My Ancestors E-Book

Horst H. Geerken

• Herausgeber: BoD - Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 782

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Letters, diaries and documents from many centuries in the past provided the details for this enthralling read, but it is no ordinary collection of dry-as-dust facts. It is a chronicle stretching back into the Middle Ages, the history of a fascinating, influential and many-branched family with exciting life-stories to relate. The authors grandfather was the artist Johann Hinrich Geerken, and his aunt was housekeeper to Albert Einstein. This richly illustrated volume tells the tales of farmers and inventors, artists and artisans, but also of courageous women who had to see their families through difficult times alone. Among the ancestors described are the famous master tower-clock maker Johann Michael Mannhardt, whose clocks continue to tell the correct time, and Wilhelm Emmanuel Johann Mannhardt, an academic and Mennonite whose works are still published today. The book takes us to Meiji-period Japan, where Carl August Schenk the scientist taught at the University of Tokyo and is still honoured as the father of Japanese mineralogy, to Indonesia where the author lived and worked for many years, and on to Australia, America and Greece, where many of the family live today. Many interesting historical anecdotes and illustrations make the book well worth reading, not just for the family. It is a document of modern and contemporary history.

Leseprobe

Only those who know where they come from know where they are going!

This book is dedicated to:

my beloved daughter Regina Permata in Australia: She is now an admirable mother herself, and asked me to write this family history for future generations, and to her husband, my son in law Gregory. Also

to my grandchildren Thomas, Oskar and Skyla Blue, a promising trio, who are following in the footsteps of their forebears,

posthumously to my maternal grandfather, Karl Martin Mannhardt, who was the only one of my grandparents whom I knew in person,

posthumously to my dear, caring parents, who were a formative influence on me,

posthumously to my sister Gudrun, who looked after me when I was a child,

also to the other members of the direct family who are still alive, such as

my brother Hartmut, who has been a constant source of support and help in researching our ancestors, and his family, and

my cousin Cynthia Zipf in the USA, who made many documents that had belonged to her grandmother, my Aunt Athene, available to me.

I also dedicate this book to all the generations yet to come, in the hope that the chronicle of our family will be continued for many more generations. This book is intended as a foundation for that undertaking.

Table of Contents

1.0 Thanks

1.1 Translator’s Foreword

2.0 Foreword

3.0 Geerken/Gerken, my Paternal Ancestors

3.1 Johann Hinrich Geerken (1855–1925)

3.2 Exhibition of the Works of Johann Hinrich Geerken (1855–1925) in the Heimatmuseum in Wiefelstede

3.3 The Children of Johann Hinrich Geerken (1855–1925) and Marie Christiane, née Thiel (1859–1923)

3.3.1 Marie Luise Dörr, née Geerken (1886–1949)

3.3.2 Helene Margarete Lorch, née Geerken (1889–1966)

3.3.3 Else Geerken (1893–1983)

3.3.4 Lydia Bauder, née Geerken (1894–1973)

3.3.5 Athene Vetterlein, née Geerken (1896–1980)

3.3.6 Heinrich August Geerken (1898–1990)

3.4 The Children, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren of Heinrich August Geerken (1898–1990) and Lina Klara, née Mannhardt (1896–1986)

3.4.1 First Marriage: Gudrun Leonhardt (divorced), née Geerken, Second Marriage: Gudrun Grell, née Geerken (1928–2002)

3.4.2 Horst Heinrich Geerken (born 1933)

3.4.2.1 Regina Permata Tothill, née Geerken (born 1964), Daughter of Horst Heinrich Geerken (born 1933) and Hannelore, née Frick (born 1936)

3.4.3 Hartmut Geerken (born 1939)

4.0 Thiel, the Ancestors of my Grandmother Marie Christiane Geerken, née Thiel (1859–1923)

4.1 The Children of Heinrich Christian Thiel (1806–1872) and Sibille Dorothea Thiel, née Häbig (1818–1891)

4.1.1 Marie Christiane Geerken, née Thiel (1859–1923)

4.1.2 Heinrich Thiel (1849–1915)

4.1.3 August Thiel (1861–1920)

5.0 Mannhardt, my Maternal Ancestors

5.1 Johann Michael Mannhardt (1798–1878)

5.2 Jacob Mannhardt (1801–1855) and Wilhelm Emmanuel Johann Mannhardt (1831–1880)

5.3 Karl Martin Mannhardt (1864–1941), my Grandfather

5.4 The Wives of my Grandfather Karl Martin Mannhardt: My Grandmother Emma Barbara, née Oechsler (1868–1905) and her Cousin Martha, née Oechsler (1880–1912)

5.5 The Children of my Grandfather Karl Martin Mannhardt

5.5.1 Karl Martin Mannhardt (1892–1979)

5.5.2 Emma Fanny Büchler, née Mannhardt (1894–?)

5.5.3 Lina Klara Geerken, née Mannhardt (1896–1986)

5.5.4 Hedwig Mannhardt (1898–1940)

5.5.5 Otto Mannhardt (1906–1940)

6.0 Schenk, the Ancestors of my Great-Grandmother Sophie Christine Schenk (1838–1903)

6.1 Carl August Schenk (1838–1904). A Forgotten Pioneer During the Meiji Period in Japan

7.0 Further Branches of the Family

7.1 Geerken/Gerken, Line Bäke I

7.2 The Geerken/Gerken/Franneck/Fournarakis, Line Bäke II

8.0 Afterword

9.0 Appendices

to 3.0: Die Doppelringwallanlage Bokeler Burg – das älteste Kulturdenkmal des Ammerlandes [The Bokeler Burg Double Ring Fort – the Oldest Cultural Monument in the Ammerland]

to 3.3.5: Athene Vetterlein, née Geerken: for my Siblings in Germany, Written on the 3rd of December 1941

to 3.4.3: Diary Entry by Karl Kompe

to 5.1: Johann Michael Mannhardt (1798–1878)

to 5.5.4: Hedwig Mannhardt (1898-1940)

to 5.6.3: Lina Klara Geerken, née Mannhardt: My Last Letter to my Mother

to 6.1: Carl August Schenk (1838–1904)

to 7.2: From Wikipedia: Joachim Ger(c)ken (died 1544)

10.0 Genealogical Tables

Genealogical Table I (re Chapter 3.0 and 3.1)

Genealogical Table II (re Chapter 3.3)

Genealogical Table III (re Chapter 3.4)

Genealogical Table IV (re Chapter 4.0)

Genealogical Table V (re Chapter 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2)

Genealogical Table VI (re Chapter 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5)

Genealogical Table VII (re Chapter 6.0 and 6.1)

Genealogical Table VIII (re Chapter 7.2)

Genealogical Table IX (re Chapter 7.2)

1.0 Thanks

First of all, I must thank my brother Hartmut for countless conversations about our ancestors, during which we continually recalled many a previously forgotten anecdote. All the documents and photographs used in this book are – unless otherwise mentioned – in the possession of my brother’s and my family.

The originals of the oil paintings and portraits created by my grandfather Johann Hinrich Geerken, as well as all his paintings on glass, are on permanent loan to the Heimatmuseum [Local History Museum] in Wiefelstede near Oldenburg. After this book is finished I shall donate further items, such as my grandfather’s family Bible and his wife’s autograph book.

My especial thanks go posthumously to Herr Wolfgang Hase of the Heimatmuseum in Wiefelstede for his co-operation – he organised the exhibition of my grandfather Johann Hinrich Geerken’s paintings in the museum in 2001 – and also to his successor, Herr Herbert Heinen and his successor, Herr Eckard Klages. They were all exceptionally helpful to my research into the branch of my family in the far north of Germany, and were always ready to help with my inquiries. As the photographs of my grandfather’s oil paintings which were produced by a professional photographer for the 2001 exhibition were lost after Herr Hase’s sudden death, Herr Klage has kindly said that he is prepared to have new ones made for this book. My especial thanks to him for this.

When I lost my way in the labyrinthine family connections of the Mannhardt branch, my cousin Martha Ladenburger, née Mannhardt, was often able to help me on my way. My heartfelt thanks to her for this.

Special thanks, too, to Cynthia Jones-Zipf, the daughter of my cousin Jean Zipf – now dead – in the USA. Jean Zipf was the daughter of Athene Vetterlein, née Geerken, who emigrated to the USA with her husband Ernst. Jean Zipf and her daughter have given me many photographs and documents relating to the Geerken family’s history. Much of this information has been included in this book. I have known Cynthia since she was a baby and we still maintain a close family relationship and regularly visit each other.

My especially hearty thanks to Dr Takeshi Ozawa in Japan, who has shown an unswerving interest in the story of Professor Carl August Schenk and has given me interesting information about the time he spent working at the University of Tokyo1 in Japan. He spent eight semesters at a Japanese university and two semesters studying physics in Munich University. In the pursuit of his research into German scientists in Japan during the Meiji period he has made repeated visits to Germany. He is a member of the Japanese Society for the History of Science and researches and publishes on the history of science in Japan.

I would also like to thank my second cousin Wolfgang Menz very much. From him I got photographs from Japan which Carl August Schenk gave to his sister Sophie Christine, my great-grandmother, in 1892. Perhaps she received them even earlier, during his time in Japan, by post or courier. The photographs and prints date from the 1870s and were lent to me by Wolfgang Menz for the purposes of this book. His mother Hilde Menz and grandmother Lina Friedel were also able to tell me a lot about our great-grandmother Sophie Christine.

Thanks to Anne Schlichtiger-Mason for editing my father’s hand-written notes.

I would also like to thank the always friendly staff at the Town Archive in Heilbronn on the Neckar, the Department of Culture in Schwäbisch Gmünd, the mayor’s office and Department of Culture in Strasen/Neustrelitz in Mecklenburg, the Town Archive in Wesenberg, the Town Archive in Fried richstadt, the Institute for Research into the German Nobility, the Oldenburg Society for Family Research, the Mennonite Research Centre/ Mennonite Historical Society in Bolanden-Weierhof, the Lutheran Parish of Aalen, genealogical researcher Dr Arthur Mez in Oberkochen and the City Archive in Schwerin. They have all patiently provided me with information and allowed me to search through the documents available.

I would also like to thank Herr Wilfried Harms, who has worked intensively on local history in Wiefelstede and Bokel and wrote the book Wiefelstede gestern und heute [yesterday and today]. He has contributed valuable information about the history of the region.

The Oldenburg Society for Family History2 in Oldenburg was particularly helpful. They gave me important information about emigrants called Geerken and Gerken, as well as about our ancestors in Wiefelstede and the communities of Rastede und Varel.

Many thanks to the head of the Cologne Cathedral Archives, Herr Dr Klaus Hardering. He kindly made documents concerning the tower clock in Cologne cathedral, commissioned from my great-grandfather’s brother Johann Mannhardt in 1876, available to me. In his company I was allowed to visit the Uhrenboden [‘clock floor’: first floor of the tower] in Cologne Cathedral, where the tower clock continues to perform its function to this day.

Many thanks, too, to Herr Gerd Gerken of Wiefelstede and his wife Annegret for information about the Bäke I line of the family, descended from Johann Friedrich Geerken, my grandfather’s brother. Johann Friedrich Geerken was Gerd Gerken’s great-grandfather. During my research trips to Wiefelstede they were both very hospitable and helpful. They set up contacts with people who were important to my research and made my stays in Wiefelstede as comfortable as possible. Gerd Gerken and I share an ancestor, Friedrich Geerken (1817–1894).

I would like to thank Carmen Fournarakis for the information she was able to contribute to this book. It was only after starting my research that I discovered that in her we have yet another distant relation in Athens in Greece descending from a further branch of the family, Bäke II. Her grandfather was the Bremen banker who accommodated my grandfather Johann Hinrich Geerken on the Freigut Strasen estate near Neustrelitz in eastern Germany and supported him financially during his studies at the Munich Academy of Arts and his creative activity in the region.

Thanks, too, to Bill McCann for taking on the challenge of translating this book.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Michaela Mattern for proof-reading and Barbara Bode for second proof-reading and producing the book block. Both have provided me with excellent support in this extensive and labour-intensive book project.

Horst H. Geerken Bonn, Summer 2020

1 Tokyo was at that time called Yedo

2www.auswanderer-oldenburg.de

1.1 Translator’s Foreword

This is the fifth book of Horst’s that I have translated, and by far the most challenging. Though the archaic language of some of the documents has not been much of a problem (I have studied and taught all periods of German from the earliest to the latest), other aspects of the text have taken me into areas way beyond my comfort zone: marine microbiology, Swabian dialectology (it took ages and help from former colleagues to discover what Hechtlesmacher actually means literally), historical geography (where is the Maguia Gorge (Illustration 3.1-45)?), and last but very far from least, 19th- century technology (especially clock-making) and accounting in the sad story of Johann Michael Mannhardt and his bankruptcy (5.1).

Nevertheless, it has been a fascinating journey with the Geerkens, Mannhardts, Thiels and Schenks. Often amusing, many times bringing a tear to the eye. Amazing how many interesting and talented ancestors Horst has managed to track down!

A word about the way I have proceeded:

Firstly, anything in square brackets [ ], except the few explicitly labelled ‘Author’s note’, is by me.

It is usually translation (of book titles or dialect words) or explanation of ideas or customs that did not need comment in the original German. Where I have translated a book title, particularly in the case of Wilhelm Emmanuel Johann Mannhardt (5.2) I have not repeated the duplication of title and translation when the book is mentioned later in the chapter.

If you are comparing this translation with the original German, you will find that the chapter and illustration numbering matches, but the footnote numbers do not. This is because Horst sometimes uses a footnote to translate or explain an English term which is not needed for an English speaker, and because I have used footnotes to do the same thing for German terms/words which are self-explanatory to a German speaker, but not to an English speaker, for example Polterabend (footnote 187).

For Horst’s grandchildren: I have assumed that where family jokes or family poems are concerned, you might like to see what the original German looks/sounds like, and so in many cases have retained the original text with a parallel translation.

It seems ages (and is probably at least ten years) since Dilys and I first met Horst and Annette in Bonn. In the meanwhile, both those wonderful women have been taken from us.

But this book is a celebration of life, and survival under the most difficult of circumstances, and though this translation could not be completed in time for Horst’s 85th birthday, let it be something he can enjoy for his 87th!

A final thought: is one explanation of my feeling of affinity the importance of the month of August in our families (my elder son’s birthday is the 13th, like Horst and Regina, mine the 27th, like Skyla Blue, which makes me exactly 9 years and fifty weeks younger than Horst)?

Many thanks, Horst, for your trust and patience in waiting so long for the work to be completed. I hope the end result will make it seem worth while.

Bill McCann, Abertafol, July 2020

Ill. 2.0-1: Die Hartjes, 1929 edition, with signature of Frieda Gerken and Heinrich Geerken in Wiefelstede in July 1986

2.0 Foreword

The Hartjes, a family novel by the regional writer August Hinrichs, is of major importance when considering the history of the Geerken family. With a certain degree of poetic licence it tells the story of the ancestors of the Geerkens in the far north of Germany, in the vicinity of Wiefelstede, Gristede and Bäke.

The author, who died in 1956, was regarded as the leading regional writer in north-west Germany. His experiences in his grandparents’ nearly 400-year-old family home near the Geerken homestead remained permanently imprinted on his memory. As I heard from Frieda Gerken and other older inhabitants of Wiefelstede, he is said to have been a regular visitor to the Geerkens’ farm in his youth, as a result of which he was very familiar with their family relationships. The connection between him, his family3 and the Geerkens/Gerkens is said to have been particularly close in the 1920s, which is why he took their story as the basis of his novel4. The name Hartje was also intended to show how close Junker Geertje, the protagonist of the novel, was.

The feeling of belonging, of home, is the emotional heart of the novel, which describes the characters and the environment in which they were born and lived. Hinrichs said of The Hartjes: “I have not enjoyed working on any of my books as much as this one, and none is as dear to me.”

Ill. 2.0-2: Die Hartjes 1949 reprint5

Ill. 2.0-3: Die Hartjes, 1956 reprint

Ill. 2.0-4: Dust jacket blurb, 1956 reprint

As I said above, Hinrichs used the name Hartje for Geerken in the novel. In my short retelling of the story in Chapter 3 I have therefore used the original name of Geerken.

Some years ago, together with my brother Hartmut, I opened an exhibition of the paintings and glass paintings of my grandfather, the artist Johann Hinrich Geerken, in the Heimatmuseum in Wiefelstede. While preparing for this, I found it very difficult to discover any details about his life. Johann Hinrich Geerken died before I was born, and he’d broken off all contact with his wife and children long before his death. And during the First and Second World Wars many documents, letters and other material were also destroyed or left the possession of the family. So my knowledge about his life is based solely on the fragments I have so far been able to discover, and also from stories told by my father and other close relatives.

By lucky chance I came into contact with Dr Takeshi Ozawa from Tokyo, who was collecting information about German scientists who had worked in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century under the auspices of the Japanese government. At the time I was working on the life of Professor Carl August Schenk, my maternal great-grandmother’s brother6, who had been working in Japan as an academic at the University of Tokyo7 at precisely the same period. Coincidence or fate?

Dr Ozawa asked me if I could help him with information about Carl August Schenk for material he was preparing for the Imperial University of Tokyo. I was very happy to do so! Our information fitted together perfectly, as he knew very little about Schenk’s time and family circumstances in Germany, and I knew equally little about his time in Japan and his subsequent life.

In the past there were, of course, family trees for the Geerken/Gerkens and Mannhardts, but they were incomplete, or even partially incorrect – and they did not go back far enough. And there was unfortunately very little information about the interesting lives of the inventors and great minds among our ancestors, some of whom are still remembered in their chosen fields. And very few documents have come down to us: some of them must surely have been lost in the many wars of past centuries. Since I also had many family stories from my parents, all my aunts and uncles and also more distant relatives – both by word of mouth and on paper – I have collected and arranged all these fragments in a coherent narrative. They were voices from the past that whispered many new and previously unknown things in my ear.

Among the men of the Geerken/Gerken branch of our family tree the forenames Friedrich, Heinrich/Hinrich and Johann/Johannes recur with great frequency. It was an old European tradition to give male children the first name of their fathers or grandfathers. It was a matter of honour to pass the names on, at the very least as a second forename. But perhaps the Geerkens/Gerkens were a little too bound by tradition – the same names passed alternately from generation to generation! This led to a certain degree of confusion which made it both complicated and difficult to maintain a clear perspective. For that reason I have often, for the sake of clarity and simplicity, given birth and death dates in brackets next to the names. There is also the fact that the names were sometimes written as Geerken, and at other times as Gerken: registry clerks and clergy were not over-concerned with consistent spelling in those days.

With Carmen Fournarakis’ help I have also succeeded in reconstructing a third branch of the Geerken family, Bäke II. This line takes us to Greece and was previously unknown to me. In the course of my research I discovered that, as well as his brother Johann Friedrich, my grandfather Johann Hinrich had another brother, Gerhard. Even my father and Frieda Gerken – who should actually have known this – never mentioned him. Since I don’t want to overload this book I will not say a great deal about the Bäke II branch of the family, and leave it to their descendants to consider adding to the information to be found in this book.

Even for the Bäke I branch I do not have all the necessary information about the grandchildren of Hans-Friedrich, Heinz and Gerd Gerken, so that for the same reason the addition of any other information has been left to the descendants of this branch. One reason for this is that I plan to have this book completed and in my hands for my 85th birthday on the 13th of August 2018. And time is pressing!

Because of the new discoveries I have had to partially revise and make additions to the genealogical tables produced for the exhibition of my grandfather’s paintings in 2006. The tables were also expanded by the addition of the Bäke II line, which leads to Greece. The surname Geerken/Gerken is lost in the Bäke II line, and it will also disappear in my main Geerken line in Australia, since there are no male descendants after me with the name of Geerken. My brother’s grandson Jonas has adopted his mother’s maiden name so that the name of Geerken will not be handed on in that line either. Only Djamila and Ramon, the children of Anita Geerken, my brother Hartmut’s daughter, can pass the name on. So that the genealogical table – now complete – can be shown in this book, I have had to divide it into the different branches. Since detailed information about date and place of birth and profession – where available – has been given in the body of the text, I have left it out in the genealogical tables and simply included the years of birth and death.

I have not included children who were stillborn or died soon after birth in the tables as otherwise they would be overloaded. According to what my paternal grandmother told my father, stillborn children resulting from home births were often simply buried in the garden without being registered with the church or the authorities, so that they aren’t even officially documented.

I want my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to find it easier if for any reason they wish to learn about their ancestors. And so I am trying, as well as I can, to give my ancestors back their history. It has always been important for me to know who my ancestors and their families were. Unfortunately, the impulse to write this book only came now, when my parents, aunts and uncles – whom I could have asked for more detailed information – are all already dead.

My brother Hartmut has written the text about him and his family8 for this book himself. At the moment he is working on an extensive autobiography. I’m sure more information will be available when it is published.

I have collected the statements made in this book from countless different sources, from archives, church registers, register offices, ethnological societies and the Heimatmuseum in Wiefelstede and other institutions. It was like a huge jigsaw in which even my own life is only one small piece. This book includes data that goes back in an unbroken series to the 17th century. That’s almost 400 years. I thought that was enough! Of course, there are some gaps that could certainly be closed by further research. But to go back another one or more generations would require the investment of a lot of time in intensive research. As a result, there is a large gap between the farmer Johann Gerhard Geerken in the 12th century and the 17th century. Nevertheless a few individual 15th-century documents in which the name Geerken appears have been preserved in Wiefelstede.

In the course of my researches I have often crossed the paths of my ancestors in north, south and eastern Germany, in Switzerland, in the USA and in Japan.

My parents, and to some extent my ancestors on both sides, loved travel. This has given me an international turn of mind. Since the wider Geerken/Gerken, Mannhardt, Thiel and Schenk families have drifted further and further to all the continents as a result of globalisation or marriage, there is a danger that this information could be permanently lost to future generations. Perhaps this is the last chance to collect and publish all the information known today in a book. From generation to generation it will become increasingly difficult to find the relevant documents, accounts and references.

The grandchildren of Heinrich August Geerken and Lina Klara, née Mannhardt, my parents, are already spread all over the world. They hardly know their own cousins any more, let alone their parents’ cousins. Family bonds which previously – until my generation – were very close have unfortunately already been torn asunder. This made it all the more important to me to write down the story of our ancestors as far as it is known.

The generations that follow me should know that they bear the inheritance of good and interesting forebears. They should know that they were admirable, successful and strong. Our families have many mettlesome genes, whose positive qualities are still being passed down. The achievements of many of them still live on today.

Because of their extreme age, some of the photographs could not be reproduced any better, and so I would ask forgiveness for the poor quality of at least parts of some of them. I leave the power of the photographs to speak for itself, even if some of them are very faded and will, in a few years, be unusable.

The photograph of my grandfather Johann Hinrich Geerken as a child was taken as early as 1855 on a glass plate coated with light-sensitive emulsion9. This produced a negative measuring about 12x16 centimetres. It has survived extremely well. How my great-grandfather, a simple farmer from the far north of Germany came to have one of the earliest photographs taken of his son is a mystery to me. This glass plate is presumably the earliest photograph ever to have been taken in Wiefelstede still to survive today. After the book is finished the glass plate will be handed to the Heimatmuseum in Wiefelstede for safe-keeping.

Ill. 2.0-5: Picture of Johann Hinrich Geerken by the Daguerrotype process, about 1855

Very few photographs survived the Second World War. Firstly, there was the simple struggle for existence, and secondly many photographs and albums were destroyed when our home in Stuttgart was bombed. Fortunately, there were photographs among my Aunt Athene’s papers in the USA which duplicate those lost in Germany.

I was able to reconstruct much of the data on the basis of notes on the back of the photographs. All this data has been included in the book to the best of our understanding on the basis of the current state of knowledge.

Inevitably there are many places where parts of the text overlap. A few photographs have also been reproduced twice to avoid tiresome searching and leafing back and forward.

The artistic talent of my grandfather Johann Hinrich Geerken means that there are portraits of our ancestors – still in existence – so that we still know what they looked like. We can also draw conclusions about their character from their facial expressions.

This book about our ancestors contains information that I had already collected over several decades without thinking that I was going to publish it in a book. It will only be of interest to a small circle of people, even though it contains information about artists, academics and inventors who are still respected today. Because this means a small print run, and because of the many illustrations, the price is unfortunately correspondingly high. I hope that those who are interested in reading it will understand. My contribution is the years of intensive research I have put into working on this family history. So that all who are interested can acquire the book, I have published it using the publishers BoD in Norderstedt and it can now be purchased at any time, anywhere in the world in bookshops and innumerable online services.

I have written in detail about my younger years and my evacuation in the Second World War in my book Missbrauchte Kindheit – Geboren im Jahr von Hitlers Machtergreifung [Abused Childhood – born in the year Hitler seized power]10. The story of my professional career, especially my time in Indonesia, can be found in my book A Gecko for Luck11. I will therefore only give a short account of those periods.

As I do every year, I travelled in the winters of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 to my second home on the island of Bali in Indonesia12 where from 1963 on I worked for nearly two decades and also spent several months every year on holiday. On both these two visits to Bali I was laden with thick folders labelled Geerken/Gerken, Thiel, Mannhardt and Schenk. I sat in tropical Bali, going through the many items of information and trying to reduce them to book form. I was anxious to produce not just a dry collection of facts about our ancestors’ lives but – as far as possible and where we knew about it – to get the highs and lows of their lives down on paper and to give them a voice again.

Which of my ancestors – farmers, court officials, coachmen, brewers, white tanners, painters, clock and watchmakers, scientists and academics, inventors, writers and architects – would have believed that one day one of their descendants would be sitting under palm trees on a tropical island in South-East Asia only a couple of degrees south of the Equator, trying to write about their eventful life stories? I don’t think any of them would.

Almost in the last minute before the final production of the book I received a message from my Aunt Athene’s grand-daughter, Cynthia Athene Jones-Zipf, that completely by chance she had found several boxes of her grandmother’s papers in the attic of her mother’s house in the USA. I immediately flew to New York and looked at the boxes with her – they hadn’t been opened for more than 50 years. My Aunt Athene, my father’s sister, had meticulously stored documents, letters and photographs, and we found information we had previously been unaware of and other treasures that I felt I must at all costs include in this book. Since I had already numbered the illustrations in series in my draft of the book, there was a problem. As I didn’t want to alter the sequence of the illustrations by adding new pictures and documents, I will number the previous illustrations with the suffix (a) and give the new items the same numbers with the suffix (b), (c), (d) and so on. Nevertheless, I will only include the most important of the newly discovered documents here.

With this book I wish to give future generations of our family a foundation of knowledge about or ancestors in the hope that this chronicle will be continued for hundreds of years by those who come after us.

3 August Hinrichs’ Parents: Hermann Dietrich Hinrichs and Margarethe (called Meta), née Siemen

4 Information from Frieda Geerken, Wiefelstede. Interview July 1986

5 Editions of Die Hartjes: 1924, 1926, 1929, 1949 and 1956

6 Sophie Schenk (1839–1903)

7 Then: Yedo

8 Chapter 3.4.3

9 By the Daguerrotype process. Expert opinion by Dr Bodo von Dewitz, Museum Ludwig, Bonn. Another expert from the German Photographic Society, Professor Leo Fritz Gruber (died in Cologne in 2005), was however of the opinion that this was one of the first photographs taken with the new glass photographic technique of Niepce de St. Victor.

10 ISBN 978-3-8423-4909-4, BoD Norderstedt 2011

11 ISBN 978-3-8391-5248-5, BoD Norderstedt 2010

12 See my books A Gecko for Luck, Hitler’s Asian Adventure and Indonesia Then and Now.