Page 4 of 4
2003 Trip To Germany And Poland
Back to the Archive in Szczecin
Normally the trip from Nowogard to Gartz (a small German town southwest of Szczecin) is very easy. Highway E28, which connects with the autobahn at Gollnow (Goleniow), now has a bypass that allows one to avoid the city traffic in Goleniow. Parts of the autobahn are new; other parts are very rough and in dire need of repair. The road surfaces are either concrete or asphalt but I was always curious why the approaches to the bridges were constructed of cobblestones. E28 bypasses Szczecin on the south and crosses into Germany just west of Kołbaskowo which is a very busy border crossing and one to be avoided at all cost. Consequently, we have always used the alternate border crossing on Highway 13 about three miles southwest of Kołbaskowo where we have seldom encountered more than 2 or 3 cars ahead of us. This time we missed the Kołbaskowo exit because a huge line of semi-trucks obscured and blocked the turn off. The trucks were backed up for several miles behind the border station. By the time we realized we had passed the exit we were stuck in the heavy traffic. It took us nearly an hour to reach the border station and then we had to drive another six miles west on the autobahn before we could get off and circle back to Gartz on the Oder.
Gartz is the closest town with restaurants and shopping to our ancestral
villages of Hohenselchow and Gross Pinnow. 
Fortunately, a restaurant was still open when we arrived after 9 pm and we were able to get dinner before retiring
at the Pension am Silberberg on the west end of town. We still couldn’t
carry on a conversation with the proprietor because she speaks only German, but
it sure helped that Duane knew a few more phrases of German than I did. Despite
the problem of communication, we have always enjoyed our stay at this lovely
guesthouse.
Wednesday morning couldn't come quickly enough and Duane and I left Gartz immediately after breakfast to head back to Szczecin. This time I made sure we stopped at both guard houses on the border. I had left my city map at the Pension (guest house) but I wasn’t too concerned because I knew the way to the Archive by heart. Finding the parking lot we had used two days earlier was a different matter. The streets run in every direction and neither of us remembered the name of the street. After circling the area several times, we finally stumbled onto it. I picked up the claim check from the parking attendant, who was trying to tell me something that I never did understand (and which apparently never mattered), and we headed off to the archive.
It took the clerk several minutes to locate where Mr. Szukoua had put the church book, but finally we were holding the prized possession. My elation quickly turned to disappointment once again when Julius' birth in 1846 wasn't recorded. It soon became obvious to me that there still had to be another book. [an aside -- the 1849-1864 Regenwalde church book lists births, and other events, in separate sections -- one for the residents of the city of Regenwalde and another for the residents of surrounding villages. The 1833-48 book didn't begin this format until 1847 -- We missed Julius' birth by one year.] Not knowing what else might be in the book, we spent the rest of the day searching it page by page. It was fruitful beyond expectation -- we found the marriage record of Julius' parents in 1835 which listed his grandfather's name, something that is not commonly done -- it is usually the bride's father who is mentioned. We were ecstatic because we had just gotten back another generation, to our 3rd great grandfather, Christian Maass.
The 3:00 pm closing time came too quickly and we still didn't have the church book for the pre-1847 events for villages surrounding Regenwalde. Did it exist? Could they find it? We knew we would have no luck with the reading room clerk. Miraculously, just as we were leaving the reading room, Mr. Szukoua happened to walk in. Despite the fact it was closing time, he took the time to listen to us. Although he didn’t speak English, he did speak German and Duane, with some but very limited ability to converse, explained the problem. He said just a minute and left to get his catalog of archive holdings. I noticed right away that he had several entries handwritten in his copy. After checking the 1833-48 book and his catalog, he asked us to wait again and about five minutes later he walked in with the exact book we needed. We knew we would have to return the next day for another unscheduled visit to the archive.
The next morning we excitedly returned to Szczecin. We weren't disappointed. I immediately found the record of Julius' birth in Ornshagen, as well as that for one of his older brothers, Johann August David Maass. This was exciting too because I have had information about August (the name he went by), his wife and their eight children for several years but could never confirm that he was indeed a brother to Julius. Click here to see the complete results of our research at Szczecin.
So our trip to Szczecin was a marvelous success but only because of three key people - the American couple who graciously let me know the church books were there; Anetta who just happened to meet Mr. Szukoua a short time earlier and contacted him for us; and Mr. Szukoua who went out of his way to be helpful when the regular reading room staff were unable or incapable of locating material in the archive. We were so grateful.
Kreis Uckermark
After leaving the Archive on Wednesday, we went back to Gartz, picked up
Norma and drove to Gross Pinnow to visit our 3rd cousins
that Norma and I had met two years ago. We arrived later than we had planned and
they were patiently waiting for us. We had a wonderful time getting reacquainted
on a beautiful afternoon and enjoying tea and pastries at a picnic table on the
lawn behind their house. Dominik, their son who now lives in Berlin, had driven
up to Pinnow to see us and help with the translations. Later, when he had to
return to Berlin, his 16-year-old sister, Carolin, was our translator. I had
scanned a number of photos our grandmother had received from her aunts and
cousins in Germany during the 1940’s and 1950’s and they enjoyed seeing them
on my laptop computer. In turn they showed us several photos of their family we
had never seen before. 
They are living in the house that our grandmother,
Hermine, was born in over 120 years ago. The house was owned by Hermine’s
grandparents, August and Henriette Schulz, and has been in the family ever
since. [This photo was probably taken in the late 1920's] Even our cousins didn’t know when the Schulz family first acquired the
house and they hoped we knew. I suspect it could have been several generations
before 1880. It was really a thrill to get a tour of the house and see the very
room where Grandmother Hermine was born.
The
altar, pulpit, organ, brass crown and pews were destroyed
and the church tower was so heavily damaged by artillery
that it couldn’t be salvaged. With ropes and two tractors
the church tower was torn down in 1949. The church
walls are made of blocks cut from field stones. The
red tile roof dates from 1989-90 when considerable
renovation of the nave took place. The original tower,
which was built in 1687, was replaced with a wood tower
and steeple in 1996-97.
Gross Pinnow is also a very old village dating to
1274 and possibly earlier. The origin of the church
is unknown but probably existed before the reformation.
It
is called St. Katharine’s church and is a daughter
church to St. John’s in Hohenselchow. It too was
reconstructed in 1680 after the 30-year-war but burned
down in 1698. The church was rebuilt in the mid 1750’s
and a metal flag at the top of the tower today reads “1762”.
The walls are constructed of cut field stones and
the roof is covered in red tiles. The tower, which
was destroyed in WWII, has been replaced with a wooden
tower.
I knew when we returned Thursday evening that we wouldn’t have nearly enough time to spend with the church books. There are at least nine books that go back to 1797 for Hohenselchow and to 1821 for Gross Pinnow. In 2001 I had found a number of our ancestors and hoped I could expand on this research. Instead I took advantage of having Dominik’s grandfather with us who could read the old German script. Because time was short we went back through my previous notes checking for errors I might have made deciphering the difficult script. It was a good decision because he did find errors I made which demonstrates how easily one can misinterpret the handwriting in these old records. I guess further research will have to wait until another trip or for another researcher. We finally gave up about 9:30 that night to return to Gartz.
Just before we left the Pension the next morning, Caroline and her mother stopped by to say goodbye and to give us some home-grown peaches and a jar of her homemade peach jam. Then after making a short stop at the local grocery store, it was time to head back to Rostock. We left Gartz about 11:15 which wasn’t any too soon. Because of road construction and detours we barely made it back in time to catch our 5:15 bus to Copenhagen. It turned out that the bus was 20 minutes late and we nearly missed our ferry connection back across the Baltic. But all ended well and as we were relaxing on the ferry we were marveling about another amazing and memorable trip.
Copyright © 2003-2004 Gene and Norma Maas
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