We have done enough fighting for one day; it’s time to eat. The kitchen staff has been at work for a while now preparing the food. Nothing fancy in the way of equipment. Basically, water for washing, and knives for preparing the venison or scaling the fish. Chicken feathers were plucked by hand. Cooking is done in a large fireplace. One tool is a mortar stone for grinding the spices used for the seasoning. The stone is a large cube that sits on the floor and on each face there is an indentation, one for each of six different herbs. The venison comes from the forests and fields, the salmon from the Neckar River, and the chickens are raised on the site.
In the farmer’s homes, the meals are simple: soup for breakfast, porridge for lunch, bread and milk for dinner. On some occasions, there is a piece of meat, usually salmon. Popular beverages are cider and wine. A person may consume two liters (quarts) per day! Within the castle kitchen, labor is cheap and the meals can be quite sumptuous. Bread is baked in "washtub" sized lots. The oven is a large chamber, which is heated first by a fire, which is removed when the walls are hot. The bread goes in then.
The chapel is close to the castle, but outside it and down the hill slightly. Originally, of course, the religion was Catholic, and the design reflects Catholic practice. Later the Gemmingens adopted Protestant thought and practice, but they kept the Catholic images and figures, especially the altar piece. Catholic pilgrims come and pay tribute to the " Abandoned Mother of God ".
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Not long after the Guttenberg Castle was acquired by the Gemmingens (Hans The "Rich"), the Gemmingen estates were divided into three parts. Dietrich inherited Guttenberg, Wolf received the home place at Gemmingen, and Philipp obtained the newly acquired Fürfeld estate. Dietrich was of a spiritual nature and followed the religious discussions closely. It may be that he attended Luther’s debates in Heidelberg. He was impressed and set his life in a new direction. He and his brother Wolf were among the first to introduce the Reformation into the region. He used missionaries, young men who had been evicted from the standard schools, to spread the thought of the Reformation. At times, he had up to twenty of these men in his employ. In Heilbronn, in 1525, Luther and Zwingli met to debate the interpretation of the Holy Communion. The Emperor, Charles V, disliked the whole idea so much that he personally went to Heilbronn to persuade the Gemmingen brothers to desist in their endeavors. The brothers held that their highest duty was to God and not to the Emperor. The Emperor never forgave them, and, in 1545, put Wolf under an imperial banishment. With this in effect, anyone could kill him and not be punished for the act. There was a counter action that Wolf used. He ransomed himself for 3,000 Florins. The Emperor always needed money, so he could tolerate Wolf for a while, at least. Dietrich missed all of this excitement because he had died much earlier.
(01 Jul 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.