We rose early, and when we went to breakfast here at the hotel, we learned that today is Pfingsten, a national holiday, so the shops will also be closed again today, just like on Sunday (great). What is Pfingsten? Turns out that it is the German word for the Christian celebration of Pentecost, which occurs 50 days after Easter. I guess they are a little more religious here to get a day off from work to celebrate Pentecost (although when I asked the young waitresses to explain what Pfingsten was, they all looked at each other with blank looks. Only the older waitress seemed to have any knowledge of what is the significance of Pfingsten/Pentecost -- no criticism here ... how many Americans could explain Pentecost themselves? But in our defense, we don't have a day off from work to celebrate this).
We arrived at Munich's central train station at 9am to rent our car. The drive to Nassig, which is to the northwest, will take anywhere from three to three and one half hours, so there is no time to lose. We are on the road by 9:30am, make a few wrong turns in Munich, but eventually find the highway A9 heading north. Driving in unfamiliar cities is much improved from the old days with GPS to help you. The GPS in this car speaks in a very classy English accent and never once said the word, "recalculating."
The drive is almost all on the Autobahn, first on A9, then on A3. Driving on the Autobahn is very tense. I drove at about 90-100 miles per hour, but many cars were passing me anywhere from 120-160 miles per hour I believe. You go into the left lane at your peril, and you better not stay in it for long. A car that seems far away in your rear view mirror can be up on you in a matter of seconds, and you had better not be in the way! A car going 160 MPH does not slow down very quickly. Fortunately, for most of our drive, the freeway has three lanes, so you can get past slow moving trucks or RV's without going into the far left hand lane. Needless to say, the driver has to pay strict attention to what is going on in front and behind at all times -- no distractions. Anyway, we get there with no incidents. The weather seems promising; the clouds seem to be lifting and there are breaks of sun. That will change, sadly.
When we first exit the freeway, we drive a little along the Main River towards the town of Wertheim. Wertheim is the largest town in the area with about 24,000 inhabitants (Nassig is about three miles to the west/southwest of Wertheim). Here are two lovely pictures of the Main River as it flows towards Wertheim (I actually took this picture at the end of our visit as we were leaving town):
Note that the weather has turned overcast again, there will be no sunshine for the rest of the day. We are back to the pattern of overcast and drizzly.
We use our GPS to find parking in the cramped old town and walk towards the town center where we had earlier seen a sign for tourist information. Just as we get there, though, the rain begins in earnest, so we need to pop in somewhere for lunch. There is a restaurant just at the entrance to the old town pedestrian area, so we go in. It must be a good choice, since it seems fairly full. Of course, it is a traditional German restaurant. It is called "Golderner Adler." We are in luck as the waitresses inside speak pretty good English. Our waitress is able to help us with the menu (no English language menu here), so ordering is fairly painless. I have a Frankische bratwurst, which is apparently a local specialty that comes with sauerkraut and fried potatoes. Rob has Fleischekukle (literally "flesh cake"), which the waitress has translated as meatballs. They are actually like mini-veal hamburger patties, pretty tasty. It also came with fried potatoes and a vegetable like creamed spinach, but actually translates to savoy cabagge. We both start with fairly nice salads, too. A good, but filling lunch, but honestly, I don't know how the German people could eat such rich food day after day.
After lunch, we found our way to the tourist information center. I asked the woman inside if she spoke English, and said "a little." It became obvious that I was not able to explain to her why we were visiting. She began by trying to point out the highlights for tourists in Wertheim, but I responded by saying I wanted to go to nearby Nassig, which she did not understand, because I was later to discover, there is really nothing to see in Nassig. I wished I could have explained my interest in Nassig, but I was not able to. I did write out the surname Dostmann, which (I think) suggested to her that I was interested in history, so she handed a brochure to me for a local restored monastery in a nearby town of Bronnbach that she must have thought we would be interested in. In the end, however, I could not communicate to her, and therefore she was unable to help me beyond basic tourist assistance, which was not really my objective. Oh well, it was a shame not to find an English speaking person on duty, but perhaps that wouldn't have made any difference anyway. We did come away with a really good map of the area with all of the nearby towns, including Nassig.
So we drove out of Wertheim to find Nassig, which was not difficult (the map helped quite a bit). It is only a three mile drive. Right at the entry to the town (which I will more accurately call a village from here on), was a welcome sign, which is always a photo op:
The sign translates to "2013, 800 years, Nassig greets its guests." Inside the village, there is surprisingly little to see. Most of the structures are houses that look fairly modern, although they could be older and remodeled; certainly nothing from 1752. The oldest structures look like converted barns that have been kept up to some degree. Here is a picture of one that looked particularly old to me:
The church in the town was not old, but I photographed it anyway, from the side and the front:
There is no one walking about the town. As noted above, the weather is cold and drizzly and everything is closed due to the holiday. The only other amenities in the town are a restaurant, "Zum Rose," closed, a chain grocery store, and an Allianz ATM; no gas station. As I said, the village is only three miles from Wertheim, so residents don't have really have far to drive to shop.
There is only one other place I can think of to look for, and that is the cemetery. We find it, also thanks to the map, and it is fairly small. We walk around and immediately notice something odd: where are the older graves. Almost every grave is from the year 2000 or later. I look around some more, and the oldest one I can find is a death from 1985. What is going on here? Is this a new cemetery? Where is the old one? Interestingly, there is a monument to the soldiers who died in World War I -- well that has been here for a while. We don't get our answer to this question until later in the day, when we are able to research German burial practices on the internet. It turns out Germans are unable to buy burial plots, but can only lease them for a period of fifteen years or so. When the time is up, the family can pay to renew. However, most often, the body is just dug up and relocated to a (presumably) shared and unmarked grave in the cemetery, so the the plot can be reused. So, I guess there will be no searching through old cemeteries to find buried ancestors. As we leave the village, I spot a young woman walking her dog. Her English is not perfect, either, but she is able to confirm to me that there is no other cemetery in the town. One interesting thing about the names of the (fairly recently) buried: there are many graves with the names Dosch, Sheurich, and Adelmann. These are all people related to the Dostmanns. Johan Martin Dostmann's mother's maiden name was Scheurich, and his grandmothers' maiden names were Dosch and Adelmann. Here is a photo of some of the graves in the cemetery. It is nice to see how all of the grave plots are planted with pretty flowers:
There is really nothing else to see here. Perhaps nothing has changed since 1752; there was no reason for Johan Martin to stay, and no reason for me either. I am a little disappointed, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I am glad I came here. Now I know what is here. Before we drive back to Wertheim, we drive around the country roads and check out the next town of Sonderriet. Sonderriet is significant in that the old church book that records Johan Martin's birth was for the combined communities of Nassig and Sonderriet. Maybe there will be an old church there? No, there is no old church and not even any cemetery. Here are two photos I took to document what this area looks like: the first is just of the fields -- each of these villages sits entirely surrounded by farm land and the second is a view of Nassig from the highway from Sonderriet.
Anyone familiar with Pennsylvania and Ohio can see why the Germans were happy to settle there. Their new home would not have been all that different from the one they left behind with one big difference: in the new world they could buy and own their own farms, an opportunity that would not have been available in Germany.
Driving back to Wertheim, we stop for a few more photo opportunities. Given better weather and more time, this would be a nice town to visit, including climbing up the ruins of the castle (burg). Here are a few photos. The river in the third photo is the River Tauber. Wertheim is located where the River Tauber joins the River Main. The town itself is at the bottom of the River Main valley. When you leave Wertheim, you climb in altitude as all the surrounding communities, including Nassig, are at a higher elevation.
We did make one more stop in Wertheim before we leave: the cemetery there, just to satisfy my curiousity. As in Nassig, there are no old graves, but I do make one discovery: a grave with the surname, Dostmann -- so there are still people named Dostmann in this area -- my cousins!
Now it is time to return to the Autobahn for three more hours of white knuckled driving; this time in the rain, no less. Fortunately, the Germans do slow down for rainy weather. A few times on this drive, we had to endure some pretty good downpours. Our GPS leads us straight to the Munich Hauptbahnhof to return our car with no trouble. It is after 7pm, so we headed back to our hotel and then dinner. We had a simple but nice dinner near the hotel at a casual Italian place calle La Valle: arugula salads and spaghetti bolognese.
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