Reading at the Breakfast Table

Breakfast table in Saarburg

Usually when I write a post, I pick a topic and try to collect all the material I've accumulated on that subject. Not this time! Why? Because recently I found some unused information from notes I took several years ago when I was exploring and gathering data from my Rhineland ancestors' original homeland.

Herr Ewald Meyer whom I often mention in my blog posts had loaned me some books from his own library; titles he thought would be helpful in my quest for local knowledge. The only drawback was that they were in German and reading them was very time consuming. So each morning, after I finished my breakfast, I would sit at the table in the pretty kitchen of my rental apartment, sip my remaining coffee, read/look up unknown words/take notes on things that interested me.

Of course, I no longer have these books. Herr Meyer wanted them back when I went home to Wisconsin and there was no way I could finish reading them. But they did have information that examined rural life in the Eifel, an area very similar to my ancestors' Kreis Saarburg villages. And even though the notes were pretty miscellaneous, I figured I could add them to the rest of my data at some later time.

Those notes turned up recently - at the bottom of a box that now holds a defunct Quick Pad Pro. Even such sparse facts deserve to be preserved in this blog. But either 1) they belong in a blog post I've already written, and current readers are unlikely to find them there or 2) they belong in a blog post that I have yet to write and probably never will. To my mind, two or three sentences on a subject do not a blog post make!

Rather than lose track of these hard-earned notes again, I'm posting them just as I took them. The blank box at the very top of the Blogger page allows both you and me to "word search" all the "mischmasch" I'm going to post as well as any other topic.

Notes from "Thin Leg with Crooked Horn; The History of the Eifel Cow, or the Long Road to the Butterhill"

Eifel cows were a reddish color. They had a small head, thin neck and fine short legs along with a high swinging tail. They were healthy, liebhaft, light on feet, fairly resistant to disease and didn't require much maintenance.

The stall for the cattle was usually a place with hardly any light, small windows, damp walls, and a strong odor of manure. Sometimes the same barn or stable area held the pig stall, and chickens. The floor was made out of limestone or sandstone plaster. Some straw was placed under each cow but that didn't prevent them from lying in their own waste at times because there was no place for urine to go. Barns were cold in in the Eifel. The manure was kept in the stall in winter to produce a little heat. As the manure was covered again and again with straw, a cow got closer and closer to ceiling. The outer door was not opened very much to keep heat in when it was cold. Another door to the barn led right into the hall in the Wohnhaus (house and barn were together) and the farmer could go into the barn from that hall without losing too much heat.

The feed for the cows (and also for people) was rye and oats as both grew very well in the Eifel. Then they began to plant potatoes as well. Potatoes had been planted at the edge of the Eifel since the 18^th Century. But it was only known as animal food. Then, at the end of the 18^th century, terrible poverty forced people to eat more of what the cows ate. The people found potatoes were good nourishment and could be made into many tasty dishes. And one could plant potatoes year after year without exhausting the earth.

Cows were an important part of farmer’s livestock but they were expensive to buy and to feed if they were to be productive. The land wasn’t always good for cow pasture so sheep were also important farm livestock. Sheep could eat just about anything and eat well.

The year 1816 was terrible. In the Eifel snow stayed until June and then fell again in November. The potates froze in the ground and lay under the snow. People again had to eat like the cattle - minus the potatoes. They gathered a type of walnut from trees that grew in the region and grind it for flour to bake bread. In spring, there were no potatoes to be used for the following year's planting so the next year was difficult too.

In Kreis Witlich and Prum, the oldest son got the majority of the land and the other sons were paid off with a very small sum. They had to stay unmarried and do things around the farm just to have bread and butter.

But in most of the Eifel and the Rhineland, everything was divided up among all the heirs of the family. The measure at this time was the “morgen ha” method, and it seems that using the "morgen ha," land could be divided into extremely small portions. Five Prussian morgen were equal to 1.27 ha or 12.700m2. A common soccer field is equal to 7.140m2. The average farmer didn’t have any more land than 1 ¾ of a football (soccer?) field for his whole family.

In the 19^th century, there were good years when a farmer could produce enough to sell as well as to maintain his family. Unfortunately, usually that meant that all the other farmers were trying to do the same and so almost no money could be made. But they traded butter, eggs and cheese with tradesmen in the village for their wares.

Common cheese was cottage cheese. Butter milk or thinner milk was placed in crock or kettle and kept in a warm place. The fermentation process would start, and little clumps would form in it. To speed up this process you could warm it on the stove. It would take on a yellow color and be thick enough to cut with a knife. They would cut cheese into four parts and then they would put it into a sieve and cover it with a linen cloth. The thin milk came to the top and would be given to the calves to drink. About half an hour, salt, milk and carroway seeds were added and they let it finish. When it was ready one could have for several meals from it and eat it as bread covering. It also would be tasty with pickled beets and two pieces of bread. In the Eifel they made soft cheeses.

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Notes from "Village Life in the Eifel."




In the Eifel the usual dress of the farmer was a blue linen smock, home sewn, used for the daily, often dirty jobs of his workday. It had a partially open front that tied at the neck. The "zipfel" or stocking cap, knit by the wife or Oma, was headwear.

The older farmhouses (1700s) were entered by the kitchen with all the rooms leading off of it. But by the 1800s, there was a hall or staircase that served as the first entrance. The sleeping rooms were above and simply furnished with an oak bed, straw mattress, home woven bed linen, a heavy featherbed, a cradle and a chest. The kitchen had a stone sink.

When a farmhouse was built, the custom was that the farmer drove in the first nail and for each blow needed, he had to provide one bottle of brandy. Before the carpenters began the work, the farmer must pound in the first nail. Once the roof beam was erected, the carpenters placed a decorated spruce tree on the top. The master carpenter then recited an old maxim or words of wisdom. Decorating the tree was from an old widespread belief that this was a magic defense. It should keep away lightening and hardship from the house and its inhabitants.

Quite a few sheep were kept as livestock by small farmers. Before the sheering, a farmer would dunk each sheep in a water pond. This was a way to clean the fleece so that when sheered the wool was clean. After its bath, each sheep would run around in the field to dry before the sheering.

Blacksmith work was mostly shoeing horses, oxen and cows – because each of those animals could pull a wagon or plow. The blacksmith also repaired the metal parts of wagons and wheelbarrows. He had many tools and often served as the veterinarian too, doing surgery with a little knife which he kept in his pocket.

Workday shoes in earlier days were handmade with pins and little nails. The Sunday shoes were made with better leather tops. This raw material came from the tannery; in villages without a shoemaker, sometimes traveling shoemakers stayed with customers in their house. Then on Sunday evenings all people in the village came together and the traveling Schuster would tell them the gossip from other villages along his path. Weeks before a holiday, the traders would come into the village and bring pots, pans, kettles, buckets and household articles because of the cleaning and cooking that would go on.

If you needed a table or a cabinet or a bench of wood, you might go to village carpenter who made these things. That was true especially of the big furniture pieces made of oak as well as doors on the cupboards and table tops.

My notes end here and so does this blog post.

When Life Ended

Photo from Ernst Mettlach


Three weeks ago a very good friend of mine died at age 87 after a few days of hospitalization. As I took part in her memorial service which was attended mainly by those of us who had had the good fortune to know her and which was carefully arranged by a local funeral home, I found myself thinking about the many differences between the funeral customs of our European ancestors and of those of our own day. From what I had learned from a book, LA NORMANDIE: LA VIE QUOTIDIENNE DES NORMANDS, by Hippolyte Gancel, a death in small Normandy village in France was a community affair, involving almost everyone in a final ceremony commemorating the life of one of their own. I knew it was much the same for the people living in small towns and villages in the Trier region.

The friend who had just died had helped me to translate sections of the book by Monsieur Gancel, including the section which described death and burial in rural France in the 19th century; and since she was a partial inspiration for this post, let's start with that information:

In Normandy, when an illness was judged to be very serious, the priest was called, and he gave the last rites of the Catholic Church. Then there was a period of intense anxiety while the sick person hung between life and death. A crucifix was put on a small table or chair along with a plate filled with water that had been blessed as part of the Easter rituals. Resting in in was a sprig of the palm branch which was blessed on Palm Sunday.

If death occurred, the eyes of the deceased were closed. One last prayer was said and then the burial preparations began. The pendulum of the clock was stopped. The windows were shuttered or curtains pulled. The blessed candle was replaced with a tallow candle or perhaps a pair of wax candles. The mirrors were covered, and the photographs of anyone who had died were turned to the wall. If the farm had bees, black crepe was attached to the hive and left there until the mourning period was over.

Someone went to notify the priest so that after the ringing of the bells for the angelus prayers, the bell could be tolled. According to the number, sounds, and duration of the tolling, the age, sex and station of the person was made known. The knell continued to sound after each angelus until the burial. (The angelus was rung from the church at 6 a.m., 12 p.m. and 6 p.m.)

From the time of death until the funeral, relatives, neighbors and friends sat with the body of the deceased. They received visitors. On a table they had a crucifix and a plate of holy water, again with a piece of the blessed palm in it. Those who watched were always provided with food and drink. Each night collective prayer again united relatives, friends, and many neighbors. Sometimes the priest or the sacristan participated, bringing the parish crucifix.

The morning on which the funeral was to take place, the joiner who had made it came to close the bier. The coffin was placed on two chairs and the instruments of blessing were placed at its foot.

The usual custom was for the parish priest to come to the dead person’s home along with all who were to assist in the burial. A cortege was organized. At its head a children’s chorus member carried a bell and rang it before each house. A parish official carried the draped cross, followed by the priest and then by the children of the choir, one of whom carried a lighted lantern symbolizing the eternal life of the deceased. Several meters behind, the coffin was carried on the shoulders of men called pall bearers or porters. If the bier had to be carried some distance, they would relieve one another and pauses were provided at houses along the way where chair were put out to receive the bier. The porters were offered something to drink.

I had sent a description of the Normandy traditions to Ernst Mettlach who lives in Germany to see if he knew anything of Trier area funeral customs of the 19th century. As he has so often, he provided me with just the right information. He took the time to contact knowledgeable experts about burial customs; and they confirmed that the customs of Normandy were similar to those of the German regions, with a few regional exceptions from place to place. For instance, in the German Eifel region, the body in the coffin was always directed with the head toward the cemetery to make the farewell easier for the soul and to prevent the soul from desiring to return to the living.

Ernst, of course, also asked his mother about death and burial customs of her time; and she told him of the death of his great-grandfather and her grandfather, Wilhelm. Soon after Wilhelm died, she said, the neighbours and relatives came, washed him, and dressed him in his best clothes. His eyes and mouth were closed to make him look peaceful; and the eyes and mouth had to be held in place with a bandage until rigor mortis set in. His hands were crossed as if in prayer, and so that a cross or a rosary could be placed in them. The windows were opened so his soul could fly to heaven. Ernst's mother said that the mirrors were not covered and the clock was not stopped as in Normandy. She also remembered that she changed the socks of her Grandpa each day. She said she still remembered the smell of the lavender in the room. When all was prepared, a vigil known as a wake was kept for Wilhelm for three days. He lay in the bedroom in the upstairs of the home. Almost all of the village assembled; it was a thing of respect. Those who kept the vigil sang and prayed, and the men drank Viez and Schnapps.

On the funeral day, the coffin was placed in front of the house and was then brought in a procession through the whole village. The house was decorated as you can see in the picture above. The crucifix was very important; it was a special crucifix called a "Versehkreuz" in the Trier region. Every household had such a crucifix, and it was only used for burials. "Verseh" comes from the verb "versehen", which means "to provide". Two blessed candles stood left and right of this cross, along with a small bowl with blessed water and a palm sprig. (The crucifix in the picture was handmade by Ernst's grandfather, and it is now in the possession of his mother. It was again used during the burial of her mother and father.)

Today as well as in the past, the church bell rings in the German villages to announce a death just as it used to do when I was growning up in my small farming village in Wisconsin. I remember counting as the bell tolled, hoping for many tolls. That would mean it was someone old who, after a long and good life, had died; it was not a young person who had not really lived to accomplish his or her dreams.

In our time we speak of the need for closure after a death but find it hard to achieve it. Our ancestors may not have known that word, but they certainly knew how to go about it.

Sources:
LA NORMANDIE: LA VIE QUOTIDIENNE DES NORMANDS, by Hippolyte Gancel
Ernst Mettlach