re. Stille Jahre in Gertlauken
Monika Ferrier
Re: the book "Stille Jahre in Gertlauken" (Siedler Verlag, Berlin, 1985,
ISBN 3-88680-169-1) mentioned here recently. It concerns the years 1941-1944 in the village of Gertlauken in (former) East Prussia and was written by
a young school teacher, Marianne (Guenther) Peyinghaus (she was just 20
years old in 1941 when she began her teaching career here).
Following is a list of the names (and, sometimes, further information)
appearing in it.
Many names in Gertlauken end in:
-at: eg Dannat, Struppat
-eit: eg Schustereit, Nikoleit
-ke: eg Lemke, Liedtke
Names, other than those mentioned below: Naujok, Schulz, Hans Buecker,
and Scharfetter (who apparently came from Austria in the 1730s).
Children mentioned in 1942: Gisela Schwarz, Waltraud Pahlke, Gunter
Buttkus, Reinhard Neumann
- by March 10, 1943, 23 from Gertlauken had been killed in WWII,
compared to 36 in WWI, 1 in the war of 1870/71 and none in 1813
- Appel: he's a forester (=Foerster?), died Nov 1943, age 68; his wife is
approximately 25 years younger, and they have a son about 7 or 8
- Bachert: the father died Feb 1944, age 54: son is a soldier, daughter is 16
years old
- Beckmann, Christel (born ca. 1931): her grandmother was married 3 times,
had 15 children of which 6 died, 1 was killed in WWI, 2 are in America, the
others live close by; Christel's brother (I think) is 15 in July 1944
- Berkan: he's a teacher and they have 3 children: Elke (born Jan 1944, died
June 1944), Sigrid, and Henning
- von Cohs: he's the head forester/gamekeeper, had died by 1947; 3 children:
Wolfgang who is 5 or 6 by Nov 1944, Eberhard 4 or 5 by Nov 1944, Franka
born Nov 1944; his wife had died of typhoid fever by 1947; Franka was
taken in by the Kather family, one son went to the Schwarm family, the other
to the Froese family
- Donnat: she is a seamstress in Nov 1943
- Eggerth: a spinster
- Kaiser: 2 sons killed in action in WWII
- Kerwath: they own the inn "Der Krug"; have a daughter, Lorchen
- Kippar: he's a forester/gamekeeper, later a soldier and declared missing in
action, never returned home; his wife (Christel, born August 6) has one
brother who is a soldier, her youngest brother was killed in action leaving
behind a wife and 4 children, she and her brothers come from a long line of
teachers, their parents live in Christburg in Sept 1943; the Kippars are
childless
- Krause: he's a forester
- Lemke: he's a sergeant major; they have 6 girls, 2 in their early 20s
- Mauritz: the son died Jan 1943 age 19; the girls are 17 and 6 at this time
- Neumann: son is at school close to Marienburg
- Radke: he's the baker
- Schustereit: he's a "Kaufmann"= storekeeper?; they have one daughter
- Stachel: he's a teacher, later a soldier; his wife (Erika) is in her 30s, they
were married June 1933 and have 2 children, Peter and Helma; her parents
lived in Deutsch-Eylan in Feb 1944
- Stachelowski: she works at the post office
- Strupat, also written as Struppat: she has a brother in Chicago who wrote
to them in March 1942 in English and now in September, Marianne
Guenther translates this letter (but doesn't talk about the contents)
In 1946, Christel Beckmann writes to Marianne (her former teacher) about:
- Hildegard Schustereit, her school friend, died in Russia
- her cousin Ingrid Iwahn died
- her aunt and uncle Matschull died
- her friend Lotte Jakobeit and mother died
- Lies Wallat, Eva Gronwald, Siegfried Schwarm died
- her cousin Herta and Gertrud Beckmann are working in Deimehoeh
Marianne Guenther's parents: her father was born Sept 24, 1886, her mother
Sept 16, 1888 and they were married October 1919.
- Marianne was born April 16, 1921 and married Fritz Peyinghaus who is
about 10 years her senior
- her brother, Wolfgang (Feb 27, 1923-?31.12.1944 killed in action)
Marianne Peyinghaus mentions working on a history of Gertlauken, extracting
births/deaths/marriages from the church registers. But, the book does not
state whether this was ever published, lost or destroyed in the war.
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Monika Ferrier