Month: March 2018

Franz Xaver Hutstein from Unterthannet sent a lot of letters from the front lines in world war and his captivity in France to his parents. About 73 letters from and to Unterthannet are still available.

 

From September 17, 1915 to July 12, 1916 he was to hold a position on the “Maashöhe”. That was a predominantly wooded range of hills south of Verdun to the town of Saint Mihiel east of the Meuse. It was part of the legendary Battle of Verdun, which took place on February 21 and formally ended December 21, 1916.

On July 17, Franz was transferred to a position closer to Verdun, which was probably overrun by French units on August 3.

Franz was captured and taken from Verdun to the POW camp at Roanne, 70 kilometers northwest of Lyon in central France.

 

Vom 17. September 1915 bis 12. Juli 1916 sollte er eine Stellung auf den  „Maashöhen” halten. Das war ein überwiegend bewaldeter Höhenzug südlich von Verdun bis zum Ort Saint Mihiel östlich der Maas. Er war Teil der legendären Schlacht von Verdun, welche am 21. Februar begar  und formell am 21. Dezember 1916 endete.

Am 17. Juli wurde Franz in eine Stellun näher an Verdun verlegt, welche wohl  am 3. August von französischen Einheiten überrannt worden ist.

Franz wurde gefangen genommen und von Verdun in das Kriegsgefangenenlager nach Roanne, 70 Kilometer nordwestlich von Lyon, ins zentrale Frankreich verbracht.

….

Roanne.5- August 1917: Franz confirms receipt of several packages and describes in detail their contents- “I owe a great debt of thanks to you for all the good that was sent, ie for the trouble in sending the packages, knowing that you have a lot of work to do now. … that you bought the Müller Waldung, which interests me and makes me very happy.”

Roanne.5- August 1917: Franz bestätigt den Erhalt mehrerer Pakete und beschreib detailliert ihre Inhalte- „Ich wäre für großen Dank Euch schuldig für all das Gute geschickt, sohin für die Mühen mit dem Verschicken der Pakete, da Ich ja weiß., dass jetzt bei Euch wieder sehr viel Arbeit gibt. … daß ihr die Müller Waldung gekauft habt, was mich sehr interessiert und freud.”

 

Hutstein in Vilshofen

Bernhard Hutstein finally settled in Pleckental, Alkofen, close to the city of Vilshofen, and founded a family there.

Alkofen arose from the efforts of the Bavarian Elector to “peupelier” his lands, that is, to create settler positions on public land, small farms that were supposed to support a family. Between these rural settlements four colonies were established after 1800: one of it was Pleckental to the east of Alkofen.

The Pleckental colony, was planned on 48 Tagwerk ( ~ 48 x 0.35 hectare), the Electoral Wood Ground in “Plaickenthal”,  which were to be parcelled out and sold to those willing to settle. At the auction, however, a Vilshofen brewer and the owner of the large Schweiklhof struck and each bought half. They paid between 20 and 60 guilders per hectare and in the following years sold the land in small plots, most of them only half a hectare in size, taking up to 200 guilders for the hectare. In 1829 59 families lived on 40 hectares of farmland. Thus Pleckental had a much higher population density than the nearby city of Vilshofen. A report by the government of the Lower Danube District from 1816 shows how difficult the social conditions were shortly after the colonies were founded: “Everything is teeming with people. Half begs, a quarter steals! ”This is where the negative consequences of the abolition of manorial rule became visible.

In 1873 Pleckental was given its own gendarmerie station, which was quite unusual for a rural gendarmerie. A school was built in Alkofen in 1835 for the purpose of elevating morality. Even if Pleckental attempted to trigger a socialist revolution in Vilshofen in 1918, the situation improved after the second world war. The problems have largely disappeared. On May 1, 1978, Alkofen was incorporated into the city of Vilshofen on the Danube.

But still today the legend about the violent past of the Pleckental is remembered as people still do have the saying that Pleckental is “home to long knives”. 

 

II.1.4 In family hands since 1665

 

A farm at Aiglsöd, municipality of Wegscheid, is in family hands since 1665, i.e. approximately 350 years or 10 generations.

First owner was Thomas Hutsteiner who  bought this farm 1665 from Johann Kern there at a time when Wegscheid and surroundings was hit by the pestilence heavily.

 

In the Urbar of 1643 there was no Hutsteiner at Aiglsöd.  The entire farm was the farm of Jakob Weisheipl in 1643, later of Philip Weisheipl in 1656, which was quite large, about 1.5x the usual fief size. The Weisheipl family does not occur in Aiglsöd after 1658 anymore.

Thomas was followed by his son Paul. Finally, Alois Hutsteiner, Thomas 8x great-grandson took over the farm in the 1980s.

10 generations sequence of Hutsteiner farm owners in Aiglsöd: 

Fires

During the centuries several times our family was threatened by conflagration. In 1855 this also happened to our family in Aiglsöd (see below), but fortunately the fire was extinguished fast by the help of neighbours.

But fire destroyed the homes of other family members, too, which was recorded in local newspapers:

March, 2nd, 1850 the home of Johann Baptist Hutstein in Panzing was burnt down together with two other houses nearby.

On 15th of December 1855 morning the house of Johann Baptist Hutsteiner in Aiglsöd was set on fire. Fortunately help was organized very fast  which limited the damage done.

On 4.11.1833 local newspaper reported fire in Kasberg, Wegscheid:

In 1922 a fire destroyed half of the village Mistlberg, including the Hutsteiner farm there:

On 29.6.1957 the house of Leopold Hutsteiner in Weberschlag was destroyed by fire:

II.1.5 A growing industry in Nuremberg

During the turn of the last century Nuremberg was a heavily growing industrial city in Bavaria which attracted a lot of people from the neighbouring regions.

Mathias Hutsteiner from Aiglsöd moved with his whole family to Nuremberg around 1898 to find a new source of doing his living.