The Great Hollenberg Saga

1000 years of Life,

1000 years of Struggle,

and moments of Happiness.

“The most comprehensive genealogical

data gathering of the 1000 year old

Hollenberg-Family-Tree on both sides of the Atlantic”,

and an amazing discovery: how this ancestral-trunk has given us over

centuries a multitude of branches and buds, of leaves and blossoms

– strong and beautiful – all way to the survival of our times.

Picture on front cover shows:

The backside of both estates,

Niederste-Hollenberg and

Oberste-Hollenberg,

(fall of 2010)

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It’s here where 1146 A.D. it all started in short:

Holenberg

It’s the story of an ancient place in the dark, old times:

The “origin”of the Hollenbergs.

At the beginning there was soil and few people.

And there was love and flowers and freedom.

There was family, the clan and that was the beginning.

Those people were working the soil.

In those times it was just making a living -- to survive.

The large family resulted in spreading around.

The early centuries meant roaming around in familiar territories.

Territories what are today North-West Germany and neighboring areas.

Those early times were periods of common ownership and individual freedom.

Then the “Others”came, threatening, endangering the Clan’s free life.

The story of man-kind --- allover again:

There was competition with new ideas, other beliefs --- and survival again.

Thus, either facing or accepting the early forms of changes, adjustments --- or fighting.

Leading into the “Dark Period” of the Middle-Ages:

The Catholic Creed was forced upon and vassalage applied.

Many siblings had to leave, serving different masters in different territories.

Then, there were changes in matters of Religion.

First, around 800 AD, it was all Catholicism --- enforced.

Then, with Luther (1517 AD), it was Protestantism --- enforced.

Some others turned Jewish or else --- voluntary.

At all the time poverty, enforced by man: Church, Crown, Nobility

or nature increased the need of spreading around as in times before.

This time, however, there were alternatives:

And that’s what’s all about:

The Great Hollenberg Saga

The

Great Hollenberg Saga

The history of the family farm

Special emphasis given to the lineages of:

---- Teepe- Tapy- Hoffman (Missouri)

---- Frederic John Hollenberg (Indiana)

---- Gerat “Henry” Hollenberg (Kansas)

---- Hermann Friedr. Oberste-Hollenberg,(Indiana)

---- The Gerlemann girls (Missouri/Indiana)

---- Niederste-Hollenberg/Kuhlmann Specials

---- „All other Hollenbergs in America“

And many other names of related families, like:

Ahlemeyer, Baumunk, Beck, Beimdiek, Bergmann, Binns, Bloomquist, Bünemann, Bremer, Chambers, Clark, Consmüller, Dasmann, Determann, Dentzer, Diekmann, Echelmeyer, Elstrodt, Epennart, Gerding, van Hamleden, Hilgediek, Hischemöller, Hoff, Hollers, Hunzicker, Kellermeyer, Knapp von, Knüppe, Kreiger, Kuhlmann, Lohans, Lowenhaupt, Maury, Meyering, Mitchel, Oberhellmann, von Poseck , Purnell, Rehmeyer, Ried, Riesenbeck, Schohmeyer, Schreck, Schulte, Sticker, Schwermann, Telgemeyer, Tiemann, Wiele, Witte, Wulf.

The history of the family farm

Niederste-Hollenberg Oberste-Hollenberg

Old House – Inscriptions from 1792 AD

For the estates of:

Niederste Hollenberg Oberste Hollenberg

„Ach, Gott, hilf, daß ich such Dein Reich „Der Herr unser Gott sei uns freundlich

O, Herr, allsorg, gib Brot dabei“. und fördere das Werk unserer Hände; ja,

das Werk unserer Hände solle er fördern“.

„Godt mit uns, wel kann dann weder uns“. (Plattdütsk=Low-German) – before 1700 AD)

Soil and Plow

– Partners throughout the Saga –

This plow has served generations of Hollenbergs. Was retired at the end of WWII.

Dedication

• To all families carrying the Hollenberg name, their relatives and friends.

• To all who left or had to leave the home-base

• To get to know each other.

• To better understand their history and our own past.

• To learn about the achievements of our ancestors, as well as their

grievances and struggles.

• To prepare us and our children for the challenges of the future.

• To improve the relationships of our people across the Atlantic.

• To the place of “Origin” of the Hollenberg Saga.

• To the beginning of an old and long story, yet unfinished.

Introduction and Acknowledgement

Having reached retirement in 1996, I channelled my ardent interest in history and politics into the investigation of the past of our family and historical events in the area in order to better understand the correlations of the land and the people, their lifestyle and tradition.

The fact, however, that I did spent considerable periods of my life on both sides of the Atlantic proved to be most helpful in the pursuit of this project.

In writing this story, I dug through old papers, faded pictures, historical data that were available in miscellaneous archives, and beyond all of it, the many memories of my childhood at the parental home, the old Hollenberg estate.

To my surprise, I found old documents, which gave me the opportunity to take a glance at the lives of our ancestors, of many generations which carried our name through at least eleven centuries in time of despair as well as in moments of glory.

However, this book should beyond the very personal and private element also help to give an insight to details and developments of our common past on both sides of the Atlantic.

Let’s confront us with our history and determine whence we came from.

The prime emphasis in this edition is the migration of people across the Atlantic, their reasons and their getting along. I have taken some effort throughout this book to explain certain historical facts about their “Why”, the“Why”of those who decided to take their life into their own hands.

Instead of starting with the macro picture, I used the micro approach: The basis were many data of several dozen of families gathered and analyzed over years from their familiar historical background in order to find a very personal answer to their “why” --- whatever the circunstances might have been. This question”why”, however, has many answers necessitating some specific explanations of a few historical developments in the early centuries of the Middle-Ages, like:

--- The “tithe” and the consequences thereof, first issued by Charlemagne around 782 A.D.

at the Imperial Diet near Lippspringe, Saxony, in his attempt to Christianize the territory under his control, after he had subdued the Saxons in a 30 year long struggle.In one of the 14 laws of the “Capitulatio departibus Saxonae”, he declares that

every parish is to receive 2 “Hufe” (approx. 50 acres) of land, plus the services of farm hands and maids and the tenth (tithe) of any income.

--- The “feudalism” that followed and what nobility and clergy later did with those initial

rulings. Feudalism came from Italy, and then started first when the Merovingian and Franconian king paid their generals and administrators with grands of land. Soon it became hereditary and (semi-)independent. Feudalism developed then to total economic subjection and military allegiance of a man to a superior. Over time it had in parts of central Europe hundreds of variations in material volume and human/personal severity.

--- The conflict between Crown and Clergy and what came of it, lasting till modern times.

--- And within that framework the suffering and endurance of living creatures throughout the following centuries.

Every visit at the family estate there reminded me of what did it take throughout those 1000 years to stick together, to struggle and to survive: It was just that kind of family glue that held together pieces of my life as well, to help me find my own way. The parents Mama Alwine and Papa Wilhelm did and brother Erich and his wife Christa still keep the family bonds alive to this day.

I will never forget my parents’ final farewell when I migrated to the United States: “Son, whatever happens, never forget where your home is, and that’s where you always can come back to”.

Even now, when driving down the “Hollenberg Straße” towards those old, big oak-trees, I am again the young boy at the place where I grew up and where I was allowed to be a child. A place full of liberality (not to be mistaken with the modern US-version of liberalism!) and permissiveness coupled with strictness and discipline and lots of family – often kinship. A place where I could count the clouds in the sky from under the huge oak trees lying under the biggest of them and where one could dream about the world, the future and what it might hold for me, for all of us.

There I learned riding the bike, played soccer with brother Erich and the boys from the neighbourhood.

There was PAPA, our father, the thraight-forward, always responsible chacacter, and MAMA, the “woman of love”.

Then on-going, there came the educational/schooling part of those years at the Gymnasium in Tecklenburg and at the University of Hannover.

That’s what childhood is all about!

This kind of childhood with its accompanying environment has in the German language only one word:

--- Heimat ---

As life has gone by, and now with an opportunity to look back, I am grateful to my first wife Edda, who passed away too early in 1990, the caring and loving mother of our children Sassia and Sascha.

Sassia lives in Kentucky, near Lexington, with her partner Rick Wilke, while Sascha lives in Wald-Michelbach with his wife Kathy and is working for a US based corporation in the IT business.

A few years later, my present wife Sigi, partner and companion, helped heal the wounds and dispel the sorrows, and she has given me comfort and love ever since. Without her support, there would be great darkness.

Her son Uwe is working near Heidelberg with the software Company SAP, and her daughter Petra, who is married to Peter Zuber. They returned some time ago with their two girls, Jule and Svea, our only grandchildren, to Germany, after having lived and worked for over 15 years in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Several years of research were needed, including the familiarisation with the old German letters and their symbols, plus the editing of texts and pictures to complete this account.

The translation of the old Latin documents might be a bit amateurish considering my engineering education, but, nevertheless, it should reflect the intentions and decisions of the superiors of the Church around 1146 AD in the land of the Saxons.

The book, after all, is very much addressing all the genealogically interested and related folks, their offspring and friends who left Europe for America centuries ago for freedom, a better life or for many other personal reasons. All of them carry the historical burden of being more or less tied to the Hollenberg name.

The immigration waves from Europe to America defined and determined in a dramatic way the historical bonds across the Atlantic with noticeable contributions by the miscellaneous genealogical tables of the “Old Hollenberg Families”.

These particulars cover several hundred years of marriages, name changes, new blood lines, off-springs, emigrations etc., with plenty of inspiration to take those data as a starting point for new personal genealogical endeavours.

The direct name-bearer of those many immigrants is relatively easy to trace. Others, with different names by marriage or otherwise, are much more cumbersome. The many personal details presented provide plenty of reasons to interconnect with all of the Hollenbergs, and can, at the same time, also be a starting point for further research in the “book of ancestors”.

In reviewing the details of the family tree, the reader is going to find, besides the two Hollenberg strings of Niederste-Hollenberg and Oberste-Hollenberg, many other names which are either directly or otherwise connected to the original base of the two estates which, however, started out at one place for the first time mentioned in an old Church document as

“Holenberg” around “1146 A.D.”

Those names, to name a few, are e.g., Echelmeyer, Dasmann, Teepe (later in America to become Tapy), Knüppe, Hoffmann, Gerlemann, Diekmann, Telgemeyer and many others.

Our friends and distant relatives in the New World should be encouraged to get in touch with them and gather additional information and data about their struggle, anxieties, hopes and achievements.

That longing for: “Where did I come from? How was it at the time? How did it all happen?”

All those questions are still valid to us and throughout times.

And yet, it is already at this point my utmost desire to thank - outside of my family – all and everyone who did encourage me on my work and gave helpful hints and comments.

Special credit is given throughout the book where applicable.

However, a few names need to be mentioned for their outstanding help and support:

Krista Hollenberg-Cussen, Brigitte Jahnke, Lois Rupert Edmister, Rachel Clark, Dr. Gunter Böhlke.

Particularly invaluable was the support of my son Sascha and my daughter Sassia. I am very grateful and thankful to my wife Sigi for her unrelenting patience and enduring help, her constructive critique and advice.

After all and in conclusion, a never ending gratefulness to my parents and the parental home at the Hollenberg Street 5, (49492) Westerkappeln, Westphalia, Germany, is going to be with me until the end of my days.

Fripp Island, South Carolina – USA

Wald-Michelbach ---- Germany

Heinz Niederste-Hollenberg

PS/ --Errors and mistakes in wording and grammar should be excused with grace and lenity.

Another note-worthy remark: All of the following is not only meant to be a summary of family affairs, it is also, in part, a way of taking position on historical and present day political matters.

As such, I am particularly concerned about “Our Situation” in general, i.e. our relation across the Atlantic:

The European-American Relations.

“The Western World” (the old classical Occident), and that is Europe and America, is being challenged politically, strategically, economically, and even in the long run, militarily.

These challenges come, for different reasons, from different directions and different power centers, and they are aiming at the very basic foundation of our society:

• Our culture

• Our understanding of liberty and freedom

• Our religion

• Our democracy and free-market economy

• The common basis of our “Mediterranean Logic”

All our commonalities on both sides of the Atlantic (85%) make present day differences (15%) look minor, if we realize that our platform is not shared by anyone else in other parts of the world. We are one part of the same.

Europe is still busy with its own fate and needs time to find its own identity.

Americas’ power, on the other hand, is not without limitations.

Both need each other, and less resentment on one side and less political arrogance on the other is needed.

Our commonalities go way beyond the elements of consanguinity and culture. In particular included is the “Mediterranean Logic”, which originated in the Jewish-Christian source of our religion in the Middle-East, then moved via Greece and Rome to the Renaissance and Enlightenment in Europe, all the way into the 20th century with the tremendous sacrifice America made to help form a unified, peace-loving, democratic Europe.

Although, it all started out as a family story, and the history of an old farm in Germany, it now turned out to be much more than that: It is a reflection on a life between Europe and America, and a review of events in politics and society across the Atlantic over a span of a life time.

I am convinced: Both, Europe and America, need each other in view of the challenges ahead. Let us put together our assets and our strengths!

Together, we can face all challenges.

This Is The Place

The People

The Location

The

Great Hollenberg Saga

From the roots of the family farm, spreading, multiplying,

and branching-off to modern day transatlantic life.

This Caused it All

The documentation of old Church archives from the Bishopric of Osnabrück

covering the period of 772 A.D. to 1200 A.D. including the area of Tecklenburg:

Our place, Our Land, Home for Generations of Hollenbergs working the Soil.

Where many others were stampeding the ground for 1000 years and more, like:

• misc. Germanic tribes

• the Romans

• the Saxons

• the Franks (Franconians)

• other European strangers.

Our place: That is the parental home of two boys --- Erich and Heinz ---. Erich, the younger and now the owner, while Heinz, the older moved on becoming a world-citizen with emotional ties to the territory and its people and across the Atlantic.

Our place: That is a location along the hills of the “Teutoburger Wald” (a forest) separating the heartland of the current province of Westphalia in the south (“Münsterland”) from the low plains in North-Germany. A region still very peaceful and rural with fine, old farmhouses a largely unspoiled landscape of forests and fertile farm land as well as marsh and heath.

And last, but not least, plenty of footprints of history, from prehistoric graves and early settlements and many signs of civilization throughout time. Around 800 B.C. iron began to replace copper; and later great tribal movements took place from north to south, with the Goth, the Cimbri, the Teutons, and the Vandals, while the Romans were pushing north.

Where It All Began

The only reliable written testimonies from this period were made available by Roman writers like Tacitus. In his book “Germania”, he covers land and people of our area, specifically the Varus battle at 9 AD, which happened to occur only a few miles away.

Our part of our history began with a little note in an old history book, a document written in Latin and found in the State Record Office of Lower-Saxony. The particular details were issued by Bishop Philipp of Osnabrück on 14th, April, 1146 A.D. as shown below:

(fig.: #1)

(fig.: #2)

Translation of fig. # 2 from Latin into German

All official dealings of the time were negotiated and recorded in Latin, since the local population spoke only an old “Low-German” idiom, which turned later into a Low-German “Plattdeutsch”.

Written documents of Germanic tribes of that time are rarely available with only very few examples, like the EDDA story of the North-Germanic “Vikings”. Thus, using my own knowledge of Latin with some third party corrections, I am giving a translation of the most relevant sections of the resolution from April 14 of the year 1146 A.D.

Translation from Latin of Documents of the

Office of the Bishop of Osnabrück Issued on April 14-th

of the Year 1146 A.D.

This document refers to a resolution of the same day by Bishop Phillip and the Superiors of the Christian Church of the bishopric of Osnabrück in Saxony. The resolution goes as follows:

“In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, Phillippus of God`s Grace, chosen Bishop of the Church at Osnabrück -----“. -----“It is just and ecclesiastically justifiable, that the acting assembly pays attention to the fact, that necessary steps are to be considered (or to be undertaken).”

----------------------------------------

“Because of the unrest and agitation, we are concerned out of necessity, and for God’s prestige; we, all

Superiors of the Christian Church as there are the clergy as well as all the lay”.

(Explanation: The bishops had only moderate success in getting along with local people.)

“Such, we have jointly concluded, that the tithe (= definition: = a tenth part of the yearly proceeds arising from lands and from personal industry of the inhabitants for the support of the clergy and the Church.) is permanently to be levied not only in Harst, but in the same church district also for the dwellings in Hibbenbüren, in Holenberg, in Varula, in Kesevorde; furthermore, also the tithe for a house in Vorenholte, which was rightfully claimed by Mangoldus as part of a donation, and for which the same forgave all monetary compensation, and also for one in Hasencamp and two other in Holthusen. We also add a settlement in Evinchusen including all buildings, farmland, forests, meadows, all fallow-land, and all routes, coming and going,“

“It was jointly concluded, that all the above is to be transferred to the Church“ (Translation by: Heinz Niederste Hollenberg)

Here is stated that Bishop Phillippus and the Superiors of the Christian Church of the bishopric of Osnabrück decide in the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity to permanently levy the “ tithe” on housings (dwellings) like Hibbenbüren (= today: Ibbenbüren), Holenberg, Varula, Kesevorde and others.

Existing ‘registers of proceeds ‘, dated around 1180, show the income of the Dompropst Lentfried (= an ecclesiastical principal!). These listings prove that a number of farms of our area, well-known to this day, had to make contributions to the Episcopate in Osnabrück.

Noteworthy is also: The Episcopate of Osnabrück was founded by Charlemagne in 785 AD as the first bishopric in the land of the Saxons. He appointed Bishop Wiho, a disciple of the Apostel Bonifacius, to serve as the first bishop in Osnabrück in the year 804 AD.

All this supports the assumption that these same farms still known today existed indeed, and their families used to live and work there. It is very unusual, that the same family line stayed on, struggled and survived until modern days and show early in the 21st century what happened to the Hollenbergs.

However, before going into particulars, I like to look back into the preceding centuries with additional details about the rich culture and historical events of that region.

Time before A.D. and Early Settlements and Dwellings in the Region

What happened in those earlier times in the country of the Cherusker and the Saxons?

The change from a hunter or fisherman to a resident husband-man or stock-farmer took place quite likely around 2000 BC.

The findings by Dr. Günther and others during the 1950’s and 60’s have shed additional light onto the history of settlements in this region during ancient times. They uncovered traces, vestiges of oval huts with corresponding pits of settlements and workplaces dating back to the hunter and fisherman period.

The sketch (fig.:#3), shows a likely reconstruction of these huts, reflecting details of dwellings from the Feather-Knife (Pen-Knife) period near Westerkappeln. (About 9000 B.C. – 8000 B.C.)

This is based on excavation findings similar of Spanish shepherd huts, as shown in a reconstructed ancient fishing hut from the Mediterranean coast of Northern Spain and Southern France.

Early Dwellings from the Feather-Knife Period near Westerkappeln

(fig.: #3)

Huts found on a refuge near Westerkappeln

Miscellaneous stone-tools found in same

excavation near Westerkappeln

Reconstructed ancient Spanish shepherd’s hut..

Another typical example of early living quarters (fig.:#4) shows an evolution to a wooden structure. The Archaeological-Open-Air- Museum in Örlinghausen, near Detmold, has reconstructed this design based upon nearby findings. The building is 69 feet in length (23 m) and 16,5 feet in height (5,5 m), totalling an area of 1200 sq. ft (120 sq. mtr.) Such a structure was build with about 200 oak-trunks and can be assumed typical for the area around 1500 B.C. (See below)

A somewhat of a“luxurious” dwelling of our ancestors at the time.

(fig.:# 4)

Findings from the period between 600 to 800 AD reveal a Saxon dwelling near Warendorf, Westphalia (fig.:#5) --- a forerunner of the later classical farmhouse throughout Northwest Germany known as the ‘Niedersächsisches Bauernhaus‘ (Lower-Saxony farm house)

All of them had already, as still found today, one thing in-common: men and livestock under a single roof!

The Battle nearby at 9 A.D. with the Romans

And now let’s jump into the period when the Roman Empire was at its peak, around the birth of Christ.

It was the time when a number of independent Germanic tribes, which had settled in Europe between the Danube in the South and the North- and Baltic- Seas, and between the Rhine in the West and the Vistula (=Weichsel) in the East. It was the time when the transition began from migratory hunting and herding to agriculture and village life.

During this period of transformation, the Romans began to expand beyond their historical frontiers into just those core Germanic territories to subdue those traditional “clan” structures and their people there.

The only reliable written testimony from this period is made available by Roman writers like Tacitus. In his book “Germania”, he covers land and people of our area with particular details of the “Varus” battle from 9 AD. The actual location of the battle site has been a subject of dispute for several hundred years and was argued by many historians. (fig.: #6)

The “blue” line shows the theory of the historian Mommsen from the late 19th century. Others had different ideas, like Klostermeyer-Delbrück, Knocke, etc.

However, it took more than 100 years to give proof to Mr. Mommsen, pointing to a place named “Kalkriese” which is only a few miles away from our “Holenberg” site.

The Varus Battle near Osnabrück at 9 A.D.

between Roman Legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus

and Arminius Leading the Germanic tribes

(fig.:# 6)

It might be noted that, in the September issue of 2005, even the “Smithonian” Magazine covered this particular battle rather detailed, under the title: “The Ambush that Changed History”.

The site was lost and had been argued about for over 1000 years. It was rediscovered with a simple metal detector coincidentally by Tony Clunn, a British Army officer, in 1987.

It is reported that, when the news about this bloody event reached Rome, Emperor Augustus made his rather famous outcry: “Quintilius Varus! Give me my legions back”.

At that point and place, the Roman Empire lost 3 legions, amounting to an equivalent of 18000 to 20000 soldiers.

It was this particular battle, spearheaded by the Germanic tribe of the Cherusci under the leadership of their commander, named Arminius, which halted the spread of the Roman Empire, thus marking the turning of the tide of Rome’s struggle with the Germanic tribes. The defeat took place in a 360-foot-hill area where the “Teutoburger Wald” slopes down into the North-German plain.

Here is proof of a pivotal event in Central-European history, where 3 Roman crack units were annihilated.

“Nothing was more bloody than this defeat in those swamps and woods, nothing as unbearable as the insolence of those Barbarians”, Florus, a Roman reporter, wrote.

This battle took place in close proximity to Osnabrück at “Kalkriese”, within sounding distance of the living quarters of our ancestors. (fig.: #7)

Where the Romans Lost against Arminius

Although many historians have speculated for several hundred years about the actual site, this uncertainty has now been put to rest. Quite a few Roman writers gave different accounts and no specific details about this event. Other neutral information or descriptions from Germanic parties were not existent. However, we now have proof of the historical site.

Many artefacts were found and have been put on display, while the excavation activities are still going on.

(fig.: #8)

Yoke fittings (bronze )

- pendent of horse harness

- Part of snaffle

- strap items ( bronze )

Most of the work is currently being coordinated by the University of Osnabrück.

All in all, the old homestead is in a territory rich in culture and full of historical events.

A few years would pass before Germanicus ordered around 14-16 AD another Roman army to the former battle field. He ordered 6 legions (twice the size of the Varus force) into the area to restore Roman military honour, to pursue the Germanic tribes still under the leadership of Arminius, and to bury the human remains of the earlier battle.