RR3 FRANSEN

Zerbst, a city approximately 2 hours southwest of Berlin by car is where Catherine, later Czarina of Russia lived when at age 15  in 1744 she left for St. Petersburg. Two hundred and fifty years later(1994) Mary and I were in Zerbst where they were celebrating the 250 year departure of Catherine from Zerbst. 

Several weeks prior to this our boss Hans von Niessen had called us from Neuwied, on the Rhine in West Germany and asked us to go to Zerbst and find a Friesen family, who had recently arrived in Zerbst from Kazakhstan. No address, no phone number, nothing.  We packed, got into our  car and traveled southwest on Autobahn 9 toward Leipzig and indeed did find the Friesens, 48 in all, who had traveled by bus from Kazakhstan to Zerbst. The family consisted of three couples, each of whom had several children and  grandchildren. There was a great deal of excitement when the Friesen clan met us and found not only that we were Mennonite but more important that we could speak Low German. We were bombarded with questions such as: "will we find work here? where in Germany should we settle? why can't we live in West Germany where we have relatives? and many others. We subsequently visited Zerbst on numerous occasions. 

But now the city of Zerbst was celebrating the departure of Catherine from Zerbst and also the return of "Germans" to their homeland. On the invitation of Catherine the Great in the latter half of the eighteenth century many Germans, including our Mennonite ancestors had left Germany(Prussia) and now approximately two hundred years later were returning home. It just happened to be a coincident that the Friesens had returned to their "homeland" exactly 250 years after another German (Catherine) had departed from Zerbst to go to Russia (St.Petersburg.) The theme quite appropriate for the occasion was: "Der Kreis ist geschlossen." - the circle has been closed. 

On this particular Sunday the townspeople had gathered to welcome the Friesen clan into their midst. The mayor spoke. Helen Martens and Mary provided musical numbers consisting of a small children's choir that Mary had put together from the Friesen family. The local Lutheran pastor likewise had been invited and brought a short meditation. 

We always had fond memories of Zerbst.

herb

Ted, I must say that I had difficulty sorting out the relationship between Stettin (the birthplace of Catherine) and Zerbst. Catherine's father apparently was a military man from Anhalt-Zerbst and was stationed in Stettin. It was at this time that Catherine was born in Stettin and lived there several years before moving to Zerbst. Perhaps one can conclude as you did that because her father was stationed there Stettin was somehow under the jurisdiction of Anhalt-Zerst.

Thanks for helping clarify this.