We planned this trip for about two years in advance. We had no idea that it was a realistic possibility but began by asking our family contacts in Germany what they would think of such an idea. The responses were slow in coming but with some prodding from us they organized a committee in Europe and invited us to help in the planning. In the end the vast amount of planning and work involved was done by a small group of Fransens in Germany representing the different lines of Fransens.
As you know the lineage basically involves our father’s (NN Fransen) surviving first cousins. Other than Jack in California this included six cousins in Germany - Lisa, Justa, Maria, Tina (Katharina), Gredel and Jakob. Lisa is 97 I believe and could not attend and therefore we are dealing with five first cousins present at the Treffen.
The committee had made an elaborate genealogy chart which covered a long wall, with a second chart on another wall that covered the Wiebes who were descendants of Elizabeth Funk's first husband Diedrich Wiebe. Name tags were colour coded based on the ancestral tree from which one descended. This as well as the wall chart was very helpful.
Our group of North American Fransens were treated royally one might say. You know who attended from NA (15 in all) and so I will not list them. We came from many directions, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, California, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania and arrived at the Frankfurt airport within two hours of each other on Friday July 2. Actually Fred and Angelika with their children drove in from Klettwitz, Germany where they were spending the summer. At the airport we were met by Johann Dueck, son of Franz Dueck who happens to live midway between Frankfurt and Rehe where the Treffen was held. Johann had brought two vehicles of their own and had leased an additional vehicle for the weekend which was of immense help to us in being picked up at the airport on Friday and then delivered back there on the following Monday morning. Rehe was perhaps 1 1/2 hours from Frankfurt. Johann's wife Ursula had prepared a lunch for our entire group and so on the way to Rehe we were taken to their home in Huettenberg and were able to spend several hours there. The Johann Duecks have a large family and so they have a beautiful, large home in which they have been raising their children. We were impressed at the neatness of the family as well as their home and yard. The lunch was delicious.
The Christliches Erhohlungsheim was one of many such retreat centers that the larger German Lutheran church has throughout the country. I was familiar with this type of campus from our earlier years and meetings at various retreat centres in Germany. The entire campus gave the impression of the utmost in cleanliness and taste. A "Hausvater" was in charge, being generally invisible except to appear before each meal to offer a short prayer and make whatever announcements needed to be made throughout the week-end. Approximately 170 "Fransens" attended. Walter Fransen, son of Justa headed up the planning committee and was in charge of week-end activities.
The week-end extending from Friday noon to early Monday consisted of much time for visiting, family reporting and a variety of devotional events including prayer meetings, choir, and a long Sunday morning services where two of the Fransen clan preached. Several poems mostly reflecting on the seriousness of life and also on past difficult sojourns that had been part of the lives of these our cousins were presented by several of the older women. The NA Fransens had an hour, probably an hour and one half to present something that would reflect what had happened to the descendants of Nicholas Fransen and Maria Wichert since they left Mariawohl in 1926. Ted introduced this portion of the session with a short prayer that Fred translated into German and then the DVD from Jack Fransen, California was shown. It was done in good German and was very much appreciated. I made a few comments as to how it occurred that one branch (our branch) of the Fransen clan had gone to North America when all the others had stayed behind. Then several others reported on the families of each of the children of Grandma Wichert. Our presentation was sort of impromptu and because earlier ones had been thoroughly prepared and included many, many pictures of families and also individuals we were told that we were appreciated for the free wheeling report that I must say came across quite well.
Needless to say not everyone spoke each others language. A few of the younger Europeans spoke a good English and a few of our NA delegation spoke German. In can be said that Edith and I perhaps spent more time with the older (First cousin) generations. In the Sunday morning service Edith joined the choir and Fred was asked to translate one of the sermons into English for those who did not understand German. For the other sermon Angelika was sitting among several of the NA English and translated for them.
The older generation undoubtedly would have appreciated having you older folks there. I could only imagine how they would have related to our father had he been there. I have been present in earlier years when he was still alive on such occasions. Now however Edith and I were the recipients of this added attention.
It was wonderful to have the other NA travelers with us. They were all well accepted among the European relatives and seemed to be enjoying their stay in Rehe as well. We were immensely proud of each of them and this included Jeff & Sharon's seven year old twins Hannah and Kate, and Kata & Nicolas our grandchildren from Indianapolis. I do not know whether any of the younger people will describe this week-end in any greater detail for you but hopefully they will. My impression was that a recurring theme in their minds was that: "Here except for an incident of typhus and death (Nicholas Fransen 1879-1922) all of us undoubtedly would have suffered a similar fate as these our relatives had - exile from their ancestral homes in Molotschna , a long sojourn in the former Soviet Union and after many difficult years a migration to present day Germany". It was good to see some bonding and even friendships developing between some of the younger people and their spouses, all descendants of Klaas Fransen (1851-1922.)
Needless to say this week-end in Rehe before our trip to Ukraine was a wonderful introduction for what was to come in the Mennonite villages of Ukraine.
Written by Herb Fransen
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ReplyDeleteSo sorry that I missed the Cafe event at the Treffen - I guess I was at Choir practice!
ReplyDeleteHerb has done an excellent job of weaving together an account of the Fransen Treffen.
ReplyDeleteEsther and I also had a wonderful two days within the extended family circle. Our highlights include Johann and Ursula’s gracious hospitality. When Johann discovered that Esther and I were planning to take a train from nearby Herborn to Berlin he offered a proposition. We gladly accepted and then had a most enjoyable three hours with Johann. He toured the region with us including a stop at a Schloss and dinner in an outdoor Greek restaurant in Gießen. It was Johann’s contention that the train connections at Gießen were superior to those at Herborn; A very kind consideration.
While we were touring, Johann spontaneously called his son Ben who is now living in London, England with his wife Danielle. They were expecting the arrival of their first baby any day and therefore could not attend the Treffen. It was wonderful to chat (handsfree, speaker phone of course) with Ben. He had visited us in our home in Morden back in August 2002 during the annual Corn and Apple Festival.
Johann loves to drive fast. On one of our trips in his BMW, the speedometer was observed to be around 240 km. He drives effortlessly and conducts business on his surround sound cell phone. I suppose anyone who can raise 14 children and still be sane will not be all that challenged on the Autobahn.
Earlier at the Treffen, we had visited with Ben’s 2002 travelling companion Andreas Muss. Edith has already identified Andreas for us in her previous blog. Andreas is a university student (seemingly life-long, something some of us can identify with). It was Andreas who reminded us at Rehe that his visit to Morden seven years earlier had been during the Festival weekend.
One of the highlights for us was spending Friday and Saturday evenings at the retreat centre’s café. It served a range of thirst quenchers. The younger European Fransens joined us there both evenings. The visiting and laughter grew louder and louder, to the point where Harold Regier and Johann decided to leave the campfire sing-a-long and join us at the café tables.
Herb’s connection to the 1922 typhus and our own circumstances is eerie. It does give one reason to stop and reflect on how circumstances shape our lives. Or do our lives shape the circumstances?
We parted company with our fellow North American relatives and headed for Berlin while they headed even further east to our ancestral villages - where we had been only two years ago. Our European adventure had had a warm first chapter.