The farthest that our travels took us was to Gresten, Austria, which is only about fifty miles this side of Vienna. Gary Zimmerman and Johni Cerny had reported that the Blankenbühlers were from this village. (Apparently they used the work of Gary Meyer-Burggey.) When Eleanor and I arrived at Gresten, we had no idea what we would find. Physically, the countryside was the most beautiful that we had seen in Austria as we drove from Salzburg and Linz.
On entering town, we went to the Rathaus about 4 p.m. (the seat of the city government), where the attendant denied any ability to speak English. But he immediately called another individual over whom he said could speak English. Herr Berger was an insurance agent and he did know English. We asked him if he could tell us where the Pletzenberg and Plankenbühl farms were located. He recognized the names and told us, if we waited while he finished some business, that he would take us there. It turned out that his mother was born on the Pletzenberg farm in 1920.
Along about 5 p.m., in his car, we drove to the Plankenbühl (more exactly, Plankenbichl) farm. He introduced us to the current residents, who said we could come back at 4 p.m. the next day for photography purposes. Then we drove to the Pletzenberg farm, where the current resident said we come back any time the next day for photography. Herr Berger said he would try to arrange a visit with the Bürgermeister for us. He was successful and the Bürgermeister joined us at breakfast the next morning. Since he did not speak English, he arranged for the English teacher in the high school to act as an interpreter.
He gave us a lot of history of the Gresten area, which includes the village and the surrounding countryside. After these gracious acts by the Bürgermeister and Herr Berger, we invited them and their wives to dinner that evening. Our dinner party consisted of Herr und Frau Berger, Bürgermeister Kammer, and ourselves. Perhaps the evening lasted three hours and Herr Kammer gave us a book of history of Gresten and a commemorative plate of Gresten.
Farm names last indefinitely. At some time in the past, they were named and the name persists even with a change of ownership. Though it was perhaps 350 years since Kilian Plankenbühler lived at Plankenbichl farm, the farm maintains that name today. We saw (and photographed) a copy of a map dated about 1850 which had the names of the farm.
Most of the agriculture consists of meadows on hillsides from which the grasses and clover are harvested as feed for cows. The end product is milk. The labor is intensive and we were there in the haying season when the demands for labor are extensive. Even the women work in the fields at a time like this.
Gresten is about 400 meters above sea level and is in a narrow valley. The hills rise around it and they extend for a few hundred meters above the valley floor. Many of the farms, including the two above, were on high points with the land sloping away on at least three sides.
(31 May 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.