June 1996 Newsletter [v5.0] - RootsWeb

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ehind it. But the water? - What should I do? It has little to do with Korcak, I thought, it has to do only with Lautschin. Yes that is it. Lautschin should remain and it must have water. "Come" I said to Korcak, "and bring along your shovel!" Some say I should not have done this. Had I forgotten what had happened? I have forgotten nothing. But why blame Lautschin? At night when I can't sleep and everything is quiet, I hear the fountain roar over there in Lautschin. Good clear water -- water from the hand of God! The St. Martin's Goose During the early days of November the geese can still enjoy their existence waddling about on the meadow plucking grass and earthworms from the soil and chattering to their heart's desire. Thus it goes until Saint Martin’s day when the chattering is over. Each goose ends up, some sooner and some later, in the roasting pan for on the 11th day of the 11th month poultry is on the menu for many Germans. Considering that particular day, whoever then wants a Goose in the pot must be willing to dig rather deeply into his pocket. For "happy" geese that have spent their short lives out in the open DM 14-18 per KG is demanded. On the contrary, deep frozen ...Mast... geese from East European countries can be had for DM 8 per KG. The price certainly changes with each year. The goose is expressly a seasonal fowl [animal], and the connoisseurs "expense" the goose in the roaster only for Christmas and Saint Martin's day. Mankind's taste for roast goose did not originate with St. Martin for the ancient Egyptians 4,500 years ago treasured the meat of the goose as a delicacy. In Egerland roast goose was also counted 6 as a holiday feast on St. Martin's day. The goose living only to be slaughtered by us was entitled to an explanation. [Die lebende wie geschlachtete Gans unterlag bei uns aberglÑubischen Deutungen.] So it was said, for example "Geht zu St. Martini die Gans auf Eis, so geht sie Weihnachten auf Dreck." [Ice on the St. Martin's Goose means no snow [dirt] at Christmas.] On St. Thomas (30 Nov) and Andres (21 Dec) nights sometimes a goose who had a band over its eyes was brought to the Rockenstube. Which ever of the girls standing in a circle the goose went to would marry and be a happy bride. The condition of the slaughtered goose's breastbone gave information about the winter. If it were brown it would be very cold; if it were white there would be much rain or snow. (Tending Geese in New Ulm. Photo Courtesy of Brown County Historical Society) Another rule of the weather states: If it rains on May 1, then death will rain on the geese and famine on the cattle. There are different methods to call geese; either with "Wiewala, Wiewala, Wiewala" or with "Hussala, Hussala, Hussala; "wie, wie, wie" and "wussi, wussi, wussi" likewise common as calls [attractions]. They are driven along with "huda, huda, huda!" Why in Egerland geese were generally held to be stupid and the term "stupid goose" would always be used for a female person has no plausible explanation. I had experience with one goose that completely took the place of the family's house [pet] dog. With her loud cackling in the vorgarten [front yard garden, garden out front] she announced every stranger on the property. If the intruder thought to chase the "stupid goose" away he was
eaten with wings and bitten. "Dea... woar offensichtlich sua dumm, da(ss nan d'Gans beissn". Now what is the real connection between St. Martin and the goose? For that one must rely exclusively on a legend. It says that Hungarianborn holy Martin was first a professional soldier and later a Brother in a Christian order. In the year 371 the citizens of Tours chose him against his will to be their Bishop. To avoid having to take on this weighty office he sneaked away and hid in a "Gansestall." But the chattering geese were the thing that betrayed his hiding place. A further relationship between Saint Martin and the goose ... besteht darin, dass zu seiner Zeit die zu leistenden Abgaben seitens der Burger ...happened to be in the image of a silvery goose. The story of Saint Martin and his divided coat is quite well known as proof of his great generosity. In his honor on November 11 the children carry lanterns each year, parading through city streets. Landskron (Editor’s note: With this article we deal with a part of our homeland we have not previously talked about in this newsletter-the area called Landskron. Many of our Wisconsin members, whose ancestors immigrated from Landskron, will be familiar with this area, but many of our other members will not. I hope all of you enjoy this well written article. I would like to thank Mr. Langer for allowing us to publish his article.) Landskroner Emigration to the American Midwest by Edward G. Langer Copyright <strong>1996</strong>, Edward G. Langer All Rights Reserved Beginning in the early 1850s, numerous families left their ancestral villages in the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in the Austrian Empire to start new lives. Some families moved to the German-speaking cities and towns of the Austrian Empire or the German principalities. Others traveled to distant countries such as the Russian Empire, South Africa or America. This is the story of some of these emigrants from the district of Landskron, Bohemia who decided to make new 7 lives for themselves in the mid western United States, in particular in the state of Wisconsin. The Old World The district of Landskron (Czech: Lanskroun) is named after the town of Landskron. The town and district of Landskron are about 80 miles south of present day Wroclaw (Breslau) and about 115 miles north of the then-capital of the Austrian Empire, Vienna. Landskron, the district, consisted of the town of Landskron and forty-two bordering villages. In the 1850s, Landskron-town contained about 5,000 inhabitants and was connected by rail to the rest of the Austrian Empire. Second in importance to the town of Landskron was Cermná (Böhmisch Rothwasser), a Czech village of about 3,000 inhabitants. Historically, Cermná had market rights not granted to the other villages. Cermná's lower half was mostly Catholic and its upper half was mostly Protestant. (In 1936, it was split into two villages - Dolní Cermná and Horní Cermná). The other forty-one villages in the district of Landskron varied in size from a few hundred people to about 1,500 inhabitants. Roads connected the villages to the town of Landskron. Three-quarters of these villages were predominantly German, and the majority of both ethnic groups were of the Roman Catholic faith. The inhabitants of these villages, both Czech and German, were divided into three broad social groups - the "large farmers" (German: Bauer, Czech: sedláci), the "small farmers" (Feldgärtner or zahradnici) and the day laborers (Taglohner or podruzi). The "large farmers" generally had farms over ten hectares (a hectare is 2.471 acres). They usually owned horses, cows and numerous smaller farm animals. These farmers were engaging in commercial farming and were able to ship produce to market in nearby towns. The "small farmers" had only a few hectares. They usually had a few cows and a number of smaller farm animals. The day laborers worked for small or large farmers as field laborers, stable hands and kitchen and house servants. In addition, some worked as weavers, carpenters, coopers or blacksmiths. Some of the day laborers, called "cottagers" (Häusler or chalupnici), owned a small house with enough land around it for a small garden and a few small farm animals such as goats. Most of the area's population consisted of day laborers scratching out a marginal
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June 1996 Newsletter [v5.0] - RootsWeb

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