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The Village of Gehaus and some Nearby Villages - their Geography and History in Brief
Gehaus in East Germany
Town (municipality), population 1,107. Postanstalt [postal establishment]: Gehaus über [via, by way of] Vacha (Rhöngeb [geb=Gebirge, mountains]). Krg [=Kreisgericht, district court]: Bad Salzungen. Nearest railroad station 3 miles away at Stadtlengsfeld; nearest town, Oechsen, 1.2 miles away. Bz [=Bezirk, district]: Suhl [East Germany].
Source: Müllers Grosses Deutsches Ortsbuch: vollständiges Gemeinde-lexikon. Wuppertal-Barmen, 1958. [Gazetteer of the German Republics]
Gehaus in the German Empire
T. [Thüringen], Sn.-W.-E. [Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach], VerwB. [administrative authority] Dermbach, AG. Pw [Personenpostwagen = passenger-carrying postal van]: 6 km E [Entfernung = distance] Stadtlengsfeld [= railroad station 3.6 miles away at Stadtlengsfeld, to which there is transportation from Gehaus], Bkdo. [administrative authority] Eisenach; 774 E. [Einwohnerzahl = population, in 1910], P [Postanstalt und Posttelegraph = post office and telegraph], StdA. [Stadtamt = municipal office (town hall) / Standesamt = civil registry office], ev. Pfk. [evangelische Pfarrkirche = Protestant parish church]; SpDrl. [banking office]: Viehhdl. [Viehhändler = cattle dealer] -- Dazu [= forming part of the municipality of Gehaus is the] Wlr. [Weiler = hamlet of] Hohenwart, E 3 km [= 1.8 miles away], 48 E. [= with a population of 48, in 1910]
Source: Meyers Orts=und Derkehrs=Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs. Leipzig und Wien, 1912. [Gazetteer of the German Empire]
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Dermbach
Market-town [Marktflecken], population 2,139. Postanstalt: Dermbach (Rhöngeb). Krg Bad Salzungen -- Bz Suhl. [1910 Population: 1,376]
Source: Müllers Grosses Deutsches Ortsbuch [Meyers Orts=und Derkehrs=Lexikon]
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Oechsen
Town, Population 931. Postanstalt: Oechsen über Vacha (Rhöngeb). Krg Bad Salzungen -- Bz Suhl. [1910 Population of Öchsen: 699]
Source: ibid.
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Urnshausen
Town, Population 859. Postanstalt: Urnshausen über Dermbach (Rhöngeb). Nearest hamlet: Weiler-Urnshausen. Krg Bad Salzungen -- Bz Suhl. [1910 Population: 629]
Source: ibid.
Southwestern Thuringia
Vacha
Town, population 4,383, in Thuringia, at the north foot of the Rhön Mountains, on the Werra River, and 17 miles southwest of Eisenach. Stone quarry. Has remains of medieval walls. [1910 Population: 2,240]
Source: based on Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, 1962. Population figures are from East Germany's 1946 census. [Meyers Orts=und Derkehrs=Lexikon]
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Rhön Mountains
Range in western Germany, extending about 35 miles along the borders of Bavaria and Hesse; highest point 3,117 feet. Noted for harsh climate and heavy rainfall. Of volcanic origin.
Source: ibid.
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Bad Salzungen
Town, population 7,878, in Thuringia, at the south foot of the Thuringian Forest [mountains], on the Werra River, and 12 miles SSW of Eisenach. First mentioned in the 8th century. Spa and salt works. [1910 Population of Salzungen: 5,134]
Source: ibid.
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Werra
River in western Germany that rises in the Thuringian Forest, meanders 170 miles generally north, and joins the Fulda River to form the Weser River.
Source: ibid.
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Stadtlengsfeld
Town, population 2,580, in Thuringia, at the north foot of the Rhön Mountains, and 15 miles southwest of Eisenach. Sometimes called Lengsfeld. [1910 Population: 1,593]
Source: ibid.
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Eisenach
City, population (1989 est.) 48,361 [1910 Population: 38,362], in Thuringia, at the northwest end of the Thuringian Forest, and 30 miles west of Erfurt. Founded about 1150 by the landgraves of Thuringia. Residence of Martin Luther when he began his translation of the Bible into German [about 1521]. Birthplace of J.S. Bach [1685].
Source: based on New Britannica Encyclopaedia, 1993. [Meyers Orts=und Derkehrs=Lexikon.] Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World.
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Thuringia
(German, Thüringen). German state (Land), population (1990 est.) 2,684,000, area 6,275 square miles. Traversed northwest to southeast by the Thuringian Forest. The Rhön Mountains extend into western Thuringia. Mostly hilly, fertile region (grain, vegetables, fruit).
The Germanic Thuringians appeared about 350 AD. They were conquered by the Franks in the 6th to 8th centuries, and reconverted to Christianity by St. Boniface [died 755, buried in the abbey of Fulda, Hesse, which he founded]. In the 13th century Thuringia fell to the margraves of Meissen, who in the 15th century divided the territory into several duchies; when the margraves became electors of Saxony (that is, princes with the right to participate in choosing the Holy Roman emperor), the name of Saxony (German, Sachsen) was prefixed to their holdings. In the 16th century Thuringia was a center of Protestantism. (The region was greatly devastated in WWII.)
Source: based on New Britannica Encyclopaedia [Englebert. Lives of the Saints. 1951]
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The Administrative Regions Gehaus Has Belonged To
From at least 1641 to 1918, Gehaus was in the territory of the grand duchy of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (English, Saxe-Weimar, or, Saxony-Weimar), in the historical region of Thuringia. The grand duchy was from 1807 in Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine, from 1815 in the German Confederation, from 1867 in the North German Confederation, and from 1871 in the German Empire.
Following the German revolution of 1918, the territory of the former duchy was made part of the new German Land (state) of Thuringia, which had Weimar as its capital.
In 1952, when East Germany dissolved its Länder, Gehaus fell into the new district of Suhl. But in 1990, just prior to the Reunification of Germany, the Land of Thuringia was reconstituted, and Gehaus is now in the German state of Thuringia, the capital of which is Erfurt.
Source: based on New Britannica Encyclopaedia
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Saxe-Weimar
(German, SACHSEN-WEIMAR EISENACH). The largest of the seven states that were merged into Thuringia in 1922 with Weimar as their capital. Saxe-Weimar consisted of three large divisions: Weimar [to the east of Gehaus], Neustadt [still farther east], and Eisenach; and 24 smaller divisions; with a total area of 1,388 square miles.
The main occupation of the state was agriculture, with some stock-raising. Weimar was the largest of Saxe-Weimar's divisions, followed by Eisenach. Eisenach yielded the poorest crops of the state, but it had fine forests; its only large town was the city of Eisenach, which was a trading center. Most of the inhabitants of Saxe-Weimar were Lutherans.
The reign of Charles Augustus was the cultural high point for Saxe-Weimar. This duke brought Goethe [in 1775], Schiller and Herder to Weimar, and made the University of Jena a center of learning; he granted his Grand Duchy a constitution and allowed freedom of the press. In 1866 Saxe-Weimar joined Prussia against Austria. In 1919 it adopted a republican constitution.
Source: based on Encyclopedia Americana, 1954
Central and Southwest Germany
With the Franco-Prussian War, the Unification of Germany in 1871 made the French provinces of Lorraine (some) and Alsace (almost all) part of the German Empire. They remained there until after World War I.
Alsace is a broad plain between the Rhine River (east) and the Vosges Mountains (west). Lorraine is mountains and hills. Both are principally agricultural. Their people are almost all Roman Catholic, although some villages are Protestant [Note]. French is spoken in large towns and in Lorraine. The Alsatians speak a German dialect.
Source: based on "Franco-German War" and "Alsace-Lorraine" in Encyclopedia Americana, 1954
Margarete Kiehl was born in a place that was part of France during the 1870 U.S. Census, part of Germany during the U.S. 1880 Census, and again part of France when her daughter Margaret died in 1948. Where would that place be other than the French province Alsace or the French province Lorraine. In the 1920 U.S. Census, Margarete's daughter Margaret Christine's parents' "mother tongue" is stated to be German. Thus because of language, it seems that Margarete was from Alsace rather than from Lorraine. (And indeed she was, born in Mühausen in 1830, in the Department of Bas-Rhin, Alsace.)
Note: Rather than descending from Martin Luther and the main current of the Reformation, the Protestants of Alsace "had descended from Zwingli and the radical wing of the Reformation, the Free Church movement". Source: Marshall and Poling, Schweitzer: A Biography (1971) page 3. The church of Wilhelm Becker, the husband of Margarete Kiehl, however, in Philadelphia was Lutheran. From what I know of them, the Schlectweg family's religious beliefs were not orthodox. "I only belong to Jesus," that is, not to the doctrines of a particular church or reformer, my grandmother said to us. [Back]
With the Unification of Germany, Baden -- formerly a constitutional grand duchy -- became a state of the German Empire. Except for the Rhine plain, it is completely mountainous (Black Forest, Swabian Jura). Northern Baden is mostly Protestant; southern Baden is Roman Catholic.
Source: based on "Baden" ibid. "Baden" in Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, 1962
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Last revised: 28 February 2002 : 2002-02-28 by
Robert [Wesley] Angelo
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