GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: [GERMANNA] (902)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 05:45:09 -0400

The nine hundred and second note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

Leaving Sulzfeld or more particularly Ravensburg with the tower, we went to
Zaberfeld, the home of the Käfers. From there, it was a few miles to
Schwaigern. So we had done a loop during the day visiting a lot of places
where I had ancestors. Schwaigern itself, Gemmingen, Neuenbürg,
Oberderdingen, and Zaberfeld were ancestral homes. But my favorite was
Ravensburg with the view. The driving had not been hard and we had gotten
out of the car and walked around quite a bit.

The next morning we set out on another loop, one that generally went south
and then west. The first stop was Brackenheim. The church there was typical
of many in that it has evolved over time until it is hard to identify just
what was original and what was added. St. Jakobus, the church, was said to
be built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as a chapel. The last
work was a major renovation in 1965. They have preserved a fresco which
seems to be very old. The parish house bears the date 1692 over the door.
There are a lot of beautiful half-timbered structures in the town.

Almost next door is Botenheim. I looked to see if any Schneiders or Öhlers
(Aylors) were coming or going to church but I did not see them. A couple of
miles down the road is Bönnigheim. They still have a portal from the wall
around the town with a watch tower above. One realizes how small these
villages were in previous times because these sections of the old wall are
usually right down town. A marker notes that the church was first mentioned
in 1100 so they can look down their noses at those upstart people from
Brackenheim.

We could go into the church at Bönnigheim which is fanciful but very nicely
done. The organist was practicing and the man who takes care of the
bell-ringing mechanism was there. He didn’t speak English but he wanted me
to climb up into the tower so he could show me the mechanism. Overall, it
looks much like the works of a clock though a bit more elaborate. In fact,
it is a clock which rings the bells on the hours and the quarter hours. The
attendant oils and cleans it and checks that it is on time. Probably the
mechanism was made in the nineteenth century. Prior to that, someone pulled
on the ropes. Anyway, the inspection of a bell-ringing mechanism had not
been on my list of things to see but it was fun. The church itself looked
very old in the design.

Usually the major church in town has a war memorial for the two world wars
of the twentieth century. Typically every name is given and curiosity
compels me to read the names. (Back in Schwaigern there were Reiners,
Bogers, Willets, and Baumgartners.) Here there were a Sautter, Späth, and
Wieland. The town also has its watchtower. Just south of town there were
Disney like castles complete with water slides.

Cleebronn is close by. Its church has been repaired in a major way, perhaps
due to damage in WW II. There was no attempt to hide the repairs and
perhaps it is a deliberate reminder of the evils of war.

John Blankenbaker ()
P.O. Box 120, Chadds Ford, PA 19317-0120 USA
http://www.germanna.com
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/johnsgermnotes/germhis1.html
http://www.inficad.com/~genelea/gerhist/gerindex.html

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