At Home in the Land of My Fathers: Visiting the Land of My Fathers, Part 1

Having left Berlin September 28th, I traveled to a region of Germany called Lusatia, whence came my forefathers, the Wends particularly on my mother's side (my grandmother's maiden name was "Kokel," a Wendish name). I spent Friday evening through Sunday morning in the area, and it was a breath of fresh air to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city. I'm a country boy at heart, and it felt relaxing to visit the small villages and experience life there. Pastor Walesch hosted me in the parsonage in Klitten, and I am very grateful for his kind hospitality.

On our way to Klitten we stopped by Reichwalde, only a small village, but it's where the Kokels lived before emigrating. Pastor knew some congregation members from the village whom we could ask concerning any Kokels. I wasn't too optimistic that we'd find any Kokels still alive, but I was surprised to hear that this elderly couple indeed remembered the name from the town. They said that the last of the Kokels, presumably a girl, married into the Ladusch family. I took a picture from a WWII memorial showing that a Ladusch had fought and survived WWII, dying soon afterward. I didn't take many picture from Reichwalde, mostly because there wasn't much to see, but below is a picture of the EKD church that has fallen into disuse. Unfortunately the DDR discouraged church attendance by politically punishing church goers, so not many churches in the former East Germany have a stable attendance, most having merged into other nearby churches. We couldn't go in this one since it was locked.

Not finding anything of significance, we left for Klitten, and I toured the church where Johann (Jan) Kilian had been pastor. He was the pastor who led much of his congregation in 1854 to Serbin, Texas; this requires a bit of backstory.

The Wends are a curious, small cultural group southeast of Berlin near the Polish and Czech borders. The land is broadly called "Lusatia," and it's currently in the States of Brandenburg and Saxony; it stretches from Cottbus in the north to Bautzen and Görlitz in the south. The land is known for its brown coal, which is used in power plants in the region. One can definitely tell a difference between the Soviet style cooling towers and the modern ones simply by their color; it's pretty black and white. The people aren't totally German; they're actually from a Slavic tribe, though throughout the last few hundred years they have intermarried with Germans. Their cultural colors are blue, red, and white; these colors are more similar to the Slavic countries of the Czech Republic and Poland than Germany. In addition, they speak their own language- Sorbish. You can see an example of it in the city signs and in the last names of the region. Unfortunately it's dying out (it's already died out in Texas), and though a number of the elderly can still speak it, the youth are only taught the basics of the language but not expected to converse in it. Nevertheless, it remains a token of pride to the people.

This is a plaque showing the partnership and close relationship between St. Paul's in Serbin, TX and St. John in Klitten, Germany. Both congregations have sent a group of people to each country to visit and talk with one another about the cultural and religious situations of each congregation.

This is the baptismal font where my forefather, Johann Kokel, was baptized.

I went on a bicycle ride with Pastor Walesch later in the early evening, and we ended up going to a house where we had been invited for a birthday party. The food was excellent, and the company was delightful. There was a large group of youth over, and we sang some songs and hymns. I tried to follow the conversation as well as I could. I returned later that night to the pastor's house, slept there, and ate breakfast with him and his wife. That morning, Pastor had gotten the church rolls for the years that Johann Kilian was pastor at St. John, and we were able to peruse the most applicable sections of it. Honestly, I've done a lot of work on piecing out the German, so I invite you to see my Facebook album. Hopefully you can see my comments to the side explaining what I've found. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151184741863788.478722.500163787&type=1&l=30461720ff. I feel pretty proud that I was able to decipher the handwriting as well as I could. This really helped my work: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Deutsche_Kurrentschrift.svg&page=1. Also thanks to those who commented on my photos and corrected the places that the handwriting was indecipherable. Here is the baptismal record of Johann Kokel, Christoph's son- born June 29th at 7:00 am and baptized July 2nd. He's the only male descendant of the Kokels that came over with Johann Kilian.