I return to the reasons that our ancestors had for leaving Germany. To give the First Colony descendants their just dues, let’s look at some of the reasons that they had for leaving. I owe the remarks here to the late Heinz Prinz, a native German.
In the early Eighteenth Century, Germany was not unified, but consisted of many small territories, some as small as a parish, but others were larger and even warranted being called a kingdom. In contrast to Great Britain and France which were ruled by strong monarchs, Germany had no centralized government. There was an elected emperor who sat in Vienna, the seat of his own personal domain. But his power was limited. The Thirty Years’ War, which originally pitted the Catholic and Protestant principalities against each other, had destroyed many areas in Germany fifty years earlier. The hard living conditions created by this conflict were still to be seen in the Siegerland. The people of Siegerland had also been involved in ending the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands.
In the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Centuries, the Siegerland belonged to the Nassau-Orange principality. There were two princes, who were brothers, and one was Catholic and one was Protestant. They had divided the Siegerland into two parts and were constantly struggling against one another. Both princes used the town of Siegen as their capital, so they were brought into close contact with each other.
The Siegerland was one of the most advanced iron mining and processing regions in Germany. While there were many other regions known for their iron and/or mining activities, the Siegerland had a good reputation. Not all of the people who lived in this region were actively involved in the iron work. Most of them spent the greater part of their working hours in agriculture including raising trees for the bark used in tanning and for some of the wood used in smelting and processing iron. But the areas where the Protestant Prince ruled could not grow enough wood to meet their needs. They depended on the charcoal which was produced in the eastern part of the realm, which was ruled by the Catholic Prince. Also, several of the iron mines were in this region.
The Catholic Prince was William Hyazinth. After the death of his cousin, William III of England, Hyazinth claimed he was the heir to the throne of England. His endeavors to win support throughout Europe were expensive and a burden to his subjects. He maintained a high standard of living at the Upper Castle in Siegen, which also taxed his subjects. Taxes were being raised in the Protestant area also as Prince Adolf there was reconstructing the Lower Castle in Siegen which had been destroyed by fire in 1695.
This much of the history shows remarkable parallels to the story I have been telling in the Kraichgau.
(28 Jun 06)
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.