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Pehlemann, a family, as C. E. Walter Pehlemann put it, a family that originated in the land of Brandenburg and was and is spread around the world. Today, the relatives and friends can be found among the living in Germany, in Canada and the USA, in Namibia and the Netherlands - we are still in the process of discovering the ancestry with other "Pehlemann & Pehleman". The proven origin lies in the German Margraviate of Brandenburg in the Oderbruch in the town of Zernickow, today part of the town of Seelow, which was twice the scene of war on the Seelow Heights.
So I have undertaken several trips there and also to fly over the Oderbruch and its villages in order to see these places for myself, at ground level and from above. On my trips to the Oderbruch, I focused on Zernickow as the first important destination, as it is the origin of the family since 1622. On the second and third trips, I visited Zernickow/Seelow and Ortwig and all the villages in the Oderbruch, especially those villages related to the name Pehlemann.
First time to get aerial photos of the Oderbruch (I love flying for that!) I flew from Strausberg airfield (Brandenburg) eastwards over the Mark Brandenburg and the Oderbruch including Zernickow; unfortunately I was so forgetful and did not fly first time further to Ortwig (I flew further by plane that day to do a lap over Berlin-Tempelhof, 14 days before the historic airfield (the Berlin Air Lift/time of cold war) closed, and then further west to fly over the great palaces of Sanssouci and Potsdam).
Then I visited Ortwig again later by extra car trips and additional flight from the airport Neubrandenburg.
Here is a text excerpt about the Oderbruch on the Pehlemann family history ©
The O d e r b r u c h is the name given to the land that stretches west and northwest of the town of Cüstrin, approximately 60 km long and almost 20 km wide, into the area of Freienwalde and Oderberg. Cüstrin is located 85 km east of Berlin. In the northeast, the Oderbruch is bordered by the Oder river, and in the southwest by the "Alte Oder". In earlier times, the entire area was almost completely covered by water and formed a large lake, at least in spring. In summer, the water then flowed away and meadowland emerged, but there were always so many smaller lakes and waterways that traffic on roads was not possible even in the warm season and could only be managed by boat. Human habitations were only found in a few slightly higher places that were not connected to each other. The population in the old days were Wends, a Slavic tribe that had been fought against by Charlemagne because of their pagan beliefs, until Margrave Albert the Bear almost completely eradicated them in the middle of the 12th century. The area of the eastern March was thus depopulated, and German colonists and Saxons moved into the empty areas. In order to drain the land, Elector Johann Georg (1571-98) had summer dams built southwest of Cüstrin, but these were not carefully monitored and repaired and fell into disrepair. Despite this, the southern part of the Oderbruch - called Oberbruch - was opened up to cultivation earlier than the northern part, which was known as Niederbruch. The great elector (at the time of our ancestor Peter) also endeavored to cultivate and dam the area, but without lasting success. During the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes invaded the Oderbruch from Cüstrin during frost (1641), plundered and burned 12 villages and carried away whatever they could use to feed their troops. In particular, in the years 1609, 1625, 1655, 1675, 1694 to 1698, 1709, 1718, 1729, 1731 and 1736, floods were so extensive that all the embankments were destroyed and the inhabitants had to flee to higher ground.
The inhabitants were exclusively fishermen, who could only do some livestock farming and meadow farming in the summer and a little farming on the higher ground. They only rarely came into contact with the inhabitants of the areas bordering the Oderbruch when selling fish or going to church. Old villages, i.e. those that existed before the actual development by Frederick the Great, include Gusow, Kienitz, Platkow, Quappendorf, Quilitz, Rathstock, Sachsendorf, Tucheband, Manschnow, Gorgast, Golzow, Werbig, Letschin, Genschmar, Sietzing, Friedland, Metzdorf, Bliedorf, Ortwig, Werder, Wellup. Seelow and Zernikow are located directly on the southern edge of the fault. Some villages have the additional name "New" on the map. These are villages that were founded later. The only real wealth of the country was the extraordinarily large abundance of fish and the countless water birds that nested in the country. It should be mentioned that the water surface was not stagnant and rotting swamp water, but flowing water, so that the health of the population was good and many people lived to a ripe old age.
In 1753, the systematic cultivation and drainage of the land began when Frederick II commissioned the war council of Haerlem to manage it after the Second Silesian War. Frederick William I had already had this man prepare an expert opinion, but then said that he was already too old and wanted to leave this task to his son. The commission under Haerlem then ordered the construction of efficient, sufficiently high dams to enclose the Oder and the Old Oder and to create a canal system to collect and quickly drain the inland waters. From 1785 onwards, the Oderbruch enjoyed almost half a century of order and peace from flooding, so that the country recovered quickly and became prosperous thanks to the fertile soil. Wheat and later sugar beet cultivation, excellent pasture and livestock farming.
In the Niederbruch the nobility had a very large share of the land, while the largest part of the Oberbruch was dominial land, that is, it belonged to the crown and the villages were called "royal villages", which also included Ortwig and Gorgast. After the land was cleared, each fisherman was given 90 acres of good soil, and many so-called housemen and Büdner received appropriate land. This support was again a favor from Frederick II, because the Bruch had only been maintained at the state's expense for 10 years. From November 1763 the maintenance of the dams was handed over to the interested parties and on June 27, 1769 the dyke and shore regulations came into force.
Until the abolition of serfdom, the old villages had their supreme administrative and judicial official in their feudal lord. In the above-mentioned "royal" villages, this was the responsibility of the "offices", i.e. for Ortwig, the office of Zellin (5 km northeast of Ortwig on the right bank of the Oder. The feudal lord was the owner of the village street and patron of the school and the church. After him came the feudal mayor, who was responsible for regulating community affairs and observing all official regulations. The feudal mayor's office was hereditary and linked to the feudal mayor's estate. The feudal mayor's first-born son always inherited the estate and office, regardless of whether he was capable of doing so or not. If the feudal mayor died before his first-born son came of age, the wife had to find an administrator. In the absence of male descendants, the feudal mayor's office passed to other owners through marriage or other enfeoffment: After the district order was issued in 1810 in pursuit of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the Bruch was divided into the districts of Oberbarnim, Königsberg and Lebus. The position of mayor was then filled by election.
Text C. E. Walter Pehlemann
under © 2024
Feb 02nd, 2024
Wolfgang L. M. Pehlemann