If it weren't for three major revolutions I wouldn't be sitting here writing this. I would exist in a different mind, a different continent perhaps, wouldn't be named what I am, would have no knowledge of these events. My parents would not have met. My children would be someone else's. There would be another human being taking my place on this planet.
The American Revolution begat the French Revolution. Germans in France move to Ukraine. Life is good, the new American West right there in Ukraine. World War I comes along, Germany sends Lenin back to the Soviet Union on a sealed train to make trouble for the czar. Germany and Russia sign a treaty. Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrow the czar - third revolution. Lenin/Stalin collectivize the farms in Ukraine, life in Ukraine takes a turn. WWII happens along because WWI never really settled things. This is now the big one. Some Ukrainian Germans make it back to the west. The others are scattered over Siberia and Central Asia. Western Germany is in ruins after the big one. Although they speak the language, Germany is not their homeland.
Showing posts with label Reflections Directions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reflections Directions. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
The other side of the family - another digression
I am still keeping in mind that there are two sides of the family. My mother's maiden name is Riss. Her mother's maiden name was Gaul - as in the Gaul region of France. Yes, there is French heritage on that side as well, which I intend to pursue in due time, even though my immediate interest is in the Ukraine/Russian migration of the Ridingers.
What has intrigued on the Riss side is the deep Bavarian tradition and the possible tendency towards Nazi sympathy during those war years. I have heard my mother's stories about the resentment and sense of betrayal after World War I, both towards the French people in exacting unfair retribution from the Germans and towards the German government in caving in to world pressure - sentiments shared by the German masses and my theory for saying to you that the unsatisfactory arrangements which followed WWI led to the rise of the Nazi movement and the atrocities committed during WWII.
So when I see pictures of my great uncle Albert in his German uniform or my uncle Otto in his side-car military motorcycle, I wonder about their sentiments towards the German military cause. There was some prejudice among my older relatives, subsided now with the younger generations, but no doubt some lingering innuendos from even my generational peers that the German way, and perhaps the Bavarian traditions, work better than the ways of other cultures. Can repression in the Nazi tradition ever return? Absolutely, and not necessarily in Germany! The United States is still teeming with neo-Nazi or other "purist" movements, who believe that the human race is in need of some improvement, and the methodology to that end can be only a cleansing, and not a re-habilitation, process. Holocausts still happen. Look at Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda. It is an ever-present danger!
What has intrigued on the Riss side is the deep Bavarian tradition and the possible tendency towards Nazi sympathy during those war years. I have heard my mother's stories about the resentment and sense of betrayal after World War I, both towards the French people in exacting unfair retribution from the Germans and towards the German government in caving in to world pressure - sentiments shared by the German masses and my theory for saying to you that the unsatisfactory arrangements which followed WWI led to the rise of the Nazi movement and the atrocities committed during WWII.
So when I see pictures of my great uncle Albert in his German uniform or my uncle Otto in his side-car military motorcycle, I wonder about their sentiments towards the German military cause. There was some prejudice among my older relatives, subsided now with the younger generations, but no doubt some lingering innuendos from even my generational peers that the German way, and perhaps the Bavarian traditions, work better than the ways of other cultures. Can repression in the Nazi tradition ever return? Absolutely, and not necessarily in Germany! The United States is still teeming with neo-Nazi or other "purist" movements, who believe that the human race is in need of some improvement, and the methodology to that end can be only a cleansing, and not a re-habilitation, process. Holocausts still happen. Look at Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda. It is an ever-present danger!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Breakthrough in Karlsruhe
My cousin, who lives near Karlsruhe, turned me on to geneological research done by Dr. Karl Stumpp. Together we scanned the names of Germans who migrated from there to Ukraine or Russia. One of the names is a Georg Reidinger born in the Alcase region, presumably in Rohrbach, who moved to Rohrbach, Odessa oblast. Other Reidingers also came from Alsace, moving to places such as Landau, Munchen, Liebenthal. The settlers named the new villages after German villages they knew. I now have a place to start.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Lodi, California
I happen to be living in the Bay Area right now when I come across some old correspondence from a distant cousin in Texas. He referred to the daughter of some Ridinger who moved from Nebraska to Lodi, California. With help from the Familyologist, I checked the California death records and found Emma Ochsner, born 10 April, 1905, died 8 Nov 2000. She is the daughter of Jacob Ridinger, who immigrated in 1910 (Ellis Island). Could it be Jacob was Johann the mayor's brother, my dad's uncle? I am finding many references to Germans who settled in the Lodi/Stockton area through the AHSGR. Seems a number of the Rohrbach and Worms families ended up there.
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