While researching my wife's ancestors, I found references to a
place called Herrenbreitungen. I checked the telephone
directory, zip code book and other sources, but could not find
anything. One day I went to the archive in Wuerzburg and on my
way out noticed hanging on the wall a map of the area in the
16th century. My eyes lit upon the town I was looking for. It
is now called Breitungen in Thuringia. In the region where I
live a number of villages have similarly disappeared. Perhaps
your ancestor came from one of them and you have wondered why
you could not find it.
The Rhoen Highlands, with an elevation of 1,000 to 3,000 feet,
are in Bavaria, Hesse, and Thuringia, Germany, approximately 80
miles from Frankfurt, 60 miles north of Wuerzburg, and 20 miles
southeast of Fulda. The first settlements in this region were
built after 800 A. D. The area was always poor, with long
winters, a cold climate, not-very-good-farming land, and no
work. In the 18th century, many people emigrated from this area
to the U.S.A. to find better living conditions.
Wildflecken, a town of approximately 3,600 inhabitants, is well-known to American soldiers, civilians, and their families,
because it has a huge training area. Starting in 1936 under
Hitler's regime, laborers built a village (Camp Wildflecken) and
a training area with ranges. The inhabitants of seven villages
and a few hamlets (Weiler) and mills had to leave their homes.
The villages had only between 50 and 400 inhabitants. Most of
the villages were demolished during 1938 and Werberg in 1973 by
training U.S. troops. The following villages/hamlets and mills
disappeared from all maps:
REUSSENDORF, first mentioned in 1579, including the farms
ADAMSHOF, SARAHOF, HEINRICHSHOF, and FUCHSENMUEHLE.
NEUGLASHUETTEN, first mentioned in 1684.
ALTGLASHUETTEN, including the hamlets (Weiler) BRUECKE,
HARFENMUEHLE, WIESENHAUS and HAUS FRANKEN, since 1609.
SILBERHOF since 1696.
ROTHENRAIN, including DISBACHHOF, DISBACHMUEHLE and EBERTSHOF,
since 1557.
DOERRENBERG (variation of spelling = DUERRENBERG) since
the 18th century.
WERBERG, with the hamlet of AUERSBERG, since 1260.
KIPPELBACH since 1542 (state of Hesse). |
