erwen“ (whole or full inheritance), „Halwe Erwen* (half inheritance), „Kötters“ and „Beiliegers“. Later, the classifications „Volle Spänne (Meier)“, „Halbe Spänne“ (Halbmeier), „Zweitäger“ and „Eintäger“ came to be used to describe the degree of service to be rendered.

(*16b) Tax lists from the county of Rietberg show that a newly established farm had to pay no taxes in the first few years after its foundation and then only a few.

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The construction of the new house [Niederdeutsches Hallenhaus] progressed relatively quickly. As Lutbertus and his sons were well prepared and stocked up on timber, he was able to start laying the foundations early in the spring, on which the supporting oak posts were erected. The wooden frames were soon in place and sealed with wickerwork and clay. Even before the hay harvest came, the roof was ready to be covered with straw in early autumn after the grain harvest.

The family could then turn their attention to the interior work. A clay floor had to be tamped in, a fireplace built, which had to be enclosed with stones, a beamed ceiling installed and wooden partition walls erected to create a few chambers for the people and compartments for the various domestic animals. The extension was completed quickly. By joining forces, they soon managed to have the new house ready for occupancy.

Above all, the arable land had to be redistributed. All the cultivated plots were divided into long narrow strips and assigned alternately to one farm and then to the other (*17). This was to ensure that everyone had equally good soil and thus equally good yield conditions. This tried and tested procedure was followed for all farm divisions so that no heir was disadvantaged. Nevertheless, this created an annoying problem, because in future everyone had to drive over each other's fields in order to reach their own land. However, this could only work smoothly if neighbouring farms agreed on a certain procedure and a certain work process, and therefore required neighbourly agreement and good neighbourly relations.

But who was thinking about that at the moment? The brothers worked hand in hand with the same goal in mind. They had other worries: it was a long time before the additional new farmland was cleared and reclaimed and could produce its first yields. Before then, they had to be all the more economical with the grain in order to have enough seed for the new areas.

To increase grain yields, the brothers used the plaggenat method (*18), which was spreading throughout the region. This involved fertilising the fields with the top layer of heather soil, the so-called plaggen. These heather plaggen were increasingly available and were created wherever the original forest was destroyed by the grazing of domestic animals and made way for a scrub landscape. Mixed with livestock manure, the plaggen fertiliser made it possible to grow rye year after year on the same fields without having to go fallow.

(*17) This can still be seen in the „Urkataster“ from 1820. Kataster = Cadastre

(*17b) Cadastre of the Kracks farms : Kracks farms 1820

(*18) Plaggenat = Plaggen.

(*18b) This plaggen fertilisation method was typical for the Verl region and was practised until the last century. A few years ago, it was still possible to recognise which areas had been worked in this way in the past by the differences in height at the boundaries of individual fields

[41]

The cultivated fields were given a new layer of soil each year and grew imperceptibly in height.

Of course, a larger number of draught animals were needed for the work on the growing areas. Initially, people helped each other as best they could and limited themselves as much as possible. There were no funds available to buy more animals: Farmers were self-sufficient; they usually had nothing to sell and therefore did not earn any money. It was years before the stock of oxen and horses from their own breeding could be increased. They were therefore dependent on mutual support.

Parallel to the intensification of soil cultivation, the brothers on the two neighbouring farms sought to increase their other livestock of cows and pigs, sheep and small animals in order to meet the greater demand for meat and milk for two families.

Doch Mißerfolge und Rückschlidge blieben nicht aus. Als beide Hofe nach jahrelangem Bemiihen endlich den erwiinschten Bestand erreicht hatten, war langst schon Joan seinem Vater Lutbertus als Bauer auf seinem Teil des Kridhenhofes gefolgt. Die beiden Briider waren seit Jahren verheiratet und hatten erwachsene Kinder. Um die beiden Gehofte namentlich unterscheiden zu kénnen, wurden sie inzwischen nach ihren Besitzern ,,Joan zu Crakeshart” und ,,Gerdt zu Crakeshart* genannt.

But failures and setbacks were inevitable. By the time both farms had finally achieved the desired status after years of endeavour, Joan had long since succeeded his father Lutbertus as farmer on his part of the Krähenhof. The two brothers had been married for years and had grown-up children. In order to distinguish the two farms by name, they were now called „Joan zu Crakeshart“ and „Gerdt zu Crakeshart“ after their owners.

These first names remained part of the farm names, even when their sons Cordt and Herman followed their fathers and the second part of the names was shortened to „Krackstert“ towards the end of the 13th century.

Gerdt zu Krackstert had been dead for years at the time, but his younger brother Joan was an old man who was surprisingly sprightly for his age, who kept a watchful eye on everything and never missed a thing that happened on either farm.

He had long noticed with unease how the families of his son Cordt and his brother's son Herman had grown apart in the following generation. There were often enough arguments between the two cousins, for weeks on end they didn't greet each other and avoided each other.

Joan knew well that the cause of this bad relationship lay with the two women. Trine, his daughter-in-law, and Elsche, his nephew's wife, were both equally unfavourable and quarrelsome. They were constantly in their husbands' ears with warnings not to let the other take advantage of them. There was always something to get angry about: Sometimes the neighbour's chickens had scratched the garden, sometimes the pigs had used a hole in the fence to eat acorns next door; here the branches of the trees were hanging too far onto the neighbouring property, there the fence was too low; and then there were the perpetual nasty arguments when driving over each other's properties.

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It was a shame that the two farmers allowed themselves to be stirred up by the women over such trifles. As if they didn't know better what really mattered. Instead of plaguing each other and making life unnecessarily difficult, they would do well to fend off common enemies, of which there were plenty, and to strengthen each other.

When Joan regularly went out every day to check the buildings, gardens and fields, he was often accompanied by his youngest grandson Otto, a bright boy of less than ten, still too small and weak to be fully involved in the farm work, but big enough to be aware of everything that was happening on the farm.

It was this boy Otto who would probably one day become the successor at Joan zu Krackstert's farm. For what had previously been a great exception, namely passing the estate on to the youngest son, had become a practical custom with all its advantages: the old farmer was not pressurised by an impatient elder to retire while he was still sprightly; the succession of generations was delayed and with it the necessary and costly new enfeoffment by the lord of the manor, which was known as the „Weinkauf“ and represented a considerable burden. The farmers were good calculators and very quickly worked out how favourable it was to appoint the youngest son as heir. And so imitators of this custom had been found all around before the landlords had even realised it. (*19)

The joint inspection tours were equally popular with grandfather and grandson. Otto liked the old man and enjoyed listening to him talk about his experiences and adventures. Joan couldn't wish for a more interested listener and took the opportunity to share his views and ideas on life with the boy. He sincerely hoped to influence the grandson in his favour, as the old man did not like many things about life on the two farms. It was more important than ever to stick together among neighbours and relatives and join forces.

Today, the boy appeared particularly quiet and thoughtful at his grandfather's house and only came out with the words after a bit of prodding: the fathers had had a fight, he said. Yes, the two men had seriously and furiously thrashed each other with shovels and broomsticks until one of them had fallen to the ground half-paralysed and had given up the fight, preceded by a loud quarrel that Base (Aunt) Elsche had started.

Joan shook his head. So that was the reason why his son Cordt had avoided him when he had asked him about his swollen face earlier, and why his wife Trine had

(*19) In fact, it is not yet known when the custom of allowing the youngest son to inherit became established. This otherwise unusual custom was later enshrined as law in the „Rietberg Land Law“. Book Schwertener, „County of Rietberg, p. 73“

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face, and why his wife Trine had given him such a venomous look in response.

Where would these squabbles lead? Cordt always seemed to his father to be a rather peace-loving person who was content to go about his work. The same applied to the neighbour. And yet the two women managed to sow enmity. Even the fights between the children on both sides often went beyond the normal childish level. The old man was dismayed that even the reserved little Otto had allowed himself to be drawn into the quarrel, and once again he resolved to open the boy's eyes to what was important and what mattered when he was the owner of the farm during their daily conversations on their walks.

And so Joan began to tell the boy more and more about his memories and how everything had developed and changed since then. He told him how difficult it had been and how long it had taken until, after the division, when he was young, the inhabitants of the farms „zu Krackstert“ had cleared the fields to such an extent that the new hereditary farm was able to stock up on winter provisions that went beyond the bare necessities, so as to be prepared for a somewhat longer period of frost and unforeseen circumstances and not immediately be at the mercy of hunger.

This increased stockpiling, he explained to the boy, became all the more important as the farmers in the area were soon denied the right to use the abundance of fish in the many streams or to hunt in the surrounding forests without special authorisation. The Counts of Rietberg, whose domain had extended north of the Lippe between the Ems and Senne rivers since the first half of the 13th century, had meanwhile appropriated this right. An important source of food, which had enabled the farmers' ancestors to survive in many times of need, was therefore no longer available to the population of the surrounding area.

Hunting and fishing, as well as the carrying of weapons in general, were now reserved for a new class, the knighthood. These horsemen or knights had rendered armed service to the rulers in their feuds and in return had been granted privileges and enfeoffed with lands and farm estates. Gradually, a whole new class emerged from this, which, together with civil servants and other ascended servants of the old lords, formed a new noble class. (*20)

(*20) see Rosener, Bauern im Mittelalter, p. 20.

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Otto knew a number of such families himself, even in the immediate neighbourhood. Some of these knights lived as modestly as the farmers themselves. Others had become very rich and distinguished. These included the family „Knights of Varensell“, whose extensive estates bordered on the Krackstert farms.

The old man described how the personal rights of the rest of the population had been gradually reduced as the number of new noblemen grew, and their burdens had been increased in order to maintain them. This had been all the easier because, as Otto well knew, when the feudal rights were transferred, not only the ownership of the property but also the rights over the people living there were transferred to the new lords. And some of these new lords squeezed so much rent out of their peasants that they were ruined.

Despite all these changes, which also took place in the county of Rietberg, the table at Krackstert was sufficiently set in good years. Meat dishes no longer played as important a role as in the past, (*21) although, thank God, beef and pork and the meat of small animals were still part of the normal diet. However, cereal products such as rye and oat bread or porridge became increasingly important. A number of vegetables, pulses and fruit as well as milk and dairy products were also available. In addition to water, nutritious beer had become the main drink instead of mead. No, so far Joan, his family and the people from the neighbouring farm had not been in need and had not suffered from hunger like the farmers in some places.

The inhabitants of the Krackstert farms could be content with their lives and their modest livelihood in all frugality, even though the monastery had given them nothing in all that time. The taxes had to be paid in full and on time, no matter how heavy the burden. Regardless of whether frequent illnesses or death caused the people to despair in some years, the monastery bailiff, like all other landlords, wanted his full tribute.

This was often only possible with mutual help. Neighbouring farmers had always stood by each other and thus got through difficult times. They were dependent on each other. Did the next generation want to jeopardise all that?

Joan conceded that the heavens had probably also given their blessing for good growth. Harsh winters and rainy summers had long been a rarity, known more from stories than from his own experience. (*22) This circumstance, together with the advanced technology of agriculture, had contributed to the fact that new settlements had continued to form all over the country and all usable land had been cleared and taken under the plough by the rapidly growing population.

(*21) see Rosener, Bauern im Mittelalter, p. 107 ff.

(*22) According to all sources, there was a phase of relatively warm climate in Europe from the 10th to the end of the 13th century. This came to an end at the beginning of the 14th century. This was followed by a period of very cool and wet weather.

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A number of new farmsteads had also formed along the Ölbach, largely by splintering off from the old farms. They all formed small units that were dependent on each other in many ways, because the interlocking, long-distance arable fields forced certain rules to be established and adhered to when driving over neighbouring fields, as well as the joint use of the pasture fields and the forest, the so-called „Marken“ or „Gemeinheiten“ (*23). If no mutually acceptable solutions were found here, living together could not work, as young Otto experienced on a daily basis.

Several of these farmstead groups were grouped together to form „Bauerschaften“ (*23b). In the county of Rietberg, 13 of these Bauerschaften were formed. Neuenkirchen was the centre of the parish, to which all the other settlements belonged. In a circle to the south and west were the widely scattered farming communities of Mastholte, Moese, Bokel and Druffel, to the north and east Varensell, Gütersorth, Verl, the Sennebauer (Sende), the Liembeke (Liemke), Bornholte, the Österwiehe farmers and the Westerwiehe farmers. The farms of Krackstert belonged to the farming community of Varensell, but bordered directly on those of Verl and Gütersorth.

Court days had been held twice a year in these farming communities in the Rietberg region since prehistoric times: in spring and autumn, alternately on one of the large hereditary farms, in the open air and in the light of the sun. At this „Free Land Court“ (*24), justice was dispensed by four judges elected from among the people. Their judgements had the status of Weistümern (old German Landlaw) and formed the basis for customary law.

Any man of the house who could wield a bow in times of need, follow his lord in the field as a man of valour and do enough for a woman in bed was allowed to seek his right before this court. In order to guarantee the peace of the court, no one was allowed to enter the court with an armed hand under penalty of life and limb, and everyone had to refrain from all quarrelling, bad language and brawling.

To the extent that the peasants had given up their ability to defend themselves, this old customary law had been eroded and suppressed. In the meantime, count's officials, the Droste, the Rentmeister and the Landvogt presided over these negotiations, but were not yet allowed to intervene in the proceedings. The peasant judges were therefore still able to decide on neighbourhood and border disputes, make judgements on inheritance law and defend the rights of the peasants against the count's house. In doing so, they were guided by the oral law of the Weistümer and could impose Brüchten (*25).

(*23) In this way, the so-called „plot-forced“ was created, from which normally only the gardens were excluded.

(*23b) A Bauerschaft (ndd. buerschap; not to be confused with the term Bauernschaft, which is also incorrectly used in this context) is a form of rural settlement in the LowerSaxon/Westphalian language area that is made up of scattered farms - in contrast to a hamlet, where the farms are closer together. The size of a Bauerschaft ranges from 10 to around 300 houses and farms. At the same time, the term „Bauerschaft“ refers to a specific medieval form of organisation. Today, these old 13 Bauerschafts-names are still used as districts-names in the towns of Rietberg and Verl.

When Joan was younger, he had also held the office of farmer judge for several years. He had been involved in deciding many cases and knew the

(*24) Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 64 f.

(*25) Brüchten = Financial penalty

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the respective sayings of the wise men. Even in his old age, he could recite them by heart and tried to pass them on to his grandson.

Among the many innovations of the time were the large grain mills. The counts of Rietberg had water mills built on some of the Senne streams, which skilfully used the power of the watercourse to drive a gear train that set large millstones in motion. The flour from these water mills was of an unprecedentedly fine quality. Although the farmers initially grumbled when they were ordered to grind their grain only in these mills for a fee, they quickly got used to the relief this brought and the better flour.

So Joan zu Krackstert was also quite pleased that the Count of Rietberg had had a watermill built very close to his farm on the Ölbach near the lands of the knights of Varensell, which was easy to reach. On the other hand, he realised that the construction of these mills only served to increase the income of the count's house. In all cases, they were compulsory mills, the use of which and the amount of the utilisation fees were prescribed by the count's administration. (*26)

The Varense mill soon became a place where people could meet - similar to the church - to hear news and spread opinions. While the farmers waited for their grain to be ground, they chatted and shared their concerns.

There was a lot of hardship and resentment everywhere. Everyone had the feeling that the burden of taxation was becoming ever more oppressive and the rights left to the people ever more limited. It was not only in the countryside that the population grew to an unprecedented extent. The settlement that had grown up around Rietberg Castle had also been expanded into a town. All around, other completely new towns were founded, with special rights for their citizens. Many country folk migrated there in the hope of greater freedom from the increasing paternalism of the nobility and a better life. (*27)

The city of Bielefeld, which was founded at the foot of the Teutoburg Forest in the first half of the century, also exerted a great attraction. 'City air makes you free' was the saying everywhere in the neighbouring counties, and many people followed the pull of the city in the hope of finding a livelihood in trade or commerce and being able to support a family.

(*26) These seven count's compulsory mills were the Rietberg town mill, the Füchtey mill, the mills in Mastholte, Varensell, Verl, Schloß-Holte and the Niedicker (or Grotendiek) mill

(*27) On the causes and effects of the „rural exodus“ of that time: see Book W. Rosener, „Bauern in the Middle Ages“, p. 248ff

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Sons and daughters of peasants had always occasionally left their fathers' farms and moved from one manor to another or to a town, but this change always had to be bought from the lords with expensive letters of manumission. Now, however, the sons of peasants who were not entitled to inheritance would leave for the towns without permission, and although the landlords, who were losing valuable labour, opposed this development with the threat of severe penalties, they could not prevent many young people from fleeing to the towns, where they could become free citizens after a year.

Even the Herzebrock monastery's own citizens flocked to the town. The abbess tried to compensate for the declining income caused by this bloodletting by increasing the burden on those who remained. No wonder that soon the young people „zu Krackstert“ and on the neighbouring farms were also toying with the idea of trying their luck in the town.

Otto had heard his older brothers discussing the pros and cons. When he told his grandfather, he just nodded. He had already suspected something like this and couldn't blame them or the other young men from the surrounding farming communities. Despite all the adversity, their ancestors had held out on their farms, where they had still managed to make a living. The land had yielded just enough to feed them all. What else was needed for a frugal life in terms of clothing and tools was made by the people themselves. The landlord and sovereign were responsible for peace and security; the farmers paid their tribute in return for which they had to give up some of their freedom.

However, the arrogance of the lords of the manor, who were assuming more and more rights over the peasants, soon became unbearable. In the past, people mainly had to pay the regular annual levies, the „secure levies“, which were calculable. Today, more and more „uncertain or „extraordinary levies“ were added, which could ruin a farm. The worst thing for a farming family was the payment of the „death duties“ on the death of the old farmer and the „wine purchase“ (or „Auffahrt“) due at the same time for the young heir.

For this reason, farmers in the Rietberg area generally passed on their farms to the youngest son. This delayed the succession of generations and reduced the frequency of wine purchases when ownership changed hands.

According to the old law (*28), if a farmer died, half of all four-footed property went to the landlord, the so-called „Hergeweide“ to the eldest unmarried son and the „Gerade“ to the eldest unmarried daughter. The „hergeweide“ included: „the man's clothes for his body; the best horse with saddle and bridle, if available; a bed with its accessories, if more than one is available; a sickle, a sack, a sword, a bard, a saw; a box in which a sword can lie; a cauldron in which one with an armoured foot can lie; and a sword in which one can lie.

(*28) Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 64/65.

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a pot in which a chicken can be boiled; an ox, a bähr (*29). The straight included: „women's clothes, jewels; everything that the scissors can shear; cattle, sheep, flax; silver and gold, if bent; wax; a bed with its accessories, if there is more than one; a kettle, a pot“ (*30).

In addition to the special burdens in the event of inheritance, there were also the taxes that had to be paid to the church and the sovereign. The „Beden“ (*31), which were originally only levied by the rulers in special emergencies, also seemed to slowly develop into regular taxes.

The old freedoms of the farm dwellers had gradually been restricted more and more. How many things were now dependent on the lord's permission! No oak tree could be felled, no fattening pig kept without permission. For each farm - depending on its category - exactly the maximum number of cattle and cows it was allowed to send out to pasture was prescribed (*32). From birth to death, the farmer was without rights and unfree; from the marriage of a young couple to the settlement of an inheritance after a death, everything required the consent of the lords and was subject to taxes and fees.

Compared to today, it seemed so easy in the past for the common man to get his rights. The two farms „zu Krackstert“ enjoyed some advantages over the other farms. In contrast to the other independent farmers in the area, they were subject to two lords when it came to their rights.

Lower jurisdiction was vested in the abbess in Herzebrock, as the lady of the manor (*33), who also held court twice a year; the Free County Court was responsible for all important cases under the sovereignty of the counts of Rietberg, who also owned the vast majority of the farms in the county. This division of jurisdiction gave the people „zu Krackstert“ a certain degree of security, as they could call on the help of the other side against any arbitrariness on one side. This had only recently proved helpful again when the abbess had appealed to the count against the incredible damage that his last hunting party had caused to the Krackstert farms.

(*29) Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 65.

(*30) Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 65.

(*31) Beden = levies to the sovereign, originally only requested irregularly in emergency situations, later usually levied regularly as May and autumn bede. There were also other tax-like levies, including „Schatzungen“, which was a combination of personal and property taxes

(*32) Due to the strong increase in the number of farms and the associated increase in livestock, many ordinances had to be issued from the 13th century onwards to limit the number of animals on the commons in order to prevent further overgrazing. Depending on the size of the farm, precise numbers of animals were specified. Cf. Book W. Rosener, „Bauern im Mittelalter“, p. 141.

(*33) Book Klueting: „Kloster Herzebrock“, S. 91

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Despite all his annoyance with the authorities, the boy should not forget this in the future: The inhabitants of the Krackstert farm were better off than most other farmers. Despite all the difficulties, they had been able to adapt to the changes of the new era in a more or less tolerable way. And this should not be ruined by bickering and quarrelling among themselves.

Joan therefore never tired of telling his grandson about the experiences and observations of his long life.

Picture 10

Fig. 10: Remains of the landscape typical of Sürenheide in the past

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Otto, the young farmer on the farm „Johan zu Krackstert“, looked up at the rain-covered sky with a worried expression. There had hardly been a sunny day for weeks. First the hay harvest had been completely ruined; now the grain harvest didn't look much better, as the grain was threatening to rot on the stalk. How were they supposed to survive the coming winter: no food for the animals, no food for the people, shortages everywhere!

He still remembered his grandfather Joan's stories from his childhood. The old man had told of big feasts, banquets and dancing at the „Krähenhof“ in earlier times. Oh, if only he had enough good bread or porridge for everyone today!

It was the year 1315, and the new century had already brought a lot of problems for people in the short time since it began. Rainy summers had alternated with bitterly cold winters. In several years, unusually hard and long periods of frost had frozen all the lakes and streams until well into spring. Even the great Baltic Sea in the north was said to have frozen over several times in recent years. In spring, the rivers burst their banks and caused serious damage with severe flooding (*1).

The pastures on both sides of the „Ölbach“ Stream had also been waterlogged for weeks, while the cows and cattle in the stables roared with hunger. The winter fodder had long since run out and many animals had to be slaughtered before they starved to death. It was usually far too late to start tilling the fields, and some harvests were correspondingly poor, so that many people suffered hardship.

But this summer, with its incessant rainfall, was probably the crowning glory of all misfortune. The worst crop failure in living memory was to be expected, and unless a miracle happened, many people would die of hunger in the coming winter. Grain prices in the cities had already climbed to dizzying heights as a result of the shortage, and even the rural population was suffering from widespread malnutrition (*2).

Otto was particularly worried about his wife at the time. Last winter she had given birth to a son after several girls, but he had soon died because his mother didn't have enough milk for him. Now it was not unusual for an infant to die; life was difficult and only one of the girls had survived. But this time it almost seemed as if the mother wanted to follow her child to her death. She had not recovered all spring

(*1) Book Tuchman, Der ferne Spiegel, S. 37.

(*2) Book Tuchman, Der ferne Spiegel, S. 37.

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and had become paler and weaker over the summer. To help her regain her strength, Otto had slipped her the best morsels at the table wherever he could, but she had only carelessly pushed them aside.

If heaven didn't help, Otto knew no more advice. But so far all his prayers had not been successful. In spring, he had already lit a large candle in front of the age of St. Christina (*3) in Herzebrock Monastery. He had taken part in many church services and petition processions in honor of various patron saints, with which people everywhere tried to avert the general disaster.

Especially on the three days of supplication before the Feast of the Ascension (*4), everyone who could walk had joined the penitential walks through the fields to implore God to mercifully keep the deserved punishments away from his people and let goodness prevail instead. May God forget his wrath, they prayed, and bless the fruits of the fields so that they would not be spoiled by frost, hail, excessive rain or other plagues. „Have mercy on us, spare us, O Lord!“ the congregation had cried out after each of the intercessions recited by the pastor: „From all sin, from your wrath, from sudden and unforeseen death, from the pursuits of the devil, from anger, hatred and all evil will, from the spirit of unfairness, from lightning and storms, from hunger and war, from eternal death“….. „have mercy on us, hear us, O Lord!“

The humble supplication for God's mercy was accompanied by pleas to the many saints who could come to the aid of the faithful with their intercession. „Ora pro nobis!“ (Pray for us) cried the choir of the congregation after the name of each individual saint. The litany was long, and in every parish an extra list was added: „Pray for us!“ In the parish of Neuenkirchen, the faithful relied in particular on the help of the church patron saint „St. Margaret“, who was particularly revered as one of the 14 holy helpers (*5). Her image was carried through the fields with prayers and songs in order to obtain her heavenly intercession.

People had become pious since the time of Charlemagne, when they were converted to Christianity. The Church had taught them that all life here on earth was only a preliminary stage to the hereafter. This earthly vale of tears had to be passed through in a God-fearing manner in order to partake of eternal joys. Conversely, a lack of piety and repentance must lead to damnation and eternal suffering in hell.

Even the most hardened evildoers strove to win God's favor at least shortly before death. Crusades and large donations to the church had

(*3) A relic of the skull of Santa Christina is said to have come to Herzebrock from Italy around the year 900. The veneration of St. Christina has been documented since the 12th century.

(*4) These were allegedly introduced by Sant Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne in France, in the 5th century.

(*5) The cult of the 14 holy helpers probably originated with the great plague epidemics of the 14th century: Eustachius, Acasius, Barbara, Blasius, Katharina, Pantaleon, Christophorus, Vitus, Agidius, Erasmus, Georg, Cyriakus and Dionysius.

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were motivated by the hope of doing penance and gaining eternal life. Even the counts of Rietberg did not fail to bequeath one or other of their estates to the surrounding monasteries for their future salvation (*6). All happiness or misery on earth was small compared to the joys or suffering in the afterlife. That is why the quick death, which no longer allowed for repentance and penance, was so feared (*7)

Man's best allies in his efforts to gain God's grace were the saints, whose intercessions could help avert the wrath of heaven. One or other of them had proven to be particularly competent for all kinds of emergencies and situations. To possess the relic of a saint was the pride of every church and the hope of all believers.

But while Christianity stormed heaven with prayers, the representatives of the Church, from the Pope - who for some years had no longer resided in Rome but in Avignon - to the bishops in the dioceses and the abbots in the monasteries, devoted themselves to the accumulation and display of worldly power and splendor. Church offices were bartered away for the sake of benefices, and the clergy sought to enrich themselves at all levels; monks and nuns in the monasteries had long since renounced the rules of poverty and lived in opulence. The people, who, like Otto, lived in the firm conviction that all salvation in the world depended on God's blessing, felt lied to and deceived by this church, which presented a chilling picture of hypocrisy and venality.

In the parish of Neuenkirchen, too, the priest was more interested in his benefice than in the pastoral care of the community. As a so-called „pastor verus“ (*8), he was officially the parish priest in Neuenkirchen, but did not have to live there or even be a clergyman. He received the main income of the parish, the mass grain and the collections of the four main festivals, without doing anything in return. What could he possibly know about the plight of the people in his parish? As his deputy, who had to carry out his actual duties, he appointed a younger clergyman as „Heuerpfaffen“ or „vicecuratus“. In return, he was allowed to live in the vicarage and received the stakes (*9). The situation was similar in many other parishes, where the parish posts were regarded purely as benefices.

(*6) In 1347, for example, Count Conrad von Rietberg donated the „Haus tor Weyhen“, a „Meier“-farm in Varensell, to Marienfeld Abbey (according to the appendix to the documents in: Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, p. 123).

(*7) See „Good death - bad death“ in: Book Fuhrmann, Invitation to the Middle Ages, p. 49.

(*8) pastor verus = true pastor. According to Franz Flaskamp, in the late Middle Ages the bad habit of employing a Heuerpfaffen instead of the actual pastor became established in Neuenkirchen. [See F. Flaskamp: „Die Gemeinde Neuenkirchen - Eine tausendjährige Entwicklung“, in the commemorative publication for the 75th anniversary of the Neuenkirchen savings and loan association in 1960.]

(*9) Stole fees = fees charged when the priest put on the stole, i.e. for confessions, baptisms, last rites and weddings.

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No wonder, Otto thought, that with such a church the punishment of heaven did not fail to materialize and it continued to rain incessantly, as if the Flood were to repeat itself, so that the harvest was more than miserable. In the months that followed, a catastrophic famine spread and gripped the city and the countryside. In their desperation, the people searched for anything edible: rotten grain, grasses, mosses, stinking meat from dead animals; the starving would stop at nothing; even their own dead children and the bodies of executed people were reported to have been eaten in places (*10).

At the same time, diarrheal diseases spread and claimed the lives of many people weakened by malnutrition. The dreaded St. Anthony's fire, caused by the consumption of ergot-contaminated grain, became more frequent. The terrible „fire“ that characterized the disease caused the limbs of those affected to turn black, dry out and fall off. No one could help the sick, who either died very quickly in terrible agony or lived a miserable life with mutilated limbs for a while longer (*11).

Otto's young wife also fell victim to this dreadful disease. No one could have realized that his own bread had been baked from spoiled flour, and so they were not overly concerned at first when the weakened housewife suddenly developed a high fever. But then dark spots appeared on her arms and legs, accompanied by severe cramps and pain. Soon the fingertips became discolored, hard and leathery; hands and arms dried up and appeared black like a mummy or a saint's relic. Neither compresses nor ointments could provide relief, and soon the incessant wailing of the sufferer seemed to fill the whole house, even though she had been carried into her chamber and the door kept locked. Fortunately, she was so weak that the horrible suffering came to an end after a few weeks. Everyone in the house was finally happy when she died and was relieved of her pain. May God have mercy on her poor soul!

But even the second of the „Krackstert farms“ was not spared the misery, just as no farmstead around it was. There were victims in every farming family, mostly the elderly, the weak and children, because people had to struggle miserably in the countryside and, despite their best efforts, had too little to live on and too much to die on.

Nevertheless, the little that the farmers had attracted other people who were even more hungry. So before the next miserable winter set in, everyone set about repairing and reinforcing fences and ramparts for their own safety and to protect themselves from plundering. They had to defend their own miserable lives from the misery of others.

(*10) Book Tuchman, Der ferne Spiegel, p. 37.

(*11) Sigbert von Gembloux describes the disease in 1089 as follows: „Many rotted to shreds, as if consumed by a holy fire that ate away their entrails, their limbs, gnawed away bit by bit, turned black as coal“ (quoted from Book Vasold, Pest, Not und schwere Plagen, p. 31).

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Otto was able to convince his neighbor from the farm „Gerdt zu Krackstert“ that it was best if they worked together and helped each other with this work and also supported each other in an emergency. This approach proved successful, and in fact the next winter it seemed as if the old quarrels between the families could be forgotten again in this emergency.

The whole of Europe suffered from the famine; from the largest cities to the most remote villages, people were affected. Because mortality was so high, population figures stagnated for the first time in a long time and even fell in some places.

After the end of the great hardship, the food situation improved only slightly, as the weather remained permanently colder with higher rainfall than people were used to in the past. In addition, the soil had lost its fertility in many places and only produced low yields despite intensive cultivation.

The surviving rural population increasingly moved to the cities against all prohibitions. As the lords of the manor were hardly able to counteract this urge, some at least tried to regulate it. In 1343, for example, the abbess of Herzebrock made an agreement with the Count of Ravensberg to allow her subjects to settle in the town of Bielefeld. However, in the event of the death of these new Bielefeld citizens, their estate was to revert to Herzebrock Abbey (*12).

Around 30 years had passed. Otto „Johan zu Krackstert“, who had remarried soon after the death of his first wife and raised a son and several daughters, had grown tired and had recently transferred the inheritance to his son.

This fifth decade of the unfortunate century was also characterized by wet and cold weather. Chronic malnutrition weakened the people and led to increased mortality as a new gruesome spectre emerged towards the end of the decade.“ (*13) The Plague spread northwards from southern Europe, originating in the eastern Mediterranean. The horror reports preceded it, passed on by merchants and travelers. Thousands had already been killed within a few days; entire towns were said to have died out. Panic and horror gripped the people, progressing from south to north. People tried to protect themselves from the epidemic but did not know how. Did death come from the water? Did it come through the air? Was it sent from heaven? No one knew; no one knew an antidote.

(*12) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, vol. P 138/21 H, 63.

(*13) Book Vasold, Pest, Not und schwere Plagen, p. 38 ff.

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Otto's son brought back the news of the galloping spread of this disease, a true scourge of God, from a trip to the mill. A traveler in the church village of Neuenkirchen was said to have reported about it and told some truly horrifying stories. Soon the news was also heard from other quarters. Everyone knew something new.

Some cities closed their gates to the foreigners, it was said, in the hope of escaping the disaster. But in vain; the great dying progressed inexorably with giant strides. From Italy, where death appeared in the fall of 1347, it moved across the sea to France and Spain the following year, across the Alps to the eastern countries and to Germany, crossed the Danube again a year later, followed the course of the Rhine and could not be stopped (*14).

Death showed its ugly face everywhere. Those who caught sight of it could no longer escape it. Today still healthy, tomorrow those affected were already shaken by a violent fever. Toxic bumps and dark spots spread all over the body, especially in the groin area and under the armpits. The heat of the fever, pain and violent inner restlessness caused the sick to stagger up from their beds, spitting bloody sputum. Even the sight of such a sick person could be contagious, many feared. After three to five days, death claimed its victim, regardless of whether the purulent black bumps that marked the body had burst open or not. What remained were the black and blue corpses, which had to be disposed of as quickly as possible to avoid infection.

But no matter what they did, it didn't help. The round dance of death continued. If yesterday it was the son or daughter who died, today it could be the husband, wife, master or servant. People died faster than they could be buried. At night, the bodies were collected from the streets and taken away until the cemeteries became too small. Wherever people fled, the plague went with them or had already arrived.

When the Pope announced that God himself had struck the people with the plague, no one doubted that heaven was punishing them. To appease God's wrath, the people gathered in large penitential processions that marched from place to place for several days. Barefoot and wrapped in cloaks, the penitents carried leather whips to scourge themselves until the blood flowed (*15).

Soon people were also looking for culprits who could be held responsible for the horrific evil. The long-hated Jews were quickly identified as well-poisoners and culprits and were summarily killed in many towns: dragged out of their homes, hanged, burnt, drowned.

Despite all this, the plague continued to spread. By the beginning of 1350, it had reached large parts of northern Germany. Bad news reached the Rietberg

(*14) Book Vasold, Pest, Not und schwere Plagen, p. 41 ff.

(*15) Book Tuchman, Der ferne Spiegel, p. 116 f.

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country. Münster, Osnabrück, Paderborn and Bielefeld, all the towns in the region were hit by the plague (*16). Yesterday healthy people were sick people covered in festering, bleeding sores, the next day they were already stinking corpses. Horror spread; the fear of infection overshadowed every other human emotion. Parents abandoned their sick children, women their husbands; everyone tried to save their own skin.

The inhabitants of the parish of Neuenkirchen flocked to their church to once again pray to heaven with prayers and vows of penance to protect their own homes from disaster. Petitionary processions were held again, in which everyone who was able to participate took part. Otto himself now felt too old and weak to make the arduous journey to Neuenkirchen. But he sent his sprightly wife, his son with his wife and his daughter. He only allowed the youngest to stay at home to look after the animals and the grandchildren.

But all hope was in vain, all prayers were in vain. God had turned his back on the earth and allowed death to choose a particularly large number of victims among the churchgoers with great malice, as if the devil had a hand in it. This is how it also hit the farms „zu Krackstert“. It all happened incredibly quickly. Before the horror could really spread among the inhabitants, many were already dead. Especially the children, the old and the weak were carried off by the plague. But the elderly, grief-stricken farmer Otto was among the few survivors.

The villages and farming communities all around were not spared either, and death hardly passed any door. When the plague had moved on after a few weeks, it had decimated the rural population to such an extent that the survivors could no longer adequately cultivate the fields. Despondency and misery were worse than ever before. However, the full extent of the hardship only became apparent in the fall after the harvest. Those who had been spared by the plague now had to reckon with death by starvation.

When the town of Bielefeld was trying to find a way out of the emergency, the only solution the councillors could think of was to plunder the surrounding farms. So one day an armed gang attacked the farm „zu Verl“ (Meier zu Verl) and robbed it! (*17). The people „zu Krackstert“ were terrified when they heard of this atrocity, as they feared that they themselves would soon be the victims of such a raid and would be plundered, if not threatened with death.

The best protection from such dangers was still the Crow Forest, where one could take refuge until the situation was resolved. The peasants often had to seek the protection of the forest

(*16) Book Vasold, Pest, Not und schwere Plagen, p. 50 ff.

(*17) Der Überfall einer bewaffneten Bande auf den Verler Hof ereignete sich am 17.10.1350

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during the recurring feuds and hostilities between the rulers. There has always been no end to the attacks by spiritual and secular lords on neighboring territories on all borders of the county. Sometimes it was the Count of Lippe with whom Rietberg was in dispute, sometimes the lordship in Rheda, sometimes they went to war against the Bishop of Osnabrück or Münster, sometimes against more distant bishoprics. Just as often, they allied themselves with the same lords to fight against third parties. The torment and suffering suffered by the population as a result was so commonplace that none of the lords gave it a second thought or even noticed it.

No sooner had the horrors of the plague passed than the troops of the Rietberg invaded the territory of the Ravensberg count, whose border ran north of the nearby Senne farmers, robbing and plundering (*18). Once again the harvest was destroyed, the animals slaughtered and the houses burned. Nobody cared about the devastation and damage caused to the fields and estates of the border inhabitants, who were still suffering from the effects of the epidemic. It was considered the right of the nobles to use their peasants as material assets in the fight against their opponents. The feuding counts knew that the best way to hit their enemies was to ruin the peasants and thus block the opposing parties' sources of income.

Otto no longer had to witness this new misery. After he had married off his only surviving daughter and made sure that life and work on the farm could go on, he lay down to die, tired as he was after a long day. He was thus spared the bleak winters that followed, during which the families of the affected farms had to live in cold, wet and draughty barns, in which their sheep or pigs had previously been housed, without permanent homes.

It was only with great difficulty that life in the countryside and in the city began to return to normal when, a decade later, the next wave of the plague spread and also reached Westphalia around 1365 (*19). Younger children in particular, who had not yet experienced the previous epidemic, were carried off this time. Fear and worry, disgust and hatred once again dominated people's emotions. Customs and morals deteriorated, greed and ruthlessness spread, and robbery and looting were the order of the day. Law and order were no longer as guaranteed as they had been in days gone by. They were replaced by violence and arbitrariness, so that a general insecurity increasingly took hold of the population.

The plague struck several more times at intervals of ten or twelve years, so that by the end of the 14th century the population was only half as large as at the beginning. Many houses stood „deserted“ (empty), farms became desolate and entire settlements disappeared again.

(*18) Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, p. 50.

(*19) Book Vasold, Pest, Not und schwere Plagen, p. 95.

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As a result of the shrinking population, grain prices fell considerably while wages for craftsmen rose. The farmers' work became worth less and less, no matter how hard they struggled. They sank into misery like in a deep, insurmountable swamp, with no prospect of salvation. The value of the taxes to be paid in kind to the landlords also decreased in line with the falling agricultural prices. The rulers attempted to compensate for their loss of income by increasing the burden on their dependents, but this was not always successful due to the impoverishment of the peasants. As a result, some noble families also fell into financial hardship. Numerous farms were mortgaged or changed hands. The monastery in Herzebrock and the Count of Rietberg also sold or mortgaged many of their farms together with the landlords.

New lords brought new uncertainties for the farmers, often enough associated with new burdens. So the people of „zu Krackstert“ were also worried when many farms in their area changed hands. The nearby mill on the Ölbach was also sold at the end of the century (*20) along with several other farms by Count Curt of Rietberg to the Knights of Varensell. This soon also affected the farm „Gerdt zu Krackstert“: In order to improve its finances, the monastery sold all rights to this estate to a „Knappen“ Squire named Reyneke „Krevet.“ (*21)

How would these changes in ownership affect the people „zu Krackstert“? Despite everything, the distant monastery had fared relatively well so far. From now on, the two Krackstert farms were under different lords, subject to different burdens and obligations and thus different development opportunities. What this meant for the inhabitants, who were so dependent on each other due to the location of their farms, would only become clear in the future.

(*20) Staatsarchiv Münster: Grafschaft Rietberg, document no. 172 dated February 5, 1393: Count Curt von Rietberg and his brothers Johan and Otto sell the house „to der Weyden“ and the house „to dem Bossebene“, the mill „zu Varensele“ and the Buschkotten together with accessories to the brothers and squires Evert and Dietrich Varensele, subject to repurchase within 6 years.

(*21) The exact year of this sale is not known. But as early as 1438, Reyneke Krevet sold the 'Haus zu Kraktzert im Kirchspiel Neuenkirchen' again to Count Cordt zu Rietberg. (Münster State Archives: County of Rietberg, deed no. 311 from 1438).

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Picture 11

Fig.11: Staatsarchiv Münster: Grafschaft Rietberg, document no. 172 dated February 5, 1393: Count Curt von Rietberg and his brothers Johan and Otto sell the house „to der Weyden“ and the house „to dem Bossebene“, the mill „zu Varensele“ and the Buschkotten together with accessories to the brothers and squires Evert and Dietrich Varensele, subject to repurchase within 6 years.

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Picture 12

Fig.12: Staatsarchiv Münster: Grafschaft Rietberg, document no. 476 dated 1484: Wihelm van Westorp declares that he has received the Hof to Krackzert together with the associated property belonging to it by the name of Gert to Krackzert, his wife Fye, their two sons Kersche (Christian), their daughters Gertrud and Grete……… as a fief from Count Johan von Rietberg according to „Burgmannsrecht“ (Castle-man's law).

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Picture 13

Wording of the inscription:

• 1. Ölbach (creek)
• 2. Vahrenseller Mühle (mill)
• 3. Verrelsche Mersch (Tidal marsh)
• 4. ein Kolck Bog pond
• 5. Krackzeter Mersch (Tidal marsh)
• 6. dies sein die „Langhörster“ (farmname) deren man zu Wiedenbrück in „Eigentum“ (possess ione)
• 7. Hagen-Johan (farmname)
• 8. Lakman (farmname)
• 9. nach Ausweisung des Strichs wollen die Rittpergschen ihre „Schnadt“ ziehen (After the demarcation has been made, the Rittbergs loards want to draw their border)
• 10. die olde Landwehr (the old border)
• 11. Fürberen - 3 houses (farmname)
• 12. Tyleman - 2 houses (farmname)
• 13. Steklingh (farmname)
• 14. Velthenrich (farmname)
• 15. drei Bernsell Hoffe - 3 houses (farmname)
• 16. Hanharter 2 houses (farmname)
• 17. Wiesebrock (farmname)
• 18. Berenbrinck (farmname)
• 19. Otter Poll (farmname)
• 20. Wulffhorst (farmname)
• 21. die Wilden Höffe - (farmname)
• 22. hier liegt die (this is where it lies the ) Burschafft Avenwehde

Fig.13: Sketch of the border area on the Ölbach from 1583. Staatsarchiv Osnabrück, Grenzsachen Rietberg 1565 -1631 (Dep 6 b Nr. 593).

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Dull despair and impotent anger took hold in the following generations generations, as was the case everywhere else in the Rietberg area. What else was the common man of the time, who found himself in need, to hold on to? The rulers fought each other in never-ending feuds to get what they wanted. At the same time, they allied with each other in frequently changing alliances against third parties! (*1)

Murdering, pillaging and plundering troops roamed the country everywhere increasingly made up of unemployed and unpaid soldiers and lansquenets who acted just as roughly and violently as their former masters. The peasants were defenceless against their invading bands. But that was not all: robbing knights ambushed traveling merchants and ambush traveling merchants and threatened them with their lives if they refused to hand over their goods. General insecurity hampered the lives people's lives from the beginning of the 15th century.

Once again, the Church offered no advice or assistance, but was preoccupied with its own worldly affairs. Although the Council of Constance had put an end to the unfortunate schism, so that Christendom was now ruled by only one pope, the other factions remained unaffected. They would certainly not be eliminated at the new council, which had been meeting for some time in Basel to counter the teachings of the heretics in the south of the country.

Villages and settlements, like the towns, had surrounded themselves with protective walls to ward off raids. The flat countryside with its scattered settlements remained largely unprotected. For this reason, a number of lords had „Landwehren“ (fortifications) built around villages and even entire parishes to at least make attacks more difficult. These three or four meter high earthen ramparts were topped with dense woodland and undergrowth and were often secured on the outside by a ditch (*2).

The Count of Rietberg also had such fortifications built around his farming communities. (*3). All the farmers were obliged to cooperate in the construction of the long earthworks and to provide manual labor. In some places, additional watchtowers were erected on the ramparts, from which one could have a wide view of the

(*1) In 1415, Archbishop Diederich of Cologne formed an alliance with Count Conrad of Rietberg against the Duke of Berg and the Count of Ravensberg, among others. Münster State Archives: County of Rietberg, documents (Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, pp. 53 and 135).

(*2) They were mostly created in the 14th century to protect against the widespread robbery and feuding. Book Hagen and Behr, Westfilische Bauerngeschichte, p. 78 ff.

(*3) Its course can be reconstructed in part on the basis of old maps and is still preserved today in field names.

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land and spot any suspicious troops at an early stage (*4). The fortifications were covered in dense thorny undergrowth, in which a potential attacker would become entangled and his first assault would be slowed down. Only in a few places were there passages secured with battering rams with a „Schling“. The ongoing maintenance of the fortifications was ordered and carefully monitored by the count's officials.

Picture 13b

Wording of the inscription:

Fig.13: Schling = border point in the Middle Ages

Such a land defense was also erected northeast of the „Krackstert farms“(*5) It stretched in a long arc from Gütersorth via Sennebauer (Sende) and Holte (Schloß Holte) to Mayburg (Verl-Kaunitz) and Österbauer (Österwiehe). From the watchtowers of Hanwarde (Johann- and Peter-Hanwahr farms) and Mayburg, you could see as far as the nearest towers and the area as far as the Teutoburg Forest and the Paderborn, Lippe and Ravensberg regions.

The farmer from the farm Johan zu Krackstert had just returned with some of his men from repair work on the land defense. He was in an irritable mood. The days he had now had to spend working on the ramparts were missed when he was tilling his own property in the spring. Certainly, the Landwehr had suffered badly last winter. Heavy downpours had undermined the soil in places and caused the whole embankment to slide away. In addition, wild animals had bitten the young trees and shrubs so badly that many of them had to be replaced.

But Johan zu Krackstert was convinced that even after these repairs, no one should feel safe behind the protective wall. Like the many other fortifications, this one could not provide sufficient protection against raids by brigands and attacks by roaming and marauding troops, and certainly not against attacks by neighboring lords. How could this miserable land defense prevent the Ravensbergers (*6) from invading Rietberg territory? Or the unruly Lord of the Lippe, who was always causing trouble? Yes, perhaps they could stop and hinder him a little, but nothing more. And then they raged all the worse! Time and again, the peasants were the worst sufferers in all the conflicts. The evil insecurity and the danger to life and limb remained general.

In order to counter this insecurity, a number of spiritual and secular lords in Westphalia, led by the Bishop of Cologne, had already committed themselves in a meeting in Soest in 1385 to refrain from faust law disputes and to ensure security and order (*7). But what had changed in the half century since then? The farmers could see no improvement. This obligation had not resulted in peace on the land and the endless feuds, in which the counts of Rietberg were also involved, continued.

(*4) Such watchtowers were to be located on the Hanwahrde (Hanward), the Mayburg (Kaunitz), the Bühlbusche and the Widey. Local history book of the Verler Land.

(*5) Its course can be seen from a sketch in the Osnabrück State Archives of Lower Saxony dating from 1583 (Dep. 6 b No. 593 page 28 /29V). Sketch see page 62.

(*6) The territory of the Ravensberg counts was meanwhile under the control of the Duke of Jülich, Berg and Cleve.

(*7) (Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, pp. 51).

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This was the case, for example, in the terrible feud of Soest between Archbishop Dietrich of Cologne on the one hand and the town of Soest and the Duke of Cleves on the other. This war lasted from 1441-1447, and Bernhard von der Lippe on the side of the town of Soest and the Count of Rietberg on the side of the archbishop also intervened in the course of it, although the two had concluded an alliance for mutual assistance as late as 1444 (*8).

Femegerichte or Freigerichte (Vehmic court) in the Westphalian lands, which at times met in secret and carried out immediate death sentences, were intended to curb the arbitrariness of the lords and help the law to prevail, but only fueled new horrors. Horror stories about their actions were passed on and made the rounds. Even if not everything was believed, they did not fail to make an impression.

At the same time as the furious activities of the nobility, the country was repeatedly ravaged by plagues and epidemics. The dreaded plague continued to appear in (*9), sometimes here, sometimes there, although no longer as devastating as in the previous century. Leprosy, which had been known since time immemorial, also continued to spread its horrors, as did pneumonia and many other diseases fever-related diseases.

A particular disaster befell the town of Rietberg when, during a violent thunderstorm in 1457, lightning struck a building and set it on fire (*10). Almost all the houses, most of which were built of wood, fell victim to the ensuing blaze. In Neuenkirchen, some people attending mass later told how they had been able to observe the terrifying event. First, after a loud crash, the cloudy sky had darkened even further. Dark clouds of smoke had risen until suddenly the entire horizon was engulfed in flames, as if a late sun had once again illuminated the unreal sky. That could only mean bad things! The people had hastily crossed themselves and said a prayer: „Save us from lightning and storms, O Lord!“

But as if such a misfortune were not enough, some time later the towns of Oelde and Stromberg burned down and were completely devastated. Rumor had it that the Nobleman of the Lippe and the Count of Rietberg had set the fire themselves, out of sheer malice and wantonness.“

As a result of the frequent feuds, the nobility was in constant need of money. The Rietbergers were no different to the Lippe, Tecklenburg or Ravensberg nobles. In order to remain solvent, the lords felt compelled to repeatedly sell off parts of their assets. And so the farms

(*8) (Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, pp. 55).

(*9) For example, in the years 1449 - 1453, 1463/64, 1480 - 1486 and 1494 - 1499. Cf. Vasold, Plague, distress and severe plagues, p. 104.

(*10) (Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, pp. 56).

(*11) (Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, pp. 56).

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and the people living on them were treated like property and moved, mortgaged, pledged, gambled away and sold.

Those affected only found out afterwards when they suddenly had to make their payments to another lord. This was also the case with „Gerdt zu Krackstert“. While he still believed his farm to be the property of the nobleman Reyneke Krevet, he had already sold all his claims to the house and his people to the Count of Rietberg (*12).

Some time later, the estate „Johan zu Krackstert“, which was now managed by his son Hans, had also changed hands and was in the hands of the Rheda burgomaster Johann Kappelen (*13) and no longer owned by the Herzebrock monastery. Hans only found out about this through the demands of the new lord, which hit him all the harder as the monastery had not been very punctual with its payments for some time.

Over the years, Herzebrock Abbey had become increasingly involved in the unrest and feuds of the time. Long before this, the Benedictine nuns' way of life had no longer been in keeping with the rules of the order. Instead of the required poverty, the nuns had accumulated personal property, dressed fashionably and kept personal servants. Worldly actions and thinking had long dominated the life of the convent.

During this time, the monastery was under the administration of a bailiff from the family of the noblemen of Lippe, who was feuding with the Count of Tecklenburg. Fighting troops devastated the monastery; buildings and furnishings were destroyed through looting and pillaging. The bailiff also enriched himself by selling monastery assets on his own authority, and a large part of the old estates fell into ruin. Even the peasants realized that the administration was not doing too well, and an unhappy time in the history of the convent began, during which religious life was also at its lowest point. Meanwhile, the nuns were defencelessly at the mercy of the destructive activities of their bailiff. Their prosperity melted away, and by the middle of the century they were already living in such great poverty that they finally turned to the Pope for help (*14).

In all areas of life, people's customs and behavior had become so degenerate and worldly that a conversion and rethinking became increasingly urgent. In the second half of the century, under Bishop Konrad von Osnabriick and Abbess Sophia von Stromberg, a process of reform finally began at Herzebrock Abbey, which was continued under her successor Sophia von Münster. Initially against the resistance of the convent, the spiritual life was renewed: the cloister was reintroduced, choral singing and choral prayer were practiced in Latin

(*12) Münster State Archives: County of Rietberg, deed no. 311 dated February 17, 1438.

(*13) Rheda Princely Archives: document dated February 24, 1478, H 123. The farm still had to pay taxes amounting to 6 Müdde rye. (Book Klueting, Herzebrock Monastery, p. 169)

(*14) Book Klueting, Herzebrock Monastery, p. 61 - 63

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language and generally stricter rules were enacted. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the monastery had finally recovered from its decline and developed into the center of a new reform movement, so that it reached a peak in its spiritual life.

At the same time, the economic losses of the previous decades had to be compensated for in order to secure the material life of the convent. In the meantime, the Count of Tecklenburg had been elected bailiff of the monastery, who entrusted the procurator Johan von Hamm with solving these problems. During his term of office, the alienated land was reclaimed and the deserted farms were re-cultivated (*15). A few years later, the farm „Johan zu Krackstert“ and the people on it reverted to Herzebrock (*16).

Meanwhile, Count Johan von Rietberg enfeoffed the nobleman Wilhelm von Westorp with the neighboring farm „Gerdt zu Krackstert“ together with its owner Gerdt, his wife Fye, his son Kersche and his daughters Gerdrut and Grete (*17).

A rethink had begun in some places, not only in religious matters but also in other areas. The right to feud had already been abolished at the Imperial Diet of Regensburg in 1471 in order to preserve the peace of the land, but without putting an end to the unfortunate feuding system. But the time was ripe for change. Even between the Count of Rietberg and the Noble of Lippe, an agreement was reached in 1479 in which both undertook to ensure the safety of traffic on their country roads (*18). Although this agreement did not prevent them from continuing to wage wars elsewhere, it did show the beginnings of a new way of thinking.

The invention of the printing press around the middle of the century, which made it possible to disseminate new ideas more quickly, as well as the founding of new universities in various German cities, contributed significantly to this. In addition to the nobility, a wealthy urban bourgeoisie had emerged, which derived its wealth from the production and trade of goods and confidently fought for political influence. Long-distance trade made people curious about the unexplored part of the world and drove explorers and adventurers out to sea. The desire for peace and security in the country and on the roads was common to them all. In this they were united with the poor and uneducated peasant population, who were otherwise little affected by the other changes, as they had to exhaust their strength in the struggle for their daily bread.

In 1495, an „Eternal Peace of Land“ was proclaimed at the Diet of Worms, which was intended to force disputants to seek justice in a court of law instead of feuding

(*15) Book Klueting, Herzebrock Monastery, p. 63 ff.

(*16) Files of the Rheda Princely Archive (No. 138/26 H 28). It belonged to the monastery again from 1481 at the latest. There is a register of the estate in the Herzebrock records from this year.

(*17) Münster State Archives: Rietberg, deed no. 476 dated April 4, 1484

(*18) Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg and its counts, p. 56/57.

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court instead of feuding. The Imperial Chamber Court was founded in Frankfurt to enforce this peace of land.

However, the peasants of the Krackstert farms, like the entire population of the Rietberg region, were still unable to see any reduction, and the longed-for peace was a long way off. The ruling Count Johan von Rietberg was a warlike man and had already led his cavalry into many a feud.

It was not until 1485 that he was temporarily imprisoned with his followers of more than 300 men after a war against the Duke of Brunswick in which he suffered heavy losses. But as early as 1493, he went into battle again, this time together with the bishops of Osnabrück and Münster and the Noble Lord of Lippe. Together with Otto, the eldest son of Count Nikolaus von Tecklenburg, they wanted to come to the aid of the old Count of Tecklenburg, who had been captured by his younger son Klaus. For the first time, cannons were to be used in the area during this war. In the end, however, it was possible to mediate between the warring parties before the battle for the castle really began and major devastation had occurred (*19).

The turmoil and innovations of the time had led to a new, increased piety among large sections of the population. The awareness of being surrounded by death at all times determined people's attitude and rhythm of life. The fear of a sudden, unforeseen death without the possibility of confession and penance led many to look for ways to buy God's grace in order to escape the prospect of eternal damnation. The veneration of saints, the cult of relics and the trade in indulgences flourished, religious confraternities were very popular, petitionary processions and pilgrimages became more frequent. Religion was the refuge and only hope of all the poor, the afflicted and those in need; at the same time, the wealthy could buy themselves free of their sins through endowments and donations.

Miracles and superstition grew steadily, inexplicable occurrences were increasingly attributed to the work of witches, whose numbers grew by leaps and bounds, so that in many places they were put to trial. But however many of them were burned at the stake, there were no fewer. The ecclesiastical principalities were particularly prominent in the persecution of witchcraft. Clergymen and secular lords outdid each other in their conviction that the work of evil forces on the one hand and the wrath of God on the other were evident everywhere among the people.

People shuddered when they heard about the ordeals that were necessary to kill the deluded followers of the devil - evil old women mostly, but also men,

(*19) Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg and its counts, p. 57 ff.

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children - to confess their heinous misdeeds. And when they were finally convicted, they naturally had to receive their just punishment, otherwise the evil in the world could not be eradicated.

There was usually no doubt about their pact with the devil. What else could you make of the fact that new diseases kept spreading like epidemics and wiping out the lives of many in a short space of time. In addition to the plague, which people still trembled in fear of, smallpox spread like wildfire, as did the previously unknown measles and typhus. Even the domestic animals were not spared the calamity of the plagues and God's wrath. Everywhere there were inexplicable incidents that people did not understand.

Following the religious need, the farming community of Verl also wanted to have its own little church. The site was found to the east of the Verler Meierhof farm near the mill on the Ölbach stream. When it was consecrated in 1512 and dedicated to St. Anne, it was almost too small for the faithful who had flocked to it. Moreover, the poor population could hardly contribute anything to the interior decoration of this chapel. Count Johan von Rietberg therefore drew up an accompanying letter authorizing its owners, Heinrich von Münster and his comrades, to collect alms for this purpose everywhere for one year (*20).

However, the desire for a renewal of the church also grew with the general piety. When Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the Wittenberg Castle Church in 1517, he met with a broad response. The reformation of the church could no longer be stopped and the Lutheran doctrine was able to spread to many parts of the empire in just a few years, despite all the resistance from Rome.

However, Luther's sermons on the „freedom of a Christian“ and the rejection of ecclesiastical authorities were also widely misunderstood and led to radical movements. While the peasants in the southern parts of the empire rose up, appealing to the Lutheran doctrine, the Anabaptists in the city of Münster had a large following and established their reign of terror based on religious fervor there in 1534/35. After the prince-bishop of Münster and his troops had finally smashed their „Kingdom of Zion“, a terrible judgment was passed on those involved, whose leaders Jan van Leiden, Knipperdolling and Knechting were hanged in cages on the high tower of St. Lambert's Church as a deterrent after their execution.

It was not until 1535 that Luther's teachings found their way into the county of Rietberg. Two former Augustinian monks, Hermann Halewat and Wilhelm Cappelen, who had previously lived in Lippstadt, which was already Lutheran, were appointed as preachers in Rietberg and Neuenkirchen by Count Otto III.“ The orphaned Annenkapelle chapel in Verl was co-administered from Neuenkirchen. The believers of the Rietberg

(*20) Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, deed no. 575 from the year 1512.

(*21) Henrich-Wilhelm Schüpp, Reformation, Recatholization, Thirty Years' War. County and the town of Rietberg from 1530 - 1648. Book Hanschmidt, „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 78/79.

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farming communities had to follow the count's house, unless they had already listened to the Lutheran doctrine.

Meanwhile, the Herzebrock monastery was again severely afflicted. First, a terrible plague in 1532/33, to which many nuns fell victim, drove the convent to Wiedenbrück, where Abbess Elisabeth von Asseberg also died (*22). No sooner had the convent been re-established under her successor than on March 22, 1534, marauding troops deployed in Münster to fight the Anabaptists attacked the convent. Around 500 soldiers ravaged the convent for a week, torturing the nuns and causing enormous damage to the buildings and facilities. The nuns had to go into debt to the tune of 500 guilders just to feed the troops (*23).

At the same time, the monastery had to fend off repeated attacks by Count Konrad von Tecklenburg, who hoped to gain sovereignty over the monastery. The Benedictine nuns were largely able to resist his demands to adopt the new faith, while the dispute over sovereignty continued until a settlement was finally reached in 1565, according to which territorial sovereignty lay with the Count of Tecklenburg and spiritual sovereignty with the Bishop of Osnabrück.

Around the middle of the century, the monastery therefore had to set about repairing the damage and securing its economic basis. The necessary changes coincided with a phase of fluctuating grain prices. At the beginning of the century, favorable weather conditions had led to rich harvests and low prices for agricultural produce, to the annoyance of the landlords and the relief of the urban population (*24). As most farmers no longer had to pay their taxes in kind, but in money, they were again severely affected by this price development.

Since then, there have been weather-related ups and downs in harvest volumes. Sometimes the winters were rather mild and short, sometimes very cold and long, as in 1530, when the Ems was still completely frozen over in April and early May (*25). Grain prices followed these fluctuations and reflected the respective shortages in supplying the population, which had grown again since the great plague waves.

(*22) She had been a sister-in-law of the last knight from the influential von Varensell family, who had had several family ties to the monastery and had died three years earlier without an heir.

(*23) Book Klueting, „Herzebrock Monastery“, p. 67 ff.

(*24) Book Abel, „Mass poverty and hunger crises“, p. 44.

(*25) Book Abel, „Mass poverty and hunger crises“, p. 48.

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Overall, however, prices for agricultural products, especially bread grain, showed an upward trend compared to wages and prices for other products. A new wave of settlement and colonization led to a renewed increase in cultivated land.

Life was easier again on the two Krackstert farms. There was plenty of food, and with the relatively low wages, farmhands and maids could be kept again. Every now and then there was an opportunity to sell some goods for the markets in the surrounding towns, so that a little cash was available.

During this period, many landlords once again resorted to the tried and tested method of dividing up their estates in order to further increase their income. Even farms that had already been divided up earlier were divided up again, provided they appeared to be sufficiently viable. At the same time as the division, the „Meierrecht“ was often introduced, which meant that the farms were only leased to the farmers for a certain period of time, usually for 12 years or less. After that, the right to the farm, the „Bemeierung“, had to be acquired anew by the farmers from the landlord through the so-called wine purchase. The terms of the lease could be changed slightly and new services could be charged (*26).

Contrary to the custom in other areas, however, the hereditary nature of the farms remained intact in the Rietberg region. The purchase of wine, which could amount to 80 thalers for a Meier and 40 thalers or more for a Halbmeier (*27), was only paid on succession. succession. The personal legal capacity of the farmers was also retained. From now on, the term „Meier“ or „Spanner“ appeared in the names, with the latter term referring to the scope of services to which the farms were obliged to provide. The former „Volle Erbe“ were now called „Meier“ or „Volle Spänne“, the „Halbe Erbe“ were referred to as „Halbmeier“ or „Halbe Spänne“, the old „Kötter“ as „Zweitäger“ and the even smaller „Erbe“ as „Eintäger“.

Among the „vollen Spännen“ there were a number of „Sattelmeiern“ (*28) who had to serve the count with a saddled horse during military campaigns or journeys outside the country's borders. Otherwise, the farms classified as „volle Spänne“ had to serve the lord of the manor with a team of four horses, the

(*26) Book Hagen and Behr, Westf. Bauerngeschichte, p. 143 ff.

(*27) Book Schwertener, Grafschaft Rietberg, p. 73.

(*28) According to Schwertener, this included a total of 67 farms within the county, of which in

• Neuenkirchen: Bultemeier, Bödingmeier, Westhoff
• Varensell: Jürgen Paschedag, Darming, Beckhoff, Rüscherdavid, Große Rüschmann
• Verl: Meier zu Verl, Henrich Brummel, Hülshorst, Klaas Brummel, Meier zu Berens, Jacobfeuerborn, Wiesbrock
• Sende: Obergassel, Maasfauseweh (or Maasmeier), Westerebbinghaus, Österebbinghaus
• Bornholte: Große Schallau, Peter Hanward, Kolckmann, Kettelhoit
• Liemke: Dresselhaus, Langenströher, Johann Liemke, Geisemeier, Obermeier, Peitzmeier
• Österwiehe: Edenfeld, Meier Harde, Lübbecke und Aßholt.

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„Halbspänner“ with two horses. The „Zweitäger“ were obliged to provide manual labor on 16 days and the „Eintäger“ on 8 days per year (*29).

Since this time of reviving colonization, the individual farms were often called „Colonat“ and the farmers accordingly „Colone“ (the man „Colon“, the woman „Colona“). For the Rietberg region, this designation also expressed the very specific legal status of the peasants, which was not to be found in this form in the other lands of the empire.

Like many others, the two Vollen Erben „zu Krackstert“ were divided up again around this time. The monastery farm „Johan zu Krackstert“ became the two Halbmeier colonates „Johan to Krackstert“ and „Cordt to Krackstert“ (*30). The farm „Gerdt zu Krackstert“, which had been bequeathed to the noble Cord zu Westrup by the Count of Rietberg and then by the Count of Lippe since the end of the 15th century, was divided up by its landlords according to the same pattern into the Halbmeier „Gerdt to Krackstert“ and the Halbmeier „Hemmeke to Krackstert“. In addition, a Zweitäger called „Schenkell to Krackstert“ (later „Koch to Kracks“) was built in the remotest corner of these four farms on the barren ground in front of the common „Stroth“ (*31).

This meant that there were now four half-farmers' and one two-harvesters' farm on the site of the former large original farm. In order to feed all the people who lived on these five farms, the forest had almost completely disappeared. Due to overgrazing and constant plaggen removal for fertilization, a barren heath and scrub landscape, the „Sürenheide“, had formed in its place, which gradually became less and less productive and fewer and fewer animals could use it as „Gemeinheit“ or „gemeine Mark“ for common grazing. for common grazing.

The same process took place in all the surrounding villages. Forests and all woodland had largely disappeared, replaced by heathland, scrub and the cultivation of all usable land. The only exceptions were the count's estates, such as the count's forest in Holte, where the Rietbergs had built a hunting lodge to pursue their manorial pleasures.

In order to regulate the scarce grazing land, which included the dry areas called „Brink“ (*32) on the one hand and the various wetlands of the floodplains called „Bruch“, „Brock“, „Mersch“ or „Stroth“ on the other, it was unavoidable to set a maximum number of animals, depending on the size of the farm, which were allowed to use the common pasture. Nevertheless, disputes over this point were the order of the day and often had to be settled in court.

(*29) Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 71.

(*30) A list of the properties belonging to the monastery farm „Krackstert“ from the year 1481 mentions that at that time the farm was not yet divided. (Rheda Princely Archive, Herzebrock files, no. 138/26 H28.)

(*31) The name Schenkell to Krackstert, later Koch to Krackstert, appears in the records of the Münster State Archives from at least 1592. However, the „Zweitäger“, which were previously known as Köter or Altköter, were probably created in the 13th and 14th centuries before the first wave of the plague.

(*32) Brink = hilly terrain, Stroth = marshy land with shrubs, Bruch = forest with moors, Brock = pasture, Mersch = low-lying land.

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The burden of the two Krackstert farms, which were in the upper ownership of the monastery, consisted of the following different elements at that time: 1. regular dues, ground rents, which were due in spring and fall, as well as services to the monastery, 2. regular dues to the monastery bailiwick in money, goods and services, which could exceed the amount of the dues for the monastery, 3. irregular levies to the monastery in the form of deaths, wine purchases and ascents, 4. regular levies to the church, 5. irregular services to the sovereign such as war services or mill services and levies such as land treasures, head treasures, cattle treasures, Turk treasures and the like, which, initially levied irregularly, increasingly took on the character of regular taxes.

The tax burden on the three remaining Kracksterthöfe, which were in secular ownership, was correspondingly high.

After the death of Count Otto III of Rietberg, his two sons Johann II and Otto IV fought over the succession. In the years that followed, this dispute led to various coalitions between the Lutheran Rietbergers and their Catholic counterparts, with the result that the Rietberg lands were at times occupied by both Lutheran and imperial troops (*33). The population suffered on both sides and could hardly understand why they were caught between all fronts. between all fronts.

Hessian soldiers had occupied the castle in Rietberg since 1546. In 1548, they were driven out of the castle and the county by an imperial contingent of 1200 horsemen and 8000 men on foot under the command of Jobst von Croningen. As this large army continued its march eastwards towards Minden, the Rietberg countryside was ruthlessly devastated.

When Count Otto IV died in 1553, his brother Johann II was the sole regent of the county. However, the population did not enjoy a more peaceful time, as Johann II, also known as „Tolle Johann“ by the population due to his bad, quarrelsome and ill-tempered nature, was in constant conflict with the neighboring noblemen, especially Count Bernhard von der Lippe. After various incidents and provocations, on November 25, 1556, the day of St. Catherine, a detachment of the Lippe invaded the county of Rietberg with devastating raids and plundering. The count's hunting lodge in Holte was ravaged by flames, the villages of Verl and Neuenkirchen were completely plundered, as was the town of Rietberg (*34).

(*33) For the following events, see Schüpp, Reformation, Rekatholisierung, Dreißigjahriger Krieg. County and town of Rietberg from 1530 to 1648, in: Buch Hanschmidt (ed.), „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 80 ff, and Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, p. 64 ff.

(*34) Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, p. 65).

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Picture 14

Fig. 14: The „mad Johann“, from whom the county of Rietberg in the Holte. suffered heavily.

Picture 15 The count's hunting Castle in Holte.

Fig. 15:

Johann entrenched himself in Rietberg Castle, which was besieged by the Lippe troops, reinforced by those of the Bishop of Paderborn. Johann also defied an arbitration ruling by the Westphalian district, in which the estates demanded that he lay down his arms and surrender. As a result, the Duke of Jülich, representing the Westphalian Circle, marched into Rietberg and continued the siege of the castle. However, it was only after seven months that Johann was forced to surrender on June 2, 1557. After being arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, he was taken to St. Martin's Monastery in Cologne, where he died in 1564.

In the meantime, his widow Agnes von Bentheim had taken over the administration of the county. However, the country had to suffer from Johann's actions for many years to come. Not only did the consequences of the fighting have to be remedied. In addition, the occupation by the Westphalian County, which demanded 100,000 thalers in compensation, continued for a long time until 1566, without the county, which was completely devastated and hit by a new wave of plague in 1558, being able to pay the reparations.

Given the turmoil, constant fighting and raids in the county, it was no wonder that every one of Rietberg's subjects tried to behave as inconspicuously as possible towards the authorities in order to suffer as little damage as possible. At the same time, the population's dealings with one another were characterized by rough customs, and some believed that they could also take away their supposed rights through violence in fights, brawls and raids.

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As always, the focus was on disputes about border violations of all kinds. This was also the case with the Meiern zu Krackstert.

When the farms were divided up again in the recent past, the boundaries of the colonates were to be drawn in such a way that no party was left out. In addition, according to the old land law, each farmstead was to be surrounded by a strong and defensive fence, so high that „a grown man could take a bard with the handle of a cubit long and reach over the fence to the ground; it should also be so strong that an armed man could walk against it three times with his foot; if it can withstand this, it is strong enough“ (*35). A sufficiently large space was also to be left between the farmsteads for grazing and fattening pigs and small livestock, with an appropriate stocking of oak and beech trees.

The farmstead „Cordt to Krackstert“ was built around a hundred meters east of the old farmstead „Johan to'h Krackstert“, south of the Ölbach stream on the old country road to Paderborn, like the latter in a group of oak and beech trees. A spacious two-stall house was built in the style of the Lower Saxon farmhouse, which was gradually joined by a bakehouse, a sheepfold, a pigsty, a beehive and a livestock house (*36). A large vegetable garden was planted behind the house with an orchard where numerous apple and pear trees soon rivaled the oaks and beeches of the farm in height.

The new farm „Hemmeke to Krackstert“ was formed in the same way to the west of the old farm „Gerdt zu Krackstert“. Only the smaller estate „Schenkell to Krackstert“ was assigned a less favorable location on the edge of the so-called „Stroth“, a rather barren common. All five farms were surrounded by appropriate fences to secure the property.

The greatest difficulties were caused by the renewed division of the farmland among the four farmers. Once again, the plots were divided into narrow strips and distributed to the new owners in turn so as not to disadvantage anyone (*37). However, no land had been sacrificed for roads, so that access to most of the fields was only possible via the neighbor's land. The colonels therefore had to coordinate the timing of both field cultivation and harvesting. This quickly led to problems.

And so, despite the precise demarcations, there were soon enough fierce and even violent disputes about the respective neighboring boundaries because they were supposedly not drawn correctly, because pets had broken through the fence or overhanging branches had caused damage, but above all because one party did not want to allow the other to cross its land at certain times.

(*35) Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 68.

(*36) Leibzucht = Altenteil.

(*37) This can still be seen in the original cadastre from 1820. As farmers were forbidden to sell their land, this first cadastral recording of the farms reflects a situation that had arisen centuries earlier.

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A particularly stubborn dispute arose over the use of the woodland between the farms „Johan and Cordt to Krackstert“, the so-called forecourt. Pigs had been driven under the tall oaks and beeches growing there for fattening and chickens and geese had been left to scratch for food. Now each neighbor eyed the other suspiciously to see if their livestock was not taking up too much of the common pasture. The „Johan to Krackstert“ probably also began to erect another fence to enclose his part of the forecourt directly to his farmstead. The „Cordt to Krackstert“ objected to this, because in his opinion it violated all conventional law, and filed a lawsuit against his neighbor.

As early as 1560, a court hearing was held for this reason (*38), in which Herman Megger Johan to Krackstert (Hermann „Meier“ Johann zu Kracks) was sentenced to a heavy fine. The Meier was not satisfied with this, however, and the dispute was by no means settled - quite the opposite. Instead of turning their attention to more important matters, the two neighbors subsequently tried to make life more difficult for each other with constant stubbornness. Claren Hagenhei (Clara, née Hagenheide), the wife of Johan to Krackstert (*39), stood out with her „sharp tongue“ and malicious gossip.

The „Kraxter farmers“ - as they were now often abbreviated to - would actually have been in a better position than the previous generations

(*38) Staatsarchiv Düsseldorf IX, No. 30, Brüchten (penalties) 1560 (according to records by Prof. Georg Wagner, Paderborn).

(*39) For personal details, see succession „Johann to Krax“. p. 242

(*40) In the following years, different spellings for the names of the Kraxter farmers alternated:

• für Johan to Krackstert:
• - Johan to(zu) Kraxt(ert) — Johanmeier to(zu) Kraxt(ert)
• - Meier (Johan) to Kraxt(ert)
• - ab 18. Jhd. nur noch Meier to Krax(t)
• - mundartlich: Meggers (auch ,,Schmeiss*; Bedeutung dieses Namens unbekannt) fiir Cordt to Krackstert
• - Cordt to(zu) Kraxt(ert) — Cordtmeier to(zu) Kraxt(ert)
• - Wirt zu Kraxt(ert) oder Kraxwirt
• - Cord to Krax(t)
• - mundartlich: Kauas (von Kauert = Kurt)
• für Gerdt to Krackstert:
• - Gerdt to(zu) Kraxt(ert) — Gerdtmeier to(zu) Kraxt(ert)
• - ab 18. Jhd. meist Johann to Krax(t)
• - mundartlich: Gers (von Gerd)
• für Hemmeke to Krackstert:
• - Hemmeke to(zu) Kraxt(ert) — Hemmekemeier to(zu) Kraxt(ert)
• - Hemkemeier
• - Hemken to Krax(t)
• - mundartlich: Hemken
• für Schenkell to Krackstert:
• - Koch to Krax(t)
• - mundartlich: Kuaks

In unserer Darstellung werde ich mich — um Verwirrung beim Leser zu vermeiden — auf die Bezeichnungen Johann to Krax bzw. Meier to Krax, Cord to Krax, Gerd to Krax und Hemken to Krax beschränken, d.h. ich vernachlässige den tatsächlichen Namenswechsel von Gerdt to Krax zu Johann to Krax.

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relatively good situation compared to previous generations. Conditions in the county had become more peaceful again, and apart from the second farm, which was worse off, the other four farms were still large enough to make a reasonable living, given the rising prices for grain and other agricultural produce and the falling prices for wages and commercial products. - But this was soon to change.

The winter of 1568 began unusually early, with bitter cold well into the spring. The summer was rainy and brought only a small harvest. This continued in the following years: the winters were cruelly cold and long, the summers also too cool and wet. On All Saints' Day in 1570, the dykes on the North Sea broke during a storm surge, so that the masses of water penetrated far into the land and washed away houses and farmsteads. The following winter was the harshest imaginable. All the major rivers were frozen over and still hadn't thawed in March. And so it continued the next winter, as if God wanted to punish the people with a new ice age (*41)

In the meantime, shortages and hardship had set in everywhere. Some of the fields could no longer be cultivated in the spring of 1572 due to a lack of seed grain. This was compounded in summer by a veritable plague of mice, caterpillars and other vermin, as well as mildew and other plant diseases. The little that could be harvested was of poor quality or half spoiled and made people ill. In addition to severe diarrhea, the devastating St. Anthony's fire occurred frequently. Famine had long since spread throughout German cities, and even the farmers were no longer fed. Only the large landowners harvested enough to make money from the extremely high grain prices.

In order to prevent speculation and prevent the local population from starving, all grain exports were banned in many territories. Another terribly cold and long winter followed until the weather improved again and the starvation slowly came to an end. Once again, the people had experienced how helplessly they were exposed to nature and climate fluctuations.

The old colon „Cordt to Kraxtert“ had only just lived to see the end of the famine years before he died. He was succeeded on the farm by his youngest son, who in 1578 married the energetic young woman Trine (*41), who had a loose mouth. She too soon got into a heated argument with the people from the neighboring farm, who still didn't want to forget who they had to thank for their punishment 20 years earlier. The situation became even worse when Elske Darmeke (*42) moved in with Johan to Kraxtert as a young woman in 1591.

Cordt Kraxtert and Trine claimed everywhere that a large part of the neighboring yard belonged to them, or at least to the front farm. Den Zaun habe der

(*41) Book Abel, „Mass poverty and hunger crises“, p. 70 ff.

(*42) For personal details, see succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*43) For the person of Elske Darmeke (presumably from Meierhof Darming in Varensell) see succession „Johann to Krax“. p. 242

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Nachbar heimlich versetzt, um seine Grenzen zu verschieben; heimtückisch habe er ihnen einen Teil ihres Besitzes entwendet.

Johan to Kraxtert went wild when he heard these sayings and threatened to shut the others up. He knew darkly from his childhood that there was some truth to the story, but no one could say for sure. Elske encouraged her husband in his outbursts of anger and railed against Trine, that vile liar.

It didn't stop at insults. They tried to hinder each other, and probably even harm each other. The „Cordtmeier“ (Cordt to Kracks) blocked the other's way across his land at will. The accusations went back and forth. Trine was increasingly accused of being the worst offender. The other neighbors took sides, either for or against her.

Finally, „Johan Kraxtert“ accused his neighbor in court of blocking his way. „Cordt Kraxtert“ emphasized that he only wanted to get his rights and see the old borders restored. Witnesses from near and far, even from „Lippisch“ were summoned and interrogated. In order to finally find out the truth, Cordt and Trine were subjected to an „embarrassing“ (*44) interrogation in 1596. Under the ordeal of agonizing torture, they both admitted everything they wanted to hear.

Sick and broken, they returned home, scarred for life and intent only on spreading their hatred of their neighbors to their family.

In fact, the air among the neighbors was poisoned after these events. The children and grandchildren of those tortured did not want to forget these events and kept the tradition alive for many generations to come.

Under Agnes von Bentheim, the Lutheran doctrine became more firmly established in the county. In 1575, the Annenkapelle chapel in Verl was elevated to the status of a parish church and was given its own cemetery and rectory. Eberhard Schürmann from Langenberg, who had previously been the castle chaplain in Rietberg, became the first pastor in 1577. (*45)

The population at large, who had not been asked for their opinion on the new religion but had to follow the example of the count's house,

(*44) Interrogation = interrogation in which torture was used. The witnesses of this embarrassing interrogation with Cordt and Trinen zu Krackstert were paid the sum of 2 talers as witness money (StA MS, Grafschaft Rietberg, Akten Nr. 1804).

(*45) Schüpp, in: Book Hanschmidt (ed.), „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 87 and Book Adämmer, Graffunder, „Verl“, p.11.

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slowly became accustomed to the new form of worship, even if many old forms of devotion and customs of venerating the saints were not so quickly forgotten. Why shouldn't people continue to light a candle in honor of St. Margaret, Mother Anne or even the Mother of God, at least secretly? What was right before couldn't be wrong now! Or should praying the now popular rosary be so wrong? Reciting a quiet law of it very quickly was certainly not a bad thing. You couldn't simply do without the help of the Blessed Mother. Surely her intercession would soon be needed again.

The situation was somewhat ambiguous for those farmers who were under the authority of the Catholic monastery of Herzebrock. The lords of the manor and the rulers each adhered to a different faith. It was best for the people to remain as indifferent as possible so as not to fall foul of either side. Lighting a candle in front of the image and relic of St. Christina in the monastery church certainly did not contradict the Reformed faith or attending services in the Protestant church in Neuenkirchen.

The fact that the Protestant areas still used the old calendar, while the Catholics had been using the new Gregorian calendar since 1582, which was ten days ahead of the old one, proved to be particularly troublesome for the farmers concerned. How was a normal person supposed to find their way around? While some were still celebrating Christmas, for others the new year had long since dawned; here the interest or rent due date was still to come, there people had already defaulted and made themselves liable to prosecution.

However, the situation did not last too long. After the death of Countess Agnes, she was succeeded by her daughter Irmgard, who died childless in 1584. The earldom then passed to her sister Walburga, who was married to the Count of East Frisia and had two daughters. One of them, Sabina Katharina, was given the county of Rietberg in exchange for marrying her uncle Johann von Ostfriesland. However, as this marriage was not permitted under the rules of the Reformed faith and Johann von Ostfriesland had already considered conversion under the influence of the Jesuit order, they both converted back to the Catholic faith and were married in the Rietberg castle chapel in March 1601 (*46).

After some back and forth, the faithful of the county also had to follow them and return to Catholicism. With the support of the Jesuits from Paderborn, the re-Catholicization succeeded in the following decade, so that in 1610 the first solemn high mass could be read again in the Annenkirche in Verl (*47).

(*46) Schüpp, in: Book Hanschmidt (ed.), „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 88.

(*47) Book Adämmer, Graffunder, „Verl“, p.12.

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Picture 16

Fig. 16: The parish of Gütersloh in the 13th century (after Gürtler). This sketch shows the Ölbach as the border between the parishes of Gütersloh and Neuenkirchen. The Crakeshart farm was located in Neuenkirchen parish, directly on the border with Gütersloh parish. The farming community of Gütersorth with the „Feuerborn farms“ and the „to Berens farms“, on the other hand, belonged to Gütersloh and was only transferred there after the construction of its own church in Verl.

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Picture 17

Fig. 17: The parish of Verl is much younger than the parishes of Neuenkirchen and Güterloh. It was not until 1575 that the Annenkapelle chapel in Verl was elevated to the status of a parish church.

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Picture 18

Fig. 18: Extract from the original cadastre showing the ownership of the Kraxter Höfe around 1820.

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The Varense miller Bartholdt (*1), who ran the mill on the Ölbach, was seriously worried about his livelihood. Even in earlier times the operation of the water mill had not been easy because of the low water gradient at some times of the year, so that he had had to install various weirs. To make matters worse, more and more water had been taken from the many fish ponds in the Verl region and to irrigate the meadows.

But ever since the count had another mill built on the Olbach in the church village of Verl in 1598 (*2), it was almost desperate. During the longest part of the year, there was not enough water power to set the mill wheel in motion. How was he supposed to cope with his work, especially how to earn the money for the mill lease to the count's house? He had long since been unable to pay his mill servants their full wages, so that they had all run away from him. Now he had once again made a petition to the count's chamber and explained his difficult situation, which would force him to give up unless his taxes were considerably reduced.

And indeed, after some time, things began to move, albeit in a completely different way than the miller had imagined. The new Count Johann, who had ruled over the Rietberg territory since the beginning of the century, came from East Frisia, a region with a long history of experience in canal construction. Count Johann suspected that the upcoming milling problems could be solved by relocating the bed of the Ölbach and had a capable master builder from East Frisia brought to Rietberg.

The plan was soon drawn up. The new stream was to begin around a thousand meters above the Varenseller mill, east of the Kraxter Höfe, run parallel to the old one at a distance of a few hundred meters and flow back into the old stream shortly after the new mill to be built. In order to give the water the desired speed in the new course of the stream, the bed was to be artificially raised in the upper section (*3).

(*1) The name Mühlen Bartholt or Möllers Bartholdt appears in the Rietberg treasury registers for the parish of Varensell between 1600 and 1634 (Münster State Archives, Rietberg files no. 2748, 2738, 2757, 2737, 2743, 2868).

(*2) Book Josef Freise, „Verl — Zeugnisse aus alter Zeit“, p. 97.

(*3) The exact time period for the creation of the „New Olbach“ is not known, but there is much to suggest that it was in the first half of the 17th century: In all documents from before the 17th century, the mill on the Ölbach - already mentioned in the Rietberg records around 1393 - is only referred to as „Varenseller Mühle“ and the stream only as „Ölbach“. This is also the case in the previously cited sketch (page 62) of this area from 1583 (Staatsarchiv Osnabrück, Grenzsachen, Rittberg 1565-1631, Dep. 6b Nr. 593, p. 28R/29V). In contrast, later maps (including a map from the atlas by Mercator and Hondius, 1633 and by Christian Ludolph Reinhold from 1776) name the stream as „Neue Da(h)lcke“ and the mill belonging to it as „Da(h)lcken“ or „Delcken Mühle“. The name Delker also first appears in the Rietberg records in the second half of the 17th century. Initially, there is talk of the „Dalbcke“ or „Dalcke mill“, which is leased to the miller Hanibal Füchtey (of the Füchtey mill) around 1660. The name subsequently changes to „Dalcken“ or „Delken Mühle“, just as the miller is soon only referred to as „Delken Müller“.

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Picture 19

Fig. 19: Delken mill on the Ölbach (around 1930).

Picture 20

Fig. 20: The Verl village mill on the Ölbach stream was built in 1598. Since then, the Varenseller mill further down the stream often did not have enough water for grinding. The stream had previously been straightened and given a steeper gradient.

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Picture 21

Fig. 21: Even after the straightening, the „Neue Ölbach“ still offered attractive views.

Picture 22

Fig. 22: This is how romantic the old Ölbach still looks in some places today.

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Many measurements were taken and extensive construction measures initiated before the groundbreaking ceremony could begin. For years to come, local farmers were called upon to help build the new stream, which was called the „Neue Dahlbehke“ or simply the „Neue Dahlke“ (*4) due to its artificial gradient. Countless loads of sand had to be carted in, as the stream bed had to be diked due to its shallow depth. The necessary timber was felled in the count's forest in Holte and transported to the construction site by the truckload.

The project progressed slowly because the count knew that he could not take the farmers' labor away from their farms if he did not want to ruin them. Especially in the summer months and at harvest time, work on the large building therefore often had to be suspended. But hard and long-lasting winter frosts also delayed progress time and again.

After that, the work became all the more urgent. The heavy and sweaty physical work, which involved transporting enormous loads, was increasingly exhausting even for the strongest farmers. The workers had to take frequent breaks, especially to quench their thirst. What could be more obvious than having drinks brought in from the nearby Kraxt farms?

While three of the „Kraxter Meiern“ grumbled and didn't quite know how to behave in the face of this constant harassment and tried to ward it off if possible, Henrich „Cordtmeier zu Kraxtert“ (*5) sensed a business opportunity and an unexpected chance to get cash. Henrich was quicker at arithmetic than his neighbors and had more imagination to imagine the consequences. He had always brewed beer for his own use on his farm. Now he just had to make more so that he could sell it to the construction workers at a profit. He presented his calculation to the count's rentmaster, who liked the idea, which could be lucrative for all sides: the peasants obliged to work on the construction could be kept strong and happy with a sufficient quantity of nutritious beer, the count's chamber earned money from the granting of the concession, and Cordtmeier could show how capable he was (*6).

The calculation that Henrich „Cordt to Kraxtert“ had made for himself worked out. For the first time, cash flowed into the farm in significant amounts, and despite the tireless work of his wife Margarethe „Lamshorst“ (*7), he could hardly keep up with the brewing. He was soon forced to purchase a larger brewing kettle, which made work considerably easier and further increased turnover.

(*4) „Dahl-behke“ = stream that flows down or in the valley.

(*5) See the Cord to Krax succession. p. 243

(*6) The Cord to Krax inn is not yet mentioned in a list of jug money collected in 1610 (StA MS, Rietberg files no. 2743), but in 1693 it is listed with a jug money of 1 thaler (StA MS, Rietberg files, no. 94). It must therefore have been created in the course of the 17th century. It is certainly not unrealistic to assume that it was set up either during the construction of the „New Ölbach“ or during the unrest of the Thirty Years' War.

(*7) See the Cord to Krax succession. p. 243

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An unexpectedly fortunate circumstance brought the „Cordtmeier“ a further advantage. On the way from his Rietberg residence to the Holt hunting lodge, the count used to personally check on the progress of the work on the Ölbach from time to time. On a few occasions, he also stopped off at the new innkeeper's to refresh himself and have a beer. Apart from the drink, the innkeeper had initially only been able to serve him a simple buckwheat pancake, like the ones the farmers ate themselves. But as his wife was a good cook and knew how to bake pancakes, the distinguished guest was extremely satisfied and returned when the opportunity arose. This time the „Cordtmeier“ was better prepared and was able to serve his sovereign a few delicious Krammetsvogel (*8) with the pancakes, which he enjoyed immensely.

After this had been repeated several times, the count wanted to show his appreciation to the innkeeper and show him a favor. Heinrich „Cordt to Kraxtert“ seized the opportunity and made his request. He said he would be happy to serve his esteemed guests another meat dish instead of the birds, for example a piece of veal or a fat roast pork. However, as a poor farmer, he was only entitled to a certain share of the common land, so he could only keep a certain number of pigs and cattle and send them out to pasture. Therefore, he could not slaughter a single animal out of turn if he did not want to jeopardize his stock. The count listened to him cheerfully, eager to hear what the farmer had to say.

He continued very hesitantly, as he was aware of the monstrosity of his request: But if he only got a small part of the common used for grazing for himself alone, he stuttered, he could increase his livestock a little and slaughter an extra animal now and then for the benefit of passing travelers. He also suggested a suitable piece of land on the edge of the Kraxter Flur that was absolutely worthless to the count.

The „Cordtmeier“ looked anxiously at the count's expression. He should not be surprised if she darkened at this request and he fell out of favor forever. But nothing of the sort happened. The high lord seemed to be thinking. Heinrich therefore cunningly added that this piece of land was one of the last copses in the area where all kinds of huntable game could still be found. However, with the constant overgrazing of this grove by all the surrounding farmers, the grove would soon disappear and with it the game. However, if he were the sole owner, he would make sure that this never happened.

As Henry had hoped, the last argument was convincing, as he knew how much the hunt was worth to the noblemen. The count nodded graciously, for he did not dislike the proposal. If in this way a few rows (*9) of forest could be saved from being secretly

(*8) Krammetsvogel = species of thrush that was eaten as a delicacy until the 19th century. The story of „Kauas Pannkauken“ is an old oral tradition. I have included it here - a little embellished - even though it sounds rather implausible.

(*9) „Ruthe“ = old measure of length = 10 or 12 feet. A Ruthe thus corresponded to a length of a good three meters.

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from being secretly cut down, that would be fine with him. He therefore gave his companion the appropriate instructions to transfer the sole right of use to the farmer.

And so the „Cordtmeier“ came into possession of an additional 30 acres of land called the Brock. (*10). Alders, ash trees, willows and all kinds of shrubs grew there in wild thickets on marshy ground. It was not suitable for farming, but it would provide fodder for a few more grazing animals.

When the neighbors found out about this deal, they could hardly believe it. How had „Cordt Kraxtert“ done it again! A plot of land for a few pancakes! No one had ever heard of such a thing. - They consoled themselves with the fact that this land wasn't worth very much, barely suitable for grazing, a boggy little wood where game and birds frolicked. They had no idea that this was the real reason for this miraculous transfer.

Work on the new streambed progressed rapidly, however, and the construction of a new mill was soon to begin. The designated site was not far from the old, unprofitable building, just a few hundred meters further downstream on the new riverbed next to the old country road to Bielefeld. The count had already approved the master builder's plans. The basement on the creek side would be made of solid sandstone blocks, in which two large water wheels had to be anchored. Set in motion by the stream water, they were to drive the grinder. A half-timbered storey could then be built on top of the massive stone basement, with the entrance facing the street at ground level. The „Mühlen-Bartholdt“, who had inspected the plans with the master builder, watched the building grow with rapt attention.

Meanwhile, far-reaching changes were once again taking place in the countries around us.

In the dispute between the Catholic and Reformed princes, a „Protestant Union“ was formed in 1608 and a „Catholic League“ around 1609. Although their opposition was not so noticeable in the Rietberg region, the neighboring county of Ravensberg was already affected. It had belonged to the Duchy of Jülich, whose ruling dynasty died out around 1609. Both the Catholic and Protestant sides laid claim to the inheritance. In the dispute over the succession, the Count of Rietberg fought on the side of the

(*10) Brock = quarry, pasture, damp lowland. According to the old oral tradition, this actually existing piece of land belonging to the farm - one of the few groves still existing in the 19th century - was given to the landlord „Cord to Krax“ by the count as a thank you for a meal of pancakes.

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Catholic Duke of Bavaria. Eventually, the Duchy of Jiilich was divided up and Ravensberg, together with the Duchy of Cleves and the County of Mark, fell to the Calvinist Elector of Brandenburg in 1614.

The events of the following years became increasingly confusing and incomprehensible to the common man. War spread to almost all German lands. It had begun in Prague and with the battle in Bohemia, in which the imperial troops under their commander Tilly had been victorious in 1620. However, Tilly's troops soon advanced far to the north and even threatened the bishoprics of Minden and Bremen. The Danish King Christian intervened in the conflict, as did the Netherlands. The imperial commander Wallenstein came to Tilly's aid. The whole of northern Germany was soon engulfed in war.

Not much time passed before whole crowds of fleeing people, who had been driven out of their villages and towns by the war, were passing through the countryside: children and old people, the healthy and the sick, wounded soldiers limping along on one wooden leg, and merchants with their wares, respectable people and scoundrels. For many, the country road had become home.

In many places, highwaymen lurked in the heather on the sides of the country roads to attack passing travelers and traders and rob them of their possessions. Sinister fellows did not shy away from murder and manslaughter if they thought they could make any loot. There were said to be innkeepers who attacked their guests at night and beat them to death in order to get their luggage.

Rumor had it that the inn in the Bürenheide (*11), a few miles down the stream on the Ölbach, was not entirely safe. Several times, travelers who had stopped there had simply disappeared. And didn't the two Bürenheide brothers, who ran the lonely inn, always have new horses that were far too noble for such an estate? They had bought them from the travelers for good money, was always their sinister explanation, which soon nobody believed. Eventually, however, they were caught committing one of their misdeeds and brought before the judge, who accused and convicted them of many other crimes. They finally received their just punishment and were executed by the sword.

Apart from such incidents, the worst events in the first years of the war passed the small Rietberg region by. Times did deteriorate here once again. Scattered troops caused damage and inflation spread, but the inhabitants were not yet directly involved in the war. The people of Rietberg were given their first example of what happened elsewhere at the beginning of 1622, when Brunswick troops marched through the area, terrifying the population and taking wild booty (*12).

(*11) Bürenheide = still known today as a farm name in Spexard (Meierhof Bürenheide, Spexard No. 3). Book narrative based on the collection of legends „Spökenkieker und Roupekerle“ by Ewald Kissing and Ernst Meurin, p. 58.

(*12) Book Rosenkranz, Rietberg und seine Grafen, p. 83.

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With all the people moving around, it was no wonder that the plague broke out here and there and frightened the people. In 1626, news of new cases of plague came from Paderborn. The Jesuits there were even said to have transferred some of their order members, including the pious Father von Spee, to other regions for safety (*13). This was certainly no reassurance for the normal population in the area when the clergy left the area.

However, the danger passed and life went on. In 1630, the Swedish king intervened in the war and caused the Principality of Brandenburg to fight on his side. Now the theaters of war moved closer to the Rietberg area.

The sisters of Herzebrock Convent were never to forget May 17, 1633 (*14). Full of horror, the chronicler wrote down how troops from Lüneburg invaded the convent from the camp near Grevenbach, stole all 22 horses and all the money - around 100 thalers - and made off with the bacon supply. But that was not all: they soon returned and lived in the convent for a few days in an indescribable manner. The nuns were beaten blue and bloody by the savages and had to hide from them because they feared for their lives. They breathed a sigh of relief when the soldiers finally left for Stromberg, where they continued to plunder and captured the Truchsess.

However, the nuns had rejoiced too soon: after just a few days, the Lüneburgers returned to continue their work of destruction. The same thing happened again on June 9. Finally, on August 10, the nuns had to watch in utter despair as another passing troop did the rest within two days, even destroying the organ in the church and damaging the bells on the tower.

But even though reports of all kinds of atrocities committed by the fighting troops were increasingly reaching the country, the „Cordtmeier zu Kraxtert“ was still able to see a positive side to the war. His business was going better and better. There had never been so much traffic on all the country roads. The whole country seemed to be on the move, and many a traveler or soldier stopped off at the tavern in Kraxtert for a refreshing drink or a bite to eat. Of course, it also happened that the innkeeper was robbed or cheated out of his bill. Many a guest who stopped in later turned out to be a miserable beggar who didn't have a penny and had to be sent away with a scolding.

All in all, however, time was temporarily kind to „Henrich zu Kraxtert“, who soon began to adapt to the new circumstances and keep enough beer and bread for his guests. He even had to slaughter an extra pig to satisfy their hunger. The living room, which had rarely been used in the past, was increasingly converted into a dining room, with appropriate tables, benches and chairs.

(*13) J.-F. Ritter, Introduction to the translation of Friedrich von Spee's „Cautio Criminalis“ from 1632, Munich 1982, p. IX.

(*14) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, vol. P 138/28 HR 7.

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But the farmhouse parlor soon became too small, so Henrich decided to add a new section to the old house (*15). He had an entire room width of five meters placed in front of the old building, thus gaining a large parlour and two small bedrooms. The new entrance door led directly into the guest room from the street side, so that Henrich was no longer forced to let all the strangers enter via his hallway. He achieved another pleasant innovation by having the two bedrooms moved up half a storey. Underneath, he built a cellar room which enabled him to keep milk and meat and other supplies fresh in summer. - After this extension, the entire property was a good thirty meters long and had gained considerably in prestige.

Henrich's neighbors watched the development with astonishment and envy. While their livelihood became increasingly meagre in these uncertain times, luck seemed to be on his side. His modestly growing prosperity revived all their old prejudices and seemed to confirm them. Certainly not everything was right with „Cordt to Kraxtert“. You had to watch out for the „Cordtmeier“!

Colon Henrich, on the other hand, never missed an opportunity to gloat and gloat over his less successful neighbors. It served them right. And if his prosperity annoyed the others, then he flaunted it all the more. If only they could see that he had the best horses and the healthiest cows and that he always had one more fat pig in his stable than they did! They had all brought misfortune to his house and his family through their wickedness, and now he rejoiced in their envy. Besides, he didn't trust them and always felt he had to be on his guard to make sure they didn't violate his boundaries. He had often had the impression that his boundary stones had been secretly moved and several furrows had been plowed from his land to the neighbors. But they would not go down well with him!

There was also the old, unclear story of the farmyard forecourt and its stand of old oaks and beeches, under which the pigs of „Johan to Kraxtert“ and „Cordt to Kraxtert“ wallowed together and rummaged for acorns. Henrich remembered that his father had told him that the right to fatten pigs there had once belonged to his farm alone and that „Johan zu Kraxtert“ had appropriated this advantage unlawfully, supported by false testimony from the other neighbors (*16). He was certainly well advised not to trust these perjured witnesses.

(*15) A ground plan of the old building, which was drawn up in the 19th century, shows the extensions and alterations described here, some of which can also be seen in the oldest photo of the house. As these extensions also appear very old, they must date from an earlier period. (see page 215)

(*16) The dispute over this forecourt continued to occupy the court in 1685, with the minutes recording that „Cordtsmeyer“ felt disadvantaged since the division of the farm: „Should the defendant „Cordtsmeyer“ be able to justifiably prove that the first division of the two Krackstert farms violated due process, i.e. that he would still be entitled to a part of „Johan Krackstert's farm“, such action and evidence is hereby expressly not permitted to him (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, files no. 379).

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So their bickering went back and forth as if there was nothing more important in the world, until the year 1635 dawned. Lüneburg troops under Colonel Anton Meyer had moved into their winter quarters in Bielefeld. In February of that year, they moved out towards Rietberg to stock up on provisions for the coming months. They roamed the villages and farming communities and took everything they could get, although it was said that they were particularly looking for bread grain and cattle (*17)

The people tried to hide their belongings, but they could not prevent the soldiers from searching every last corner of their houses and dragging everything out. What they couldn't use was destroyed and burned, churches and cemeteries looted and devastated. Woe betide anyone who stood in their way: 20 inhabitants of Rietberg had to pay for their courage with their lives, the others fled in terror to the castle.

When the mercenaries finally left after six weeks of plundering, they had captured around 1,000 cows and 4,000 bushels of grain, among many other things. The county was left in a desolate state. Everything that had not been looted had been destroyed; nothing had been spared, even the town's archives had been destroyed.

„Out of the deepest need I cry to you, Lord God, hear my plea“, sang the faithful with great fervor in the desecrated churches of Rietberg, Neuenkirchen and Verl during Holy Week this year, and no priest in this country had to exhort his congregation to fast as usual to remind them of the Lord's suffering. People inevitably fasted and suffered, as there was nowhere enough to eat, not even on the high Easter holidays.

No animals in the barn, no grain in the granary and no more confidence in their hearts: this is how people found themselves this spring. Reconstruction could only begin with difficulty because the need was omnipresent.

And it was not yet complete when Hessian soldiers invaded the country in 1644 and once again robbed the farmers of all their livestock (*18). If only they could have hidden the animals somewhere! But there was no longer a forest like in the old days where you could hide something or seek refuge yourself - only the loose groups of trees that framed the farmsteads, sparse undergrowth and heathland. Hardly a horse, cow or pig was left behind in the stables.

Only the Colons of Kraxtert managed to get some cows and a few sacks of grain to safety in time this time. Now they benefited from the fact that in

(*17) Book Rosenkranz, „Rietberg und seine Grafen“, p. 83/84 and Schüpp in: Book Hanschmidt (ed.), „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 90, also Freise, Verl, p. 97.

(*18) Book Josef Freise, „Verl — Zeugnisse aus alter Zeit“, p. 97.

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the so-called Brock, the swampy area at the edge of the Kraxtert meadow, which the Cordtmeier had held in his possession since then through the favor of the count, the last remnant of a significant contiguous piece of forest had been preserved far and wide.

In the middle of the deep thicket of this small forest was a large hollow. Here the farmers drove some of their animals - not all of them, so as not to make the soldiers suspicious - and provided them with sufficient food so that they would not betray themselves by bellowing (*19). Henrich was clever enough to involve his neighbors in this enterprise to be sure that they would not betray him. The ruse actually succeeded. The Hessians pounced greedily on the cattle remaining in the farmsteads and slaughtered them without looking anywhere else.

Once again, the people slowly tried to make a fresh start when the Swedes invaded and plundered three years later. Once again, the Kraxt farmers successfully resorted to their cunning. The other inhabitants of the villages were not so lucky. The Swedish camp (*20) near Brocker Mühle on the Ems between Marienfeld and Herzebrock presented a gruesome picture: gnawed bones and the carcasses of slaughtered cattle piled up on the ground, soon rotting and attracting hungry wild animals. Dangling from the trees were the lifeless bodies of hanged peasants who had rebelled against the wild plundering. Now flocks of cawing ravens pounced on them and hacked their flesh to pieces.

The Swedes showed no mercy. Once again, the results of all their efforts were wiped out, all their work had been in vain. The population was decimated, marked by hunger and deprivation, the misery general.

Only the peace resolutions of Osnabrück and Münster in 1648 brought the people the longed-for end to the war, but still no sense of security, as roving troops of former mercenaries and homeless people continued to roam the countryside. Only slowly did the farmers regain the confidence that they would be able to enjoy the toil of their work, the fruits of their fields and the yield of their livestock - at least in part.

Right at the beginning of the war, Countess Sabina Christina of Rietberg died, soon followed by her husband, Johann III. They were succeeded by their son Ernst Christoph as regent of the county. However, he also died during the war without any descendants. After several disputes with the Counts of Hesse, the county then fell to the deceased's brother Johann in 1645, who was dispensed from his ecclesiastical office as canon.

(*19) Oral tradition: Story told by my grandmother Jenny Cord to Krax.

(*20) Compare this with the legend of „Wasemanns Kirchhof“, also in the collection „Spökenkieker und Roupekerle“ by Meurin and Kissing, p.38 f.

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Under John IV, the reconstruction of the country could finally begin. But this cost money, a lot of money, which the count did not have to spare. In order to raise the necessary funds, he, like many other sovereigns and landlords, had all kinds of new taxes and levies imposed under various names. The farmers, who were faced with a laborious new beginning and wanted to rebuild their buildings and increase their livestock, had to bleed again under the various burdens.

The Count of Rietberg also wanted to impose additional charges on the farms in his territory that did not belong to his demesne. The farmers affected by this, including „Johan to Kraxtert“ and „Cordt to Kraxtert“ among others (*21), turned for help to the abbess Maria von Ammerungen in Herzebrock, who in a letter of 1654 earnestly admonished the Rietberg count to spare her subjects from a new unusual tax, which was to be levied on them against all custom and agreement „in these pleasant and peaceful times of peace“ (*22). She also pointed out that her poor Rietberg subjects would be treated worse than those in neighboring Reckenberg, for example, who were not affected by such a levy.

However, all the abbess's representations and all the documents in which she described the plight of the peasants, who had been doubly burdened in this way, did not have much effect. And so the peasants' complaints about unlawfully demanded payments from the Rietbergers did not cease, and the abbess felt compelled to make repeated complaints to the count about unbearable contributions in the years that followed.

But with the help of these funds, the new mill on the Ölbach, which was now urgently needed, could be completed. After it was finally completed, which „Mühlen-Bartholdt“ did not live to see, it was leased to the miller Hannibal Füchtey (von der Füchteys Mühle) (*23) in 1660 for 150 thalers a year, payable at Johannis (June 24), Michaelis (September 29) and at the end of the year.

The young miller, who had learned his trade in his parents' mill in Rietberg, was confident that he would be able to earn this large sum, as the new mill worked much more reliably than the old one. In addition, the better gradient of the „New Dalckebach“ allowed a more even distribution of grinding and resting times. The mill soon became a meeting place for the surrounding farmers and a news exchange for everything that was going on: for example, in 1661, when Countess Anna Catharina appointed the new witches' commission in Rietberg to investigate the „witches' evil“ (*24) and all kinds of scandalous stories and gossip from the whole parish.

(*21) These included the farms Wester- and Oestersporck as well as Agethenmeier from Druffel.

(*22) Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, files no. 1754 p. 41

(*23) Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, files no. 2397. The first name „Han(n)ibal“, which was common in Neuenkirchen, was a combination of Hermann and Balthasar.

(*24) Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, files no. 1195.

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The miller himself was soon only called the „Dalcken Müller“ („Dalken miller“) or the „Delken Müller“ („Delken miller“) after the artificial stream.

But as is so often the case, the know-it-alls soon turned up at the Delken Müller, wanting to explain to him what should have been done differently during construction and why this or that was not the best solution. The miller was annoyed by this unsolicited advice, as he himself knew best about the advantages and disadvantages of his mill. However, as he was a humorous man, one day he carved an inscription into the wooden beam above the entrance to stop the cheeky mouths:

„Es wird kein Ding so gut gemacht, kommt jemand, der es veracht. Würest Du eher gekommen, hätte ich Dich zu Rathe genommen. Weil es nicht so ist geschehen, drum lass es ohne Tadel stehen.“

Picture 26

Fig. 26: The Delken mill in Varensell from the front with family members and mill customers around 1913.

(*25) This saying can still be read above the entrance to the old mill.

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Life slowly returned to normal on the farms. Livestock numbers increased and the farmers' barns filled up again with cows, cattle and pigs. Although nobody was able to arbitrarily increase the number of animals on their farm due to the share of the commoners that each farm size was entitled to, some knew how to make better use of the margin in question than others. Those who wanted to be considered particularly capable now also focused their pride and attention on owning the most beautiful and strongest horses possible.

And so a prosperity gap, or rather a poverty gap, soon became apparent on farms all over the country. Often particularly unfavorable circumstances or illness and frequent deaths were the decisive factors; often it was simply luck that was kinder to some than to others.

However, the „Cordtmeier“ soon had as many horses in his stable as the biggest saddle farmers in the country: sometimes there were six, sometimes even seven. His cows and cattle were fat and round, and he always had a few more calves than his neighbors, even though he had eight or nine cows and six head of cattle on the pasture. Up to eight pigs rooted around in his yard or in the forecourt under the tall trees for acorns and corner nuts (*26). The old sturdy fences and farmyard walls had been partially destroyed during the long war and had not yet been rebuilt. No wonder that the pigs would break out through the gaps from time to time to look for food behind the neighboring fencing and eat their fill.

And so there was again cause to keep the old dispute alive. Otto „Johan to Kraxtert“ (*27), the nearest neighbor, saw the whole situation with particular anger and envy. Damn it all, how could this happen! His own farm was just as big as „Cordtkraxtert's“ land, and his taxes were the same. He himself, his wife and his children worked tirelessly, and yet the other man was always a nose ahead of him. - Sure, there was the tavern. But in his opinion, that alone could not have made the difference. The troubled times were long gone, and it was much rarer for strangers to pass by on the country road or even stop off at Kraxtert's Kruge (pub).

He had discussed all this so often with the „Gerdt to Kraxtert“ and the „Hemkemeier“ (Hemken to Kracks), the other two neighbors. They all harbored resentment and growing resentment against the fourth and agreed that he could only be wealthier than themselves through dishonest machinations. The „Johan to Kraxtert“ was encouraged in this by his wife Clara, a distant relative from the nearby farm „Hagenheide“ (*28), whose family had also been at enmity with the „Cordtmeyer“ (Cord to Kracks) for generations.

(*26) All figures taken from the cattle treasury registers of the years 1686, 1687, 1688, in the farming community of Varensell (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, file no. 1912).

(*27) See succession „Johann to Krax“. p. 242

(*28) See succession „Johann to Krax“. p. 242

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Clara became more and more involved in the argument with her neighbor. She never missed an opportunity to point out his wickedness and the injustice he was doing to them. When she got into a rage, her nagging could be heard in all the farmsteads around her. She would run to the door, threaten with her fist, kick the fence, throw objects in the direction of her neighbor and spit on the ground. All the residents took a lively interest in the spectacle that was being presented to them there and joined in the loud cursing.

And yet they all used to meet up in the evening in the „Cordimeier's“ pub to play cards or dice over beer and corn. The few pennies they spent on drinks there were hardly worth mentioning, it seemed to them. Card games were their passion and they spent many hours playing them. What other pleasures did a countryman have! Of course, it could happen that someone gambled away a thaler in one evening. That was very bitter, and the women made a big fuss about it because they didn't understand it any better and thought it was petty. Because luck was - as everyone knew - Wendish like the weather, and the next time the loser could be the winner.

The inn became a regular meeting place for men, farmers and farmhands, young and old, and many a man spent more time there and drank more than was good for him, especially in the long dark winter months. The time flew by with the general chatter, and getting up the next morning was difficult. Some work was left undone.

The women knew why they didn't like their husbands going to the pub. They had to work all the harder for it. A lot - often all too much - was left for them in the stables and in the fields. And the good money that was drunk and gambled away! Pennies and pennies could become thalers, and a few thalers were a fortune! They represented the income of many weeks or even months!

The women argued with their husbands more and more often, but they also argued among themselves more and more often, especially with the „Cordtmeier“ and his men. No, they did not live peacefully together, even though they drank and played together. “ The great war had ended; on a small scale, it continued unabated.

Once again, it was disputes over the road that brought the barrel of trouble to overflowing (*29). The „Cordt Kraxtert“ had refused to allow the „Johan zu Kraxtert“ to cross his land, for good reason, as he thought, because the other was so slow and late in tilling his fields that he himself felt hindered. This had often been the case in the past, but since the old neighbor had died some time ago and his widow Clara and her sons Johann and Gabriell had taken over the farm, it had become the rule.

Cordt Kraxtert even believed that the old woman was always out to annoy and provoke him. The traditional resentment towards his neighbors was as alive as ever. The memory of the torture with which his ancestors had once been forced

(*29) See minutes of the negotiations of April 29 and May 2, 1669, Staatsarchiv Münster, Grafschaft Rietberg, Akten Nr. 1142.

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to confess lived on and did not allow for a similar coexistence even after several generations. That is why he had quickly plowed up a previously tolerated path across his fields and blocked the passage.

The acting peasant judges were summoned and tried in vain to mediate. Both parties stuck to their position and cited old customary law. This led to the trial at the Rietberg district court, where many witnesses from the surrounding area were questioned and mostly testified in favor of the „widow“ Johan to Kraxtert. But it soon turned out that almost all the witnesses were involved in contradictions and guilty of perjury. They wanted to come to the aid of the widow Clara and had therefore not taken the truth very seriously, without worrying about right or wrong.

As a result, on April 29, 1669, the court decreed that the „Cordt Kraxtert“ was to be allowed to pass through for the time being under a fine of 5 groschen until further clarification of the dispute, as had been customary for some time.

At the following court hearing a few days later, however, the majority of the witnesses testified in favor of „Johan to Kraxtert“. Even the oldest men from the surrounding farms stated on the record that all their lives they had only ever heard that the disputed path for wagons and plows had led over „Cordt Kraxtert's“ land. The court then sentenced the „Cordtmeier“ to continue to tolerate the use of the path in question unhindered.

Henrich's son Johan „Cordt zu Kraxtert“ (*30), who had been managing the farm since the last years of the war, was not as clever as his father, but no less stubborn. He simply did not accept the court's decision, acted as if it was none of his business, and forced new negotiations (*31), in which the other party even agreed to provide a piece of his own land as compensation for the use of the road. However, he did not accept this proposal either and ignored the court ruling, so that the following year he was threatened that if he continued to resist, he would be forcibly taken to the vicarage and locked in the „Iron“ and not released until he had paid a ransom of 10 gold guilders.

In fact, he did not give in now either, but insisted on his position. His ancestors had been tortured by the malice of their neighbors and a confession had been extorted from them. That would not happen again! If only they would come to put him in chains! They wouldn't dare, and he wouldn't let them!

But they came and took him, however much he raged, tied him up and locked him in the iron scaffolding in the vicarage so that he could move neither arms nor legs. Soon his limbs, which were poorly supplied with blood, died, and in his agony he called loudly for help. Eventually he had to be ransomed by his family

(*30) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*31) Minutes of 29. 3. 1670 and 22. 5. 1671, StA MS, Grafschaft Rietberg, Akten Nr. 1142.

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for the huge sum of 10 guilders. However, he still refused to give in and could not believe what had been done to him.

He continued to be stubborn and, despite all the whining of his wife and children, risked being forcibly taken away again and having to undergo this procedure once more. His family and his farm had almost been driven to ruin by the new fine when he reluctantly gave in and cleared the way. As a beaten, humiliated man and scarred by the events, he carried his resentment with him from then on and planted it in the hearts of his children and grandchildren.

In the meantime, other events occurred that drew the worries and fears of all the Rietberg farming communities. It began in the harvest season of 1676. In the easternmost corner of the county - where people lived in the greatest poverty - some people died suddenly of a serious intestinal disease. Immediately after their funeral and the subsequent funeral feast, the next people who had just felt well fell ill and died just as quickly. Further cases followed, so that unrest spread everywhere and suspicions were raised about poisoned wells and new cases of witchcraft.

Even the authorities took notice and initiated investigations into the cause of the increased number of deaths. It soon turned out that it was the universally feared „red dysentery“ (Shigellosis), which was spreading epidemically (*32). By mid-August, 10 cases had been registered in Bornholte, 17 in Österwiehe, 6 in Varensell; the next week, another 22 followed in Verl; by the end of the month, a further 53 in Österwiehe.

Then the epidemic slowly subsided. In September, there were only 5 deaths in Österwiehe and a further 12 in the other communities. The disease had come with the harvest, and it left with the harvest.

The causes could only be guessed at. There were doctors who claimed that the epidemic was a result of a lack of cleanliness. But what did that mean?

People lived in the countryside among ordinary people. Only very wealthy farmers and rich townsfolk could afford a bed, possibly for each person alone with clean sheets and pillows. They also didn't have the time to change the straw in the mattresses every few months, as was the case with wealthy people. People lived very modestly in the Verler Land. Five, six or more people had to share a sleeping place in some huts, often on the floor on plain straw and in a very small space. Lice and fleas felt at home in these beds; it was only natural and had always been that way.

(*32) Rietberg town archive, no. A 2355.

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Or what else did the doctors mean? Should one eat with forks or other cutlery, as has recently been reported by some noble houses? There was no money anywhere for such useless things. What else did you have your five fingers for if not to eat? Was there anything more natural than sticking your hands in the bowl with those of your fellow diners and fishing for the best morsels, even a piece of meat on special feast days? Was there anything better than licking his fingers with relish afterwards?

So what did the doctors mean when they spoke of a lack of cleanliness? Did they mean the flies, which were more numerous than ever that summer, annoying vermin that could be found wherever people and animals lived close together? They loved the dung heaps in front of the stables just as much as the steaming pots on the dining table. But what harm could they do, apart from waking a tired man from his sleep with their tickling?

No, you could not change anything and had no influence on happiness or misfortune, illnesses and epidemics, except through prayer and a pious life. God was the controller of all destiny, to whom one had to submit.

In the meantime, the personnel situation at the „Cordt Kraxtert“ farm had changed again, but the unpleasant relationship with the neighbors remained. The old generation had departed, but the old enmity remained for the time being. The youngest son - again with the first name Johan - had barely taken up his inheritance and married the half-merchant's daughter Catharina „Dreier“ (*33) from Brnholte when the series of court cases continued (*34). This time it was again about the right to fences and hedges as well as the right to fatten in the long-disputed farm district.

But with the young woman Catharina, a somewhat different spirit imperceptibly moved in with the „Cordtmeier“. Catharina was a good-natured person and had no desire to let the age-old bickering spoil her days. She had a moderating effect on her husband and children and took the edge off many an argument. Above all, she constantly reminded her family that only a very small part of the farm's income came from farming and that it was much more important to devote effort and attention to the brewing business and the Pub.

She soon got on well with the young Elsche Brandt (*35), who had recently married into „Hemkemeier's“ farm, and did not miss the opportunity to have many a confidential conversation with her. Under the influence of these two clever women, the anger of the others also slowly subsided, so that the Kraxter farms gradually seemed to come to a tolerable coexistence again.

(*33) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*34) Minutes of 6. 9. 1679, 8. 5. 1685 and 28. 1. 1688, StA MS, Grafschaft Rietberg, files no. 377 and 379.

(*35) See succession „Hemken to Krax“. p. 244

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On a Sunday morning in August 1690, the two neighbors Elsche and Catharina had set off early for Neuenkirchen to attend mass. But it was a long time before they finally returned in great excitement and reported an unheard-of event:

When the sexton had wanted to open the church that morning, he had been slightly disconcerted to discover that the old oak door was not locked, although he had locked it securely the evening before. When he had entered the church, he had frozen in disbelief before he could even utter a word and make the sign of the cross. „Jesus, Mary and Joseph!“ Thieves had ransacked the church (*36).

The pastor, who was called to help, and the early Mass attendees tried to get an overview of the damage: The robbers had mainly stolen the precious gold and silver altar utensils such as the monstrance and ciborium (*37), without which a holy mass could not be celebrated. The church had been disgracefully desecrated. What worse thing could a sinful person do? Who was capable of such an act? In horror at this outrage, the sexton had intoned a gloomy melody on the organ and the pastor had intoned the „Dies irae, dies illa“ as if at a funeral. The congregation tremblingly repeated the words of the old sequence for the Last Day: „Day of wrath, hour of terror, flaming the world perishes . . . What horror and trembling there will be when the judge comes with questions to strictly examine all complaints.“

Over the next few days, Catharina and Elsche had to talk about this dark experience again and again. Everyone who had not been there wanted to know exactly what had happened and to feel the shudder. If only the perpetrators could be caught and brought to justice! They wanted to stone them or, better still, wheel and burn them!

When the pastor called for donations from his congregation over the next few weeks to compensate for the damage, the believers were still so moved that everyone gave what they could. Not only the farmers, but also the farmhands and maidservants took part and sacrificed the pennies they had saved.

Catharina Dreyer was still a healthy, strong woman of around 40 when her husband, Johann „Cordt Kraxteren“, died suddenly. As prescribed by the needs of the court, she remarried within a few months at the beginning of 1697. With her new husband, Andreas „Clasbrummel“ (*38), who came from a nearby Meierhof, she devised a marriage plan for her eldest

(*36) Neuenkirchen church records, annals 1690 : „Nocte illa qua diem Martis incidentem in diem octavam mensis Augustis praecessit, ex templo in Newenkirchen prope Rietberg a furib. sublata sunt, quae sequntur: Monstrantia, Ciborium, ………“

(On that night which preceded the incident on Tuesday, the eighth day of August, ex the temple in Newenkirchen near Rietberg from Furib. the following were removed: Monstrances, Ciborium, ……… “)

(*37) Ciborium = chalice for storing the consecrated host.

(*38) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

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daughter Elsken that her first husband would never have agreed to and yet was so sensible.

She enlisted the „Hemkemeier“ and his wife as matchmakers to make the first contacts. Many discussions followed about the important question of the dowry: about the number of cows and cattle, the amount of cash to be provided in addition to the customary bridal carriage with wardrobes, beds and linen. And before the year was out, a grand wedding took place on the Kraxter farms: In 1697, the young „Meier“ Otto „Johan to Kraxtert“ married the daughter Elsken „Cordt to Kraxtert“ from the neighboring farm, which had been „hostile“ until then. (*39)

Finally, a line could be drawn under an old enmity and a new beginning could be dared. And this was to be celebrated in style.

Weeks before the date, the wedding bitters made their rounds to all the farms in the area and to all relatives near and far to invite them to the celebration. The preparations took everyone involved many days, as nothing was to be lacking. The fall season after the harvest had always been a particularly good time to celebrate. The most important work of the year was done, barns and granaries well filled with grain, cattle and pigs fat from the pasture. The days were getting shorter and cooler. So a party with plenty of food and drink, games and dancing was just the thing.

At „Cordt Kraxtert“, a large tent was added to the Deele to create enough space for all the guests. Barley, malt and hops for brewing had to be bought in so that the beer could flow freely. There was also to be no shortage of roasted and boiled meat. Therefore, pigs and calves, geese and chickens were slaughtered days in advance.

The groom, who witnessed all the preparations from the neighboring farm, could be satisfied. He liked his young bride because she was young, healthy and pretty and brought a good dowry into the marriage. What did he care about the old people's quarrels; they were over!

And so all the neighbors celebrated more exuberantly and carefree than they had for generations. Everyone ate and drank as much as they could. The music played without pause for dancing. Singing and laughter filled the air, and the stomping ground thumped to the rhythm of the dancing couples.

Some of the older people soon withdrew from the general hustle and bustle into the restaurant to talk in peace. They soon came to a topic that had caused considerable concern in the county.

As had been the case since time immemorial, the „Landrecht“ was also held this year on one of the Meierhöfe, in spring at Beckhoff in the Varensell farming community and in August at Meyer zu Bockel. The court took place in the presence of the bishops of Paderborn and Münster, who represented the deceased count as guardians of his young

(*38) see succession „Johann to Krax“. p. 243

(*39) see succession „Johann to Krax“. p. 242

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daughter, the most important count's officials and the farmers Meyer zu Verll, Westhoff, Meyer Otto and Meyer zu Wellering. (*40)

However, unlike usual, it was not the peasant judges who were allowed to preside over the court, but the bailiff. This deeply outraged the peasants because it went against all conventional law. They saw themselves incapacitated by the bishops without being able to do anything about it. And as if in mockery, the authorities had also reduced the salary to which the judges were entitled for their office to a quarter of a thaler.

This was probably the end of the old legal system, the men suspected, and the discussions became louder and louder. What were the judges supposed to do at a court session in future if their voices were no longer heard? But the peasants knew that all the ranting and complaining would not help, and so, as so often, they consoled themselves by drinking copious amounts of beer and schnapps until they had forgotten their worst worries.

Before the century came to an end, it had one more surprise in store for the citizens of the county.

Count Ferdinand Maximilian of Rietberg died in 1687 without a male heir. After that, his brother, the canon Franz Adolf Wilhelm, initially wanted to rule the county. However, due to his support for France and the Cologne Cardinal von Fürstenberg, he was imprisoned and fled to Strasbourg, where he died in 1690.

Now the underage daughter Maria Ernestine Franziska was the only surviving heir of the family. Just twelve years old, she was married off by her guardians to the Austrian Count Maximilian Ulrich von Kaunitz in 1699 and taken to his estates in Moravia.

The inhabitants of Rietberg realized with trepidation that from now on they would only be administered by count's officials. Although they had not experienced too much good from their sovereigns in the past, they were at least interested in the continued existence of their land due to the hereditary nature of their rule.

What could one expect from changing ministerials whose lords lived so far away that they were completely unaware of the situation? Important events and news could only reach their ears weeks or at least days late.

May God take care of the little county!

(*40) Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 70.

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Picture 24

Fig. 24: The former county of Rietberg and neighboring territories.

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When had there ever been so much harmony on the Kraxt farms? The days of perpetual quarrelling seemed to be a thing of the past. On winter evenings, as was customary elsewhere, the women and girls met to spin wool and flax together. Alongside the work, they talked, laughed and sang. They sat together in a cozy atmosphere on the four farms, so it was no wonder that the men soon joined in. They too preferred to do their repair and carving work on the wooden tools, the shovels, rakes, brooms, flails, tubs and handles of all kinds, or whatever else they had to do, in cheerful company rather than alone at home. Together with the farmhands and maidservants, the farmhands (*1) and the farmhands (*2), they often formed a large company.

Occasionally, when someone came along and played a little music, you could even shake a leg on the spacious deelen late at night. If schnapps and beer were also poured to loosen the tongues, it was easy to get into a rowdy mood with loose talk. For this reason, the priests in the churches railed against such spinning evenings (*3). They suspected - probably not entirely wrongly - that one or two young couples secretly slipped away into the straw on such occasions to enjoy forbidden love.

However, should we give up this wonderful opportunity for socializing because of such incidents? What other prospects did they have of making the long, dark winter evenings a little more pleasant? The farmers had no intention of giving up their spinning evenings, even if the authorities issued corresponding bans to bolster public morale.

Despite their age difference, the women of the Meierhofe got on better with each other than anyone had ever experienced. The young woman Elsken at „Johann to Kraxt“ hardly missed a day of visiting her mother in the neighboring house

(*1) According to Karl Philipp Schwertener, Kötter is „the person to whom, with the permission of the most gracious lordship, a certain district of land or heathland on a remote or otherwise uncultivated place of a secure colonate is given by the colon for cultivation and for which he must not only pay secure rents and services to the colonate, but also generally a small monetary rent to the Rentenkammer every year“, in: Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 71.

(*2) According to Schwertener's definition, a „Beilieger is someone who has no manorial or colonial grounds and only has a dwelling and some land on a leasehold basis with another colon, in: Book Schwertener, „Grafschaft Rietberg“, p. 72.

(*3) In 1742, the Neuenkirchen pastor „de Prato“ wrote: „It is annoying and sinful that spinning is still tolerated in public, all where the young people of both sexes come together every Saturday evening, thereby giving the opportunity for licentiousness, partly also for the desecration of Sundays and public holidays at night until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning.“ Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, file no. 60.

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and both got on particularly well with Elsche, the farmer's wife at „Hemken to Kraxt“. Even the housewife of „Gerdt to Kraxt“ could not completely escape the friendly and sociable tone.

That evening, everyone sat together in the „Hemkenhofe“ on the dele: the women on one side, as close as possible to the glow of the open hearth so that they could see better and take advantage of the soothing warmth, the men on the other side, just as close to the fire, working or in thoughtful conversation. The older children had also been assigned their work, only the younger ones were playing in the back, dark part of the large room among the hay and straw.

The year 1702 had only just begun and winter had the country firmly in its grip with freezing temperatures. This dark time of year was perfect for telling old stories and thinking about the future.

The old shepherd from the court had put aside his stocking and picked up his flute. The women tried to sing or hum along to the familiar songs, but soon fell silent. The old man actually played his instrument quite well, but whichever way he started, it turned into an unfamiliar sad or melancholy melody towards the end.

He was an oddball, like many other shepherds. It was said that by being alone with their flocks of sheep for so long, the men became strange over time and talked to themselves. Some also developed a mysterious power to foresee the future, especially future misfortune. This so-called „second sight“ was a heavy burden for the „Spökenkieker“ affected by it, a burden that often became too heavy for them to bear. They then avoided people and were shunned by them.

Elsche Brandt, the housewife, tried in vain to concentrate on her spinning. Too bad, she had broken the thread again! The old shepherd had thrown her completely off balance with a remark that evening. After he had entered the Deele, he had shaken his head absent-mindedly and asked her reprovingly why she was letting the children run around like that, it wasn't appropriate for a house of mourning. She had looked at him in bewilderment and glanced at the children running around on the haystack in the middle of the Deelen. She had asked him what he meant by that, but he had just shaken his head, obviously puzzled by his puzzling words.

Elsche's thoughts, however, could not get away from the shepherd's remark. Had he perhaps had a „face“ (bad mood)? Was there a death in the house? And who could it be?

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Who did not know this insidious disease that had afflicted her husband Johan Jacob (*4)? It was pneumonia, also known as „Schwindsucht“, that inescapable plague that settled and spread in so many homes. It slowly but irreversibly swelled the bodies of the sick and eventually wore them out completely.

Elsche resisted the thought that her second husband, whom she had married after the untimely death of her first, might soon be so too. He had only just turned 40 and still seemed energetic and full of vitality. No one had yet noticed that he was spitting up the telltale bloody sputum that indicated the last stage of the disease. Of course, he would have needed a little rest at work, but that was out of the question. He was urgently needed everywhere on the farm. The youngest children from this marriage were still small, while the son Christoph from the first marriage, the future heir, had found work elsewhere.

Elsche tried to pull her thoughts together. It didn't help to worry now, but she resolved to light another candle in front of the Marian altar in Neuenkirchen the following Sunday before Mass and to pray the „Sorrowful Rosary“. She tried to persuade her husband to go there to the pharmacist for advice and medicine.

While Elsche was lost in thought, the conversation of the other women had turned to more pleasant things. The young neighbor Elsken at „Johann to Kraxt“ had just given birth to her third child, a little girl, a few weeks ago. Unlike the eldest, who had died of weakness after a few months, this baby seemed to be healthy and developing well, as did her son Otto, who was two years older.

The topic of births and deliveries came up in almost every conversation between the women, as it was such a large part of their lives. Like Elsken, many young women gave birth on schedule every two years and were dependent on the help and experience of their older neighbors. „The old women knew all about childbirth and knew how to treat the young mother in childbirth. As long as there were no complications, they didn't need the help of a special midwife.“ And what could she do if unusual problems arose, be it that the child was in the wrong position or that severe bleeding occurred? Pregnancy entailed a great risk for every woman, especially if she was no longer very young. And if it was God's will, the mother died with the child. - But Elsken was a healthy woman and was soon back on her feet and at work after each childbirth,

(*4) See succession „Hemken to Krax“. p. 244

(*5) As late as 1742, the Neuenkirch pastor „de Prato“ complained in his report that there were no sworn midwives in the parish, that this business was rather carried out by old superstitious women „without sufficient science and instruction“, which is why „many children die unhappily without being baptized or not even delivered with the mother“. (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg, Files No. 60).

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not least with and because of the help of the neighboring women.

In addition to births, there were many other occasions when the neighbors' help was needed, both for the happy ones such as christenings and weddings, and for the less happy ones such as illness and hardship, and even more so for the frequent deaths. If a family member died, whether a child or an adult, it was an important duty of the neighbors to keep the wake, to relieve the grieving family of all formalities, to report the death at the vicarage, to go from house to house as undertakers and to drive the hearse to the cemetery and lower the coffin into the ground. The unwritten neighboring law contained many duties and at the same time granted many privileges. (*6)

As harsh as the winter had been, it took its leave early this year. The last remnants of snow thawed quickly, and even before Easter the tenderest spring green sprouted from all the flowers and bushes. The farmers were happy to be making such good progress with their field work and the shepherds were preparing for the spring shearing of their flocks. Before they could start, however, the sheep had to be washed in the streams and their wool cleaned of the worst of the winter's dirt. In order to have a sufficiently high water level for this, the old Ölbach could be dammed up in some places. Over the course of time, real water holes were created there, the kolks (ponds), into which the animals were driven.

Washing the sheep was hard work, with the men standing in water up to their stomachs for hours. No wonder that the procedure ended with many of them catching bad colds. Stiff limbs and rheumatism were the consequences for years to come.

The „Hemkemeier“ had also taken part in the laundry this time, despite all his wife's reservations. He couldn't leave the children and old people to do the work alone! But when he came home that evening, he was overcome by a raging chill that forced him to go to bed. A high fever followed during the night, his breathing was stertorous, interrupted by severe coughing fits. Elsche was extremely worried, rubbed his chest with the usual ointments and cooled his feverish forehead. But despite all his efforts, his condition worsened noticeably the following day. He found it very difficult to speak and tried to avoid the painful coughing fits until he was in danger of suffocating. Despite all the embrocations and teas, the fever continued to rise the next day and increasingly robbed him of his senses. His already weakened body was obviously unable to resist the pneumonia, which was dangerous even for a healthy person.

He himself seemed to sense what was happening to him and asked Elsche to send someone to the priest in Neuenkirchen to bring the last rites.

(*6) The extensive neighborly rights and obligations still applied to a large extent in the first half of our century.

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The sick man waited anxiously all day for the priest to arrive. What would happen to him if he died without the „last rites“? He had to make a confession if he wanted to hope for God's mercy in the afterlife! The hours passed, his thoughts became more and more distracted and he hardly noticed what was going on around him. Every now and then, voices would penetrate his consciousness, murmuring the endless laws of the rosary. One „Hail Mary“ merged into another:

“…… and blessed is the fruit of your body Jesus, who sweat blood for us, …… who was scourged for us, …… who was crowned with thorns for us, …… who bore the heavy cross for us, …… who was crucified for us. Holy Mary, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen„.

When the priest finally arrived, grumpy after the long, arduous journey he had had to make on horseback because no one had thought to send him a cart (*7),the sick man tried once more to gather all his senses and receive the holy sacraments in full consciousness. Afterwards he seemed to faint with relief until the next coughing fit shook him up again.

He was soon to be redeemed. On April 23, 1702, one of the neighbors reported the death of the „Hemkemeier“ to the parish office in Neuenkirchen. Meanwhile, the women were already trying to prepare the body and lay it out in a coffin hastily made from simple boards. Every neighbor knew their job, they were all too practiced in preparing a funeral: not a year went by on the Kraxt farms without at least one bereavement; only three weeks ago, a child of Gerdt to Kraxt had died. a child from „Gerdt to Kraxt“ had to be buried.

Every evening until the funeral, the neighbors kept watch over the deceased, prayed the rosary, told stories, drank a few schnapps and went about their everyday conversations: a little normality in mourning. Despite all the grief, Elsche could not escape this normality either. She had to make sure that the farm continued to run: The cattle had to be cared for, farmhands, maids and children had to be assigned their work.

Three days after the death, the funeral was held in the churchyard in Neuenkirchen. Early in the morning - right after milking and feeding the cattle - the neighbors gathered at „Hemken's“ (*8) barn. The day before, they had thoroughly cleaned a cart to remove all traces of the last dunging and lined it with fresh green branches. Now they pushed it into the middle of the Deele and brought the coffin out of the chamber. While they lifted it with their combined strength and placed it on the cart,

(*7) The pastor „de Prato“ also has complaints to make on this point, namely that „the parishioners are actually obliged to bring a horse and cart for the priest to the sick“. However, this often did not happen, „consequently the priest alone rides to the sick, with neither a sexton, nor light, nor sound“. He found it particularly annoying and highly unjust that the sexton nevertheless received the fees due. (Staatsarchiv Münster, Grafschaft Rietberg, Akten Nr. 60).

(*8) Hemken = Hemken to Krax.

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the older children stood around with distraught, pale faces; the younger ones, however, who did not yet fully understand what was going on, climbed onto the equipment standing around so that they could see better. Elsche, who was leaning idly against a post with teary eyes, suddenly remembered the spinning evening in winter and the shepherd's words. She shuddered; my God, the old man had actually seen it coming!

The funeral procession slowly set off, with the hearse in front, pulled by the two horses of „Gerdt to Kraxt“, who as the first neighbor (*9) had the duty of providing the carriage. The family members of the deceased, neighbors, hirelings, distant relatives and acquaintances followed. The journey would take a particularly long time today. It was a difficult journey, because it had started to rain during the night, so that the road was slowly softening, and the vehicle actually got stuck in the mud after just a few hundred meters. Fortunately, „Gerdtmeier“ had taken some wooden planks with him as a precaution, which could be placed under the wheels, so that the wagon soon got free again. But further such incidents held up the funeral procession with its completely soaked participants until it finally arrived in the church village with a considerable delay.

The pastor waited most impatiently, as in similar other cases. These rude peasants kept stealing his poorly paid time. Yes, if he could have set the fees for his services himself or if the farmers would have given him a generous tip! But as things stood, he had to live off the meagre donations from the community on certain holidays and often didn't know how he was going to make ends meet with these few pennies, let alone pay his chaplain. He wanted to point out in the next sermon that with such delays he would soon no longer be prepared to read a requiem (*10) after the funeral. The farmers could get up a little earlier for the eternal salvation of their deceased.

With the rain still pouring down, the pastor kept the ceremony in the churchyard as short as possible. Nevertheless, all the mourners were happy when, after the requiem in the cold church, they gathered in the nearby pub for a soothing funeral feast and invigorating drink.

Elsche only returned to her farm in the late afternoon, now also coughing and sniffling. She felt so tired, sick and miserable that she would have liked to die.

But there were still so many difficulties ahead in the near future:

(*9) Out of the number of neighbors, one, who did not necessarily have to be the closest, was formally declared the „first“ neighbor.

(*10) Seelenamt = Requiem. Pastor „de Prato“ also complains about this point. He reported that the mourners sometimes did not arrive until around 12 noon and that he had to wait so long. For his part, he was able to enforce that those affected had to arrive at the funeral by 10 am in winter and 9 am in summer at the latest. (Münster State Archives, County of Rieberg, files, no. 60).

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the Rietberg estate, which owned the „Hemkenhof“, wanted its share of the deceased's estate, the „Sterbfall“ (*11).

Even if they were only were only moderately assessed, this could easily amount to 20 or 30 thalers, a large burden which they did not know how to pay.

Then the farm succession had to be settled. The heir was still a few years too young. She therefore had to remarry herself so that her new husband could manage the farm until the heir reached the age of majority (*12). She felt so exhausted that she didn't really want to think about remarrying. She would prefer to go to the Leibzucht (*13) so that she could rest a little more. But she knew herself that this was not possible for the time being. And so, a little later, Herman Clasbrummel from one of the neighboring farms moved in as the new colon at „Hemken“ (*14), while her own work became more and more difficult. It was as if her strength was visibly failing her, and very soon it became apparent that she too was afflicted with consumption.

Meanwhile, on the neighboring farm „Cordt to Kraxt“, preparations were being made for the wedding of the young heir Joan Niclaes to the daughter Anna Catharina vom Agathenmeier in Druffel (*15).

In the eyes of all concerned, this marriage brought a number of advantages. Since Agathenmeier's farm, like that of Cordt Kraxtern, was under the sovereignty of the Herzebrock monastery, the bride did not have to be bought out of her old lordship by means of an expensive charter (*16), which could cost as much as thirty or forty thalers, only to be reinstated in a new lordship by marriage

(*11) According to Schwertener, the death benefit is „a certain sum of money which, on the death of a Colon or a Colona, must be paid by the pradio and its owner to the lord of the manor in a taxable manner; for on each monthly death of a Colon or a Colona, the lord of the manor inherits half of the four-footed cattle; but if they both die, he inherits all the four-footed animals which were formerly, after confirmation and assessment by the „Rentmeister“ and „Landlord“, taken at the normal spring and autumn courts, hunted and valued at a certain monetary value“, p. 75.

(*12) The heir normally reached the age of majority at the age of 24.

(*13) Leibzucht = old man's estate. According to Schwertener again, a life tenant is „the person who either voluntarily or according to the „age of majority of the heir (see *12)“ cedes the colonate to his successor and the inheritance „heir“ and in return receives the sixth part of the inheritance for life usufruct together with the necessary apartment“, p. 72.

(*14) See succession „Hemken to Krax“. p. 244

(*15) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*16) The charter is, according to Schwertener, „the manorial certificate that a person born in her property, who either wants to marry into a foreign inheritance or wants to gain citizenship in a city, has been released from the servant and self-servant status and manumitted (released from serfdom); for such a manumission certificate must normally a certain amount of money must be paid in the following manner, as :

• von einem Vollmeier 80 Reichsthaler
• von einem Halbmeier 40 Reichsthaler
• von einem Zweitdger 16 Reichsthaler
• von einem Eintäger 8 Reichsthaler
• von einem Neuwöhner 5 Reichsthaler
• von einem Inquilino 4 Reichsthaler (Heuerling = roommates and day laborers)

This tax is increased or decreased depending on the circumstances.“ (S. 74).

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which could easily cost thirty or forty thalers, to be bought out of her old lordship, only to immediately enter into a new dependency through marriage. The money could be put into the dowry instead.

Her father had to pay the monastery the sum of 50 thalers (*18) for the young woman's ascension (*17) to the farm „Cordt to Kraxt“. Together with the customary dowry of roughly the same amount, this was a huge sum, which would burden the „Agathenmeier“ for years to come anyway.

The monastery bailiff had also fixed the amounts for the future deaths of the parents „Cordt Kraxtern“ at 10 thalers each, and so the parties only had to agree on the old man's portion, which the former colons were to take with them to the recently built, nearby Leibzuchthaus (*19). The agreements were based on the old guidelines, which stipulated two to three cows, the same number of pigs and six Müdde Saatland (*20) for a Halbmeierhof.

After that, there was every reason to celebrate a big wedding with all the fuss and lots of guests. The wedding bitters set out to invite people near and far to the celebration, which took place on November 24, 1705.

The young „Cordtmeier“ did not have to wait long for offspring either, and the eldest son, Franz Hinrich, was born in 1707.

The neighbor Elsche „Hemken to Kraxt“ with her rich experience could no longer be available to the young mother during the delivery. The lung disease had ruined her health, and she was now so weak and emaciated that everyone could see how her time was drawing to a close, even though she was only in her mid-forties. In fact, there was only a single year left until her death, and she did not live to see her son Christoph marry Anna Dreyer from Bornholte (*21), a niece of the personal breeder „Cordt Kraxtern“, in November 1708 and take up the inheritance with her.

Even though relations between the neighbors on the „Kraxter Höfe“ had improved, life as a whole had not become any easier. Weather fluctuations and the arbitrariness of the authorities continued to determine the well-being of the population in the countryside.

(*17) The ascension or commissioning of the inheritance took place after payment of the wine purchase and was the formal introduction of a new colon or a new colona into the property.

(*18) Rheda Princely Archive, Herzebrock files no. H 42/2.

(*19) In the Rietberg region, the elderly lived „generally in separate dwellings called Leibzuchthaus. This „Leibzuchthaus“ must either be built by the elderly before they take up life tenancy during the „Colon“ years or, if it is already really on the farm, it must be kept in a good habitable condition.“ (Book Schwertener, County of Rietberg, p. 75)

(*20) 1 Müdde Saatland was the area to which 1 Müdde of rye (= 36 kg) was applied during sowing.

(*21) See succession „Hemken to Krax“. p. 244

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And so all the farmers moaned about the unusually harsh winter of 1708/09, which began very early with such severe cold that all the rivers and even the seas froze over and the winter crops in the fields spoiled. In spring, the ground remained frozen for so long that the fields could not be cultivated in time (*22). When the cattle were finally driven out to pasture, many of them were so weak that they could no longer get up themselves.

No wonder that many old people did not survive this winter, in which the temperature dropped below the frost line even in the houses, and the number of funerals increased. The two personal breeders „Cord to Kraxt“ soon had to be buried (*25).

Der Tod hatte bereits im ersten Jahrzehnt dieses neuen Jahrhunderts auf den Kraxter Höfen eine reiche Ernte gehalten (*25). Dabei wurden die vielen verstorbenen Kleinkinder gar nicht so recht als Trauerfille mitgezihlt. Hier, wie in anderen katholischen Léndern auch, sah man es vielfach sogar als Segen an, wenn ein Kind friih starb, falls es nur getauft war.”* Es wurde doch zu einem Engel und Fiirsprecher im Himmel! Und wieviel Leid und Elend blieben ihm auf Erden erspart! Warum also trauern, auch wenn das Herz weh tat? ,.Der Herr hat es gegeben, der Herr hat es genommen, der Name des Herrn sei gebenedeit”, lautete das Gebet der Kirche, das den Eltern Trost und Stiitze spendete. Sich mit unerschiitterlichem Glauben in den Willen Gottes zu fiigen, hatten die Menschen schlieflich seit Jahrhunderten geiibt.

In the new century, the pessimists were proved right in their concern for the welfare of the county. Count Kaunitz in distant Moravia naturally expected income from the unknown county that his wife had brought him as a dowry in marriage. And the income from the poor Rietberg region was very meagre. What could be more obvious for the count than to instruct his officials to think about new sources of money.

The people of Rietberg had already made repeated attempts to enforce a count's brandy monopoly. As recently as 1698, for example, an edict was promulgated prohibiting

(*22) Book Abel, „Mass poverty and hunger crises“, p. 172.

(*23) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*24) It is no longer possible to determine exactly how many people actually lived, married and died on the Kraxter farms in the 18th century. The church records of the Neuenkirchen parish, to which these farms belonged until the middle of this century, from the years 1709/1710 to 1751 and 1759 have been lost. Around the middle of the 18th century, the Kraxter Höfe were then incorporated into Verl. There - apart from a few shorter periods - the time from 1766 to 1800 is completely missing. This means that there is a gap of almost a whole century in the church records. Closing this gap is only partially possible, even with the help of all other available sources. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that some deaths and second or third marriages of the farm owners could not be recorded in my tabular „successions“.

(*25) A. E. Imhoft, Die verlorenen Welten, Munich 1984.

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the distillation and import of grain brandy and providing for the destruction of private distilling kettles (*26). Similar decrees related to the brewing of beer, with reference being made to public health and the general welfare of the subjects in the explanatory memorandum.

In this sense, it was also forbidden for some time to stay longer than nine o'clock in the evening in pubs and to entertain mourners with beer and corn or a funeral feast at funerals.

However, none of these advances had yet borne fruit. Many houses continued to brew beer and distil grain, partly for their own consumption and partly for sale. This was all the more the case as beer was regarded as a popular food for young and old alike, and beer consumption covered a considerable proportion of food requirements.

In a new edict, the brewing of beer was once again prohibited, namely to all stewards (*27) and other brewers in the countryside (*28). The innkeepers in particular saw their existence threatened by this decree. They had been able to produce their own beer at low cost, whereas they could only obtain beer from the count's brewery at much higher prices. Therefore, in 1712, they wrote a petition to the bishops of Paderborn and Münster, in which they pointed out their plight and asked for the support of the ecclesiastical authorities. While they hoped for their help, the „Krax-Wirt“ (Krax-Pub), like most other innkeepers, ignored the order of the Rietberg lords and accepted having to pay a fine if necessary.

However, the fine was so high that everyone was severely affected (*29). Niclaes „Cordt to Kraxt“, a man of strong, tall stature and a tendency to loud outbursts of anger, a farmer on his farm for seven years, could hardly contain his anger when he heard that he had to pay a fine of ten thalers. That was a damn big sum that had to be paid immediately. The farm had not yet recovered from the burdens of the past generation.

Although his wife Anna Catharina Agathemeier had brought 50 thalers into the marriage in addition to the usual bridal carriage, a horse and a few cows (*30), this would not even have been enough for the dowry and his own siblings' letters of freedom. In addition, the deaths of his parents were only partially paid, so that he had to pay off his debts to the monastery in annual installments for years to come. Now this debt burden continued to grow.

(*26) Book Hanschmidt, „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 78/79.

(*27) Krüger = Pubs

(*28) Staatsarchiv Münster, Grafschaft Rietberg Akten, No. 1191 contains a petition from the county magistrates and brewers of the county to the administration in Rietberg. They refer to a hoped-for intervention by the bishops of Paderborn and Münster, to whom they have appealed for assistance.

(*29) as well as (*28)

(*30) Rheda Princely Archive, Herzebrock files no. H 42/2.

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In faraway Austria, the Countess of Rietberg had also given birth to a son named Wenzel Anton the previous year. The farmers could have rejoiced with her if a new special tax had not been levied on all the inhabitants of the county to mark the occasion.

It was desperate! Joan Niclaes was convinced that he had no choice but to continue brewing in secret if he ever wanted to get out of debt. He was aware that he and his family were still much better off than the other farmers around them, partly because of the inn and partly because the monastery was generally more lenient than the secular authorities in Rietberg.

Niclaes then began to make plans as to how he could continue brewing beer without risking further punishment. He could easily hide his brewing kettle in an outbuilding. He had no need to fear betrayal from his family and neighbors. But where was he to obtain the necessary quantities of malting barley and hops as inconspicuously as possible?

He cautiously began to look around for new opportunities, and as his inn was frequented by a wide variety of travelers, he soon heard of a young clergyman in Lippe who traded in all kinds of goods and crops. This seemed to him to be a viable option: If he shopped outside the Rietberg borders, none of the local administrative officials could arouse suspicion. The only difficulty was getting the goods across the Lippisch-Rietberg border. However, there were people everywhere in the border regions who specialized in smuggling and were certainly willing to help (*31).

And so the „Kraxwirt“ soon came into business with Heinrich Andreas van Dalen, a later pastor of Horn near Lippstadt (*32). Van Dalen was an accomplished businessman who made a lot of money with all kinds of trade and also knew how to circumvent customs borders. His clerical status hardly seemed to interfere with this activity; for good money he supplied everything the „Kraxwirt“ needed.

Niclaes and his family worked very hard over the next few years and finally had a good chance of getting out of their debt valley when they were hit by another disaster. Until then, everything seemed to be going so well: No further ban had been issued by the Rietberg administration for brewing beer, and Niclaes had been able to reduce his debts in Herzebrock on time every lease day.

(*31) Smuggling from Lippe was apparently widespread, for example with colonial goods. It continued until „Lippe joined the German Customs Union in 1842.“ (Book Gürteler, „Middle of the Senne“, p. 73)

(*32) Pastor van Dalen was a highly respected clergyman about whom extensive records can be found in the Archbishop's Vicariate General in Paderborn. When he died, he left behind a considerable fortune, which he donated to a foundation for young theology students. On the other hand, he was obviously a tough businessman who had no scruples. The letters to the „Kracksmeyer“, in which he reports on his business dealings and sends reminders about bills, can be found in the Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706.

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As a precaution - to prevent any misfortune - he always lit a candle at the altar of St. Christina, where the reliquary with her skull bones was kept, and asked for her help. The power of this saint's intercessions had only been proven in 1711, when her help prevented a fire in the monastery. Since then, by order of the bishop in Osnabrück, her name day on July 24 was celebrated there as a holiday with a procession (*33).

But despite all their prayers, a new disaster was already lurking. The whole family fell ill with black measles. This highly contagious, nasty disease, also known as „Pocken“, increasingly became a real plague (*34). By the time it broke out in a house or a village, the inhabitants had usually already contracted it. For many, especially adults, the disease was fatal, while others were left blind, deaf or permanently disfigured by ugly smallpox scars.

The youngest son Johann Hermann of the court „Cordt to Kraxt“, the future heir, was only two years old and went blind in one eye (*35). Franz Hinrich, the eldest son, escaped with scars, like his mother, but his father Joan Niclaes died in 1719, barely forty years old, along with some of the younger children.

A few days after her husband's funeral, Antrin - as the widow was usually called - was at work at the kitchen table. While she was mixing the dough for the usual „buckwheat pie“, tears involuntarily ran down her face and burned in her unhealed scars. The work was still very difficult for her and she felt miserable and alone.

She had gotten on so well with her late husband that they had a real affection for each other - a feeling she could hardly have imagined when they married 18 years ago. At that time she had been rather afraid of Joan Niclaes, for the people of the Kraxter farms had a reputation for not being very agreeable and sociable. His coarse appearance hadn't exactly helped to win him over either. But as was usually the case, she too had had to submit to the marriage her parents had chosen and, contrary to her own expectations, had soon become quite content with this role.

Although Antrin kept wiping her tears with her arm, she could not prevent some of them from mixing with the dough made from yeast, water, salt and buckwheat flour.

(*33) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H, 781.

(*34) Smallpox spread like an epidemic in Europe from the beginning of the 18th century. It prevailed throughout the entire century and claimed many thousands of victims every year in Germany alone. See Vasold, Plague, pp. 180-185.

(*35) This blindness is cited as a disability in later records. Whether it can actually be attributed to smallpox can of course only be assumed.

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She filled the thick mixture into a loaf pan with a lid and placed it in the oven, where it was baked over a low heat to make a bread-like dish.

This so-called „Pickert“ formed the basis of the daily diet in many families. The frugal buckwheat thrived even under unfavorable climatic and soil conditions and has long been cultivated especially in areas where wheat did not grow at all or only poorly as a bread grain. In the poor Verl region, the population would not have been able to survive at all without the cultivation of this grain substitute.

And so a virtue was made of necessity: after baking, the Pickert was cut into strips as hot as it came out of the oven and, if you could afford it, spread with honey. You licked your fingers for it, it tasted so good. When cold, it was fried again in the pan, and if someone was really lavish, they spread the hot pastry with butter.

Antrin had just finished her work when her father came in the door. She looked at him in astonishment. There must have been a special reason why Agathenmeier had hitched up the cart on a working day and set off from Druffel to Varensell. In fact, he asked her to sit down with him without further ado, because he had something important to tell her.

He said that he had had a long conversation with the „Meier Pavenstett“ (Gütersloh Pavenstädt), whose Vollmeierhof was located near the mouth of the Dalkebach into the Ems. In the past, this farm had also belonged to Herzebrock Monastery, but was now under the sovereignty of Rheda. The „Meier Pavenstett“ still had an unmarried son named Joan, and the two Meiers had decided that a marriage between this young man and the widow „Cordt to Kraxt“ would be in the interests of both parties.

So now the „Agathenmeier“ put this proposal to his daughter. Antrin could not object much, it all sounded very reasonable, and her feelings and wishes were not important anyway, only the welfare of the farm.

It was clear that, as sad and desperate as she was, she had no time to lose and had to think about a new marriage. It was early summer. Who would bring in the harvest in the fall if there was no man on the farm? Their eldest son Franz Hinrich was already a very sensible boy, but at the age of twelve he was still too physically weak to replace an adult worker. The younger siblings were all the more so. In addition, they were all still suffering from the effects of the illness, especially little Johann Hermann, who was constantly crying because he could only see out of one eye.

The widow realized how right her father had been in his haste, and so the dowry, formalities and dates were negotiated without further ado, and after a few weeks Joan Pavenstett married on the farm „Cordt to Kraxt (*36). Of his dowry, 42 thalers had to be paid to the monastery for the death of his predecessor,

(*36) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

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and a further 40 thalers were paid for the driveway to the farm on July 12, 1719 (*37). The new farmer was lucky that the future heir was only two years old, as the farm was transferred to him for a period of more than 20 years.

Joan Pavenstett was not as frugal and clever a calculator as his predecessors. He was used to living on a somewhat larger footing than was possible in the Verl area. In the hope of increasing his income, he expanded his business with Pastor van Dalen and overreached himself in the process. The very next year, 1720, he was forced to take out a loan of 50 thalers from the monastery (*38).

The monastery combined the loan with a warning to the new colon. Although it was acknowledged that the farm had got into a difficult situation as a result of the increasing number of deaths, it was warned against a tardy approach to farming. The monastery bailiff knew what he was talking about: the monastery's assets included a whole series of farms, including larger ones on better land that had been poorly managed for generations. Some of them were several hundred thalers in debt to the monastery.

It was not always illness and misfortune that had brought these estates into their miserable situation. In some cases the owners had lived far beyond their means, in others they had lacked the necessary diligence. They no longer farmed large areas of their land themselves, but leased it to a growing number of hirelings and sharecroppers or left it fallow. They behaved like the landlords themselves and treated those who depended on them as their own. Drunkenness, idleness and card-playing often contributed to the fact that an estate was not managed as necessary. Once in debt, it was usually almost impossible to get out of the misery. Until the mismanagement became obvious, these farmers tried to cut and sell wood without permission or even move land (*39).

These run-down farms included, among many others, the „Große Winkelmann“ farm in Emsbauer, the „Künnepeter“ farm in Spexard and the „Wappelman“ farm in Ostenfelde. The latter was reoccupied around 1571 due to poor management (*40). However, the new owner family soon fell into debt and the monastery administration was repeatedly forced to demand a more economical way of farming for generations.

Joan Pavenstett, the new colon „Cordt Kraxtern“, was able to dispel the monastery's concerns. He felt able to fundamentally improve his economic situation, as he had been allowed to brew beer unhindered for some time.

(*37) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H, 42/2.

(*38) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H, 30/2.

(*39) Christoff Rive reports on the frequency of this offense in a letter to the Rietberg administration. (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 3411).

(*40) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2 (30. July 1722).

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He also wanted to expand what he considered to be favorable business relations with Pastor van Dalen.

But once again, things turned out differently than the people concerned had imagined. After just three years of marriage, Antrin died in 1722, aged just under forty, leaving Joan Pavenstett with at least five children from two marriages aged between 15 years and a few months. In addition to grief and worries about the future, there was once again the burden of the death payment.

The widower had no other choice, he had to remarry immediately. The young woman's name was Catharina Gertrud Osthuß (*41) and she came from a farm that was also owned by Herzebrock. The convent collected 64 thalers (*42) for the death and ascent of the new colona.

Again the farm inhabitants hoped for a more favorable development of their circumstances, again they struggled to get out of debt, again children were born, and again tears and sorrow followed after a few years when Catharina Gertrud, the second wife of Joan Pavenstett, died in 1726 after four years of marriage.

This time, there were even unprovided-for children from three different marriages. Although the eldest children from the first marriage were already old enough to fend for themselves at 19 and 18, the heir to the farm, also from the first marriage of the deceased first wife, was only nine and Joan's own children were even younger. They all wanted to be provided for one day and given a dowry. How would Joan ever be able to raise the money for this, how would he ever get back into a more promising situation if he had to pay for a death every few years? The monastery wanted 34 thalers from him again! (*43)

But all the moaning and complaining didn't help. He immediately looked for a new wife, preferably young, healthy and strong, so that she would be able to cope with the burdens that awaited her.

The series of deaths, marriages and births continued. Anna Gertrud Wappelmann (*44) came into the house as the third wife of the colon Joan „Cordt to Kraxt“, a daughter of the very farm in Ostenfelde where nothing but debt had been known for many generations due to the poor economy.

It soon became apparent that this choice of partner was not very far-sighted. Wappelmann's daughter had also not learned to economize and make do with what the farm could afford. She spent the money on unnecessary things and expensive clothes. She had a real glass mirror hung in the parlor, as if they lived in a palace! (*45)

(*41)

(*42) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2

(*43) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2

(*44) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*45) However, this mirror is only listed in a later inventory from the second half of the century, so that it is by no means certain who had it purchased.

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Her skirts and hoods, which she wore to church, had to be more splendid than those of any other woman. And when had one ever seen a meat dish on the table almost every Sunday, as was the case with rich townspeople? - At „Cordt Kraxtert“ the debts and with them the worries continued to mount.

In order to overcome their problems, the colon and his young wife tried to intensify the inn business in particular. They expanded their relationship with Pastor van Dalen in Horn and purchased other crops and goods in addition to brewing grain. In return, they provided various services, collected money for him from the parish of Neuenkirchen, with whom van Dalen also did business, and occasionally delivered a few dozen Krammetsvögel. But there were always unpaid bills, and the balance continued to shift to their disadvantage. The pastor, who apparently knew the young woman from earlier years and described her as a „dear friend“, sent warning letters and probably also set off in person to collect his money (*46).

In January 1730, van Dalen offered the „Kraxtwirt“ a „deal“ that he was not at all happy about. The pastor wrote to Joan Pavenstett that he was looking for „loyal people“ who would take in the young child of a good friend for a year or six months in return for money. He himself would cover the costs, but everything had to be kept secret. The pastor emphasized this request by referring to the debts of the „Kraxtmeier“ (*47).

Joan Pavenstett thought back and forth about what to make of this request. Obviously the baby was the child of a respected or at least wealthy man. Was the pastor himself perhaps the father, and was that why he insisted on secrecy? And why did he want to place the child with him of all people? He must have known how little one could look after a child on a farm, how many of his own children fell ill there and did not survive the first few months. Or was that exactly what he wanted?

The whole thing was extremely distasteful to the „Kraxtmeier“, but he realized that he could not refuse, but had to accept the request because of his debts. He could only hope that no new harm would come to him as a result. In any case, he feared, his many worries would be compounded if this mysterious child arrived in a few months' time.

Soon Joan Pavenstett was no longer able to cope with the multiple burdens. Work and worries were draining his health, while his young wife was throwing money out the window. He called his eldest stepson Franz Hinrich, who had looked for work elsewhere, back to the farm and increasingly left the business to him.

The boy did surprisingly well. He was energetic and proactive and, above all, knew how to influence his stepmother to be more economical. And even if he stroked his stomach after a sumptuous meal that his stepmother had served him

(*46) Letters from Pastor van Dalen, Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706.

(*47) Letters from Pastor van Dalen, Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706.

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and declared: „Ick sin so satt, ohn Mann inne Stadt“ (*48), he did not fail to make it clear to her that in future she would only be allowed to prepare such an expensive meal on public holidays. Eating white bread on a normal Sunday, for example, was a complete waste. Such good bread was reserved for the four weddings (*49)! Instead of wasting time preparing it, she should rather instruct the maids to weave and spin more diligently.

The housewife was not exactly thrilled with the constant three-way talking. At first there was a lot of arguing and loud bickering between „son“ and „stepmother“, but as the „father“ agreed with the „son“, the admonishments did not completely fail to have an effect in the long run.

When Joan realized how carefully and efficiently his stepson was working, he withdrew more and more. His illness weakened him so much that he soon felt old and worn out beyond his years. He died in 1732, six years after his third marriage.

What was to happen on the farm now? Franz Hinrich was not the heir to the farm, however capable he had proved to be at the age of 25. The heir was Johann Hermann, the youngest stepson from the first marriage, who at the age of 15 was not yet able to take over the inheritance.

Again, there was only one solution: The widow Anna Gertrud had to remarry. She needed a husband who was prepared to manage the inheritance with her for a few years and then, still young, move to the old man's estate and make room for Johann Hermann.

The man she chose was Franz Hinrich, her own stepson (*50). He agreed. The convent also agreed to this choice and granted the marriage license.

Why did the young man get involved in the deal that this marriage represented? He knew that a difficult task awaited him when he married this woman, who was several years older than he was. He thus became the father of his own siblings and took on a great responsibility, without being able to expect more for himself than to be the manager of the farm for a number of years. Any children of his own from his marriage could not inherit the farm unless his younger brother died prematurely before he had children of his own. Was he hoping for that?

The complicated family circumstances on the farm „zu Kraxtert“ were not an isolated case. People lived in an era in which they were used up early and rarely grew old. Married couples had little prospect of a long life together if they promised to be faithful to each other until death when they married. The wife often died in childbirth after just a few years.

(*48) „I'm as full as a man in the city.“

(*49) The four highest holidays of the year, the „four weddings“, were Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption of Mary and Christmas.

(*50) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

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The man was forced to remarry soon in order to provide for the children and the household. If he died too, the widow would do the same, and so on until the heir was 24 years old and could take over the inheritance.

This meant that on some farms, large communities of people lived together as families who were no longer even related to each other. The coexistence of these different people was complicated enough in itself and was made even more difficult by economic difficulties.

To reduce the social pressure, the young siblings had to leave home early to earn a few pennies elsewhere on other farms as helpboy, farmhands and stablehands or maids. The opportunity to learn a trade so that they could later stand on their own two feet was practically non-existent.

Only the heir, the youngest son from the first marriage, had the prospect of an own livelihood, which enabled him to start his own family. All siblings and half-siblings were often restricted to a serving role in their brother's household for the rest of their lives, unless they had the opportunity to marry into another farm. opportunity to marry into another farm. Was it not understandable that envy, jealousy and even hatred played a major role in the coexistence of these played a major role in the life of these households?

Franz Hinrich could still remember what he had felt when his younger brother Johann Hermann was born. He had already been ten years old at the time and had understood that he - having previously only had sisters sisters - had now suddenly been relegated down the line of succession. He had often imagined what he could do differently when the farm was his one day. And then suddenly there was this screaming infant who was pushing him back and had more rights than he did. - He had hated him, pushed him and bullied him wherever he could. He had wanted another younger brother, only to see the little one driven out of his position too.

Then the family was struck down by the terrible smallpox from which their father had died. father had died. That changed everything for him.

Of course, Franz Hinrich had also seen people die before, young and old. old. After all, death was part of everyday life for every child. But to see his tall, strong and admired father fall defencelessly victim to a plague in just a few days a plague in just a few days was something else.

Suddenly he had understood what he had heard the pastor preach about so often in the sunny mass in Neuenkirchen, namely that all human endeavor is vain and futile if God does not give it his blessing. He had suddenly realized how fragile all earthly goods were and had begun to suspect that human destinies were as unpredictable as luck in a game of dice. But if all good and all life on earth were so fleeting, why should he envy his brother? envy his brother? Under such uncertain conditions, it was not primarily the short earthly life that mattered, but what awaited man in the eternal hereafter.

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This heavenly hereafter, however, could best be earned by the powerless man through a God-fearing life of devotion and fulfillment of duty.

Franz Hinrich had slowly begun to accept his role and no longer struggled with fate. He had even felt sorry for his little brother in his half-blindness, so that he had taken more and more care of him. He had taken him with him into the fields and into the stable to do his work, had shown him the most important hand movements and taught him how to carve wooden toys such as flutes, slingshots or „Klappbüchsen (*51). The mother Antrin was delighted to see the growing mutual understanding between the two boys and, on his deathbed, made the older boy Antrin to ensure that the farm would remain in the family and that the younger brother's rightful inheritance would not be disputed.

The time had now come to fulfill this promise.

However, time had not stood still on the neighboring farms either; there too death had brought about changes there too.

At „Hemken to Kraxt“ in 1721, the farmer Christoph, who had taken over his inheritance only a few years earlier, died, not yet 40 years old, immediately after the birth of his son Johann Henrich. The distraught widow Anna „Dregger“ („Hof Dreier“) had married Andreas „Eickernkötter“ (*52) , a son of the oil and tanning miller „Eickernkötter“, whose mill was also situated on the Ölbach, below the Delken mill.

The „Hof Gerdt to Kraxt“ had also long since found a new owner. His son Hermann had taken Agnes Brummel (*53) from Verl as his wife.

The housewife Elsken from the farm „Johann to Kraxt“ had followed with sympathy the strokes of fate in the neighborhood and in her parents' home. How often had she and her husband Johann Otto not had to help out on the surrounding farms to ward off the greatest hardship and not leave all the work in the house and fields to underage children and foreign servants.

Sie hatten es als ihre selbstverstiändliche Pflicht als Nachbarn und Verwandte angesehen, einzuspringen, wann immer ihre Hilfe notwendig wurde. Zwar hatten sie von ihrem eigenen Hofe stets nur das zum Leben Nötigste erwirtschaften konnen und in ihrem Haushalt fand sich nicht ein einziges überflüssiges Gerät oder auch nur ein teures Ausstattungsstück wie bei „Cordt to Kraxt“, doch waren Elsken und ihrem Mann bislang Tränen und Trauer im Übermal erspart geblieben. They had enjoyed

(*51) „Klappbüchsen“ were small hollow bodies made of elder wood, which were filled with hard berries and used for shooting by means of a thin plug.

(*52) see succession „Hemken to Krax“. p. 244

(*53) see succession „Hemken to Krax“. p. 245

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a life together for almost 30 years (*54) and had seen the majority of their children grow up healthy. children grow up healthy.

Yes, Elsken and Johann Otto were now part of the old generation. A few years later, their heir Hinrich grew up and they were able to retire to the Leibzucht to give their tired bones a little more rest.

Elsken in particular had felt her strength waning for some time. She had been suffering from dropsy for some time. Her legs and abdomen were very swollen and she often felt as if she was suffocating. The doctor she consulted could only tell her what she already knew, namely that her kidneys were no longer working properly. were no longer working properly.

Ever since she was a young girl, she had often had to deal with painful inflammation of her bladder and kidneys. In recent years, it had become worse and worse and now the symptoms would not subside at all. the urge to urinate, the water no longer wanted to flow out, and the body seemed to slowly and the body seemed to be slowly poisoning itself.

Elsken had no doubt that she had once contracted this disease while washing clothes at the Ölbach. It was unavoidable at any time of year that the women got lame bones and stiff joints from kneeling for hours on the wooden planks laid across the stream. The wide skirts of the wipers inevitably got soaked, no matter how carefully the women had gathered them up beforehand. But when a harsh wind was added to the work in the cold or even icy water in the fall and winter, the work soon became too much even for young and strong women. The skin on their blue-frozen hands became cracked, sore and bloody. How was it possible to scrub, rinse or wring the laundry? Finally, when the wet cold crept up the legs into the body, every woman inevitably caught the dreaded bladder and kidney infections during this work. In the worst cases, urinating caused excruciating pain pain, which often could not be alleviated despite teas and compresses. Bloody urine and a persistent burning sensation showed every affected woman the state of her illness.

In the late summer of 1725, Elsken's health deteriorated considerably. Even her face now swelled up with water retention and every activity caused her immense trouble. In great concern, the farmer and in the weeks that followed, not a Sunday went by without him making the long journey to Wiedenbrück to bring back some ointments or tinctures from the pharmacist Steffens. Medicines to strengthen the heart, stomach and liver alternated with all kinds of diuretics and diaphoretics (*55).

(*54) see succession „Johan to Krax“. p. 242

(*55) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 21

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Johann Otto was devoted to his wife. They had known each other since childhood and had learned to appreciate each other in a long marriage. Losing Elsken seemed an irreplaceable loss to him, and so no medicine was too expensive for her, even if he didn't know where to get the money for it, so the pharmacist had to promise to defer the bills.

But Elsken's condition continued to deteriorate. The poisoning of her body continued, and the growing water retention overburdened her heart, so that after several months of suffering she died at the end of 1725. Apart from his grief, the widower was left with an apothecary's bill of 38 thalers, 18 groschen and 3 pfennigs. Johann to Kraxt was able to pay the apothecary Steffens six thalers immediately, a further 14 thalers in the course of 1726, and the rest was waived (*56).

Johann Otto was very upset by the death of his wife. He no longer enjoyed life and died soon after her. Fortunately, two as yet unmarried daughters, Catharina and Anna Maria, were able to take care of the household for the time being, as the heir Hinrich was still too young to take over the farm and marry at the age of 18.

But Joan Pavenstett of the court „Cordt to Kraxt“ soon knew how to make himself useful as a marriagemaker by proposing his younger sister Anna Catharina as a marriage candidate (*57). In the summer of 1732, as soon as Hinrich was of age, the farm was transferred to the young man and Anna Catharina Pavenstett from Herzebrock Abbey was allowed to marry (*58) for 110 thalers. However, the marriagemaker Joan Pavenstett did not live to see this.

The economic conditions that the young colon Hinrich „Johann to Kraxt“ encountered looked just as sad as they did on all the „Kraxt farms“ and in the surrounding villages. Where 30 years earlier 5 or even 6 horses and stoats (*59) had been kept, there were now only 3 according to the 1728 cattle census in Varensell; instead of 15 or 16 cattle and cows, only 9 or 10 remained; the number of pigs had fallen from 6 or 7 to 2 or 3; even sheep - of which up to 40 were once kept on each farm - were now only 3 or 4. to be found (*60).

The life of the peasants had become more miserable than ever before: toil without end, work without pay, levies and taxes in ever increasing numbers, now even large farms were deteriorating. Diseases also led to early death!

(*56) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 21

(*57) see succession „Johan to Krax“. p. 242

(*58) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2.

(*59) „Stoppen“ = young horse, foal.

(*60) Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, nr. 3106.

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This was a time when the nobility and wealthy citizens paid homage to a select luxury. They had huge palaces and churches of unimaginable splendor and magnificence built. The peasants, who occasionally had to visit large cities to sell goods or do other business, were at a loss for words. At home, they lacked the right words to even begin to describe the beauty of such buildings.

But the stories fueled dissatisfaction with their own lot and nurtured a longing to get out of the misery at some point and lead a better life. Many young people who could not make a living at home dreamed of emulating others and emigrating to America to try their luck there. They were told that there would be plenty of land there and that anyone with a pair of strong, healthy arms could soon become rich.

Because so many young people wanted to follow this temptation, the state of Prussia had already banned the emigration of its subjects to America in 1721. The only option left to the land-seeking people was to settle in their own territories on any plot of land, no matter how small. Although these were usually so poor that no family could survive on them, the settlers increasingly tried to keep their heads above water by spinning and weaving as their main source of income. to keep their heads above water.

This was particularly true of many inhabitants in the Minden and Ravensberg regions, which belonged to Prussia. But people in the county of Rietberg, especially in the villages bordering the Senne, also followed this example. Wool and flax that they could not produce themselves were delivered to their homes by traders. They collected the processed yarns and cloths after completion and marketed them. Of course, the merchants also determined the prices of raw materials and finished products. For this reason, the earnings margin of the spinners and weavers was often so pitiful that it was „too little to live, too much to die“.

In other families, the men earned some extra money as „Hollandgänger“ (Dutchwalker) by harvesting hay or cutting peat abroad. During their weeks of absence as seasonal workers, their wives and children had to bear the burden of work on their own small fields alone.

In the same year 1732 and in the same month in which Hinrich „Johann to Kraxt“ took over his farm and married Anna Catharina Pavenstett, Franz Hinrich „Cordt to Kraxt“ also took over the farm from the neighboring farm and married his stepmother Anna Gertrud Wappelmann. Due to the difficult situation, the monastery approved the ascent for only 55 thalers (*61). The duration of the years of service (*62) in which Franz Hinrich was entrusted with the management of the farm for his young brother Johann Hermann was set at 20 years due to the partial blindness of the heir.

(*61) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2.

(*62) „Mahljahre“ were defined as the years during which a farmer who was not entitled to inherit was allowed to manage the farm until the actual heir reached the age of majority.

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In November of this year, Pastor van Dalen from Horn once again wrote to his old friend Anna Gertrud Wappelmann. He remarked somewhat insinuatingly that he was not sure whether he could congratulate her on her new, young and healthy husband, only to come straight to the purpose of his letter. There was still a bill of over 334 thalers outstanding from her blessed husband, and he asked her to send the agreed annual installment. - However, no more was said about the mysterious child that the pastor had wanted to place in the care of „Cordt to Kraxt“ two years earlier (*63). Had it been on the farm and already died because there was no wet nurse and because it naturally could not yet tolerate cow's milk? Was it placed somewhere else? There is no mention of this anywhere else.

Franz Hinrich tried to meet his obligations and paid the agreed advance payment at the beginning of the following year. However, he was soon to realize that the pastor's business system was always willing to lend when the debtor had paid off a little of his debts. Van Dalen was then prepared to deliver far more goods than the buyer could pay for in the following period. Thus the mountain of debt accumulated and sooner or later the debtor had to become dependent on the pastor.

It was only in the spring of 1733 that Franz Hinrich bought malting barley and oats from the pastor in Horn (*64) for 62 thalers and 16 groschen, half of which he paid immediately. He wanted to break off relations with this man, whom he could not stand, as soon as possible against his wife's wishes. The letters that he wrote from time to time annoyed him all the more because - unlike his late stepfather - he had not gone to school and could not read.

A last letter of this kind, in which van Dalen asked for further orders and discounts on existing debts, reached him in the fall of that year. The new colonel „Cordt to Kraxt“, who had to have the letter read to him again, was unwilling to respond. He had too many objections to raise against the pastor himself. So he passed the documents on to the Neuenkirchen pastor, from whom they reached the Rietberg administration, where they ended up in their files. However, van Dalen's reputation, who was regarded by his bishop as a particularly capable and God-fearing man, was not harmed by the accusations of a stupid farmer.

Anna Gertrud Wappelmann, Franz Hinrich's stepmother and wife, died at exactly the same time. The marriage, entered into for strategic reasons in order to keep the farm in the family, had only lasted just over a year. Even the monastery administration showed compassion for so much misfortune in the family and demanded only 15 thalers (*65) for the new death.

Franz Hinrich then married according to his own choice, even without first obtaining the consent of the lord of the manor. His young wife was called Gertrud Morfeld and was a Rietberger Eigenbehörige.

(*63) Letters from the pastor Andreas Van Dalen to the „Kracksmeyer“ from the years 1728-1733 in the Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706.

(*64) Letters from the pastor Andreas Van Dalen to the „Kracksmeyer“ from the years 1728-1733 in the Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706.

(*65) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2.

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She came from the Moese farming community from a Meierhof which, despite its size, only allowed its inhabitants a meagre livelihood due to the unfortunate soil conditions. She had also not obtained a license from her lordship before her marriage.

Gertrud Morfeld was young, pretty, energetic and knew what she wanted. In June 1734, the young couple presented the convent administration with a fait accompli and, in view of the young man's ability and the heir's immaturity, were given the farm for a full 18 years (*66).

If you left the church village of Verl in a north-easterly direction, you first passed through a meadow landscape formed by the Senne streams with extensive meadows surrounded by pollarded willows. From time immemorial, the owners of these meadows had tried to increase the crop yield of the lowlands by means of a system of flooding. In some cases, this made it possible to mow the grass a second time a year, which was usually sold to farmers or farmers who could not bring in enough hay for their cattle themselves.

picture 25

Fig. 25: During the hay harvest in the Verler Lande.

If one continued to follow the road in the same direction, the meadows were soon bordered by a number of artificial fish ponds, which were also created by damming the streams.

(*66) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2.

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picture 26

Fig. 26: Our region 200 years ago. (Detail from the map of „Le Cog“ from 1805)

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It was only thanks to the yields from these ponds that the farmers and crofters who had settled here - many of them so-called Neuwöhner, whose small farms had only recently been established - were able to supplement their income to such an extent that their livelihoods were reasonably secure on the increasingly barren and dry land.

As the country road continued, the surroundings became more and more forbidding and barren, until it finally ended in a completely miserable-looking heath landscape. They found themselves in the farming community of Sende, in a part of the inhospitable Senne, that stretch of land at the foothills of the Teutoburg Forest that had always been considered almost uninhabitable and seemed suitable only for keeping sheep and bees. Apart from stunted pines and frugal heather, hardly any other plants wanted to thrive on the bleached sandy soil. And so the better-off inhabitants of the surrounding villages mocked: „Do is sogar de Heie so seige, dat de Imme in de Kneie méttet, wenn se'n Hanig halen willt (*67).

This „Sennebauer“ formed the north-eastern border area of the county of Rietberg and protruded as a narrow tongue into Ravensberg territory. At its easternmost tip, the farming community bordered Paderborn and Lippe at the same time, while the Holter Forest with the Rietberg count's hunting grounds extended to the south.

Ubbelohe (*68) was one of the few widely scattered farmsteads that had existed here for a long time. The farm had a relatively large area of almost 70 acres, which, however, was hardly enough to feed a family due to the poor soil conditions. The modest buildings belonging to the farm were not far from the Menkebach stream, which was already approaching its source here. Despite all the efforts made by the owners of this property to keep it in good condition, misery could be seen from every window and every hatch.

In the main building, a house more similar in size to a haymaker's cottage dating from the second half of the last century, there were wide cracks in the clay plaster of the outer walls, so that the wind whistled through the wattle and daub underneath. Although attempts had been made to fill the gaps with straw, damp and cold penetrated unhindered into the interior in many places. In the winter frost, the temperature inside the building was barely above the outside temperature. In addition, the window panes in the parlor and chamber had been replaced by boards, so that the cold was accompanied by darkness. The smell of mold and mildew accompanied the inhabitants throughout the seasons. In winter, when the outside doors were kept closed to protect against the cold, the acrid smoke from the hearth fire added to the smell, making the eyes water and tanning the skin to leather. There was no one in the house who was not constantly tormented by a cough or even suffering from consumption. Even babies seemed to be born here with a cough, and their outlook on life was correspondingly sad.

(*67) „Even the heather is so low that the bees have to bend their knees if they want to collect the honey.“

(*68) Ubbelohe, Ubeloher or Oberloer. Book Gürteler, „Mitte der Senne“, p. 36.

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And yet the people from the Ubbeloh farm, with their relatively large property, were much better off than most of their neighbors around them, who had an even smaller livelihood on their small plots of land as sharecroppers or new farmers.

Parents lived in their crooked huts - often in just one room, children, a scrawny cow, a few goats or other domestic animals. A loom and spinning wheels made for oppressive confinement. Apart from that, there was a rickety table with a few chairs and a rotten bed. And those who couldn't find room in bed at night had to make do with a straw hut on the unmade floor (*69).

As the people could not survive on the income from their farms, they tried to improve their meagre income by spinning and weaving. In poor lighting, with stiff fingers and crooked backs, the thinnest yarns were spun and the finest linen cloths were woven, which were later used to wrap fine people. No child was too small to have to help, no age too ill to sit idly by. Those who lived in this corner of the county of Rietberg were among the most disadvantaged of the country's otherwise modest subjects. Hunger joined them at the table, the cold crept into bed with them in the evening, and death was a guest who entered without knocking.

On this summer's day in 1729, Jacob Ubbeloh had made his way to cousin Wernecke's farm to help out with the work there. The Wernecke family, whose one-day colony (*70) was half an hour away, right on the border of the Rietberg estate, was hit by a very special calamity.

Wernecke, a young farmer of strikingly tall stature, had fallen into the hands of Prussian soldier recruiters, of whom there were plenty in the border region. They had made him drunk with a few schnapps and promised him golden mountains if he allowed himself to be recruited and enlisted for a few years in the Prussian king's „Long Guys“ (*71). Without even knowing what he was doing, Wernecke then signed a contract with three crosses, which obliged him to serve for three years in the Prussian company stationed in Bielefeld for fifty or fifteen thalers - it was not entirely clear. The guards had not even allowed him to report home, but had taken him to his company immediately by force. A chance witness had informed the family.

(*69) The „Report on the state of emergency in the Senne between Bielefeld and Paderborn“ by the Prussian government councillor Carl Hermann Bitter from 1853, published in the „64th Annual Report of the Historical Society for the County of Ravensberg“, (volume 1964/65): The desolation and poverty of the conditions described in this report from the middle of the last century cannot be surpassed.

(*70) Book Gürteler, „Mitte der Senne“, p. 42.

(*71) There are numerous complaints about the „violence of Prussian recruiters and soldiers“. The case of Jacob Wernecke dragged on for many years. (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 177).

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That had happened several months ago, and since then his young wife and her children had not known what to do. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't cope with the work alone. She didn't have the strength to plow and harrow the fields with the lumbering ox team. Who was going to plant the seeds and harvest the crops, who was going to take the grain to the mill and carry out the necessary repairs to the house and barn?

Neighbors and relatives helped as best they could, but, alas, so much was left undone. The poor woman became visibly thin under this constant overload and was soon a mere shadow of her former self.

When Jacob Ubbeloh came in the door that morning, he found Wernecke's wife sitting at the table, crying and completely distraught, while the children stood around distraught. He struggled to find out what had happened.

Wernecke had deserted from his company a few days ago, fled home and hid on his farm. He couldn't help it, he had to help his wife and family. The harvest was coming and he had never wanted to be a soldier. What was he supposed to do with the Prussians? - Last night, soldiers had come, asked about the deserter and, when they got no information, searched the whole house. They had maltreated the wife with sabres and threatened the children, they had trashed and destroyed everything until they finally found the man and took him away by force.

Now the misery was twice as great. Wernecke had to reckon with severe punishment. Desertion was punishable by death in the Prussian army. If he was lucky, he got off with the gauntlet (*72). In any case, they would not release him for years to come. It was desperate.

Jacob Ubbeloh was a hard man who had enough worries and sorrows of his own, but when his neighbor told him about the events, sobbing, he felt like crying himself. Those damn soldier recruiters! Wernecke was not an isolated case. Everywhere in the country where there were particularly tall men, they tried to capture them using nasty methods. Some inns in the border area were notorious for this, as young men who had been drunk beforehand kept disappearing from them. The landlords were supposed to cooperate with the foreign recruiters in return for money. On the other hand, there were also reports of men simply being attacked on the street by recruiters and taken away. Who was supposed to check whether or not the crosses on the relevant document came from the man who had been taken by surprise?

With the help of the pastor and other literate people, Wernecke's wife sent petitions to all kinds of influential authorities in the following weeks and months: to the Bielefeld colonel von Lanstein, to the regimental captain von Zitzewitz and to the Rietberg administration.

(*72) Running the gauntlet was a military punishment in which offenders originally had to run through a lane of spits and usually met their death in the process. Later, the spears were replaced by rods, so that the punishment amounted to severe corporal punishment. At the beginning of the 19th century, these corporal punishments were abolished in the Prussian army.

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Although she managed to save her husband's life, he never regained his freedom. Years and years passed, new petitions brought no result, even after thirteen and fourteen years. The family was finally destitute and completely ruined.

The population learned to hate the Prussian soldiers. More and more terrible stories of assaults were told, and the complaints piled up at the Rietberg authorities, who were helpless.

The anger was unleashed one day during a funeral in Neuenkirchen. While the mourners were in the churchyard, a troop of Prussian soldiers passed by, wanting to return a captured deserter to his company. When the troop reached the churchyard, the prisoner jumped over the fence in one leap and mingled with the mourners. They immediately shielded him and covered him until he was inside the church. From then on, no trace was found, no matter how hard the soldiers investigated. During the subsequent judicial investigation, all the mourners were interrogated individually without result. No one claimed to have heard or seen anything (*73). All those involved were united in their hatred of the soldiers; they even accepted inconvenience and were prepared to make false statements.

The young Neuenkirchen pastor „de Prato“, in office since 1732, was not at all pleased with the conditions in his parish. He had a lot to criticize about the behaviour of his parishioners and their way of life and made this criticism public. He complained in writing to the authorities about what he considered to be the greatest grievances in the parish (*74).

There was the evening gathering of young people of both sexes in the spinning rooms, which in his opinion led to impropriety and even fornication.

He also criticized the fact that there were no midwives in the community and that only old women or whores could help women give birth, with many children dying in the womb together with their mothers.

He was then annoyed by the farmers' behavior during the Sunday church service. Not only did they drink brandy in the nearby taverns during mass and make a lot of noise, but instead of going to church they would drive to the mill by horse and cart to take their grain to be ground.

What made him most bitter, however, was that people did not pay the fees he was entitled to, such as confession and sacrificial offerings and that he was therefore unable to pay his chaplain and sexton.

(*73) Staatsarchiv Münster: Grafschaft Rietberg, document no. 209.

(*74) Staatsarchiv Münster: Grafschaft Rietberg, document no. 60.

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Some, he claimed, would even steal money from the altar instead of placing their offering on it, just as not even 150 of the 2800 communicants in the parish went to the altar on high feast days to make their offering. In the past, the sexton had driven the defaulters out of the pews, causing a great commotion. That is why they now refrain from doing so for reasons of reverence.

Furthermore, the parishioners did not consider it necessary to fetch the priest with horse and cart when he was called to a sick person, as was their duty. The priest would then have to ride to the sick person alone, unaccompanied by a sexton, and there would be neither light nor sound at the sickbed. Nevertheless, in this case the sexton receives his fees in the same way as the priest, which is a gross injustice.

In addition, it had become a bad habit for the congregation to arrive at funerals or annual masses only arrived at the church shortly before noon and the priest had to wait so long for them. He therefore requested that a time be set by which the congregation had to be present for the funeral - for example for example, by ten o'clock in winter and nine o'clock in summer - otherwise the priest would be allowed to leave and the corresponding fees would still be due.

Of course, most of these were accusations that the accused felt were completely inaccurate and unjust. They would not let their traditional habits be driven out so quickly. Their modest pleasures would not be taken away by the new pastor, and it was only natural that they would not place an offering on the altar if there was not enough money to feed their hungry mouths at home.

And compared to the income of the Verl pastor, the Neuenkirchen pastor certainly did very well, as there were many more needy people living in the Verl parish than in the old and large Neuenkirchen parish. Whereas in Neuenkirchen people were frugal and thrifty, many of the newly settled and dispossessed parishioners in Verl were in dire need.

The pastor „de Prato“ should ask around there if he didn't like it in Neuenkirchen: for some years now, the situation of the small people who had to earn their living partly or even entirely from spinning and weaving had become increasingly difficult. Their numbers had increased so much throughout the region that they were competing with each other and sales were faltering. The prices for their products fell lower and lower until they were finally doing their arduous work for a pittance. In return, they had to toil beyond their strength without rest. They were lucky if they could earn a few extra pennies as day laborers on one of the surrounding farms. And when their fingers became too raw from the rough work in the fields to process the fine yarns at home, they ground the skin on their cracked hands on grinding stones until they bled (*75).

(*75) The „Report on the state of emergency in the Senne between Bielefeld and Paderborn“ by the Prussian government councillor Carl Hermann Bitter from 1853, published in the „64th Annual Report of the Historical Society for the County of Ravensberg“, (volume 1964/65): The desolation and poverty of the conditions described in this report from the middle of the last century cannot be surpassed.

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However, their circumstances only got really bad with the advent of mechanical looms and the establishment of a proper linen factory in the nearby town of Bielefeld. Now the prices of their products fell even further, while the cost of raw materials dictated by the merchants remained the same. Despite all their efforts, the numerous home workers were unable to earn enough to feed their children enough cabbage or turnip soup, let alone bread, milk or even meat.

Then came the winter of 1739, which began in October with severe cold and permafrost. Many rivers throughout Europe, even the seas, froze over. The following spring, bread grain was extremely scarce and correspondingly expensive. This summer's harvest was unusually meagre and prices for all foodstuffs rose. The large number of spinners and weavers, whose small plots of land were insufficient to grow enough food for themselves, were in dire straits. In order not to starve, they had to resort to all kinds of things that were otherwise considered inedible: Mosses, barks, roots; they even dug up the carcasses of dead animals to eat them (*76).

The summer of 1742 brought a lot of extra work for the colonels of Varensell. The „Delken Mühle“ mill and its floodworks had been dilapidated for some time and after several makeshift repairs in the past, a thorough overhaul was now required. The Rietberg administration entrusted the supervision of the necessary construction work to master miller Christoph Rive and at the same time obliged all the millers to provide wagon and labor services (*77).

On July 31, Rive drained the water from the Ölbach stream and shut down the mill. After 47 days of strenuous work, it was put back into operation on October 6.

In the meantime, every one of the 80 or so fellow grinders had to be available for up to ten days with a team or their own labor to transport, debark, saw and install 1183 spruce logs. In addition, a large number of craftsmen and wage laborers were employed. In the end, 294 thalers were spent on sawmill, carpentry and blacksmith wages and other craftsmen's work, and the master builder himself charged 29 thalers for his work.

Everyone involved felt relieved when the laborious construction, which had kept them busy all summer, was finally completed so that they could be ready to mill again soon enough after the harvest and after threshing the grain in winter.

(*76) Book Abel, „Mass poverty and hunger crises“, p. 180/181 and 185.

(*77) Staatsarchiv Münster: Grafschaft Rietberg, document no. 1458.

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Nevertheless, most of them were very angry with the master builder Rive. He had pushed them like a slave driver at work and pressed on the pace as if it were his own fortune and not that of the count that was at stake. If someone only wanted to take a short break or arrived late for work because they wanted to take care of their own business first, he had reprimanded them harshly and called them a slacker. He had insulted them if he found them with a bottle of schnapps and called them old drunkards who were good for nothing. If only the farmers had dared, they would have beaten him so badly several times that he would have been unable to walk. Yes, in their eyes he was a real bully and they were really angry with him (*78).

Christoph Rive, for his part, often shook his head at some of these farmers. He himself came from a similarly poor background and had had to work hard all his life to make a living. But he could not understand the phlegm of many of his fellow countrymen. Why didn't they make an effort to get out of their misery? Why didn't they plan for tomorrow and make provisions for bad times? Why were they content to live from hand to mouth and refused to do even one more handshake than was absolutely necessary for the moment?

He had asked them all these questions over and over again and had actually only received one answer, that it wasn't worth it anyway. They could not imagine that their children would one day be better off than they were. Their fathers and grandfathers had already lived in the same desolation. And if someone left more than they had inherited when they died, it would go to the aristocracy anyway, so that the family would be left with no more than before. Why should this change in the future? So why bother excessively?

And so many rural dwellers lived in hopeless apathy, without any hope of a better life. The main pleasure of many men, women and even children was to get drunk to the point of senselessness with liquor from time to time in order to forget the worries and troubles of everyday life for a while. Then it came to attacks on other people's property, on their daughters, wives or maids and to wild brawls, many of which resulted in nasty wounds, if not the loss of life.

Rive couldn't understand the farmers for the life of him. He did not realize that centuries of bad experiences had robbed most families of all motivation. It seemed to him that the persistence of these people in their desolation was only due to sheer laziness. That's why all the conversations he had with the farmers only resulted in them shaking their heads uncomprehendingly.

However, as Christoph Rive was a man who did not give up easily if he did not immediately achieve a goal he had set himself, he also wrote a letter to the count's administration in which he described the mismanagement

(*78) What Ch. Rive thought of the work ethic of his compatriots can be seen from an undated letter to the Rietberg administration. Staatsarchiv Münster: Grafschaft Rietberg, document no. 3411.

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and laziness of many farmers in the county from his point of view and made suggestions as to how they could be eliminated.

If the farmers had known about this letter when they began to celebrate the completion of the construction work on the mill, Rive would probably not have escaped alive. But they were happy when he left the party after a few official words and they were left alone with the miller.

The young Johann Henrich Delker, who had recently taken over from his stepfather Johann Lachman as miller (*79), was no slouch and poured everyone as much grain as they wanted to celebrate the day. His wife Anna Margarethe kept making the rounds with the bottle of schnapps until the atmosphere became boisterous and the speeches increasingly loud and riotous.

When the schnapps had loosened their tongues, the farmers dared to shout out all their anger, which they usually preferred to swallow. They complained about the bad times and grumbled about the high taxes and levies, the compulsory services, the paternalism of the local administration and the distant count, who was only interested in the income from his county. A few scuffles on the side, which were about neighborly disputes, entertained those present and lightened up the celebration.

A festival like this was very much to the farmers' taste and no one wanted to miss out on such an opportunity. It brought entertainment and a change from the daily grind. The schnapps was the greatest comforter, making them forget their domestic misery for a short time.

No wonder that many sought this consolation more and more often, without realizing that this made their situation even more hopeless. At home, slowly becoming disillusioned and with heavy heads, they took out their anger and impotent despair on women and children who had to hide from them to escape their beatings.

As darkness fell on October 6, 1742, some of those present began to sway considerably and tried to lie down on the sacks of flour to rest. So the miller ordered his servants to put the drunkards on their wagons or carts so that the horses or oxen could find their own way home. The „smaller“ people, who were only there with their wheelbarrows, would have to sleep off their intoxication on the spot until the cool night air woke them up and they could stagger home to their angry wives.

On the farm „Cordt to Kraxt“, a profound change had gradually taken place with the arrival of the young woman Gertrud Morfeld. Although she too came from a similarly miserable background as most of the other people around her,

(*79) see succession Farm „Delken“. p. 247

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Gertrud was a person with a clear mind and unflagging energy who tolerated neither sloppiness nor laziness. Her keen eye looked into every nook and cranny, and she often didn't like what she saw there, although everything actually bore witness to greater prosperity than she was used to at home.

The damage to the house had not been repaired for a long time. There was dirt and filth not only in the stables with the cattle and on the farm, but also in the parlors and chambers. Wagons, tools and equipment had not been repaired and cared for as they should have been, and the fields belonging to the farm and especially the large house garden were insufficiently cultivated. Farmhands and maidservants tried to line their own pockets without being noticed.

She herself took care of her clothes and appearance so that she always appeared clean and neat. Her husband looked at her with admiration and was amazed one day when he noticed her running a greasy dishcloth over her face after doing the dishes. In response to his astonished question about the purpose of this action, she explained to him that she could achieve just as much for the beauty of her skin in this way as the rich ladies could with their creams and tinctures (*80). - Yes, she was thrifty and efficient and even beautiful, the young man thought.

For the first time since he had been a farmer, Franz Hinrich saw himself supported in his efforts to pay off the debts he had inherited. This caused him to redouble his efforts. Soon there was no longer any rotten equipment, broken rakes, brooms or drawbars lying around anywhere on the farmyard. Everything that was still usable was gradually repaired and made usable again.

(*80)

Franz Hinrich, her husband, had been aware of all these shortcomings for years and had tried to tackle them. But as he had found no support in his first deceased wife in this respect, his efforts to remedy the situation had largely been in vain. He now found energetic help in his second wife Gertrud. Together they set about putting an end to the sloppiness.

Gertrud insisted that everyone in the house, whether farmhand, maid or child, got out of bed early in winter to tend the cattle. She would not allow cows, horses, pigs and other livestock to be fed too late just because it was dark and cold outside and everyone preferred to lie in the warm straw. She made sure that the cows were always milked early and that not a drop of the expensive cream disappeared down the maids' throats. She skimmed the milk herself and churned the butter.

An unprecedented level of order and cleanliness returned to the parlors and chambers. In the dining room in particular, the tables were now regularly scrubbed until they were white and the floor was sprinkled with fresh sand every week after sweeping.

(*80) My great-aunt Katharin still practiced this kind of skin care.

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Some of the farm's inhabitants, who found themselves uprooted from their usual routine, did not like many of these changes at all. At first they grumbled quietly and soon more and more loudly and clearly about the extra work and drudgery. Soon people were talking about the new conditions on the „Cordt to Kraxt“ farm not only in the neighborhood, but also in the parish villages of Verl and Neuenkirchen. Sheer avarice had taken hold there, many said, and they gloated when some servants left the farm to look for new masters.

Franz Hinrich and Gertrud Cordt to Kraxt, however, were not deterred by all the talk and continued their efforts. In the large courtyard garden behind the house, which had always been used to grow vegetables of all kinds, they used every bit of space to grow more fruit. They planted hops there themselves in the hope of becoming independent of expensive purchases for the brewery (*81).

And the economy was indeed slowly improving. The farm's harvest yields increased from year to year, while expenses fell. The whole estate gradually made a well-ordered and secure impression. As a result, more and more travelers stopped at the inn to give their horses a rest and themselves a short break from the stresses and strains of the journey. Word had got around that you could stop at this rural inn at any time and enjoy a good sandwich with fresh butter and a cold beer, while the horses were reliably fed in the yard.

Meanwhile, the relationship between the two farmers and Johann Hermann, Franz Hinrich's younger brother, who was destined to be the actual heir to the farm, was very ambivalent. He saw what his brother and his wife were doing for his inheritance and how they were constantly striving to free it from old burdens. But he himself had now grown into a young man who would have been able to manage the farm himself despite the impairment caused by his lost eye. However, the abbess of Herzebrock, as the lady of the manor, had set his brother's years of service at 20 years. For him, this meant that he would not take up his inheritance and become colon of the estate until he was in his mid-thirties. What could have happened by then!

Johann Hermann therefore watched with mixed feelings as his sister-in-law gave birth to five children over the years. Wouldn't she perhaps try to enforce one of these children as heir to the farm and oust him from his rights? There were enough people who kept whispering this to him and turning him against his brother and his brother's wife. Soon he could no longer trust his older brother as easily as in earlier years and watched him all the more closely.

But Johann Hermann soon saw that his fears were unfounded. His older brother's crown had been consumed even before he was forty years old and his children had grown up.

(*81) Remnants of hops still grew there when I was a child.

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He was increasingly plagued by a persistent cough, and ever more frequent bouts of weakness forced him to rest. It soon became clear to everyone that he would not be able to last the years granted to him by the monastery to run the farm and would have to retire early to the „old man's part“.

However, as the actual „Leibzuchthaus“ on the farm was still inhabited by other unmarried siblings of the brothers, Franz Hinrich and Johann Hermann decided to add a residential section to the large sheepfold and turn it into another „Altenteil“ (*82).

While Franz Hinrich had to take it easy more and more, Johann Hermann began to look for a suitable housewife. He was now in his late twenties and was soon to inherit a well-ordered estate. He could therefore be quite selective and make high demands on potential candidates as his wife.

In fact, he soon received an offer from the old farmer Joann Henrich „Joann-Limbke“, one of the largest farmers in the county, who wanted to marry off his twenty-two-year-old daughter Maria Elisabeth and promised a good dowry. The parties quickly came to an agreement and Herzebrock Abbey had no objections, so that the wedding date could soon be arranged. In 1747 Franz Hinrich, just forty years old, moved into retirement with his wife and underage children, while Johann Hermann and Maria Elisabeth „Joann-Limbke“ became the new owners of the farm „Cord to Kraxt“ (*83).

Ever since the counts of Rietberg resided in distant Moravia, they mainly brought themselves to the attention of their subjects when it came to new levies and demands for money. This time, however, things were quite different.

The old Countess Maria Ernestine Franziska, who had spent her childhood in Rietberg, had vowed years ago to have another church built in her old home. She now wanted to put this vow into practice. So in 1746, she had the foundation stone for a new church laid in the south-eastern corner of the parish of Verl, on the so-called Mayburg, a site between the Liemke and Österwiehe districts (*84).

The place was henceforth to be called Neu-Kaunitz according to their will.

(*82) The inscription on this former stable and the later hireling's house on the farm Cord to Krax, which Franz Hinrich had converted into a retirement home, reads:

„Anno 1667 — FRANZ HINRICH KORT ZU KRACHST Anno 1747 den 9 Mai ANNA GERTRUD MORFELT“

(*83) See succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*84) Manfred Beine, „Gräflich-Rietberger Baueifer. 250 Jahre Pfarrkirche St. Maria Immakulata Kaunitz“ in: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1996, p. 61.

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picture 27:

Fig. 27: Portrait of Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg. (by the Viennese medallist M. Kraft, 1773)

picture 28:

Fig. 28: The Kaunitz church

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At the start of construction, her son, the young Count Wenzel Anton zu Kaunitz, paid a visit to Rietberg. It was only his second stay there after a brief visit in 1732 and cost his subjects dearly. In addition to the actual hospitality expenses of several hundred thalers, the count's officials considered it necessary to welcome their sovereign with an appropriate gift of 1,500 thalers. To this end, a special tax was levied on the subjects: 5 thalers from the Vollmeiern, 3 thalers from the Halbmeiern, 1 thaler 18 groschen from the Zweitägern and 1 thaler from the Eintägern (*82). For most of them, this compulsory tax was equivalent to many weeks' income. It made the population think of the high visitor for a long time to come.

The construction of the new church, which was to be built with the help of the entire county, was undertaken with great enthusiasm. All the local inhabitants, including those from the more distant villages, were called upon to provide manpower and manual labor. They had to carry the building materials, a total of around 3,800 cartloads of stone and wood, from various places. Of course, the farmers from Österwiehe and Liemke, who were supposed to be the real beneficiaries, had to pay more than the others, but they all had to make their fixed contribution, no matter how little it suited them. (*86).

Once again, the young count, who by now held an important position as a diplomat at the imperial court in Vienna, paid a visit to his small country of Rietberg. Before his arrival in Rietberg on February 5, 1748, the palace administration had gone to great lengths to satisfy his pampered demands. Several barrels of Burgundy wine and fresh Rhenish Salm were ordered. Pigeons and fresh venison were to be procured from the Holte at all times. Nevertheless, the high visitor did not want to feel at home in his castle because he disliked the modest room furnishings as much as the order and cleanliness he found (*87). - How could the people of Rietberg reach his standards, accustomed as they were to Viennese luxury!

Apart from that, he had largely achieved the actual purpose of his journey, namely to raise a large sum of money in his small country. The administration succeeded in lending the county several thousand thalers and sending the money to him on his onward journey.

Meanwhile, work on the Kaunitz church progressed more slowly than planned. When it was consecrated by the Auxiliary Bishop of Osnabrück in May 1748, it was still far from finished. Not even the roof had been tiled (*88).

(*85) Käte Herbort, „Wenzel Anton's visits were dear to the people of Rietberg“, in: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1994, p. 103.

(*86) Rudolf Gürtler, „Kaunitz - eine westfilische Siedlung mit mährischem Namen“, in: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1983, p. 49.

(*87) Käte Herbort, „Wenzel Anton's visits were dear to the people of Rietberg“, in: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1994, p. 103.

(*88) Manfred Beine, „Gräflich-Rietberger Baueifer. 250 Jahre Pfarrkirche St. Maria Immakulata Kaunitz“ in: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1996, p. 71.

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Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the two villages of Liemke and Osterwiehe were delighted: They now had their own parish church with a pastor, chaplain and sexton. Going to church on Sundays, which had so often been a hardship in winter, was made considerably easier. Funerals, weddings and christenings could be attended more quickly. Truly a great relief and reason enough to celebrate!

The Neuenkirchen pastor „de Prato“ had originally also hoped for a reason to celebrate. had hoped for. He had complained often enough about his heavy workload in the large parish. But when, after the construction of the Neu-Kaunitz church, he found out how many of his former parishioners had been relocated, he was anything but satisfied. A total of 127 families from the Österwiche farming community were lost to his parish. This was very clearly reflected in his income, which was now considerably reduced (*89).

To compensate for this, he applied to the Rietberg government to introduce a fixed annual levy instead of the traditional voluntary offering and confession money paid by parishioners. Otherwise he would no longer be able to lead an „honorable“ life due to the poor payment morale of his parishioners.

When, after some hesitation, the Rietberg administration tried to comply with „de Prato's“ numerous petitions, it met with fierce resistance from the parish. For its part, it initiated a lawsuit against the pastor's demands. After protracted negotiations, a compromise was reached which stipulated that the peasants would „voluntarily“ pay the offering and confession money in a „certain amount“ on the four high feasts. Accordingly, each full farmer was to pay 4 x 3 Mariengroschen, each half farmer 4 x 2 Groschen and so on, depending on the size of the farmstead. This would result in an income of 90 to 100 thalers for the pastor. However, this agreement was not to remain valid beyond the death of the current pastor (*90).

For better or worse, „De Prato“ had to be satisfied with this arrangement. He could do little to counter the ideas of his parishioners, who often told him how much better off he was compared to other priests around him, even if he would have liked to wish their spokesmen to hell.

In fact, shortly afterwards, in 1753, a new source of conflict emerged. The „Kraxter Hofe“, part of the farming community of Varensell, which had previously belonged to the parish of Neuenkirchen, were transferred to Verl. Once again, „de Prato's“ income was reduced again (*91).

The wedding of Johann Hermann „Cord to Kraxt“ and Maria Elisabeth „Joann-Liemke“ was celebrated lavishly and exuberantly.

(*89) This issue occupied the pastor, the Neuenkirchen congregation and the Rietberg administration for several years. (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706).

(*90) This issue occupied the pastor, the Neuenkirchen congregation and the Rietberg administration for several years. (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706).

(*91) This issue occupied the pastor, the Neuenkirchen congregation and the Rietberg administration for several years. (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, No. 706).

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It was hard to imagine a better union and healthier economic situation than these two. And so everyone involved looked to the future with confidence.

One year later, the young woman became pregnant, and since her sister-in-law, the sprightly „old lady“ (old women [man's] part) Gertrud, was at her side, she didn't have to worry about the smooth running of the household even in childbirth.

When the „Kraxter Höfe“ were transferred to the parish of Verl, she was particularly pleased as she now had the opportunity to meet most of her relatives and acquaintances when she went to church on Sundays. Although her parents' farm now belonged to the parish of Kaunitz and no longer to Verl, she had always gone to church in Verl since she was a child and knew everyone there. All week long, she looked forward to Sundays and chatting during and after mass.

Maria Elisabeth was pregnant again; but although the birth was not expected for another two or three months, she already felt so clumsy and immobile that she was seriously worried that something might be wrong. Some time ago she had asked her husband to harness one of the horses on Sundays so that they could drive the cart to church. She simply no longer dared to make the long journey on foot.

Her sister-in-law Gertrud reassured her, but she also suspected that this time something was different than usual. In fact, she went into labor at the end of November, a few weeks before her due date. Gertrud hurriedly called the farmers' wives from the neighboring farms for help, and before they had had a chance to make proper preparations, twins were born (*92). A boy and a girl, so tiny and delicate that even the experienced women had never seen them before. had never seen before.

Maria Elisabeth lay completely exhausted and sad in her bed. It was absolutely inconceivable that she could feed both babies sufficiently. One child was certain to die, because raising such a tiny creature on cow's milk was of course impossible. But that meant that she had to choose one of them and sacrifice the other if she didn't want them both to starve.

How should she decide? Who should she give a chance to, the boy or the girl? After much hesitation, she let herself have the boy and put him to her breast. He was the second of the two twins to be born and would therefore, according to Rietberg law, be released from his own custody and be able to live as a free man (*93). He was favored over his sister from the very first breath. The mother must have taken this as an omen and supported him. Only when the little boy had fallen asleep contentedly was it the girl's turn.

The baptism took place the very next day to avoid the risk of one of the babies dying before the ceremony.

(*92) Church records of the parish of Verl, entry dated 27. November 1753.

(*93) This right to release the youngest child from bondage in the event of the birth of twins was confirmed at the last Rietberg Landrecht held in 1697. In addition Schwertener „County of Rietberg“, p. 70.

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The Church made it all too clear to its believers the terrible consequences of a newborn child dying without the sacrament of baptism. It could never go to heaven because original sin still weighed on it. It was therefore worse off than an adult sinner, who could hope for redemption in purgatory after atoning for his transgressions. Even in the cemetery in consecrated ground there was actually no room for these poor, unredeemed souls, and so they had to be buried in the farthest corner by the wall with the suicides or criminals. - Of course, every Catholic wanted to spare their children this terrible fate.

The little girl was buried just one week later. But despite the good omens, the boy's chances of survival did not extend much further. He followed her after just four days (*94).

The two small graves were dug close to two other children's graves. The children of “Meier to Kraxt” were buried there, 14-year-old Joann Otto and his younger sister Elisabeth, who had died within three months of each other in the same year. Joann Otto was the first deceased person from the “Kraxt farms” to be buried here in the Verl churchyard after the re-commune (*95). He did not remain not alone for long.

Maria Elisabeth quickly recovered from her grief. She was almost thirty years old, healthy and strong. She was soon pregnant again, and just thirteen months after the death of her twins, she gave birth to another boy, who was baptized Henrich after his godfather, as was customary (*96).

For some time now, a dangerous new disease, affecting children and young people in particular, had been scaring the area. Like many other more harmless illnesses, it began with a fever, sore throat and difficulty swallowing. The throat became very swollen, which soon led to severe shortness of breath, and after just a few days the sick died of suffocation. This sinister disease, which spread like an epidemic, was known as sore throat or sore throat (*97) because of the coating on the throat of those affected. There was a widespread fear of this evil, which helped to fill the cemeteries with children's graves.

Little Heinrich was just two and a half years old when he fell victim to the disease. His mother had had to watch helplessly for days as he became increasingly short of breath and neither teas nor ointments and compresses could bring him any relief. She had seen his little face turn blue more and more often as he tried to catch his breath. It was so agonizing that her chest tightened and she thought she would suffocate herself.

After his death, Maria Elisabeth was no longer the carefree and healthy woman she had been before. Although she gave birth to a baby boy three months later,

(*94) Church records of the parish of Verl, entry dated December 4 and 8, 1753.

(*95) Church records of the parish of Verl, entry dated July 17, 1753.

(*96) Church records of the parish of Verl, entry dated January 12, 1755.

(*97) This was the previously unknown diphtheria. It first appeared in Germany at the end of the 1750s in the form of an epidemic. Book Vasold, „Pest, Not und schwere Plagen“ (Plague, hardship and severe plagues), p. 204.

[145]

who was christened Johann Otto (*98), all her strength and cheerfulness seemed to be gone.

What did the farmers in Neuenkirchen, Varensell or Verl have to do with big politics? to do? What did they know about the power struggles of the potentates in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and Moscow? What did they care about the wars and battles that the powerful of the world waged over distant regions?

Their fight was against hunger, the cold, the various notes and illnesses, daily survival. This consumed her strength and exhausted her imagination.

Certainly, they knew that their sovereign Wenzel Anton zu Kaunitz had held a high political office at Maria Theresa's imperial court in Vienna since 1753, for which he would later even be awarded the title of Prince. After 1764, this title was finally emblazoned on all his sovereign proclamations. But what did this do for the people of his small county? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Politics was as distant to the people as the large cities themselves in which it was practiced.

And yet, in the years that followed, the power politics of the European rulers brutally interfered with all their lives.

Prussia and Austria were fighting over Silesia and had been at war with each other since 1756. Count Kaunitz, the Chancellor of Austria, had succeeded in creating an alliance between his country, Russia and France against Prussia. When these powers intervened in the course of the Seven Years' War, the small county of Rietberg, which lay between the Prussian garrisons of Bielefeld and Lippstadt and bordered directly on Prussian territory, suddenly became the deployment area for the various enemy troops.

Prussian, French, Hanoverian, Palatine and even scattered Russian troops passed through the Rietberg countryside in colorful alternation, levied contributions and quartered themselves in the houses. The first years of the war were also the worst (*99).

Although the Prussians and their allies in the county of Rietberg had to be regarded as the actual opponents, the effects of various French quarterings were no less devastating for the people than those of the enemy.

(*94) Church records of the parish of Verl, entry dated November 11, 1757.

(*95) Staatsarchiv Münster, Grafschaft Rietberg Akten, Nr. 225, 226 and book J. Temme, “Die französische Armee brachte Wiedenbrück 1757 den totalen Ruin”, in: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1994, pp. 81-87 and book A. Hanschmidt: Die Stadt Rietberg zwischen westfälischem Frieden und Wiener Kongreß 1648-1815, in: “700 Jahre Rietberg”, p. 146-147.

[146]

It all began in the spring of 1757, when Prussian troops marched into Rietberg. Hanoverian soldiers followed shortly afterwards in May, then French and Electoral Palatinate soldiers in June and July. The soldiers confiscated hay and straw for their horses, confiscated the grain and other foodstuffs, slaughtered the cattle, devastated the fields, harassed the population and violated the women.

While the so-called “small French army”, which marched from Wiedenbrück to Neuenkirchen, Verl and Sende on June 12, 1757, consisted of “only” 24,000 men with their wagons and horses, the “large French army”, which subsequently also camped in Wiedenbrück, comprised 65,000 men and 18,000 horses. This large army then moved north via Gütersloh towards Bielefeld and thus did not touch Rietberg.

Nevertheless, the quarterings continued unabated and spread so much terror that the administration no longer felt safe in Rietberg and moved to Trier in the spring of 1758. Until the end of the war, the former count's court chaplain, Pastor Schürckmann, took over local affairs.

The damage inflicted on the population of the Rietberg region by this war was immense and led to further impoverishment of the farming communities. In a region where even in peacetime people could earn just enough to feed themselves, it was virtually impossible to feed thousands of soldiers passing through.

How could there be so much grain left over even on the larger farms that bread could be baked for twenty, thirty or even more soldiers! Where would they get the meat that the officers demanded? Even if the farmers slaughtered all their animals so that they had no basis for their own future, their livestock would not be enough! The men demanded beer and brandy. There was not enough! The horses ate all the supplies of hay and straw; in addition, the gardens, meadows and fields all around were grazed. Nowhere was there enough firewood for so many people. The troops therefore chopped and sawed up everything they could find that could burn; neither tables nor chairs, neither doors or gates were safe from them.

No, it wasn't just the smaller farms that suffered terribly in these miserable times. Sattelmeier Rüscherdavid from Varensell, for example, had fared particularly badly. He had been ordered to make certain war journeys with his horse and cart. No matter how much he resisted, he was unable to refuse. All his horses had died in the process, apart from a 16-year-old mare that was no longer much good. How was he supposed to work his fields now? Apart from three cows, all he had left were three cattle and a young ox. There were only two pigs left in the barn (*100). Yet his farm was one of the largest in the whole county. Rüscherdavid no longer knew what to do.

(*100) Staatsarchiv Münster, Grafschaft Rietberg Akten, Nr. 1643, p. 42

[147]

He, like all other farmers, was not only burdened by the billeting of the various troops, but also by direct war contributions. In 1758, every full peasant had to pay 30 thalers as a war contribution to the allies' coffers, 20 thalers for every half peasant, 15 for the second peasant and a full 10 thalers even for the first peasant. Most of them had to plunge into debt (*101). Further compulsory levies followed in the next years of the war (*102).

Given these miserable conditions, was it any wonder that in the following summer the red dysentery broke out once again in the small country and claimed a large number of victims? (*103)

The “Kraxter Höfe” were in the worst possible location for such troubled times. On their way from Bielefeld to Lippstadt or vice versa, the Prussian troops passed right by these farms. In particular, the “Cord to Kraxt” inn, roughly halfway between the two garrisons, attracted the troops to camp there.

And not only the Prussians, but also their allies and enemies traveled this road with all their troops. They all left their traces behind. It was a catastrophe for the inhabitants. (*104)

The colonel and innkeeper Johan Hermann “Cord to Kraxt” was not taken seriously by the soldiers because of his lack of eyesight and had sustained various injuries in fights with them, which left him crippled and unable to work. He often had to watch helplessly as the savages raided his beer and liquor supplies, slaughtered his cattle and destroyed his other property.

Maria Elisabeth “Cord to Kraxt” was no longer able to cope with the strain. At thirty, she was still young and pretty to look at, but she felt increasingly ill and miserable. She became so disgusted by the harassment of the wandering soldiers that she preferred to hide in the far corner of the courtyard when she heard one of these noisy groups coming from a distance.

She admired the strength and balance of her older sister-in-law Gertrud, who had certainly not had an easy time of it in recent years.

(*101) Staatsarchiv Münster, Grafschaft Rietberg Akten, Nr. 225

(*102) In 1761 alone, for example, “Cord to Krax” and “Gerd to Krax” each collected 15 thalers each, 13 from “Johann to Krax” and 10 from “Hemken to Krax”. (Staatsarchiv Münster, Grafschaft Rietberg Akten, Nr. 2329)

(*103) Book Hanschmidt, „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 147.

(*104) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2. p. 401. „Particularly high war damage and accidents are highlighted, which led to high debts.“

[148]

In the winter of 1752/53, her husband and one of her children had died within a few weeks of each other (*105). Despite all her grief and tears, she had not allowed herself to be deterred from her work. She had carried out her tasks in the house and yard as if she was working for two. Her strength seemed to grow with the challenge.

Gertrud also had an unusual ability to deal with the rough soldiers (*106). Although she was not particularly tall and rather inconspicuous in appearance, she confronted the men with such firmness and authority that few dared to resist her orders. Of course, she knew that she could not take care of every single one of these rude fellows, so she negotiated the terms of their stay with the accompanying officers in the most precise manner and insisted on strict adherence to the rules. the rules.

The soldiers needed space to camp - which they were to have where she instructed - and straw for their camps - which she wanted to provide them with in sufficient quantities. In return, she expected strict compliance with the rules of conduct.

It soon became apparent that Gertrud, although long a personal breeder, was increasingly involved in the management of the entire farm. And when the housewife Maria Elisabeth died in December 1760 at the age of 35, Gertrud took care of the whole household and the motherless children as a matter of course. Just over a year later, the unfortunate farmer Johann Hermann also died as a result of his many injuries, leaving Gertrud with a pile of debts and a number of underage children (*107).

Without further ado, she moved back into the main farm building and threw herself into work.

With a sober mind, she decided to get an overview of the estate's debts first. If she disregarded what was still to be paid to the convent, she came up with an initial list of almost 160 thalers, of which 75 thalers alone were for outstanding bridal treasures (*108). Although this was a heavy enough burden, it was not even that bad compared to the other courts. Unless new misfortune struck, the situation was not hopeless. She was determined to muster all her strength to lead the farm out of this crisis and to preserve it for her brother-in-law's son, little Otto, whom she regarded as her own child.

But the existing problems were soon joined by completely new, unexpected worries.

(*105) see succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*106) For the following events, see the letter from Gertrud “Cordt to Kracks” to the abbess Maria-Th. von Wrede, the letters from Dr. theol. Schürckmann to the abbess and her reply from 1762. (Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 21)

(*107) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2. p. 401 and 408ff.

(*108) Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 42/2. p. 401 and 408ff.

[149]

Gertrud had made her plans without the rest of her relatives, who had already begun to reach out for the orphaned farm at the farmer's funeral (*109).

Old “Johann-Liemke”, the father of the deceased farmer's wife, saw an opportunity to help one of his sons make a living. He argued that if one of them was entrusted with the administration of the colonate until the young heir was of age, the inheritance would at least stay in the family. However, the neighboring “Meier to Krax”, who was distantly related to the deceased farmer by marriage, also wanted his son to be looked after there. It was not surprising that they all tried to transfer the management of the farm to their own family, even if it was only for a limited period of time. After all, they were talking about a period of almost twenty years. Little Otto had only just turned four; it was a long time before he would be an adult. Until then, someone from the clan should take advantage of the court. - What did this widow Gertrud Morfeld have to do with the family? Surely she only wanted to put her own children in the „nest“.

When Gertrud saw that her cards were not in her favor, she wrote a petition to the abbess in which she explained how she had been working for the farm “Cord to Kraxt” for 29 years and had devoted all her diligence and energy to keeping it in good condition even in these difficult times. She still felt young and strong enough to manage the inheritance properly in the future. She wanted to bring up her brother-in-law's two orphaned children with her own and like them. She appealed to the abbess's love of justice and asked the high lady not to let the colonate cast her out.

In order to lend greater weight to her request, she turned to Pastor Schürckmann in Rietberg, who had been in charge of the administration of the county during the previous war years. Pastor Schürckmann knew Gertrud from her childhood days in Moese. He was keen to help her and visited her farm to verify her statements. Afterwards, he wrote a letter to the abbess, convincing her of the efficiency and prudence of the widow Gertrud. He wrote that he had found the farm as well tended and furnished as he wished all Rietberg farms were. Yet the farm was in such a „fatal situation“ (*109b) that it was constantly overrun by soldiers. It was not given to everyone to behave properly in such warlike circumstances, but the widow Gertrud had rendered essential services to the farm and the whole farming community through her sedate modesty and her determined nature. She was an industrious, upright and good landlady.

As a result, the abbess had no qualms about transferring the management of the farm to the widow, who had already been taken from the old manor, for a further 20 years (*110).

(*109) The following account is based on the correspondence quoted above between the widow Gertrud “Cord to Krax”, the priest Schürckmann and the abbess of Herzebrock. (Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 21.)

(*109a) The “fatal situation” describes the “Hellweg” (main road) Lippstadt - Bielefeld, which led from Lippstadt via Rietberg, Neuenkirchen, past the “Kacks” and “Feuerborn” farms, as well as Friedrichsdorf to Bielefeld.

(*110) see succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

[150]

In the same year, Gertrud married Franz Henrich Otterpohl from Verl. Until then, he had worked as a farmhand on her parents' estate and proved to be a capable man. These two tried with great perseverance and tireless diligence during their almost twenty “meal years” to lead the farm to new prosperity.

The following year, 1763, the war came to an end and the people could breathe a sigh of relief. New life and activity soon appeared everywhere.

In August of this year, the first fair was held in the church village of Verl. Livestock traders from the surrounding villages and from the nearby Lippe countryside drove their horses, cows, calves and sheep together the day before in the village in the old cemetery around the church. On the market day itself, August 21, there was a hustle and bustle that the people of Verl had never experienced before. Chickens clucked in their baskets, goats bleated, sheep bleated, market criers offered their diverse wares. And what you could buy there, if you only had the necessary money: utensils for the house and farm, earthen and iron crockery, woven baskets in all sizes, even fine lace and silk and cotton (*111) fabrics and trusses for the women to adorn themselves with. In between, jugglers, fire spinners and jugglers performed their tricks and captivated both children and the elderly. It was such an eventful day that even Pastor Hanebrink, when he baptized the Verl miller's youngest child in the morning, could not refrain from adding to the baptismal register: “incedebant hac die nundina verlenses.” (*112)

Instead of the crowds of wandering soldiers, traders and travelers gradually populated the streets of the country again. Now the location of the “Cord to Kraxt” farm with its inn was once again advantageous. After a tiring long journey on bad roads, hardly any traveler missed the opportunity to take a break in one of the few inns and to strengthen themselves and their horses. Gertrud, with her keen business sense, knew how to make the most of the opportunity. With hearty meals and cool drinks, every guest could recover from their exertions in her house while their tired horses were fed and watered outside.

Gertrud and her husband were soon able to afford new horses and buy more cows. When they visited the market in one of the neighboring villages in the fall, they saw a special curiosity that had people shaking their heads for a long time. There was a trader offering inconspicuous brown tubers for sale. He assured them that it was this strange fruit called the potato, which had been the subject of so much fuss for some time. (*113)

(*111) Fabrics made from cotton satin.

(*112) Entry in the Verl church register volume 6 dated 21.8.1763: “…… The Verl markets coincided with this day.”

(*113) It was not until the spring of 1772 that Count Wenzel Anton of Rietberg issued an order to promote potato cultivation in the county. Book Hanschmidt, „700 Jahre Rietberg“, p. 128.

[151]

Some particularly curious young people actually bought a piece of fruit to try. But they immediately spat out the first bite as inedible. In contrast, turnips, beans and roots (*114) were the purest delicacies. Never again would they touch such a potato, they swore to themselves. Of course, they had heard that this new fruit, which supposedly came from faraway America, had to be cooked before eating, but that certainly didn't improve it much. The general opinion was that they would stick to the tried and tested porridge, buckwheat pancakes and pancakes, flour soups and broad beans.

Nevertheless, there were some thoughtful people who wanted to get to the bottom of the matter and bought some of the tubers to cook at home. Gertrud, the farmer's wife, came home with a handful of such potatoes. She boiled some of them in water, as she had been told, and found them to be perfectly edible. So she saved the rest to plant in the garden the following spring.

The following fall, everyone was amazed when Gertrud was able to harvest a large basket full of fri Gertrud was able to harvest a large basket full of fruit from the few tubers that had been planted. People began to realize that this new product could make a considerable contribution to alleviating hunger in bad years. More and more farmers hesitantly began to plant some of these strange tubers, which thrived magnificently on the light sandy soil of Verl. Meanwhile, new ways of preparing them became known. They could not only be boiled in water, but also fried in a pan. Gertrud soon discovered that they tasted particularly good if they were shaved as thinly as possible and stewed in the pan with a little lard or bacon. She even learned to make a real pancake out of them. Nobody objected to the fact that the potato corner in the vegetable garden grew bigger every year.

However, everyone only learned to really appreciate this fruit in the years 1770-1772, when unfavorable weather conditions once again led to poor grain harvests. (*115)

(*114) Roots = carrots.

(*115) During the famine years of 1771/1772, the price of bread quadrupled. The doctor F. J. Arend, “Abhandlung von drei Krankheiten unter dem Volke im Jahre 1771 und 1772 …”, Göttingen 1773, quoted from the Book Abel, „Mass poverty and hunger crises“, p. 255, writes about the starvation in those years: , “From such a complete crop failure lasting three years followed a dearth unthinkable even to the oldest people, indeed unbelievable even to their descendants, the most dreadful distress, in short the most extreme hunger depressed poverty.” “……….. No wonder, then, that these miserable people, in order to maintain their miserable lives, had to fall back on the worst and unnatural food ……..” In particular, diseases caused by ergot (a type of fungus found in ears of grain) became more frequent. Even small amounts of it in bread grain led to poisoning with nausea, dizziness, vomiting and circulatory disorders in the hands and feet, and finally cramps and burning pains, dry burns and loss of limbs (Book Abel, „Mass poverty and hunger crises“, p. 289).

[152]

Even the frugal buckwheat had not really wanted to thrive. Bread grain became scarce and expensive. Only those who had grown plenty of potatoes did not have to fear hunger. Over the next few years, the plant could therefore be found in every every farmer's garden.

Thanks to her clever foresight, Gertrud was far ahead of the neighboring farmers. She had long since overcome the hardship of the war years and had even begun to accumulate a certain amount of wealth. Her inn, where she was able to offer travelers not only the old, tried and tested food and drink, but even coffee sweetened with expensive sugar, was now regarded as a pure goldmine.

It was inevitable that the neighbors looked on their success with envy and the old, long-buried rivalries between the “Kraxter Höfe” were revived. The family ties that had helped to bridge grudges and quarrels for a few generations were now only distant.

Now, as in the old days, the quarrels flared up again over property boundaries and the rights of way between the farms and on the fields.

It had long been customary for “Cordt to Kraxt” and “Johann to Kraxt” to drive across the yard of their neighbor “Gerdt to Kraxt” in order to reach certain properties. However, the latter was suddenly no longer willing to tolerate this, and he quickly blocked the road. At first, the farmer “Cord to Kraxt” managed to persuade the unwilling man to open the driveway again with a can of brandy. But when he did the same the next time, he and “Johan to Kraxt” plowed up a turnpike (*117) that the other two had previously used as a path. had previously used as a path.

The dispute came to a head, just like in the old days, and the fighting cocks found themselves before the court again. The district judge Blomberg tried to mediate and persuade them to behave better as neighbors. As the “Kraxter” farmers once again lacked the necessary understanding and willingness to give in, in the summer of 1777 the Rietberg chancellery decreed that all parties involved would have to keep to the official roads in future and would no longer be allowed to drive across their neighbors' farms.

This development saddened the elderly farmer's wife Gertrud “Cord to Kraxt”, who had tried to live in peace with her surroundings for over forty years. She understood neither her second husband, who was easily carried away by anger, nor her now 20-year-old stepson and nephew Otto, who was preparing to take over his farm soon. She didn't understand many things about the boy, whom she had taken to her heart like her own son. He often seemed to get a real kick out of looking for trouble with other people. He could pick fights with strange men without needing to, apparently just to get into fights with them.

(*116) In addition: Files of the Rietberg government in the possession of the “Cord to Krax” family from July 1777.

(*117) Zukehr = uncultivated verge intended for turning around plows and other farming equipment.

[153]

Did the quarrelsomeness, the old evil of this family, have to break out again and again, she often asked herself.

She had become very tired over the years. Her once upright little figure was bent by the weight of years, her legs and back so crooked that she seemed as small as a child. Her eyes, which used to be so alert and hardly anything escaped them, were now increasingly veiled and seemed to have turned inwards. She often had to take a break from work to straighten her aching back a little. her aching back a little.

It no longer seemed so threatening to her that one day, which could not be far off, she would be carried to her final resting place in the churchyard in Verl. She liked the new cemetery there, which had been built in recent years not far from the church on land belonging to the “miller of Verl”(*118) around 1770, much better than the old one. While the old one had extended around the church and had become too small and cramped over time, the new one was a little further away and offered plenty of space for the growing congregation. In addition, the old site had always been too lively and turbulent, especially since the annual cattle market was held there. No, she liked the new place much better; she would really be able to relax there.

She often wondered herself where she had found the strength to carry the responsibility for this farm with its many people for over forty years. She was now approaching 70, an age at which other women and men would normally have been on the estate for years to spend their twilight years in peace. How much longer would she have to carry on like this?

But she did not want to be dissatisfied, for however difficult her life had been, she had earned the respect of the whole parish, and when she handed over the farm to her young nephew in a few years, he could call a debt-free and well-managed inheritance his own, whose prosperity was the envy of all.

In fact, the young Otto “Cord to Kraxt” found himself the new farmer on the farm as early as 1780, earlier than planned, after the death of Franz Henrich Otterpohl (*119), who had been the grinder for many years. The widow Gertrud retired for good, this time tired of the burden of the years and relieved to be able to leave her duties to the next generation.

The young Otto married the 20-year-old daughter Anna Catharina of the Verler miller (*120), a very good match, as the bride was endowed with a generous dowry.

(*118) In addition: Files in the possession of the Westerebbinghaus family.

(*119) Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files, nr. 3106.

(*120) see succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

[154]

But there seemed to be no real blessing in this marriage, for all the children died as soon as they were born. The young woman became more and more despondent and soon lost heart. What use were all the warm and pretty children's clothes she had so carefully sewn if none of them remained alive? She grieved more and more each time, and when her little daughter Elisabeth was finally born in May 1785, she was so weak that she died soon afterwards, while the baby survived (*121).

The widower Otto - not yet 30 years old - took the neighbor's daughter Catharina Maria “Hemken to Kraxt” as his second wife. He had conducted the election rather listlessly, although there was certainly no shortage of candidates. It was rumored in the community of Verl that there was no house far and wide with such lavish furnishings, household goods, clothing and linen. And indeed, even the old miller in Verl, who as guardian of the little heiress Elisabeth followed the official inventory, was quite astonished when he saw the unusually long list of all kinds of equipment. From the large 500-liter brewing kettle to the cupboards and bedsteads, from the tablecloths to the clothes of the deceased, everything was in perfect condition, he assured himself. He had never seen so many boxes and crates of richly decorated and ornate women's and children's clothing as here. There was even no shortage of silver and gold rings and necklaces (*122).

This meant that Catharina “Hemken to Kraxt”, who married the young widower, was able to settle into a well-made nest. But this marriage did not last long either, as the young woman died after just four years and also left behind a young daughter. a young daughter.

Living with the now 35-year-old farmer Otto had not exactly become easier over the course of time. had not exactly become any easier. The death of his first wife, who had died without leaving him a male heir, had left him deeply saddened and grumpy. He loved alcohol, which was always available to him in abundance as an innkeeper. His tendency to quarrel and fight, which he had shown earlier, became more pronounced and got him into a lot of trouble. He worked so hard and persistently that hardly anyone could keep up with him and he completely overtaxed himself.

His rebellious spirit liked the rebellious ideas that came over from neighboring France. The revolutionary slogans of liberty, equality and fraternity fascinated him and he made the thesis that rebellion against the old authorities and outdated traditions was necessary his own. was his own.

Together with his neighbor “Johann to Kraxt”, he acted as a peasant judge in the municipality of Varensell at the time.

(*120) see succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*121) Inventory of 9. 1. 1786 on the farm Cord Kraxteren. (Princely Private Archive Rheda, Herzebrock Files, nr. H 21.)

[155]

He did not necessarily adhere to the guidelines of the authorities, but acted largely at his own discretion. In 1788, for example, he drove the schoolmaster Kühlmann from Stammeier's farm with a beating in his office as a peasant judge (*123).

The schoolmaster Kühlmann was considered particularly capable. He worked at five different schools in Westerwiehe and elsewhere at the same time and taught around one hundred children, not only in reading and writing but - unlike the others - also in arithmetic, as he stated on the occasion of the school reform of 1786 (*124). Of course, the lessons could not last longer than two hours at each individual location, as the walk from one schoolroom to another also took time.

In view of this fact, the school fees of 24 groschen per pupil per year seemed too high to the peasant judge “Cord to Kraxt”, especially as he knew how many pupils did not go to school during harvest time anyway. The schoolmaster's complaints about late payers, which meant that he only earned 30 thalers a year instead of the calculated 80 thalers, went unheard. Schoolmasters were poor wretches everywhere, and other poor people were no better off.

This led to this violent confrontation, which went too far for the authorities in Rietberg. Otto “Cord to Kraxt” was therefore sentenced to a fine of 10 thalers, which only made him even more rebellious.

Otto „Cord to Kraxt“ married for the third time in 1792 to Anna Marie Bredeik from Bornholte(*126), a robust half-meier's daughter who was more than ten years his junior. The wedding could no longer take place in the old St. Anne's Chapel in Verl from 1512, which was torn down in August of that year to make way for the construction of a larger and more beautiful parish church(*127). Anyone who saw the faithful crowding into the gloomy old building on Sundays understood that such a building was urgently needed. And so Prince Kaunitz had also seen sense and approved the funds for a new building on the old site. While the faithful set up a makeshift church in the shed of the adjacent „Kutscher“ colony (now the Verl local history museum), the foundation stone was laid in September for the new building, which was expected to take three years to complete and was to be modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of the von Kaunitz family at Austerlitz Castle in Moravia.

The third wedding of Otto „Cord to Kraxt“ took place in this replacement church. But this union did not last long either. Soon after the wedding, the young woman realized how sick and weak her husband,

(*123) The two paid 10 thalers Brüchte (fine) for this. (Münster State Archives, County of Rietberg Files.)

(*124) H. Ridder: „Schulreform in der Grafschaft Rietberg vor 200 Jahren“, in: Heimat-Jahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1987, p. 63.

(*125) see succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

(*126) Bernhard Klotz, „Kirchbau in Verl vor 200 Jahren nach den Ideen des Josefinismus“, in: Heimat-Jahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh 1992, p. 111 ff.

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Picture 29

Fig.29: Die 1800 eingeweihte Verler Pfarrkirche St. Anna (Zeichnung von P. Westerfrölke)

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who liked to pretend to be strong and violent, really was. He died two years later, aged just 37.

Another new man came to the farm. Anna Marie „Bredeik“ (*126b), the young widow, married Otto „Roggenkamp“ from the parish of Gütersloh (*127), who was barely older, in 1794. There was now an abundance of children, which had previously been lacking on the farm. Every two years new offspring appeared, so that by the end of this eventful century the old house was once again filled with the cries of children.

The old widow and personal breeder Gertrud, who had guided the fortunes of the farm for so many decades, had quietly slipped away from life and left no news of her death.

(*126b) Anna Marie „Bredeik“ is the aunt of the German pastor Johannes Otto Bredeick, who was also born on January 23, 1794 on the farm „Bredeik“ Bornholte No. 61 in Verl. In 1849, he founded the town of Delphos, which is located in Allen County and Van Wert County in the US state of Ohio.

(*127) see succession „Cord to Krax“. p. 243

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☛ Times in love and hate - 19th Century

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