Eva Maria Wurl ¹

Eva married Gottfried Possin on an unknown date in Brandenburg, GERMANY. (Gottfried Possin was born on 5 January 1779 in Prussia,¹ died on 10 April 1847 in Neulangsow, Oderbruch, Brandenburg, PRUSSIA and was buried on 12 April 1847 in Neulangsow, Alt Langsow, Lebus, Brandenburg, PRUSSIA.)

  Marriage Notes:

18th-19th Century German Farms
Oderbruch Region, Kingdom of Prussia
Compiled by, Robert Westphal

OVERVIEW
In the mid-1740s, the Prussian government released notices proclaiming the availability of free or low-cost land in the Oderbruch, in an attempt to lure German colonists to the region. Farmers and laborers from all over Germany moved to the area to work on the largest reclamation project of the era - the building of dykes to divert the flow of the Oder River, and the draining and clearing of the rich bottomlands for farming .

THE POSSIN FAMILY
Gottfried Possin, and his father before him, was one the many who colonized the Oderbruch region. Emigration records (unconfirmed at this time), indicate that the Possin family had lived in the Alsace region of southwestern Germany on the French border, and emigrated to the Oderbruch region around 1750, settling in the vicinity of Alt Langsow. Martin Possin, who emigrated to America in 1848, was a well-to-do farmer in Neulangsow, who prospered in part from the labors of his father, Gottfried, who toiled for several years building and maintaining dykes north of the city of Frankfurt am Oder, and claiming the tracts of land that Martin would later inherit. The farms, typical of the region, were surveyed during the initial reclamation project in 1747, and divided into 25-acre parcels. Each "kolonist" or settler to the region could claim as many parcels as he could productively farm, so long as he provided labor to the Prussian government in return. This labor consisted of varied tasks according to one's ability and education. Engineers were in great demand, as were those knowledgeable in the construction trades. It is assumed that, due to the size of the Possin farm near Neulangsow (the equivalent of 200 acres), that Gottfried Possin may have been an engineer, or may have had prior reclamation experience in the Alsace.

HISTORY OF THE ODERBRUCH REGION
In the historical terms of the region, let me begin by recalling a verse written in 1848, a year of European revolutions, and, also the year in which Martin Possin left the region for America. This verse describes "a mighty vassal" in the Prussian marshes who "stormed through hearth and home" until a royal hero "drove him from the field." Who was he? The "enemy" was the River Oder, his terrain, the Oder marshes, until Frederick the Great "cast him in chains". The author of this verse, Carl Heuer (a dyke inspector), was referring to the draining and settlement of the Prussian Oderbruch one hundred years earlier, one of the best known of many such projects.

The reclamation project began in 1747 and was completed in 1753, following a comprehensive plan that re-routed the river and eventually released some 150,000 acres for new uses. Reclamation projects were designed to create new land on which colonists could be settled as part of King Frederick's Peuplierungspolitik (a thousand new villages were created during this reign). They would also increase the food supply to support a growing population and army. Early drainage projects in the Oderbruch were also intended to provision Berlin, just as the Dutch drained inland lakes in the 17th century to feed Amsterdam. At the same time, the projects (Durchstiche) that altered the course of rivers like the Oder were intended to foster commerce by improving navigability, and to prevent major floods like those that occurred nine times in the Oderbruch between 1698 and 1737.

Historians often quote from one of Frederick the Great's letters to Voltaire: "True riches consist only of that which comes out of the earth." Here was the authentic voice of 18th-century enlightened absolutism. Like other contemporary rulers, Frederick sought (in Henning Eichberg's formulation) to "order, measure, and discipline." This applied to soldiers and subjects, to land and raw materials, to gardens - and to nature itself, where the Creator had left dark or "barbarous" corners that served no "useful" purpose. Unfortunately, thousands of acres of pristine wilderness and unique ecosystems were destroyed in mankind's attempt to tame the wilderness.

Another example of mankind's intervention in the Oderbruch was the hunting to virtual extinction in these years of bear, lynx, wolf and other creatures. In fact, this was often linked by contemporaries to reclamation. August Gottlob Meissner wrote in 1782 that before the draining of the Oderbruch, "no plough had ever been here, no human industry had ever sought its fortune... one encountered nothing but swamp and dense undergrowth, the habitation of snakes and wolves". Stubenrauch of the Order of St. John noted in 1787, "The whole region remained for a long time a dwelling place for wild animals, wolves, not infrequently bears, otters and other wild vermin of every kind".

The reclamation of the Oderbruch region ushered in a new era of dykes, ditches, windmills, fields and meadows, undeniably delivering many benefits. New land was created for colonists, and the food supply was increased. The reclaimed land often proved exceptionally rich and productive, nowhere more so than the Oderbruch. As the soil dried out, the livestock raising of the early years was joined by a very diverse arable farming. Crops included rye, wheat, oats, barley, clover, and later, flax - used in the production of military uniforms by the Prussian government. At the time, the Oderbruch was a kind of laboratory case of "improved" farming. It was appropriate that a pioneer of scientific agriculture, Daniel Albrecht Thaer, should have settled there, at Möglin in 1804, where he published the four volumes of his "Principles of Rational Agriculture." Later commentators, who so often looked down on the Oderbruch (as King Frederick had always done), invariably painted the same picture. As the region became productive, this view changed. This was a "blooming province" (Walter Christiani), a "green land in the sandy marshes", "a large and beautiful garden" (Ernst Breitkreuz).

PEOPLE OF THE ODERBRUCH REGION
The Oderbruch also did well by its inhabitants, those who farmed and later owned the new land. By the second decade of the 19th century, the Oderbruch peasant had acquired a reputation for acquisitiveness that was striking even by prevailing standards of official and bourgeois criticism. The red-tiled and green-shuttered farmhouses, the carriages and finery, the consumption of tobacco and wines - these were the conventional symbols of vulgar prosperity. The promised opportunities extended by King Frederick's colonist-recruiters had apparently been redeemed. Moreover, reclamation meant also that malaria was no longer endemic. Although standing water was removed as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, it was feared that the "new husbandry" of livestock and dairy farming would provide the malaria-carrying mosquito with a preferred source of blood; however, the malarial mosquito did not find cattle a suitable host, so the preference for cattle blood broke the chain of malaria transmission to humans.

The "old" (pre-reclamation) Oderbruch region contained a scatter of villages built on higher sandy mounds. Their inhabitants were "amphibious." They lived primarily as fishermen, from the rich stocks of carp, perch, pike, lamprey eel and crabs. But they also produced hay and pastured animals when water-levels were lower, using animal dung mixed with mud and bundles of twigs to construct protective walls against floods, and on those walls they grew vegetables. For much of the year, except during lower water and winter ice, communication was by water. This way of life was destroyed in the reclamation of the lowlands. The former marsh-dwellers received new land as compensation, and their children and grandchildren of course adapted (as we say) to the new regime of life.

The years-long projects on the Oder, Warthe, and Netze Rivers only created the preconditions for settlements, the cuts in the rivers, the major dykes and embankments. The work of turning the geometrical grids of planned colonies into reality still had to be done by the colonists; ditching and dyking the future agricultural land, pulling up the old vegetation and planting willows by the new drainage channels, preparing the still intractable soil, building paths and bridges, all while trying to maintain the defenses against the water and provide for their families. Disease and heavy labor culled their ranks; many widows showed up in the "tables" of colonists compiled for King Frederick's scrutiny.

The original houses, often built too quickly with skimpy foundations, subsided and even collapsed. Animals died from infections after grazing on still water-logged meadows. As an old Oderbruch colonist saying went, "The first generation meets with death, the second with privation, while only the third with prosperity." Some moved on, or returned home, as in the case of a Herr Paulsen of Alt Langsow. In a journal he kept, he recorded:

"In our first year in the Oderbruch, 1749, my dear wife and I were robbed and assaulted by a band of Cossacks. In the second year, we lost 14 head of cattle to disease and had three horses stolen. In the third year, our fields were flooded, weeds ruined half our crop and a plague of mice ate the rest. In the fourth year, we were flooded out again, losing all of our pigs and poultry. It was then that we decided to return to our native home in Holstein."

For those who remained, the eventual prosperity was great. As in any frontier, i.e. the American west or the Canadian wilderness, the determined colonist often did nothing more than forge the way for future generations who prospered greatly.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The rich alluvial soil of the Oderbruch had not suffered the soil exhaustion found in some other areas of Germany. Crops and gardens produced a plentiful supply of food, while undergrowth, left in huge piles for months to dry out, became a refuge for wildlife of every kind. This undergrowth, when burned or used for fuel wood, sent animals and birds fleeing the fire and smoke, becoming easy prey for the colonists. Wild cats, weasels, martens, foxes, wolves, deer, hares, wild ducks, and grouse became common to the dinner table of the Oderbruch colonist.

CULTURAL IMPACT
In the later years (1820-1850), fishermen and hunter-gatherers (replaced largely by vast numbers of colonists), not only developed their own micro-economies, but became linked to local markets (Wriezen, Frankfurt, and Landsberg). As with the American Indian, the original inhabitants of the Oderbruch were forced to assimilate into the new society as "second- class" citizens.

These European parallels with the Americas expressed contempt towards "uncultivated" peoples within Europe itself. In the German case, this meant Poles, many of whom had crossed the Oder River centuries prior, and had established the major settlements of the region. The line of the Prussian "improvements" ran eastwards, and met with little or no resistance from the original Polish settlers. Still, officials and colonists alike carried contempt for the indigenous Poles. The draining of the Oderbruch was intended to plant good German colonists where "superstitious" Wendish fishermen had lived, in order to fulfill the Prussian goal of "civilizing" the "dark" regions of Europe, paralleling the early American ideal of manifest destiny. As the Oderbruch region became largely populated by German colonists, many of the Wends, Poles, and other small ethnic groups, relocated to the Neumark region to the northeast, and into Poland itself.

As the Prussian government sought to acquire new lands, uprisings, riots, and wars became the norm. In the early 19th century, the Oderbruch became a hotbed of political upheaval due to its close proximity to Berlin, and the fact that the region supplied the majority of Berlin's food source. As the Prussian government demanded higher and higher taxes from farmers to support numerous wars, people began leaving the region. The last straw came when the Prussian government began placing "restrictions" on religion, in an attempt to amalgamate all Protestants into a central state-run church. Many, as in the case of Martin Possin and his family, found promise in emigrating to America at this time, following the same tradition as his father in "colonizing" a new frontier.

THE ODERBRUCH FARM
The typical Oderbruch farm consisted of a plot of land equivalent to 25-50 acres. Most land was leased from large landowners, and all crops were regulated by the Prussian government. The farmhouses were generally constructed of clay brick or stone, were normally single-story, and had red clay tile roofs. As a regional tradition, window shutters were painted green, as were the main entry doors to the homes. Due to the high water table, there were no basements or root cellars. Vegetables were preserved in small outbuildings constructed with 3 foot thick brick walls and earthen floors. Most furnishings were constructed of willow wood, as were rafters and other wooden supports used in house framing.

In addition to the field crops, the Oderbruch farmhouse always had a kitchen garden that featured vegetables, herbs, berries, fruit trees, and flowers. Among vegetables grown for family consumption or market sale were lentils, onions, peas, red cabbage, and kohlrabi. Farmers grew a wide range of herbs for medicinal purposes, for protection of other plants against insects, and for decoration and scent.

Plum, apple and pear trees were popular on the farms. They were not planted in orchards - instead, farmers usually planted their fruit trees near the house or along the road. Gooseberries, elderberries and currants were popular berries for beverages, wines, and preserves, and many farmers grew small plots of tobacco for their own use. Tobacco was a New World crop that had been introduced to Germany from the Netherlands, where it was popular in the 17th century, or from the German-speaking French province of Alsace-Lorraine.

A wide range of livestock was found on Oderbruch farms, including horses, donkeys, cattle, chickens, pigs, sheep, goose, ducks, turkeys, and pigeons, but in relatively small numbers. German farmers were slow to adopt fodder crops to enable livestock to survive winter.

Two features in a German farmhouse are quite different from any in the English, Irish, or American farmhouses of the era. One is the raised hearth in the kitchen, rather than an open-hearth fireplace. The raised hearth made it possible for the housewife to cook without stooping and bending over hot logs and flames. The top of the raised brick hearth allowed the building of small fires under individual pots or skillets, which rested on iron trivets. This conserved scarce wood, which was stored under the raised hearth. With such slow burning heat, it was possible to cook in earthenware pots and pans as well as in metal vessels.

The kitchens were small, practical work rooms in the typical Oderbruch farmhouse; not the gathering and eating room for the entire family. Onions and herbs for cooking were kept here, along with vessels for cooking and storage: porous redware, Irdenwaren, and hard, more durable salt-glaze stoneware, or Steingut. The redware was often decorated with bright slip glazes in bold patterns.

Beds in German houses were occasionally of the tester type, complete with curtains and valances. They were more often much simpler pieces of furniture with a plain headboard and footboard. A straw mattress, linen sheets, and a feather tick were typical of the bedcovers in a peasant household.

The barn was normally built using the same construction as the house, and the same red clay tile roof. The barn, normally of three bays, had a central threshing bay with an animal stabling bay on each side. Horses were kept in the east bay, and cattle in the west. The threshing bay had double doors that extend the width of the bay and the height from threshing floor to eaves.

The average Oderbruch farm was extremely well maintained. The gardens and crops were cultivated by the entire family, often consisting of 10 or more children and extended family members. Outside labor was seldom hired. For major projects, plantings, or harvesting, the immediate community would offer labor and support. Landlords often restricted hunting or fishing rights to their tenant farmers, so collective hunting and fishing grounds were established, becoming the forerunners to nature preserves and parks.

The average diet of an Oderbruch farm family consisted of very little meat, other than wild game. Beef, poultry, or pork was saved for special occasions and holidays. Potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, and fish were the staples of their diet. Wild game was plentiful, with rabbit and fowl hunted regularly. Most families maintained at least one or two milk cows, but milk was seldom sold. Instead, cheese or "quark," a soft cottage cheese, was often made and marketed in small roadside stands or at church functions.

WORSHIP IN THE ODERBRUCH REGION
Churches in the region were primarily of the Lutheran denomination, controlled by the government and somewhat "liberalized" by combining politics and religion. The Evangelical Lutheran church, in contrast, was a broad term for many other smaller (and in many instances) more traditional or "Old Lutheran" denominations. In the mid-19th century, the Prussian government began placing informal restrictions on churches other than the "state" church. This was accomplished primarily by the refusal of "state" church members to do business with non-members. Although an unwritten rule, the government successfully launched a campaign in the late 1830s to force non-members into virtual poverty. This factor is considered to be one of the primary reasons for the emigration of large numbers of Oderbruch families to America in the mid-1800s.
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