VII.Freedom, Property and Emancipation. Resurrection of the Foundation after 1990 VII.1
German Unification Treaty, August 31st, 1990 VII.2
The Two-Plus-Four-Treaty, September 12th, 1990 VII.3
The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, July 1st, 1991 VII.4
Coup,August 19th -21st, 1991 VII.5
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, December 8th, 1991 VII.5
European Union and the Euro VII.6
Cooperation of democracies in Europe and NorthAmerica VII.8
Leadership of the foundation, from 1990 VII.9
NATO, from 1990 VII.13
The demise of Russia VII.16
Political philosophy, from 1990 VII.17
Political philosophy of Henry Kissinger, 1969 – 2023 VII.18
Science and technology, from 1990 VII.19
IT and the foundation, foundation membership size VII.20
Organization of the foundation, archives, checks and balances, brand VII.21
Public posture of the foundation VII.22
Diversity VII.23
Discussion items of the foundation, from 1990 VII.26
Where it happened, from 1990 VII.28
Century Timelines J.1
World power J.2
Per-capita gross domestic product, world J.3
Life expectancy, world J.4
Population of Germany J.5
Harvest yield in Germany J.6
Malthusian catastrophe postponed J.6
Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere J.7
The impact of the atmosphere on the surface temperature of the Earth J.8
Anthropogenic temperature rise J.9
Conflict, cooperation, money, grain and the Gercken foundation J.10
Calculus of the silver purchasing power method J.11
Sources, Notes, Note of ownership, References, Image credits Q.1
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the members of the Nicolaus Gercken Family Foundation in Salzwedel for their trust and for their interest in this book.
We acknowledge the 21 Patrons and the Testamentaries which preceded us. We owe special gratitude to Testamentary JOHANN FRIEDRICH DANNEIL, † 1868, and the 12th Patron PARIDAM FRIEDRICH OTTO SOLBRIG, † 1892, for their documentation of the family history in the 19th century. Also, the 17th and 19th Patron, PAUL GERHARDT, † 2001, deserves special mention for reestablishing the foundation after the German tragedy of the first half of the 20th century. This book is based on the work of the aforementioned.
We extend our gratitude to Dr. ROLAND JACOB for reviving the F branch of the family tree. Through his good works the parents of the 22nd Patron became aware of the foundation. Dr. Jacob also supported the publication of the third supplement to the family history in 1996.
S÷REN NIEMEYER and the Foto Club Salzwedel e.V. shot contemporary photographs in Salzwedel on behalf of the foundation. This includes portraits of Patrons, Testamentaries and of other participants of family conferences. Thank you.
STEFFEN LANGUSCH has headed the Salzwedel city archive for over 30 years. Without his help and the support of the city of Salzwedel for his work, this book would not have been possible. We would also like to thank the director of the Danneil Museum in Salzwedel, ULRICH KALMBACH, for decades of cooperation.
The 21st Patron and present-day honorary Patron CHRISTIANE PETERS advised and supported the 22nd Patron and the Testamentaries.
Foundation member Dr. MANFRED H‹BENER gave the impetus for this book and corrected the manuscript. CHRISTINE PLATT from South Africa assisted perfecting the English edition Secretarius TORALF MEYER supported the IT infrastructure.
We pay tribute to the Founder, NICOLAUS III GERCKEN, † 1607, Syndic (in-house counsel) of the Cathedral Chapter of Magdeburg from 1594 to 1607, and his wife MARGARETHA GERCKEN nÈe BUSSE, † 1621, for their foresight and generosity. Their thriftiness centuries ago is our material base today.
The 22nd Patron and the Testamentaries, Salzwedel, October 2024
ECKART REIHLEN, Calvˆrde, 22nd Patron
LUTZ BUCHMANN, Mˆser, MICHAEL G÷LLNITZ, Grofl Rheide, Testamentaries
Verlag BoD - Books on Demand GmbH, ‹berseering 33, 22297 Hamburg, bod@bod.de
Druck: Libri Plureos GmbH, Friedensallee 273, 22763 Hamburg
Where it happened
Lenzen (Niedersachsen)
Hitzacker (Lower Saxony)
Salzwedel
Gorleben (Lower Saxony)
Klaeden
Altmark
Liesten
Kalbe/Milde
Gardelegen
Calvoerde
Elbe
Osterburg
Stendal
Tangermuende
Haldensleben
Altenhausen
Magdeburg
Wanzleben
Quedlinburg
20 km
Gladau
Moeser
Calbe/Saale
Altenhausen Petrus Schultze, notary public of the Founder‘s widow Calbe/Saale Storage of documents during the Thirty Years’ War Calvoerde 22nd Patron E. Reihlen, fr. 2022
Gardelegen 17th Patron Paul Gerhardt 1986 - 1992
Gladau Theodor C. Cranz, *1777 administrator, birthplace
Gorleben 20th Patron Dr. Karl-Heinz Eiselt, 2001 – 2013
Haldensleben (i) June 26th, 1604, earliest original of the Founder. (ii) Feb26th, 1654, certification of authenticity of the will by the sons of notary public Petrus Schultze
Hitzacker 19th Patron Paul Gerhardt 1994 - 2001
Jueterbog Will signed Nov 27th, 1607
Kalbe/Milde J.F. Danneil, *1783
Klaeden Presumed home of the grandfather of the Progenitor, around 1440
Lenzen Embezzler Johann Linthe, administrator 1639 - 1647
Liesten
Progenitor *1501
Magdeburg Founder in high school from 1571 Founder lawyer from 1586 Founder Syndic from 1594
Father of Founder Canon fr. 1575
Graphics: Gercken Foundation
Saxony-Anhalt
Magdeburg Sebastian I lawyer and notary public from 1647
5th Patron Georg Friedrich II Gercken was mayor, 1726 – 1738
6th Patron Valentin Joachim Gercken, 1738 – 1746
10th Patron Dr. med. Valentin G. Koehler, *1739, birthplace
Moeser Testamentary Dr. Lutz Buchmann, from 2007
Osterburg 9th Patron J. C. W. Schulze, 1799 - 1819
Quedlinburg Testamentary Sebastian I Gercken, 1648 – 1680.
Salzwedel Residence of the Progenitor † February 23rd, 1579, mayor of Salzwedel
Jueterbog (Brandenburg)
Wittenberg
(Foundation Birthplace of Johannes Gercken, *1528, the father of the Founder headquarter) Birthplace of the Founder Nicolaus III Gercken, grandchild of the Progenitor, February 28th, 1555
1st Patron Georg I 1610 – 1635, birthplace and residence
2nd Patron Valentin 1635- 1680, birthplace and residence
3rd Patron Sebastian V Gercken, *1646, birthplace
4th Patron Georg II Gercken, 1656 – 1726, birthplace and residence
7th Patron Sebastian Nicolaus Gercken, *1698, birthplace
8th Patron Philipp Wilhelm Gercken, *1722, birthplace
10th Patron Dr. med. Valentin G. Koehler,*1739, Patron 1819 – 1821, residence
11th Patron Carl Ludwig Carssow, residence from 1804, Testamentary J.F. Danneil, residence after 1804 and place of death 1868
12th Patron Paridam Friedrich Otto Solbrig, *1818, birthplace and residence, †1892
13th Patron Johann Friedrich Berendt 1892 – 1898, *1847, birthplace and residence
14th Patron Fritz Busse, birthplace and residence, *1878 †1940
16th Patron Gustav Schramm, residence and place of death, † 1963
18th Patron Dr. Ernst Wehmann, residence
21st Patron Christiane Peters, *1955, birthplace and residence
Stendal After graduation, first employment of the Founder as associate school principal 1577 - 1580
OnMay20th,1631,Magdeburgwas burnt down by the hordes of the Catholic league Houses were ransacked, womenrapedandthe majority of the inhabitants murdered The news sent shockwavesthroughEuropeandled toareckoningwiththesenselessness oftheThirtyYears‘ War
It happened in Salzwedel. It happened in the Altmark. It happened in SaxonyAnhalt.
I am Salt Flash.
Time-travel with us and earn top grades in history
Calbe/Saale Storage of the will during the Thirty Years‘ War in St. Stephani church
Grofl Rheide Test. Michael Gˆllnitz, from 2013
Haldensleben June 26th, 1604, earliest original of the Founder. February 26th, 1654, certification of the authenticity of the will by the sons of the notary public
Jueterbog Will dated November 27th, 1607 signed by seven witnesses
Kalbe/Milde Birth of J.F.Danneil, March 18th, 1783
Testamentary 1821 - 1868
Koenigsberg Sebastian I in law school, until 1647
Lenzen Embezzler Johann Linthe, 1647
Luebeck Sebastian II Gercken, *1656 † 1710, mayor of Luebeck, son of Sebastian I
Vienna
Magdeburg
Founder in high school, from 1571
Father of Founder Canonicus, fr. 1575
Founder lawyer, from 1586
Founder in-house counsel of the cathedral chapter, from 1594
Residence of Sebastian I, from 1647
Quedlinburg Sebastian I, restorer of the foundation, from 1647
Rostock Founder studies theology, 1573
Salzwedel
Birthplace of the Founder and others
(Foundation 1st Patron Georg I, 1610 – 1635 headquarter) 2nd Patron Valentin, 1635- 1680
Speyer Founder legal intern from 1585
Stendal Founder works as associate school head principal, 1577-1580
Tuebingen Founder in law school, from 1580
Weimar 15th Patron Walter Skerl, 1940-1950
Wien 3rd Patron S. von Gercken, 1680-1719
Wittenberg Founder studies theology, from 1574
I 1440 - 1607
Late Rennaissance Humanism
The Rise of the Gerckens
The22ndPatronECKARTREIHLEN andtheTestamentaries
LUTZBUCHMANNandMICHAELG÷LLNITZ
Contemporary history. From the second half of the 15th century, the Gutenberg press relentlessly prints new, affordable books. In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovers North America. European society is composed of three classes: clergy (pope, abbots, bishops, monks), nobility (princes, dukes, counts, knights) and peasants (farmers, craftsmen, townspeople). In 1517, Martin Luther proclaims the reformation in Wittenberg, 150 km southeast of Salzwedel. In 1524, the Peasant Wars break out in southern Germany.
Family history. In the year 1500, a farmer's son from the village of Liesten in the Altmark moves to the Hanseatic city of Salzwedel. His son (1501 - 1579) becomes a tailor, fabric trader and mayor of Salzwedel Neustadt. His son (1528 - 1605) becomes principal of the Latin school in Salzwedel and Canon (a cleric) in the Cathedral Chapter of Magdeburg. His son, a certain Nicolaus III Gercken (1555 - 1610), studies theology and law and becomes Syndic (chief in-house counsel) of the Cathedral Chapter of Magdeburg. In 1607, childless, he and his wife Margaretha draw up a will according to which all of his grandfather's descendants will receive financial support for academic studies after Margaretha's death.
Summary, 1440 - 1607
The Rise of the Gerckens describes the ancestors of the Founder, a wealthy Prussian lawyer from Magdeburg who died childless in 1610. It spans the period from the presumed origins of his great-great-grandfather, born around 1440, to the writing of his will in 1607. From the end of the Thirty Years' War (1648), income from the Founder’s estate has been used to support the academic education of his paternal grandfather's descendants. The foundation calls this grandfather “the Progenitor". The surname Gercken is derived from the common German first name Gerd. The most common spellings today are Gerke, Gercke, Gericke, Guericke, Gerken, Gercken, Gerekens, Geriken and Gereken.
Presumption
Farmer from Liesten (a village)
* around 1440
Farmer‘s son, who moved to Salzwedel (a city)
* around 1470
The Progenitor‘s grandfather
Nicolaus Gercken also Gerke or Gericke * Klaeden / Arendsee
The Progenitor‘s father
Johannes Gercken also Hans, Gericke or Gercken *in Liesten or Salzwedel
Confirmed knowledge
Mayor of Salzwedel Neustadt
* 1501
School principal of Salzwedel, Canon in Magdeburg *1528
The Progenitor
Nicolaus I Gercken
†1579 Salzwedel
⚭1 Altensleben Cecilia
The Founder‘s father
Johannes Gercken also Geriken
†1605 Magdeburg
⚭1 Buchwitz Catharina I ⚭2 Ahlemann Sara
Wealthy Prussian lawyer in Magdeburg *1555
The Founder Nicolaus III Gercken
†1610
⚭ Margaretha Busse †1621 no children
The Rise of the Gerckens, 1440 - 1610
St. Catharine‘s church in Salzwedel
St. Catherine's church was built from 1280 as the main parish church of the new town of Salzwedel. The church received its current appearance as a three-aisled basilica without a transept in the 14th and 15th centuries. On the south wall of the church, the Progenitor of the foundation, Nicolaus I Gercken, is depicted kneeling under the crucifix. The figure is small, its contours weathered.
Late Renaissance Humanism. The Rise of the Gerckens. 1440
St. Catharine‘s church in Salzwedel
The ancestors of the Progenitor
There is no confirmed, conclusive historic information about the ancestors of the Progenitor Nicolaus I.
According to the foundation's old pedigrees, a Hans Gercken from Liesten was the father of the Progenitor Nicolaus I Gercken. The Progenitor’s sister was named Catharina Gercken [1]. She was born around 1500 in Neustadt Salzwedel and was married to Heinrich Schulz. The latter was also born around 1500 and was a baker on Wollweberstrasse in Salzwedel [1].
Codex Diplomaticus Brandenburgensis, cited source dated January 9th, 1496 [2]
The source above dated January 9th, 1496, refers to a Hans Gerke as the owner of a farm in Liesten [2]. Liesten is located about 15 km from Salzwedel. The grandfather of the Progenitor may have been called Nicolaus Gercken (Gerke, Gericke). This is a mere guess based on the customary passing of first names to children at the time. He was probably a farmer in Liesten. This Nicolaus may have been born around 1440 in Klaeden near Arendsee.
Presumption by the authors
Based on the observation that the oldest son usually took over the farm from his father and rarely left
Hans Gerke also Johannes, Gericke or Gercken Farmer in Liesten * ca. 1470 in Liesten
Presumption by the authors
The Progenitor‘s grandfather
Nicolaus Gercken also Gerke or Gericke *around 1440, Klaeden / Arendsee Farmer in Liesten
{ I.4 } War and Peace in
Presumption by E.O. Wentz and by the authors
[1] E.O. Wentz, 1940, old pedigrees of the foundation [2] dated 1496
The Progenitor‘s father
Johannes Gercken also Hans, Gerke or Gericke * ca. 1470 in Liesten or Salzwedel
With a 30% child mortality rate, the grandfather's name was often given to several brothers in various versions, spellings or related nicknames.
The Progenitor‘s presumed ancestors
Confirmed knowledge
Based on preserved documents and on the epitaph
[3] dated 1579
The Progenitor
Nicolaus I Gercken *1501, †1579 Salzwedel ⚭1 Altensleben Cecilia
[4] dated 1551
Catharina Gercken
*around 1500 in Neustadt Salzwedel, baker‘s wife, ⚭ Heinrich Schulz
E.O. Wentz, 1940,[1], old pedigrees of the foundation
The Progenitor Nicolaus I gave his first son the name Johannes [5]. Therefore, the authors and E.O. Wentz presume that the father of the Progenitor was called Hans or Johannes [1]. The second son of the Progenitor was baptized Nicolaus, which is also the Progenitor’s first name [5].
Wentz wrote that the 4th Patron, Georg II Gercken, sold the property on Wollweberstrasse in 1726, after a quarter of a millennium of the Gerckens' presence. Wentz assumes that the father of the Progenitor, born around 1470, was the first of the family in Salzwedel [1].
Wentz wrote as early as 1938 [6]: "Clawes (Claus) Gericke, the Progenitor, had acquired a fief in the village of Kloedens, probably Klaeden near Arendsee, from the Elector (Kurfuerst) for 200 Rthl. (Reichstaler, German imperial coin) in 1553 with his brother-in-law Heinrich Schulze and his brother, Magister Paul Schulze." Furthermore: "Even where the family name does not correspond to the name of a location, the origin from the immediate vicinity can often be proven, as with the Gerckens, whose ancestor, the mayor Claus Gercken (the Progenitor), still looked after the graves of his ancestors in Cloeden (Klaeden)." Wentz used source [7]. Klaeden is located about 19 km from Liesten and 21 km from Salzwedel.
[1] Foundation history by Ernst Otto Wentz, 1940. 22-page manuscript unpublished due to WWII. Excerpts were published in 1996 in [14] by Dr. Roland Jacob.
[6] Annual report dated 1838 of the Altmark Association of Patriotic History and Industry
The Progenitor Nicolaus I Gercken (*1501 †1579)
Nicolaus I Gercken, also called Clawes (Claus), was born after February 23rd, 1500, but before February 24th, 1501 in Liesten. The period was calculated from his age on the day of his death, which is written on the epitaph in St. Catherine's church. He passed away in Salzwedel.
The inscription reads: "Niclaus Gerkens, mayor of this city, died blessed in Christ on February 23rd, 1579, at the age of 78." Her statute commits the Gercken foundation to the care and preservation of the epitaph.
Nicolaus I Gercken married Cecilia Altensleben in Salzwedel around 1525. The two lived on Wollweberstrasse. He was mayor of Neustadt Salzwedel and belonged to the tailors' guild [1] [5].
Nicolaus I and Cecilia had nine children [5] and 40 known grandchildren. Their eldest son was called Johannes Gercken (1528 - 1605), whose only son was the Founder Nicolaus III Gercken (1555 - 1610).
A note about the work of Nicolaus I in 1551 can be found in the minutes of church visitations [4], which were held between 1540 and 1600 and published in Magdeburg in 1898. "The mayor Claus Gerekens now has the offertory (money donation by parish members) COMMENDA CRUCIS with a principal sum of 200 guilders." After the Lutheran reformation in 1517, all parishes in the Altmark were visited from 1540 onwards in order to record the property and outstanding debts of the tenants and debtors as well as income from leases and their proper use.
Epitaph of Nicolaus I Gercken, †1579, Salzwedel, St. Catherine's church Photographs of 2021 [3]
Minutes of church visitations in the 16th century. [4]
Epitaph of Nicolaus I Gercken, †1579
The family tree
Today, the Gercken foundation consists of members of the depicted five lines.
The father of the Founder
The Founder
The Progenitor
Late Renaissance Humanism. The Rise of the Gerckens. 1440 – 1607
The descendants of the Progenitor Nicolaus I Gercken
The father of the Founder, Johannes Gercken (*1528 †1605)
Johannis Geriken (Gercken) was the principal of the Latin School in Neustadt Salzwedel, which is located near St. Catherine's church. He is depicted in an oil painting on wood which has been preserved through the centuries.
The Latin inscription on the painting reads: Portrait of the learned man Mr. Johannis Geriken (Gercken), lecturer of ecclesiastical law at Magdeburg Cathedral. Anno Christi 1585. His age was 57.
How Johannes came from Salzwedel to Magdeburg is unknown. His legal and theological expertise must have been remarkable to receive an appointment as a lecturer in Magdeburg. Johannis Geriken (Gercken) was married to Catharina nÈe Buchwitz. They had two children, Catharina Gercken, married Giese, and Nicolaus III Gercken, the Founder. Neither sibling had children..
The Founder Nicolaus III Gercken (*1555 † 1610)
Nicolaus III Gercken was born on February 28th, 1555 in Salzwedel. He initiated the Gercken family foundation through his will in 1607. He was a lawyer and Syndic (chief in-house counsel) of the Cathedral Chapter of Magdeburg. He married Margaretha Busse. As a consequence of the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648) and possibly through the actions of the embezzler Johann Linthe (episode III), no portrait of Nicolaus III or of Margaretha has been preserved.
Oil painting of the Founder‘s father, Johannis Geriken (Gercken), Danneil Museum, Salzwedel
Magdeburg cathedral, 13th century
St. Catharine‘s church, Salzwedel, 13th century
Formative years, Rostock, Wittenberg, Stendal, Tuebingen, Basel, Speyer. Nicolaus III Gercken was sent by his father to high school in Magdeburg in 1571. In 1573 he enrolled at the University of Rostock. A year later he went to Wittenberg, where he probably studied theology for three years. He was then appointed vice-principal of the school in Stendal. After holding this post for three years, in 1580 he accepted the offer of the Holstein nobleman Breda von Rantzow to take the latter’s sons to Tuebingen. He stayed there until 1584 and studied law with great enthusiasm. From Tuebingen he went to Basel to pursue a doctorate in jurisprudence. He had already held the necessary disputation and passed the exam when, prompted by a letter from his father, he gave up the plan. His father advised him to use his budget for his practical training and to go to the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer. In 1585, Nicolaus III went to Speyer and trained there for a year as a practical lawyer.
Lawyer in Magdeburg. In 1586 he returned to Magdeburg and settled as a lawyer. In 1590 he married Margaretha Busse, the daughter of a doctor of law and assessor at the Schoeppenstuhl, a court, in Magdeburg. In 1592 he was promoted to chancellor by Duke Wolff of BraunschweigGrubenhagen. In 1594 he was sent by Duke Wolff as an envoy to the Reichstag in Regensburg. In the same year, the Cathedral Chapter of Magdeburg appointed him Syndic (chief in-house counsel). He held this office until his death. Because of these duties he declined a job offer as a Canon by the Collegiate Foundation of St. Sebastian in 1602. He merely asked for the privilege to be buried in the church. His grave has been lost, unfortunately.
Religious and well-read. Nicholas III Gercken’s contemporaries described him as a religious, learned and honest man. His favorite pastime was reading legal and theological texts, of which he had an extensive collection. In his will, he designated it for use by his descendants.
The foundation. Through hard work and thrift, the Founder amassed a considerable fortune. His relatives were all wealthy. Therefore, he decided to use his fortune to initiate a charitable foundation for the benefit of his grandfather's descendants. He sensed that he was not destined to live long and signed his will on November 27th, 1607. Three years later, on August 16th, 1610, between 11 p.m. and midnight, he died at the age of 55. According to his wish, he was buried in the church of St. Sebastian on August 21st, 1610. In his will of 1607, he stipulated that "those descended from my father's blessed brothers and sisters" and their descendants should be the beneficiaries of the proceeds of his fortune, namely in the form of scholarships for university studies. The funeral sermon for the Founder is preserved to this day [8] [9].
Above text was originally written by J.F. Danneil [11].
St. Sebastian, Magdeburg, built from 1015.
Photo: Georg Dehio
Late Renaissance Humanism. The Rise of the
Magdeburg law, 14th – 19th century
From around 1300, Magdeburg law was an oral collection of norms and legal concepts of merchants, their privileges granted by state and city rulers and the regulations decided upon independently by citizens. It enabled the city's residents to live in freedom and self-determination in a form of local self-government. Magdeburg law influenced the medieval and early modern legal systems of Central and Eastern Europe. Magdeburg law applied in various forms in over 1,000 locations in what is now Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia [10].
In cases where the courts in the cities that practiced Magdeburg law were unable to agree on a judgment, they could seek legal advice from the Schoeppenstuhl, a court in Magdeburg. As supreme court, this Magdeburg court thus had sovereignty over the interpretation of Magdeburg law and left a lasting imprint on the evolving legal systems of Eastern Europe. Most of the time, it merely issued opinions, not judgments. Nevertheless, some city constitutions viewed the Magdeburg opinions as binding [10]
Dr. Busse, the father-in-law of the Founder Nicolaus III, was a lawyer at the Magdeburg court.
Rulers tried to evade the authority of the Magdeburg court. The religious division of Germany made it difficult to access Magdeburg. The destruction of Magdeburg including its library on May 20th, 1631, was the end of the Magdeburg court (episode III). In Poland, Magdeburg law was abolished only in the course of the Napoleonic and Josefinian reforms in Galicia. In Ukraine, Saxon-Magdeburg law lost its legal force with the adoption of the Russian Empire's collection of laws in 1840 in left-Dnjepr-bank (eastern) Ukraine and two years later in the rightDnjepr-bank (western) Ukraine. In Kiev, Magdeburg law applied until 1834. The Latvian civil code of 1937 was still influenced by Saxon-Magdeburg law [10].
Practice of Magdeburg law [10]
The oldest preserved original document of the Founder dated June 26th, 1604
The oldest currently known original document of the Founder is preserved in the city archive in Haldensleben [15]. It is a debt claim by the Braunschweig government against a Gotthard Bauer in Neuhaldensleben and a Kersten Rose in Osterode. The Magdeburg Cathedral Chapter appears to have been involved in this case as the responsible regional authority for Neuhaldensleben and Osterode or perhaps also as an intermediary.
It is likely that further writings by the Founder will be discovered in the future in the correspondence between the Magdeburg Cathedral Chapter and authorities in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Nicolaus III Gercken wrote on June 26th, 1604 to Sebastian Bergkmeister, the Syndic of the city of Haldensleben, "To the honorable and respectable M. Sebastiano Bergkmeistern Syndicy of the city of Newen Haldenschleben, my friendly, dear Gevatter and especially favorable friend." ... Signed "Nicolaus Gericke Syndicus“
The document was tracked down in 2021 by Michael Weigel, genealogist of the Praetorius family. Praetorius is the adopted surname of the Schultze family, from which the notary public Petrus Schultze descends. Schultze served the Founder's widow Margaretha Busse around the year 1610, see episode II [16] [17].
Original document of the Founder dated June 26th, 1604, preserved in the Haldensleben city archive. [15]
The will of the Founder, 1607
The original of the will dated November 27th, 1607, was lost during the Thirty Years' War (episode III). However, handwritten copies of the will are preserved in Salzwedel city archive [22]. One copy was signed and authenticated in 1654 by the seals of witnesses [23]. The 3rd addendum to the family history contains a version of the will in contemporary German [14] .
Page 23 of 24
The photos were taken by the 22nd Patron on April 28th, 2021 in the Salzwedel city archive, room I, shelf 2a, compartment 53, T3 notebook 2 (ii) [22].
Testament of Nicolaus III Gercken, signed by hand and with seal on November 27th , 1607.
Handwritten copy signed by notary public Petrus Schultze between 1610 and 1615.
The dating of the notarial copy "from 1610" follows from the word "blessed“ (sehlig) before the name of the Founder and his date of death, August 16th , 1610.
The dating "until 1615" follows from the presumed date of death of the notary on November 9th, 1615. See comments in attached source reference, page Q.3, sources [16] and [17].
{ I.12 } War and Peace in the Altmark
Handwritten copy of the will of the Founder, 1607
Signature of notary Petrus Schultze, who penned the copy
The will is about 5000 words long. The Founder first refers to his faith in God. After an introduction of around 800 words, he explains his motive, namely, the promotion of the academic education of young adults.
Scholarship payments are only to begin after the death of his wife Margaretha Busse. He orders that six of his cousins should receive a three-year scholarship at a university. The brothers of his wife and their sons are also given three-year scholarships. If their academic results are good, the Founder offers scholarship raises and a continuation for six years for his own cousins. Those who want to earn a doctorate degree receive higher stipends. He offers smaller amounts for six descendants who do not make it to secondary school. He asks those scholarship recipients who are financially successful to pay back a sixth or a tenth part to the foundation. He gives a grant to poor virgins and widows. He limits the donations to his grandfather's descendants, unless the whole family died out. He bequeathes the right to become the foundation’s Patron to the family elder. He advocates the reinvestment of free funds. He bequeathes his library to the foundation. He calls for honesty and against misappropriation of funds. Finally, he bequeathes physical items such as jewelry, food or wine to family members, acquaintances and clergy. The Founder had his wishes carefully documented. The original of the will bore the Founder's seal and a further seven seals from citizens of Jueterbog. By horse carriage, Jueterbog lies a few days distant from Magdeburg.
Page 24 of 24
Signed by Paulus Gallus, pastor at the church of St Nikolai in Jueterbog, handwritten and with seal
Signed by Cristoph Groebitz, mayor of Jueterbog, handwritten and with seal
Signed by Johann Gotsteig, clerk of Jueterbog, handwritten and with seal
Signed by Caspar Lange, mayor of Jueterbog, handwritten and with seal
Signed by Balthasar Schronaw, citizen, handwritten and with seal
Signed by Heinrich Hagen, (no indication of his function) handwritten and with seal
Signed by Valentin Pilichen, town clerk of Jueterbog, handwritten and with seal
Signatures
Salzwedel city archive
The city archive is located in the old warehouse at Ackerstrasse 13. The city of Salzwedel has operated an archive since at least 1635 [18]. In the city archive, in room I, shelf 2a carries the files of the Gercken foundation.
Notebook T6. T1 to T6 in Nr 18
Limits to confirmed knowledge prior to 1501
Church registers are often difficult to decipher. Many church registers were destroyed during the Thirty Years' War. Before 1648 there is a paucity of sources.
The large number of entries in genealogy portals says nothing about their authenticity, as many are copied from one another without looking for evidence in preserved original documents. Money is made by supposedly researching alleged genealogical connections.
In several genealogy portals, the father of the Progenitor is listed as Hans (Johannes) Gericke (Gercken) *1475 in "Liesten, Magdeburg", who is listed to have been the school principal in Salzwedel Neustadt. The authors doubt these entries. Liesten is located 100 km from Magdeburg. Referencing a place "Liesten, Magdeburg" shows a lack of geographical and historical knowledge. Furthermore, the professions and reported spouses of those named do not match the rural farm background of Liesten.
Some portals list Stephan Gericke as the father of the Progenitor Johannes (Hans). Stephan is listed to have been "hereditary of Allstedt and Stazfurt and council chamberlain of Magdeburg (1436-1509)." This does not fit with the farmer from Liesten and was rejected by the authors. Stephan may have existed, but there were many Gerds and therefore many Gercken families that are not related to each other. For example, there is no evidence of any family ties of the Salzwedel Gerckens to the famous Magdeburg politician, physicist and lawyer Otto von Guericke, born in 1602, who is mentioned on page III.20.
Syndic, hmm... The Founder Nicolaus IIIwas the head of the legal department of the cathedral chapter, the chief rent collector. Probably a job for a tough guy.
Will signedin Jueterbog with 7 witnesses,6 days' journey from Salzwedel and 4 days' journey from Magdeburg. The Founder was concerned about his assets.And certainly aware of the character traits of man
Salina
Engraving
Discovery and colonization, from 1492
The Vikings settled in Iceland and in coastal strips of Greenland and what is now Canada from at least the 10th century. In the 15th century, the Genoese Christopher Columbus wanted to find a sea route across the Atlantic to India on behalf of the Spanish crown. In April 1492, he was the first European in the modern era to land on an island in what is now known to be the Bahamas.
Population
10bln
1bln
100 m
10m
1000 – 2000: Actual values
2080, 2100: Prognosis
Source: UN, medium fertility [19]
Graphics: Gercken foundation
Asia
World
He was followed in 1497 by the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed for the Spanish and Portuguese crowns to what is now Venezuela (“Little Venice”) and the east coast of South America. The Portuguese Vasco da Gama first sailed to Calicut (now Kozhikode, India) in 1498, around the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese colonized Malacca (now Malaysia) and reached Java (now Indonesia). Cortez landed in what is now Mexico in 1519. He destroyed the Aztec empire of Tenochtitlan. In 1606, the Dutchman Willem Janszoon was the first European to reach the Australian continent at Cape York from Java. The first English colony on the North American continent was founded in Jamestown, Virginia, near what is now Williamsburg in 1607. Of the 6,000 settlers who arrived by 1624, about half survived the hunger, the epidemics, the drought, the winters and the wars with the natives. The pilgrims on the Mayflower reached Cape Cod in 1620. In 1730, the Dane Vitus Bering discovered the Bering Strait on behalf of Tsar Peter I.
Population by continent
The Hanseatic city of Salzwedel, 1263 – 1518 and since 2008
From 1263 to 1518, Salzwedel was a member of the Hanseatic League. At the time of its greatest expansion, almost 300 European cities were united in the Hanseatic League. Grain, hides, cloth, and beer from Salzwedel reached places like Gotland and Russia. Salzwedel was widely known as a cloth-making center. Mainly spices, herring, as well as tin and copper vessels were shipped to Salzwedel via the Jeetze.
Luebeck
Glueckstadt
Stade
Hamburg
Geesthacht
Lauenburg
Lueneburg
Bremen
Rostock, Stralsund, Wismar, Greifswald, Buxtehude, Herford, Demmin, Anklam, Havelberg and others were also part of the Hanse, but lie outside of this map
Black dots: Hanseatic cities
Red dots: other cities
Graphics: Gercken foundation
Uelzen
Gardelegen
Calvoerde
Salzwedel
Haldensleben
Magdeburg
Christina Gercken, a daughter of the Progenitor, married Pascha Stampehl in 1558. His cousin Andreas Stampehl and his children were mayors of Reval (Tallin). Sebastian II Gercken *1656 †1710, a grandson of the 1st Patron Georg I Gercken, was mayor of Luebeck. The father of Sebastian II and son of Georg I was Sebastian I Gercken *1617 †1680. He re-established the foundation at the end of the Thirty Years' War (episode III).
Family member Sebastian II Gercken, *1656 †1710,
Wittenberge
Stendal
Tangermuende
Schoenebeck
Burg
Because of Luebeck's dominant position in the Hanseatic League, 54 Hanseatic conferences were held there between 1356 and 1480, 10 more in Stralsund, 3 in Hamburg, 2 in Bremen and one each in Cologne, Lueneburg, Greifswald, Braunschweig (1427) and Uelzen (1470). The last Hanseatic conference took place in Luebeck in 1669. The Hanseatic League petered out after playing no role in the Thirty Years' War. In 1980, the association of cities THE HANSE was founded as a living community across borders. The aim is to promote tourism and the tradition of the Hanseatic League. With almost 200 member cities and municipalities, THE HANSE is now once again the largest voluntary association of cities in the world. Since 2008, Salzwedel can officially call itself a Hanseatic city again.
mayor of Luebeck Photo: cc Concord
Late Renaissance Humanism. The Rise of the Gerckens. 1440 – 1607 {
Selected cities of the Hanse
Political philosophy prior to 1607
Erasmus of Rotterdam is the eminent figure of European humanism. Educated at high school, he worked near Gouda in the Netherlands as a monk, a priest and later as a bishop's secretary. He then studied theology at the Sorbonne and received his doctorate degree in Turin. He travelled and worked in the Netherlands, Italy, France, England, Germany and Switzerland (Freiburg, Basel). He was a philosopher, teacher, professor, satirist and writer. He taught the future English King Henry VIII during his childhood and corresponded with him in Latin throughout his life. He taught Greek at the University of Cambridge. As the illegitimate son of a Catholic priest, he rejected the reformation of Luther, Zwingli and Calvin. He conducted a lively correspondence with Pope Adrian VI to find ways to preserve the unity of the Christian Church. Erasmus was universally recognized. He was buried as a Catholic priest in the reformed Basel Minster in the presence of a vast swathe of the population of Basel. He donated his considerable estate to the
Erasmus of Rotterdam 1466 – 1536, oil painting
Hans Holbein 1523
Martin Luther 1483 - 1546
Science and technology prior to 1607
Erasmus Foundation, which supported the needy, students and scholars regardless of their religion or origin. A European scholarship program is named after Erasmus. The Nicolaus Gercken Family Foundation is a gem of German late renaissance humanism. Nicolaus III Gercken (1555 - 1610) undoubtedly saw Erasmus as a role model. Meanwhile, Martin Luther drafted his criticism of the indulgence trade (pay the church for your sins) and his 95 theses in Wittenberg in 1517. His ideas spread like wildfire through the Gutenberg press.
Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468) printed the first Bible in the German city of Mainz, in or after 1452. Gutenberg combined the reproduction processes known at the time (printing plates, stamps, ink, alloys, metal casting) to create a new overall system. He improved the printing press and developed a hand-casting instrument that allowed printing types to be cast individually, quickly and finely contoured. He also improved an oil-based printing ink. Gutenberg's invention sparked a revolution in data processing. In 1997, Time Magazine declared Gutenberg's press the invention of the millennium. In the lifetime of the Progenitor, the Founder's father and the Founder, the Gutenberg press was the most important technical innovation of mankind.
Contemporary history. The German-speaking states have been associated in the Holy Roman Empire since the 15th century. The Thirty Years' War breaks out in 1618 after a Protestant revolt in Prague. The conflict begins as a religious conflict (Emperor and Catholic League vs. Protestant Union) and develops into a territorial war between the Habsburg powers Austria and Spain against France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, mainly on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire.
Family history. The wealthy, childless Prussian lawyer Nicolaus III Gercken dies on August 16th, 1610 in Magdeburg. He leaves behind a detailed will, according to which his estate is bequeathed to a foundation to support the academic studies of his grandfather's descendants after the death of his wife Margaretha. Margaretha has an estate inventory drawn up with the help of the notary Petrus Schultze. Nicolaus' cousin Georg I Gercken is appointed 1st Patron of the foundation in 1611. Margaretha dies on January 30th, 1621.
The death of the Founder Nicolaus III Gercken, 1610
In 1603, the Founder assembled an inventory of his estate, which has been lost. On November 27th, 1607, he signed his will in the presence of seven citizens and officials from the city of Jueterbog (episode I). The original of the will was lost during the Thirty Years' War (episode III), but handwritten copies have been preserved. The will is printed in [14] in contemporary German. The Founder died on August 16th, 1610 between 11 p.m. and midnight in Magdeburg. On August 21st, 1610, he was buried in St. Sebastian in Magdeburg. Philip Hahn [8] [9] delivered the funeral sermon, which has been published and preserved. The Founder’s tombstone has been lost.
The estate inventories dated September 24th, 1610, and June 6th, 1611
On September 24th, 1610, the Founder's widow, Margaretha Busse, had a 26-page inventory of the estate drawn up, a copy of which is preserved in the Salzwedel city archive [16]. She had an inventory of 1603 at hand. The witnesses who signed on September 24th, 1610, were Caspar Gartz, Joachim Giese (the widow’s brother in-law, ⚭ Catharina Gercken), Nicolaus I Binde, (an uncle of the Founder, ⚭ Barbara Gercken), and Moritz and Jakob Busse, two of the widow's brothers. The widow Margaretha Busse and her lawyer Philip Tieme also signed. The signature of the copying notary public Petrus Schultze (presumably *1550 †1615 [17]) is also on the copy.
On June 6th, 1611, the widow's property was added on pages 26, 27 and 28. This addendum was signed by the witnesses Joachim Stampehl (1563-1616), a cousin of the Founder and treasurer of Neustadt Salzwedel and the notary Petrus Schultze, who was present probably for the first time on June 6th, 1611, as secretary [16].
1610, and June 6th, 1611 [16], photo of a handwritten copy, city archive Salzwedel, April 28th, 2021
Page 1 of the inventory dated September 24th,
St. Sebastian Magdeburg photo: cc Ulrich Latzenhofer
Funeral sermon for the Founder datedAugust 21st, 1610 [8]
Salzwedel city archivist Steffen Langusch explained on September 22nd, 2021: “Typical for a copy is, for example, the design of page 26 of the document – if a notary public states that he is confirming a document with his “usual notary’s sign and signature” and then only a circle with the inscription “Locus sigilli” appears, one can assume that it is a copy, because “Locus sigilli” [place of the seal] or the abbreviation “L. S.” in a copy indicates the place where the seal is in the original document.”
The inventory of June 6th, 1611 [16] mentions locations in which the foundation still holds property today. A large part of the land owned by the foundation in 1990 was probably already the property of the Founder in 1610.
Page 1 of 28
Page 27 of 28
September 24th, 1610
June 6th, 1611
Page 26 of 28
June 6th, 1611
Page 28 of 28
Petrus Schultze
Inventory dated September 24th, 1610 and June 6th, 1611 [16], photo of a handwritten copy, city archive Salzwedel, April 28th, 2021
Appointment of the foundation‘s leadership. Margaretha‘s death
On March 9th, 1611, the family appointed for the first time a Patron for the foundation. The 23year-old merchant Georg I Gercken from Salzwedel, a cousin of the Founder, was chosen. He led the foundation from 1611 to 1635 [11].
The 24-year-old theologian Nicolaus VIII Gercken, morning preacher in Magdeburg and later archdeacon (bishop's deputy) in Luechow, and the 52-year-old Magdeburg dean Nicolaus II Binde were recruited as administrators from 1610 to 1639 [11, page 41]. His daughter Catharina Binde married Johann Linthe, who would play an inglorious role towards the end of the Thirty Years' War (episode III) [11].
Margaretha Busse, the Founder's wife, died on January 30th, 1621. Scholarships were supposed to have been awarded afterwards, but the war raging from 1618 prevented this. The destruction of Magdeburg in May 1631 and the loss of the foundation's documents brought the foundation income to a halt.
Progenitor
Nicolaus I (Clawes) Gercken * 1501 † 1579
Johannes I Gercken * 1528
† 1605, father of the Founder
Nicolaus II Gercken * 1530 † 1606
Barbara Gercken
*1529 † 1582
⚭ Nicolaus I Binde (1523 – 1596)
Christina Gercken † 1610
⚭ Pascha Stampehl, whose cousin and children were mayors of Tallin/Reval.
Joachim Gercken † 1598
Founder Nicolaus III
Gercken * 1555 † 1610
Syndic of Magdeburg Cathedral Chapter ⚭ Margaretha Busse
1st Patron 1611- 1635
Georg I Gercken * 1588 † 1635
Nicolaus II Binde *1558
Deacon in Magdeburg, administrator 1610-1639
Joachim Stampehl *1563 † 1616
Treasurer in Salzwedel, testimony of estate inventory dated June.6th, 1611
Nicolaus VIII Gercken
*1586 Theologian, main heir of the Progenitor, administrator 1610 - 1639
2nd Patron 1635-1680
Valentin Gercken * 1616 † 1689
Restorer and Testamentary 1647-1680
Sebastian I Gercken * 1617 † 1680
Catharina Binde ⚭ Johann Linthe
Self-appointed administrator, 1639 – 1647, embezzler, episode III
Early Patrons, Testamentaries and administrators
3rd Patron 1680-1719
Sebastian V von Gercken * 1646 † 1719
4th Patron 1719-1726
Georg II Gercken * 1656 † 1726
SebastianIIGercken *1656 † 1710, Mayor of Luebeck
Nicolaus VI Gercken * 1658 † 1700
5th Patron 1726-1738
Georg Friedrich II Gercken, Mayor of Magdeburg, † 1738
Myths of European unification
The German speaking states were loosely associated in the so-called "Holy Roman Empire" from the 15th century until 1806. The fascination with the Rome was unbroken. In 117 AD, the Western Roman Empire reached its greatest expansion under Trajan. It collapsed in 476 due to internal disunity - civil war raged in half of the years of the Roman Empire - due to the strengthening of its opponents, who had learned from Rome, due to demographic shifts and due to advancing technology that allowed survival and warfare even in continental, winter-cold regions. As all constructs held together by force, Rome was bound to fail.
Charlemagne was crowned “Roman Emperor” in Aachen (Aix La Chapelle, Aquisgran) on Christmas day of the year 800 AD by Pope Leo III. Charlemagne’s empire collapsed during the reign of his sons.
The East-Roman Empire, – Byzantium, later Constantinople, today Istanbul – withstood the pressure of the Turks until 1453.
Emperor Charles V of Habsburg (*1500 †1558) attempted to unite the rule over what is today Germany, Austria, Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Eastern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and America through marriage. The saying "Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube." "Let others wage war, but you, happy Austria, marry" goes back to the time of Charles V. Charles lived in a time of colossal upheaval, namely the spread of the printing press, the colonization of America, and the reformation. His efforts to censor the printing press failed miserably. He saw himself as the protector of Catholicism and took violent action against the reformation in Germany. Later he recognized the hopelessness of the undertaking and agreed to the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. Like so many others, his power scheming failed due to a succession arrangement. Charles V resigned from the imperial office two years before his death. His domain fell apart. The Catholic Church did not respect the Peace of Augsburg, which led to the counter-reformation and the Thirty Years' War (16181648).
The Thirty Years‘ War. Securing the Estate. 1607 – 1621 { II.5 }
Karl V, Emperor 1530 until 1556
Constantine XI , 1405-1453 Emperor of Byzantium
Charlemagne 747 - 814
Trajan 53 - 117 Roman Emperor
The
outbreak of the ThirtyYears‘ War, May 23rd, 1618 in Prague
From 1355 to 1526 and from 1583 to 1612, Prague was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1526 until the end of the Empire in 1806, Vienna was the imperial capital except from 1583 to1612 under Emperor Rudolf II and from 1742 to 1745 under Emperor Charles VII.
Rudolf II (1576-1612) had promised Protestants religious freedom in the Letter of Majesty of 1609. When the Protestant church in Klostergrab was demolished and St. Wenceslas church in Braunau was closed, the Protestant estates accused the two Bohemian Emperors Matthias (16121619) and Ferdinand II (1619-1637) of breaking their word. In March 1618, a Protestant assembly sent a complaint to the Emperor, demanding that he intervene against the violation of religious rights. The Emperor sharply rebuked the complaint. The assembly of the Protestant estates was declared illegal.
The estates then met again on May 21st, 1618, in the Carolinum in Prague. The imperial governors had an edict presented, according to which the assembly be dissolved immediately. A small group of conspirators then planned the following provocation. After the assembly of the estates was dissolved, almost 200 representatives marched to Prague Castle on May 23rd, 1618. After an improvised show trial, they threw the imperial governors Jaroslaw Borsita Count of Martinitz and Wilhelm Slavata of Chlum and Koschumberg, who were present in the Bohemian Court Chancellery, as well as the chancellery secretary Philipp Fabricius, out of a window into a moat 17 meters below. To everyone's surprise, the three were only injured by the fall because they were wearing heavy coats, clung to a ledge and slid down the outward sloping castle wall. The resourceful Protestants then tried stoning them, but this also failed.
This defenestration (throwing someone out of a window) was tantamount to a declaration of war on the Emperor. It marked the beginning of the uprising of the Bohemian Protestants against the Catholic Habsburgs and is considered the trigger of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The Protestant Assembly constituted itself as a state parliament on May 24th, 1618, elected a government and decided to set up its own army.
Defenestration, Prague May 23rd, 1618, Theatrum Europaeum, Matth‰us Merian
1607 – 1621
Francis Bacon was a pioneer of the scientific method. His writings reached a large audience. Bacon demanded that all scientific findings be verified in experiments and be repeatable at any time. He was skeptical of findings from intuition and belief in God. He called for alternative explanations to be empirically falsified. He revisited deduction schemes from Greek and Roman antiquity. He called for the expansion of knowledge transfer and argued for suitable academies. He also published on scientific methods and healthy lifestyles. Francis Bacon was a lawyer, philosopher and writer, a member of the English House of Commons from 1581 and later of the House of Lords as an ennobled peer. It was only under James I from 1603 on that Bacon rose to high state offices. In 1618 he was appointed Lord Chancellor. His father had already been Lord Chancellor under Elizabeth I. The religiosity of his puritan mother and the political activities of his father shaped his worldview. He was considered homosexual and left no children. Bacon was loyal to authority throughout his life and took part in the persecution of opponents of the English royal family.
Science and technology, 1607 – 1621
Galileo Galilei had studied the mechanics of moving bodies since his youth. At the age of 21, he built a hydrostatic balance to determine the density of bodies. He discovered that the frequency of a pendulum on Earth only depends on its length.
In 1572, Tycho Brahe had already experimentally confirmed the absence of parallax in the light of stars. Brahe concluded that the stars reside far away from Earth in an unchanging, fixed sphere. In a correspondence with Nicolaus Copernicus in 1597, Galileo wrote that he considered the sun to be the center of the world.
In 1609, Galileo learned about the telescope that had been invented in Holland the year before. He built a device with approximately four-fold magnification from commercially available lenses, then learned to grind lenses himself and later achieved a magnification of up to thirty-three. He was the first to describe the surface of the moon and to identify the four large moons of Jupiter. He realized that the planetary orbits - unlike the orbits of the stars - could be described as sun-centered disks. He was the first to correctly interpret the Milky Way as "nothing other than a cluster of very many stars." Galileo also observed the phases of Venus. From measurements in different seasons, he was able to disprove the geocentric worldview.
Galileo came from a Florentine patrician family. He had three children with Marina Gamba, whom he never married. The Catholic Church condemned his teachings until it rehabilitated him in 1992.
Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1641
Francis Bacon 1561 - 1626
Galileo's shopping list for the construction of a telescope, jotted on the cover of a letter from Ottavio Brenzoni dated November 23rd, 1609, National Library of Florence
Moon surface Galilei‘s drawing vs. a modern photograph
On October 9th, 1604, a new "star" was observed overnight in Verona, Florence, Padua, Korea and China. It was initially the brightest "star" in the sky and was visible for about a year. Europe was already well connected at the time: a week after the first observation, Kepler received news from Italy. From October 17th, he observed the supernova in Prague. From October 28th, Galileo Galilei observed the supernova in Padua. Public interest was immense. As no parallax was observed, it quickly became clear that the phenomenon was triggered "behind the moon." Today we know that it occurred a good 1011 times beyond the moon's orbit around the Earth. The Aristotelian idea and church dogma of an unchanging sphere of fixed stars had been shattered resoundingly in 1604. Today the phenomenon is referred to as the "Kepler Supernova," an explosion of a dying star in the Milky Way, which Kepler thoroughly documented.
During the counter-reformation in 1600, the Protestant Kepler family in Graz was obliged to convert to Catholicism. The Keplers refused and had to leave Graz. Kepler moved to Prague and worked as a mathematician for Tycho Brahe, who died in 1601. As Brahe's successor, Kepler, protected from the Catholic Church, was able to prove by 1609 that the planets move in elliptical orbits, one of the focal points of which is the center of the sun. Astronomy was a key technology, particularly in navigation. The construction of telescopes and protractors (angle gauges) led to further groundbreaking inventions (see episode IV).
Selection of buildings relevant to the foundation built prior to 1607
Tuebingen, Collegiate church, 1470 photo: cc Felix Kˆnig
Rostock, Fraternity house University library, 1480 photo: cc Ch.Pagenkopf
Wittenberg city church, from 1412 photo: cc Concord
St. Nicolai, Jueterbog, 1488 photo: cc SchiDD
Haldensleben Kuehn‘s house, 1592 photo: cc Olaf Meister
Tuebingen Town hall, 1435 photo: cc Joachim Kohler
St. Stephani, Calbe prior to 1268 photo: cc Joeb07
Dome of Speyer 1025, photo: cc Michiel Verbeek
Basel Minster 1019, photo: cc Wladyslaw Sojka
Selection of buildings built in Salzwedel prior to 1607
Neustadt Latin school, 1570 At St. Catharine‘s church 6
Danneil museum 1578
Karl‘s tower prior to 1400
Adam and Eve gate Schmiedestr. 27, 1534
Radestr. 10 1603
Knight house Radestr. 9, 1596
Kramstr. 16 1601
Kramstr. 8 1601
Altperver street 20 1600
Lorenz church 1250
Lorenz church 1250
At St. Mary‘s church 5 1566
Marstall, At St. Mary‘s church 3, 1577
Neuperver street 57 1584
Mayor‘s court Burgstr. 18, 1543
Neuperver gate, 1460
Westermarkstr. 17, 1601
Coin mint prior to 1500
Court house, Burgstr. 68 Beginning of the 16th century
St. Mary‘s church 1150
At St. Mary‘s church 1566
Stone gate 1530
Neuperver gate, 1460
Monks‘ church 1250
St. Catharine‘s church, 1280
NameAddress
1fr.1280Neu- St. Catharine's church A.d.Katharinenkirche 21570stadtLatin schoolA.d.Katharinenkirche 31530NewStone gateSteintorstr. 41460TownNeuperver gateVor dem Neuperver Tor 51585Neustadt town hallNeuperver Str. 29 61543Mayor's courtBurgstr. 18 71534Private houseNeuperverstr. 57 81150Alt-St. Mary's churchAn der Marienkirche 4 91577stadtMarstallAn der Marienkirche 3 101578OldDanneil museumAn der Marienkirche 3 111566TownPrivate homeAn der Marienkirche 8 121250Lorenz churchAn der Lorenzkirche 18 131250Monks' churchMˆnchskirche 1416th cent.Court houseBurgstr. 68 151600Private homeAltperver Str. 20 161601Private homeKramstr. 8 171601Private homeKramstr. 16 181596RitterhausRadestr. 9 191603Private homeRadestr. 10 201534Adam and Eve gateSchmiedestr. 27 211601Private houseWestermarktstr. 17 22ca. 1600Da Gaetano restau.Westermarktstr. 13 23bef. 1500Coin mintAltperverstr. 22 24bef. 1400Karl's towerAltperverstr. 72 - 6
Reflection page
Would wehave peace if everybody followed the rules?
Modern soccer was invented by breaking the rules of rugby
If in episode VIII after 2024 life was detected on exoplanets, what would that mean?
Hope and faith in God will never die for some of us Most people are agnostic yet humanists. Such diversity is refreshing The Gercken foundation takes in all descendants of Nicolaus I.
Modern art considers herself a breaker of rules,especially in the era after the invention of the camera
We need new to make this sustainable
Go Greta !
Perhaps wetry breaking the rules without violence do authors tell us? effort book?
We are named Salina and Salt Flash. OpenAI created us from a prompt of the authors We love you
This page was added to give every episiodean even number of pages This page is the most important of the book.
Sometimes several truths are valid.
We want to help you understand the world by explaining the impact of advances and setbacks in philosophy, cooperation and technology on the Gercken family. Much has already been thought out, yet much more you must think up. There is no end of history. Oh, and be gentle with your parents. They often did their best.
III 1621 - 1719
Peace of Westphalia
Sebastian‘s Triumph
The22nd PatronECKARTREIHLEN andtheTestamentaries
Contemporary history. The Thirty Years' War rages. Magdeburg is completely destroyed on May 20th , 1631. The war ends in 1648 with the peace treaties of Osnabrueck and Muenster. A long and somewhat more peaceful period follows in Central Europe.
Family history. The family has moved the original documents of the foundation files from Magdeburg to St. Stephani church in Calbe on the Saale. In 1635, Valentin Gercken, the son of the 1st Patron, is appointed 2nd Patron. The husband of a family member, Johann Linthe, appoints himself administrator in 1639 and seizes the original documents in Calbe. They never surface again. Valentin's brother, the law student Sebastian I Gercken is entrusted by the family with the restoration of the foundation in 1647. Sebastian manages to conclude new contracts with the land tenants based on a few preserved foundation documents. The first scholarships are paid out from 1648 onwards. The 3rd Patron, Sebastian V von Gercken, serves from 1680 to 1719. He operates from Vienna. The foundation flourishes.
The ThirtyYears‘ War
Death of Gustav II Adolf , Battle of Luetzen, November 6th, 1632 (Carl Wahlbom, 1855)
Battle of the Downs, October 1639 (Reinier Zeeman, around 1639)
Soldiers sack a farm, Thirty Years‘ War, (Oil painting of 1620 by Sebastian Vrancx, 1573 - 1647)
1631, Prayer of King Gustav II Adolf after the battle of Breitenfeld, Nils Forsberg (1842-1934) Photo: cc Nils Forsberg
Siege of Stralsund Frans Hogenberg, 1628
Pieter Snayers, Battle of White Mountein near Prague, 1620 First major battle of the Thirty Years‘ War
In the early 16th century, the indulgence trade flourished under Archbishop Albrecht of Brandenburg and the traveling indulgence preacher Tetzel. This inspired Martin Luther to write his 95 theses in 1517 in Wittenberg, located just 70 km from Magdeburg. It sparked the reformation in Germany. The city of Magdeburg, the capital and cathedral seat of the archbishopric, declared its support for the reformation as early as 1524 and joined the Schmalkaldic League in 1531. After Albrecht's death in 1545, Magdeburg Cathedral was closed for 20 years. It was taken over by the Protestants in 1567 along with all other churches in the city. From 1547 to 1562, Magdeburg was placed under an imperial ban because it offered protection to Protestant refugees from Catholic troops in the Schmalkaldic War.
In 1618, the Thirty Years' War broke out. Around 1623, Magdeburg began to fortify its defenses. Denmark and some Protestant nobility went to war against the emperor of the Reich, but the largest Protestant powers in Germany, Saxony and Brandenburg, remained neutral. In 1625, the first imperial troops arrived near Magdeburg. The imperial general Wallenstein soon occupied most of northern Germany.
In the course of the counter-reformation, Emperor Ferdinand II returned the Magdeburg monastery Unser Lieben Frauen, which had been abandoned in 1601, to the Catholic Premonstratensian Order in 1626. Zealous monks moved into the Lutheran city. With the Edict of Restitution of 1629, the Catholic nobility of the empire decided that all church property in Germany that had been secularized after 1555 should be returned to the Catholic Church, including the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Halberstadt. A majority of Magdeburg residents became radicalized against the Catholic Church and hoped for protection from Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. The Swedish King Gustav Adolf promised Magdeburg protection. Dietrich von Falkenberg, who served Sweden, took over the command of the fortress and prepared the defense of Magdeburg. New mercenaries were recruited, the suburbs fortified and defenses built, as had been practiced in Stralsund. From the end of November 1630, a significant number of imperial troops was stationed outside the city.
Magdeburg around 1600. Painting after an engraving by Jan van de Velde (1569–1629)
Dietrich von Falkenberg 1580 - 1631
General Wallenstein 1583 - 1634
Emperor Ferdinand II 1578 - 1634
King Gustav II Adolf 1594 - 1632
In the autumn of 1630, King Gustav Adolf occupied large parts of Pomerania and Mecklenburg. The Belgian-born Bavarian general Tilly, who had replaced Wallenstein as the supreme commander of the imperial forces, marched to Neubrandenburg to meet Gustav Adolf in January 1631. Gustav Adolf then advanced from Stettin along the Oder to Frankfurt in order to lure the imperial forces away from Magdeburg. Tilly marched to Brandenburg on the Havel to confront him, but left more than half of his troops near Magdeburg. Gustav Adolf moved with part of his troops to Berlin and covered the Oder with the rest. In order to thwart a Swedish advance along the Elbe river via Dresden to Prague, Tilly gathered around 30 000 soldiers around Magdeburg from March 1631. On April 21st and 23rd, on Falkenberg's orders, the suburbs of Neustadt and Sudenburg, which could no longer be held, were evacuated and destroyed. Tilly occupied the ruins and tightened the siege. Magdeburg was already suffering from a shortage of gunpowder.
On April 24th, Tilly wrote three letters demanding that Falkenberg and the council surrender the city. After the demands were not met, Tilly ordered a bombardment of the city. On May 4th, Tilly again demanded surrender. On May 18th, Tilly called for a voluntary surrender for the last time. The citizens of Magdeburg were pondering negotiations. In the hope that Swedish troops would approach, they decided against. No relief was provided by the Swedes, who camped exhausted near Frankfurt on the Oder, however.
On May 20th at 7 a.m., the first heavy artillery fire on the old town and surrounding villages began. Fires broke out during the morning and reached devastating proportions in the afternoon. The imperial forces considered the unruly citizens of Magdeburg to be outlaws. The mercenaries, who were poorly paid and unrestrained, robbed the houses, raped the women and beat about two-thirds of the population to death. Both sides then accused each other of having started the fires. The looting continued for several days until it was stopped on May 24th on Tilly's orders. On May 25th, a Holy Mass was held in Magdeburg Cathedral in Tilly's presence It was the first Catholic service there since the reformation. Pope Urban VIII wrote a
The destruction of Magdeburg on May 20th, 1631 letter on June 24th in which he expressed his joy over the "destruction of the heretic's nest." The Nicolaus Gercken Family Foundation lost its library with most original documents, the executor of the will and several family members in the massacre.
Engraving of D. Manasser, 1632
Tilly 1559 – 1632
Photo: cc Anthonis van Dyck
Peace of Westphalia Sebastian‘s Triumph. 1621
Around 20,000 Magdeburg citizens died in the fighting on May 20th, 1631. The "Magdeburg Wedding" is considered the worst massacre of the Thirty Years' War. It caused outrage throughout Europe. Most of the survivors had to leave the city because the destruction had taken away their livelihoods. Epidemics that followed claimed further lives. On May 9th, 1631, Magdeburg still had around 35 000 inhabitants; by 1639, there were only 450 left. It was not until the 19th century that Magdeburg's population exceeded the pre-war figure.
Michael Burchardt, Salzwedel‘s savior in the ThirtyYears‘ War
Around 1630, the mercenary Michael Burchardt, born in Jena around 1600, became engaged to Catharina II Stampehl, a granddaughter of Christina Gercken, who was a daughter of the Progenitor. Burchardt fought on the Catholic side before 1631, but switched to the Protestants, (Sweden) around 1631. In 1638 he returned to Salzwedel and married his Catharina on October 8th in St. Catherine's church. In 1638, Michael Burchardt led a group of Salzwedel citizens who fended off pillaging imperial troops under general Gallas. In 1640, Burchardt managed the same feat against a Swedish soldiery. Michael Burchardt died in 1671 after 33 years of marriage. Two of Michael’s and Catharina's four children survived their childhood [20].
The siege of Magdeburg 1631, Pieter Meulener, painting of 1650
Attack on Magdeburg, Matth‰us Merian - Theatrum Euroaeum, created 1659. Imperial troops seize the Zollschanze and the suburbs in April 1631
The end of the ThirtyYears‘ War
A number of other conflicts coincided with the Thirty Years’ War. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between the Netherlands and Spain, the Grisons Troubles (1620–1631) between the coalitions of France-Venice and Spain-Austria over the present-day canton of Graub¸nden, the Upper Austrian Peasants' War (1626), the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–1631) between France and Habsburg, the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) and the War for Supremacy in the Baltic Sea Region (Torstensson War, 1643–1645) between Sweden and Denmark.
The Thirty Years' War led to territorial gains especially of France and Sweden. It sealed the separation of the United Netherlands and the Swiss Confederation from the Reich. Absolutist France under Cardinal Richelieu (1582-1642) in particular emerged stronger and became the leading power on the European continent. The period of the Ancien Regime began. The wars, famines and epidemics devastated and depopulated entire regions. Some areas needed more than a century to recover. Salzwedel was spared from arson and looting but suffered financial losses due to forced lodging of soldiers and related demands from various armies.
Richelieu 1582 - 1642
German speaking areas: 1618: 17 m inhabitants 1650: 10 m inhabitants
Cardinal
Breslau
Stettin
Source: Straty ludnościowe po wojnie 30letniej Graphics redrawn by Gercken foundation
Peace of Westphalia Sebastian‘s Triumph. 1621
The Peace of Westphalia
The Thirty Years' War ended on October 24th, 1648. Two earlier initiatives - the Peace of Luebeck in 1629 and the Peace of Prague in 1635 - failed because they did not take the interests of all parties into account. Peace was finally achieved during the pan-European Peace Congress of Muenster and Osnabrueck (1641-1648).
The city of Muenster was chosen to assemble the Catholic opponents of the Reich, the city of Osnabrueck to assemble the Protestant opponents. The term "Peace of Westphalia" was only coined after the peace conferences. The Muenster Peace Treaty was concluded between the Reich and France, the Osnabrueck Peace Treaty between the Reich and Sweden. Both treaties were signed in Muenster on October 24th, 1648. The Peace of Westphalia established the principle of equal rights for all states, regardless of their actual size or power. It defined national sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs. It reinstated the Peace of Augsburg. (Religionsfrieden, “peace of religions”, meaning Catholics and Protestants). Compared to the scale of the war, the Peace of Westphalia only slightly changed the balance of power between the emperor (Kaiser) and the imperial estates (Reichstst‰nde). The peace agreement became part of the Reich’s constitutional order, which remained in force until 1806.
The Peace of Westphalia enabled Testamentary Sebastian I Gercken (* 1617 † 1680) to establish the foundation in 1647 (episode III) which led to the first scholarship payouts.
Henry Kissinger (1923 - 2023) saw the Peace of Westphalia as a blueprint for the unfinished pacification of the Near and Far East (episode VII).
Town hall of Muenster
Photo: cc Dietmar Rabich
Town hall of Osnabrueck
Photo: cc Mark Ahsmann
Agreement of Osnabrueck
The Peace of Nuremberg of July 26th, 1650, settled issues left unadressed in the treaties of Osnabrueck and Muenster of 1648, including demobilization, the payment of reparations and the withdrawal of troops. The main negotiators were Count Karl Gustav for Sweden and Octavio Piccolomini for the Empire. Negotiations began in April 1649.
On May 15th, 1648, the Spanish and Dutch delegates took an oath on the Peace of Muenster in the town hall. Painting of 1648, oil on copper by Gerard ter Borch, 1617-1681.
Triumph of the Peace of Osnabrueck and Nuremberg. Engraving of 1649. The goddess of peace, Pax, sits in the triumph carriage and drags the God of war, Mars, in chains behind her.
In the 17th century, the Holy Roman Empire consisted of over 100 small states. 110 embassies and 140 imperial estates took part in the peace conferences of Muenster and Osnabrueck. The threat from the French and the Turks strengthened the cohesion of the empire. Overseas, however, it played only a minor role because it was unable to harness the power of its constituent states. The empire played hardly any role in the colonization of America, Africa and Asia.
The Holy Roman Empire, 1648 [21]
Securing the foundation documents through the ThirtyYears‘ War
Copies ① and ② of the Founder’s will and of the estate inventory handwritten likely prior to 1615 by notary public Petrus Schultze and ③, an original of a certification of authenticity of ① sealed on February 26th, 1654, by the sons of Petrus are the main pillars of the proof of authenticity of the foundation’s documents. ① [22] ,② [16], ③ [23] and ④ [24] are located at Salzwedel city archive.
TheFounder
Nicolaus III Gercken
*1555,Salzwedel
WifeoftheFounder
Margaretha Busse
⚭
1590Marriage
1603Inventory
Nov27th,1607 Will
† Aug 16th,1610
Therestorer Sebastian I Gercken Testamentary 1648-1680
The22nd PatrontookaphotoonApril28th , 2021,ofanotarialhandwrittencopyofthe will of the Founder written by Petrus Schultzepriorto1615,sealedonFebruary 26th,1654,by Petrus’ sonsinHaldensleben.
① and ③ are the earliest surviving original documents relating to the Founder's will. Sealed certification of a copy of the Founder's will, which notary public Petrus Schultze wrote and signed, pages 1 to 25. Sealed on page 26 on February 26th, 1654 in Haldensleben, by Matthias Schultze, citizen, and by Paul Schultze, citizen. Matthias and Paul were sons of Petrus. They certified the authenticity of their father’s handwriting script of the copy. Matthias also confirmed that he had known before his father's death about the latter’s work with the Founder's will and its copies. T3 Notebook 2 (ii).
The loss of the original of the will during the Thirty Years’ War was a setback. A certification 47 years after the will was drawn up as shown here is evidence of Sebastian’s thoroughness.
Page 1 of 26
Page 26 of 26
Copy written before Nov 9th, 1615 [22]
Certification Feb 26th, 1654 [23], original
Page 25 of 26
Certification of a copy of the Founder's will, 1654
② See also page II.3. Notarial copy of the inventory from 1611 T3 Kladde 1 (ii) [16] On September 24th , 1610, the Founder's widow, Margaretha Busse, drew up a 26-page inventory of the estate On June 6th , 1611, pages 26 to 28 were added listing the widow's property
Page1of28 Page26of28
Inventory dated September 24th, 1610 and June 6th, 1611 [16]
④ Earliest surviving original documents concerning the foundation. Debt certificate of the city of Magdeburg in favor of Sebastian I Gercken for 2000 Taler, sealed on September 1st, 1649, by Georg Kuhlewein, mayor of Magdeburg. T3 Kladde 2 (i) [24].
Debt certificate of the city of Magdeburg, September 1st, 1649
Loyalty and betrayal
On October 15th, 1635, the 1st Patron, Georg I Gecken, died in Salzwedel. He was married to Barbara Nicolai in Salzwedel on May 10th, 1614. They had two sons, the formidable brothers Valentin and Sebastian I. In 1635, the Salzwedel family appointed 19-year-old Valentin 2nd Patron. Valentin was a merchant. In 1639, Nicolaus Binde and Nicolaus VIII Gercken resigned from their posts as administrators for reasons unknown today. By that time, Magdeburg and the original family records that had remained there were already lost. Binde's son-in-law, Johann Linthe from Lenzen, appointed himself administrator in 1639 and seized the family records that had been stored in a sack in St. Stephani in Calbe on the Saale. They never resurfaced [11].
Progenitor
Nicolaus I (Clawes) Gercken
* 1501 † 1579
Johannes I Gercken * 1528 † 1605, Vater des Stifters
NiolausIIGercken
*1530 † 1606
BarbaraGercken
*1529 † 1582
⚭ Nicolaus I Binde (1523 – 1596)
JoachimGercken † 1598
Founder NicolausIII
Gercken
*1555 † 1610
Syndic of Magdeburg Cathedral Chapter
1st Patron 1611-1635
GeorgI
Gercken
*1588 † 1635
NicolausIIBinde *1558 Deacon in Magdeburg Administrator 1610-1639
NicolausVIII Gercken
*1586
Theologe Heir of the Progenitor Administrator 1610 - 1639
Embezzlement of the foundation archives, attempt to appropriate the lands by Johann Linthe, 1639 - 1647
On September 17th, 1647, the Salzwedel family authorized the 29-year-old law student Sebastian I to restore the foundation. Sebastian broke off his studies in Koenigsberg and traveled to Calbe, where the priest and the sexton told him that the foundation’s files had been stored for years in a bag in the sacristy and that a certain Johann Linthe had already picked it up. Sebastian confronted Linthe. Linthe admitted to picking up the bag but claimed that the documents had gone up in flames when his home in Lenzen burned down. When questioned by Sebastian, Linthe's sons initially contradicted their father, but then did not uphold their statements. Sebastian began to visit the land property in partially devastated and depopulated areas. The properties were still known from copies of foundation documents. The arable land was largely used without rent being paid. The farmers were interested in continued use and were therefore willing to sign lease agreements. Legal disputes sometimes dragged on for decades. Land lease income allowed the payout of the first scholarships in 1648 [11].
Like his grandfather Nicolaus II, the 2nd Patron Valentin was the treasurer of the new town of Salzwedel. He married Ilsabe II Schulze on January 14th, 1640. They had seven children. Valentin and Ilsabe gave the town of Salzwedel a clock controlling the bells in the church tower. Valentin's brother Sebastian I married Maria Holdefreundes on July 16th, 1650, in Quedlinburg. They had eight children. In 1659 he bought the properties Breiter Weg 102, 103 and Wallstrafle (Hellen Strafle) 21 in Magdeburg. He settled as a lawyer and became church elder of St. Catherine's church on Am Breiten Weg [11].
In 1680 Sebastian I died. Valentin retired from his office as Patron. Despite Sebastian's achievements, the foundation's files contain disputes over his accounting practices. This may serve as an eternal reminder to the Patrons, the Testamentaries and the Family Conferences to remain transparent, seek common ground and stay united.
Dome of Koenigsberg, 1380
Photo: cc A.Savin
Quedlinburg
St. Servatius, 1129
Photo: cc Matthias S¸flen
Wien, St. Stephan‘s cathedral, since 1137
Photo: cc C.Stadler/Bwag
St.Mayr‘s Luebeck, 1350
Photo: Structurae
Altenhausen Castle, 1368 Photo: fotocommunity.de
St. Catharine‘s, Lenzen, founded prior to 1400 Photo: cc Doris Antony
Selection of buildings relevant to the foundation built prior to 1621
Valentin's son Sebastian V Gercken was appointed 3rd Patron from 1680 until his death in 1719. He operated from Vienna, where he was appointed to the imperial council and ennobled by Emperor Leopold I (reign 1658-1705). Sebastian V was henceforth called von Gercken. He died childless with his wife Friederike von Reichart. On October 10th, 1680, Sebastian V appointed Nicolaus VI Gercken, brewer, councilman in Magdeburg and son of Sebastian I, as administrator. He died in 1700. Dr. Friedrich von Mascou served as his successor from 1700 to 1730. Mascou was a doctor and physician in Magdeburg. He was married to the sister of Sebastian V [11].
In 1610, the foundation generated enough calories for the annual nutrition of 64 people. At that time, this corresponded to the value of 24 kg of silver. For the year 1831 another yield value is available, namely an annual calorie generation for 69 people or 14 kg of silver. In 2020 and 2023, the income was 46 and 62 kg of silver respectively. The annual calorie output covered the needs of around 1,600 people.
Land lease income in kilogram silver at market value
Graphics: Gercken foundation
Annual calorie rations*
*Nutritional value of the crops of arable land, expressed in the number of people that can be fed for a year.
Graphics: Gercken foundation
The significance of purchasing power measures is limited. The amount of mined silver has increased many times over the centuries. Today, less than half of all harvested calories are eaten by humans. Nevertheless, the good and bad times can be seen in the silver time series and the agricultural revolution in the calorie time series.
The values shown here came about as follows. Johann Friedrich Danneil, Testamentary from 1821 to 1868, left the foundation records of yields from 1610 to 1852 in Reichstaler and Wispel (volume measure) of grain [11], which can easily be converted into silver equivalents and annual calorie rations using historical grain market prices [25][26] [27].
For 2020 and 2023, yields were converted from Euro (€) to kilograms of silver at current market value. Annual calorie rations were estimated by multiplying the foundation's arable land areas by area yields achievable today.
In the figures section at the end of the book, the exact calculations are shown. Many more exciting centurylong time series are also displayed.
Magdeburg Cathedral, built from 1209, Photo: cc Ajepbah
The rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow
In the 9th century, the first East Slavic empire, the Kievan Rus, was formed, which traded intensively with Byzantium. The monks Cyril and Methodius, born in Thessaloniki, evangelized the Slavic peoples and laid the foundation for the Cyrillic alphabet. Christianity was elevated to state religion in 988. The population of Kievan Rus was converted in mass baptisms. The Kievan Rus fell victim to the Mongol invasion in 1240. The successor regimes were under the rule of the Golden Horde. Meanwhile, technology advanced. Once uninhabitable, vast, barren and cold regions could suddenly be settled. This was a prerequisite for the rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow against external powers such as the Mongols, but also against the other Russian principalities such as Kiev and Tver. Mongol rule ended in 1480. In 1547, Ivan IV "the Terrible" was crowned the first Russian Tsar. In the early 17th century, serfdom was introduced in Russia. Political and social reforms were banned. In 1654 the Cossacks of Zaporizhia (now Ukraine) swore an oath of allegiance to the Russian Tsar, who had supported them in the war against Poland-Lithuania. Russia was unable to prevail militarily against Poland-Lithuania or Sweden in the late 16th century. From 1694 onwards Tsar Peter I "the Great" ruled, reformed Russia and aligned it closer with Western Europe. After he had prevailed against the Swedes in 1721 and gained access to the Baltic Sea, he moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg. By around 1740 Russia had been able to subjugate the successor khanates of the Mongols and colonize northeast Asia (Siberia). From 1762 onwards Catherine II "the Great“ ruled Russia. She hailed from Zerbst in Prussia.
Russian influence on Western Europe began to grow when Peter I took office in 1694. It culminated in the late 18th century, whereafter Russia was unable to keep up with the emerging industrialization of Western Europe and, shortly afterwards, America. Russia's influence on Western Europe has been shrinking ever since, despite the USSR's attempt to catch up, the failed occupation of Eastern Europe in the 20th century, despite its wealth of raw materials and despite its massive armament with nuclear weapons.
Tsar Peter I Romanov *1672 † 1725
TsarinaKatharina II *1729 † 1796
The rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow
The
War of the Spanish Succession, 1701- 1714
The War of the Spanish Succession was a conflict between the Houses of Habsburg and Bourbon over the succession to Charles II, the last Habsburg on the Spanish throne. The Bourbons claimed to be menaced by an encirclement by the Habsburgs.
By 1690 at the latest, the childlessness of Charles II raised the question of the Spanish succession. In order to avoid a war of succession, the European powers concluded two partition treaties in 1698 and 1699.
In Madrid, however, a court faction campaigned to keep the Spanish lands undivided. These included the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, the Duchy of Milan, the Spanish Netherlands and overseas colonies in America, Africa and Asia.
Shortly before his death, king Charles II of Spain appointed the Bourbon prince Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV of France, as heir and successor to the throne. Louis XIV therefore did not implement the partition treaties but accepted the Spanish crown in France's name. This in turn gave Leopold I, German Emperor from 1658 to 1705, the pretext to take military action against Spanish Milan in the spring of 1701. In the same year, England and the Netherlands joined an alliance against France.
The War of the Spanish Succession ended with the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. It was triggered by the death of the German Emperor Joseph I of Habsburg on April 17th, 1711. His brother, pretender to the Spanish crown, became the new emperor as Charles VI. France and Great Britain then organized the Peace Conference of Utrecht to counter Habsburg’s desire for hegemony.
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought worldwide. In Europe, the fighting took place mainly in Spain, the Netherlands, the Rhineland, Bavaria and northern Italy. In America, France and Great Britain fought in Queen Anne's War from 1702 to 1713.
Great Britain was the biggest beneficiary of the war. It was able to expand its position as a major naval power and was given bases in the Mediterranean, including Gibraltar. France ceded Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and an area around Hudson Bay to Great Britain. This laid the foundation for British North America. For the victory celebrations in London, George Friedrich Haendel composed his "Utrecht Te Deum", which was first performed on July 13th, 1713, in St Paul's Cathedral in London. The decline of Spain, which began with the separation of the northern Netherlands and the destruction of the Great Armada of 1607 by the Dutch off Gibraltar, was sealed. The Bourbons received the Spanish throne, which they hold to this day. With the Peace of Utrecht, Habsburg rose to become a major European power.
In the following century, France had little to oppose the British overseas, where the strongest economic growth would originate. By 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte largely withdrew France from the North American continent (see pages IV.15 and V.4).
Peace of Utrecht, 1713
Political philosophy, 1621 - 1719
Thomas Hobbes 1588 - 1679
John Locke 1632 - 1704
Thomas Hobbes was an English constitutional lawyer. In 1651, under the influence of the Civil War (1642-1649), Hobbes wrote his main work, "Leviathan". The constant fear of one another drives people to overcome their natural state, anarchy, by uniting to form a strong state that guarantees security. The Leviathan is a powerful monster that makes any resistance seem futile. Hobbes was an early theorist of the "social contract" between rulers and the ruled. It is no longer divine right, but the ability to guarantee security that justifies the absolutism of the ruler.
John Locke was an English philosopher and physician. He developed Hobbes' ideas further. Locke was a pioneer of the Enlightenment and of social contract law as well as the founder of liberalism. In 1689, Locke published an essay on human self-understanding. He argued that a government was only legitimate if it had the consent of the governed and protected their natural rights, described by Locke as life, liberty and property. Locke's political philosophy influenced the US Declaration of Independence and the constitutions of most other liberal states. He was anathema to the monarchs of his time.
Science and technology, 1621 - 1719
Otto von Guericke 1602 – 1686
Isaac Newton 1642 – 1726
Otto von Guericke was a politician, lawyer, physicist and inventor from Magdeburg. In 1657 he carried out spectacular experiments that demonstrated the effects of air pressure and vacuum. He had two copper hemispheres, each about 40 cm in size, juxtaposed and evacuated using a seal. While two teams of 8 horses each could not pull the hemispheres apart, the sphere disintegrated into half shells on its own weight after air was let into the sphere. Von Guericke was involved in the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Nuremberg Peace Treaty in 1649/1650 and the Reichstag in Regensburg in 1653/1654. He is not descended from Nicolaus I Gercken.
Isaac Newton was an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician at the University of Cambridge. In 1687 he formulated the law of gravity named after him, according to which masses attract each other. The strength of the attraction is proportional to the product of both masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of gravity of the masses. Newton was thus able to explain the movement of the moon around the Earth, the planets around the sun and the tides. It was not until 1859 that a deviation from Newton's theory was observed in the orbit of Mercury. Albert Einstein provided the explanation in 1915 in his general theory of relativity.
IV 1719 - 1821
The Rise of Prussia
The Foundation‘s Poverty Relief Fund
The22nd PatronECKARTREIHLEN andtheTestamentaries
Contemporary history. Friedrich II rules Prussia from 1740 to 1786. He conquers Silesia. The Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763) seals Prussia's rise as the fifth major power in Europe. The United States of America is founded in 1776. Napoleon Bonaparte sells his North American colonies to the United States in 1803. He then ravages Europe. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, the Congress of Vienna establishes a peace order in Europe that lasts for a few decades.
Family history. In 1714, George II Gercken donates the foundation’s poverty relief fund. He serves as the 4th Patron from 1719 to 1726. Georg Friedrich (1726 –1738), Valentin Joachim (1738 – 1746) and Sebastian Nicolaus Gercken (1746 – 1754) lead the foundation through relatively peaceful times in a flourishing Prussia. During the long term of the 8th Patron Philipp Wilhelm Gercken (1754 - 1791), the French briefly occupy Salzwedel in the Seven Years' War. The 9th Patron Johann Christian W. Schulze (1799 – 1819) leads the foundation through the defeat and the triumph of Prussia facing Napoleon.
Georg II Gercken † 1726 founded the Gercken Poverty Relief Fund (Witwen- und Armenlegat) in 1714. He was the 4th Patron of the foundation from 1719 to 1726. An epitaph was dedicated to him, which is preserved in St. Catherine's church in Salzwedel. Academic study was the domain of men until the 20th century. The Founder Nicolaus III Gercken, † 1610 and Georg II Gercken, made the point that impoverished women and widows be included in their relief schemes.
„Soli deo Gloria“, To God alone be the glory. “Here outside the church rests Georg Gercken, a distinguished merchant in his lifetime, * November 16th, 1656, † September 23rd, 1726, in his 70th year. His father was the city treasurer Valentin Gercken.” … “donated over 6 000 Taler and provided each of his children with an inheritance.” Georg’s wives are mentioned. His children had the epitaph erected [28].
Epitaph in St. Catherine‘s church in Salzwedel for Georg II Gercken, † 1726
Magnified lower section of the epitaph of Georg II Gercken [28]
The epitaph contains the following inscriptions - shortened in modern German [28].
"Faith works through love." "Do not forget the poor when you have happy days. Thus you will experience the joy you desire. You must leave your sour sweat to others and hand over your work." "Ben Sira XIV verses 14 and 15." "Memorial to the Founder of the Gercken family foundation Nicolaus III Gercken, renovated in 1881.”
The book of Ben Sira is one of the late writings of the Old Testament. Ben Sira wrote it in Hebrew around 190 BC in Jerusalem, where he ran a study house. His grandson published a Greek translation in Alexandria around 130 BC, which has been preserved to this day.
In 1714, the 58-year-old Salzwedel merchant Georg II Gercken (*1656 †1726) donated 6 000 Taler to a poverty relief fund for Salzwedel Neustadt and Altstadt. 6 000 Taler corresponded to about 100 kg of silver. In the 18th century, 6 000 Taler could buy enough wheat to feed almost 500 people for a year. Assuming an interest rate of 5%, 25 needy people in Salzwedel could be fed forever. A granddaughter of Georg II, councilwoman Anna Maria Berndis nÈe Gercken, donated another 1 000 Taler.
The descendants of Georg II managed the distribution of the relief funds until the city regulated its own poverty relief system in 1801. From then on, most of the interest earned from the Gercken fund went to the city’s relief fund. In 1716, Georg II sold the old family house in Wollweberstrasse to Camerarius Mar(c)kmann [1] [11] [14].
The 3rd Patron Sebastian V von Gercken (1680-1719) died childless in Vienna in 1719. George II Gercken was elected 4th Patron in 1719. He held the office until his death in 1726. With his death, the Gerckens' presence in Salzwedel ended after a quarter of a millennium [1]. George II was widowed twice and married three times. He had eight children from his first marriage, with Anna Annisius in 1686. Anna died in 1712. He had two more children from his third marriage to Christine Catharine de Mascou in 1715 [29]. In 1713 he had married the widow of mayor Mueller, Agneta Clara nÈe Rehburg, who died soon thereafter.
As the oldest of the family, Georg Friedrich Gercken was appointed 5th Patron by court order against the family's wishes from 1726 to 1738. He was mayor of Magdeburg and had three children. Georg Friedrich acted selfishly and had considerable disputes with Sebastian II Gercken (mayor of L¸beck) about the leadership of the foundation. In 1730 Georg Friedrich
succeeded in forcing the honest administrator Dr. von Mascou out, who had been in office from 1700. The foundation suffered losses that were never fully quantified. The scholarship payouts declined during the term of Georg Friedrich II (see graph overleaf). He died in office.
The 50-year-old lawyer Valentin Joachim Gercken was elected 6th Patron. He served from 1738 to 1746 and had 3 children. He was born in Salzwedel and worked as a councillor in Magdeburg. The 48-year-old Salzwedel merchant Sebastian Nicolaus Gercken was elected 7th Patron. He served from 1746 to 1754 and had 6 children. It was not until 1750 that the effects of the 5th Patron's arbitrary decisions could be remedied. The land lease income then stabilized.
The tenth child of the 4th Patron, George II, was Philipp Wilhelm Gercken (*1722, Salzwedel). He was elected 8th Patron of the foundation at the age of 32 and served from 1754 until his death in Worms in 1791. According to foundation records he died childless.
Right: Epitaph for Georg II † 1726 Left: Epitaph for the Progenitor Nicolaus I Gercken † 1579 Photo of 2021. In 2003 the foundation moved Nicolaus‘ epitaph from the outside to the inside of the church to prevent further weathering [3] [28].
Leadership of the foundation until 1821
Progenitor NicolausI
(Clawes)Gercken *1501 † 1579
Johannes I Gercken School principal in Salzwedel, Canon in Magdeburg * 1528 † 1605
Taylor,mayor ofSalzwedel,Epitaphof1579
Photoof2022,St. Catharine‘s church, Salzwedel
Founder Nicolaus III Gercken 1594-1610
Syndic of Magdeburg Cathedral Chapter * 1555 † 1610
Restorer and Testamentary
Sebastian I Gercken 1647-1680
Lawyer in Magdeburg * 1617 † 1680
Sebastian II Gercken *1656 † 1710 Mayor of Luebeck
Nicolaus VI Gercken * 1658 † 1700 Brewer in Magdeburg
5th Patron 1726-1738
Georg Friedrich II Gercken, Mayor of Magdeburg † 1738
Itwasnotuntil1799,afterthedeathof the Magdeburg administrator Valentin Friedrich Gercken, that the 9th Patron (1799-1819) was found: the Salzwedel legal counselor Johann Christian W. Schulze, born in Tangerm¸nde, whose fatherhadmarriedintolineA.The10th Patron (1819-1821) was the Salzwedel pharmacist Dr. Valentin Koehler from lineA.The11th Patron(1821-1850),the Salzwedel court director Carl Ludwig Carssow,wasthefirstPatronwhodidnot hailfromlineA.HehailedfromlineB.
2nd Patron 1635-1680
Valentin Gercken
Treasurer of Salzwedel * 1616 † 1689
Donor of the Gercken povertyrelieffund.In1716 hesoldthehouseinWollweberstrasse in Salzwedel, wherethefamilyhadlived from about 1500 [1]. With thedeathofGeorgeII,the Gerckens' presence in Salzwedelendedin1726.
Sebastian V v. Gercken Imperial Councillor Vienna * 1646 † 1719
4th Patron 1719-1726
Georg II Gercken Merchant * 1656 † 1726
6th Patron 1738 - 1746
Valentin Joachim Gercken, Merchant Magdeburg † 1747
7th Patron 1746-1754
Sebastian Nicolaus Gercken, Lawyer Magdeburg † 1754
8th Patron 1754-1791
LastPatron namedGercken
Philipp Wilhelm Gercken, Legal officer Worms † 1791
„line A“ of the Gercken foundation
Philipp Wilhelm Gercken (*1722) was the last Patron of the foundation named Gercken. He was orphaned at age four and was raised by relatives. The Salzwedel physician Dr. Elias Hoppe (*1691 † 1761) stimulated Philipp Wilhelm's interest in historiography. Dr. Elias Hoppe was a half-brother of the Salzwedel mayor Christian Nicolaus Hoppe (*1683). Christian Nicolaus was married to a half-sister of Philipp Wilhelm Gercken. Her name was Ilsabe Anna (*1692 † 1753) nÈe Gercken. She was 30 years older than Philipp Wilhelm [29] [30].
The historic document collection „Soltquellensien“, four volume folio edition, is currently located at Salzwedel city archive for study purposes [31].
Around 1750, Dr. Hoppe published the Soltquellensien [31], a 3,600-page collection of documents from the 16th to the 18th century on Salzwedel's history, which is still being evaluated in the Salzwedel city archive today.
Philipp Wilhelm, the youngest of the family, inherited a small fortune in 1726. He published thousands of writings on the history of Brandenburg, other historical reports and a leading work on heraldry (the history of seals and coats of arms) of the 18th century.
In 1785, Philipp Wilhelm published the document collection “Codex diplomaticus Brandenburgensis” in eight volumes. The better-known "Codex diplomaticus Brandenburgensis" by Riedel, listed here under [2], was only published in 36 volumes between 1838 and 1865 [29]. Riedel's work includes around 19 000 documents. Most of the approximately 2 500 documents published by Philipp Wilhelm were included in Riedel's work [29].
Philipp Wilhelm appointed the secretary and messenger to the government in Magdeburg, Erich Johann Christian Rademin (1747 - 1756), as administrator. Rademin was not a family member. From 1756 to 1771, the Magdeburg Canon Johann Friedrich Gercken administered. The Magdeburg regiment master Valentin Friedrich Gercken took over the administration from 1771 to 1798. When Valentin Friedrich died, the family appointed his son, the mayor of Aken and Wanzleben, court assessor Friedrich Philipp Carl Gercken, as administrator from 1798 to 1819.
In 1799 - 8 years after the death of the 8th Patron Philipp Wilhelm - the 37-year-old Salzwedel legal counselor Johann Christian W. Schulze was elected 9th Patron. He had 2 children and served until his death in 1819. The 80-year-old Salzwedel pharmacist Dr. med. Valentin G. Koehler served as the 10th Patron from 1819. He had one daughter. In the same year, the chief customs collector du Cros was appointed as Testamentary. In 1820, Theodor Carl Cranz (*1777) was appointed administrator. After only two years in office, the 10th Patron died in Salzwedel in 1821. Cranz served until 1831, du Cros until 1850.
Scholarship payouts in kilogram silver per year
By 1821, the scholarship payout performance in silver equivalents had developed splendidly. Johann Friedrich Danneil, Testamentary from 1821 to 1868, praises the actions of many Patrons, Testamentaries and administrators in the family history he published [11]. However, Danneil describes the management of the 5th Patron Georg Friedrich II Gercken (1726-1738) as dubious, the administrator Johann Friedrich Gercken as overwhelmed and the administration of the 8th Patron Philipp Wilhelm Gercken (1754-1791) as arbitrary at times. The graph below proves Danneil right, but also shows that, all in all, competent and honest teams were at work. Despite all shortcomings and human quarrels, it is remarkable how well the family stuck together. Danneil served the foundation into its flourishing (episode V).
The calculation: In Germany, a confusing variety of currencies was used over the past 400 years. The silver equivalence method or silver purchasing power method allows value comparisons, nevertheless. Danneil left the foundation records of scholarship payouts from 1648 to 1852 in Reichstaler, which can be converted easily into silver equivalents based on their silver content. The 12th Patron, P. F. O. Solbrig, continued Danneil's records in the currency Mark until 1880. From 1990, the scholarship payouts can be represented in current market values of silver. The calculation is set out in the appendix "Century Timelines".
Currencies that have been used for centuries, such as the British pound or the American dollar, were temporarily tied to their silver content. The prices of silver in pounds and dollars have been documented ever since these currencies were minted, underscoring the utility of the silver equivalence method.
Annual scholarship payouts in kilogram silver at market value, foundation episodes
Scholarship payouts in kg silver / a
Notarizations of copies of the will and of debt notes
The Salzwedel city archive stores an original of a debt note from 1649 from the city of Magdeburg in favor of the foundation (episode III). Between 1749 and 1830, at least three sealed certificates of authenticity of copies of certificates or of copies of the Founder’s will were written. They are stored at Salzwedel city archive. Two of these certifications are shown below.
Original of a certificate of authenticity dated June 3rd, 1749
Original of a certificate of authenticity dated February 12th, 1766
On June 3rd, 1749, J. W. Grote, Pronotarius of the Duchy of Magdeburg, certified a copy of the certification of February 26th, 1654, a copy of the will of the Founder (original dated November 27th, 1607, lost, episode III), as well as a copy of the debt note of the city of Magdeburg in favor of the foundation (original dated September 1st, 1649, preserved, episode III). Salzwedel city archive, file T4 (i) [32]
A copy of the certification from 1654, a copy of the will of 1607 and a copy of the debt note of 1649 were certified on February 12th, 1766, by Johann Friedrich Koerner, notary public. Salzwedel city archive, file T3 1 (iii) [33]
An original certification of December 5th, 1830, by the 11th Patron Carl Ludwig Carssow is also stored at Salzwedel city archive in file T4 (vii) [34]. A copy of the debt note from 1649 and the certification by J.W. Grote of 1749 are certified.
The Silesian Wars, Poland‘s first three divisions
Salzwedel and the lion's share of the Altmark lie in the western part of Brandenburg. Brandenburg was founded in 1304 and a part of Prussia. In the year of the Peace of Utrecht, 1713, Frederick William I "The Soldier King" became King in Prussia. He built the Prussian army into the fourth largest in Europe but kept Prussia out of military conflicts. "Peace through strength" in its early form.
His son Frederick II "the Great", on the other hand, caused a lot of suffering with his wars. He took advantage of Habsburg's weakness during the War of the Austrian Succession (17401748). In the First and Second Silesian Wars (1740-1742 and 1744-45), Prussia conquered Silesia and the Bohemian County of Glatz. The conflicts were settled in the Peace of Dresden in 1745. The Third Silesian War, also known as the Seven Years' War, raged from 1756 to 1763. As a result, West Prussia became part of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland and Lithuania in 1772. In the Second and Third Partitions, Poland was completely annexed by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg in 1793 and 1795.
Friedrich W. I *1688 †1740
„The soldier king“ 1713-1740
Friedrich W. II *1744 †1797 King in Prussia 1786 - 1797
Friedrich II *1712 †1786 King of Prussia 1740 - 1786
W. III *1770 †1840 Kˆnig of Prussia 1797- 1840
Friedrich
The Seven Years‘ War, 1756 – 1763
In the Seven Years' War, Prussia and Great Britain fought against an alliance of the Habsburg Monarchy with the Holy Roman Empire, as well as France, Russia and Spain. As so often, it was about control over disputed territories and about finding a new balance of power. Prussia's goal was to assert itself and secure the Silesian territories conquered in the 1740s.
The war was also about control over the sea routes to America, Africa and Asia and about gaining trade advantages. For example, the British occupied Manila in 1762 and ousted the Spanish. The partial conflict between Great Britain and France was mainly about supremacy in North America and India.
Heroic and false representation of Friedrich II in the battle near Zorndorf of 1758, after Carl Roechling, 1904
Maria Theresia *1717 †1780, Habsburg
Adolf Friedrich *1710 † 1771, Sweden
Louis XV *1710 † 1774 France
Peter III *1728 †1762, Russia Tsar for 6 months in 1762
George II *1683 † 1760 England
Katharina II *1729 †1796 Tsarina of Russia from 1762
The Seven Years' War ended in February 1763 with the peace treaties of Paris and Hubertusburg. As a result, Prussia rose to become the fifth major European power, which deepened the rivalry with Austria. France lost influence in Europe and parts of its colonies in North America and India to Great Britain, which rose to become the dominant world empire.
Salzwedel was briefly occupied by the French in 1757. The period of occupation is sparsely documented. The damage was probably limited. The French were able to push a Prussian observation army back to Germany’s northern coast, but did not take the open route to Berlin in order not to weaken Prussia further vis-‡-vis Austria.
Prussia was able to hold the fortress of Magdeburg throughout the Seven Years' War. It even moved Friedrich’s court and the state archives to Magdeburg. The Nicolaus Gercken Family Foundation lost some land in Magdeburg to construction of fortifications.
Tsarina Elisabeth, a daughter of Peter I, died in the winter of 1762. Her nephew and successor Peter III was an admirer of Friedrich II of Prussia. Peter III concluded the Peace of Saint Petersburg with Prussia on May 5th, 1762. Without any concessions, Prussia received back the Russian-annexed East Prussia as well as Russian-occupied areas of Hinterpommern and Neumark (areas east of the Oder). On May 22nd, 1762, Sweden joined in the Peace of Hamburg. On June 1st, Peter III signed an alliance treaty with Prussia and provided troops to Friedrich II.
Peter III was married to Sophie Auguste of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, later Empress Catherine II. Peter III's reign lasted only for half a year. He fell victim to a court intrigue and was murdered. His wife may or may not have been involved in the intrigue. She ascended to the throne and kept the peace but allowed the alliance with Prussia to expire.
Friedrich II then drove the Austrians out of Silesia and Saxony. The last battle of the Seven Years' War between Austria and Prussia took place near Freiberg on October 29th, 1762. The Prussians were victorious and regained Saxony. A ceasefire was agreed on November 24th, 1762.
representation of
Emil Huenten,1858,
the Seven Years‘ War
Political philosophy, 1719-1821
The prosperity of 18th century Europe allowed new ideas to flourish. The leading thinkers of France and England questioned the monarchy. While England was largely modernizing with reforms, the revolution in France erupted in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille and many other bloody excesses. Napoleon Bonaparte promised stability and glory but ultimately frustrated the French reformers with his self-coronation. The effects on the family in Salzwedel were not long in coming.
Baron de Montesquieu was a leading enlightenment thinker. "Republics end with luxury, monarchies with poverty" is a quote attributed to him. Montesquieu sought to overcome Richelieu's absolutism and advocated the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.
Voltaire was a bestselling author, an enlightenment thinker, a critic of Christianity and of the Roman Catholic Church, a despiser of slavery, an advocate for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the separation of church and state and a satirist par excellence. Voltaire's quote "The Holy Roman Empire is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire" should suffice as an example.
Jean Jacques Rousseau was a Geneva utopian. He rejected human land acquisition and called for a "return to nature". In 1750 he wrote a "Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts", which he accused of undermining morality. He was skeptical of private property, which he saw as the root of all inequality. He was on friendly terms with Voltaire and Friedrich II of Prussia, and was in constant conflict with the authorities in France and Switzerland.
Adam Smith was a Scottish economist and moral philosopher. From 1751, at the age of 27, he was a professor at the University of Glasgow. He wrote about the role of work and the division of labor, about productive and unproductive work, about the role of the free market, the determination of value, value-added, profit, wages, the distribution of wealth, foreign trade and the role of the state. He saw compassion as the basis of morality and the driving force behind human work. The first edition of his major economic work, "The Wealth of Nations," was published in 1776, in which he analyzed the causes of differences in wealth between states. Adam Smith coined the term "invisible hand" that arises from the material self-interest of the individual but nevertheless promotes the common good in a well-designed legal system.
Immanuel Kant was a philosopher and principal of the University of Koenigsberg. Kant coined the ethical term "categorical imperative". In order to decide whether an action is moral, one should check whether it follows a maxim whose validity would be acceptable to everyone, at all times and without exception, and whether all persons affected are not treated as a mere means to another end, but also as an end in themselves. Rotary International's four-question test is closely based on Kant's ideas. Kant formulated a history of philosophy and an analysis of sensory perception, logic, knowledge and judgment, which he called the "Critique of Pure Reason".
Immanuel Kant 1724 - 1804
Adam Smith 1723 - 1790
Montesquieu 1689 - 1755
J. J. Rousseau 1712 - 1778
Voltaire 1694 - 1778
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson embody the success and contradictions of the United States of America. They belonged to a group of classically educated, like-minded, yet notoriously quarrelsome founding fathers who had set themselves the goal of building the most universal society on Earth.
Alexander Hamilton was initially a soldier. He was appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury of the USA. He created the federal budget and founded the First Bank of the United States and the Bank of New York, the oldest bank in the USA which still exists in 2024. Hamilton was an advocate of the resolute rule of law and, as a Northerner, vehemently opposed to slavery. He and his faction were unable to prevail against the phalanx of Southerners when framing the Constitution of the United States: The question of slavery was postponed for 50 years and led to the American Civil War in 1861.
Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd President of the USA. He wrote the draft of the US constitution in which he enshrined life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the goals of the state. Jefferson was an atheist and an advocate of free trade and human rights, although, as a Southerner and landowner, he owned hundreds of slaves. Jefferson banned however the import of slaves. In the “Louisiana Purchase” in 1803, he bought a quarter of the land mass of what is now the USA from Napoleonic France. Napoleon Bonaparte thus curtailed French ambitions in North America against considerable resistance and became the USA's first ally.
The USA were well armed and able to defeat the English in 1815 and the Mexicans in 1847. The US army took Mexico City in 1847. The unification of the American continent, the two oceans and the Gulf of Mexico, the desert of today’s northern Mexico and the geography and sociology of Canada resulted in a huge territorial entity without any continental rivals. The USA's natural wealth is another factor: A very long ice-free coastline, access of numerous inland metropolises to the world's oceans via the Great Lakes in the north and the Mississippi system in the south, and large arable land and mineral deposits including fossil fuels. The economic and military dominance of the USA is partially rooted in these factors.
Yet, the most important causes of American dominance are the unmatched cooperation of the citizens of the United States, the mastery of leading technologies and the universities. The USA had de facto replaced Great Britain as the leading power in the middle of the 19th century, but it was not until the 20th century that it became clear to everyone. Developments in no other country in the world have affected the lives of the descendants of Nicolaus I Gercken more than those in the USA, to an ever increasing degree from the 18th century to the present day. Initially, the USA was a destination for emigration. Then it played a decisive role in the liberation of Europe from fascism and East Germany from communism and the Russian-Soviet yoke. Today, those responsible for the foundation spend the majority of their hours each day on products developed in America, such as the computer and the software on which this book is set
Technology drives civilization, as the following sheet makes clear. Here, too, the leading role of the Anglo-Saxon-American world over the past two centuries is evident.
Thomas Jefferson 1743 - 1826
A. Hamilton 1755 - 1804
Science and technology, 1719 - 1821
Elias Howe 1819- 1867
Sewing machine 1846
Between 1765 and 1788 James Watt reduced the coal consumption of steam engines by a factor of 5 with his inventions. The resulting cost savings made the industrial revolution possible: steam engines suddenly replaced horsepower in almost all applications. James Watt introduced the term "horsepower (HP)" as a measure of power. Watt's steam engines, for example, produced 16 HP.
The first steam engine in Salzwedel was installed by mill owner Joachim Jacob Daniel Grothe in 1837 with an output of 6 HP. Today, power is measured in Watt. 1 Watt is the power required to move an object at 1 m/s against the force of 1 Newton. 1 horsepower corresponds to 735.49875 Watt. In 1757, at the age of 19, Watt opened a workshop for the maintenance of protractors (angle gauges), scales and telescopes at the University of Glasgow. The steam engine had been in use from 1712 to drain mines. In 1765, Watt recognized the energy content of latent heat in steam. By dividing the functions of "converting heat into mechanical energy" and "condensing water vapor" into the two chambers "cylinder" and "condenser", the constant, energy-intensive heating and cooling of the cylinder could be eliminated. It was not until 1774 - nine years after his discovery - that Watt found an industrialization partner in Matthew Boulton.
In 1738, Lewis Paul and John Wyatt built the first automatic spinning mill in Birmingham. The number of necessary employees was subsequently reduced by a factor of 100.
Dr. Edmund Cartwright was a pastor and Canon in Lincoln in central England. He invented the automatic loom in 1784. The number of employees was reduced by a factor of 30.
From 1778, at the age of 33, Alessandro Volta was professor of Physics at the University of Padua. He invented the copper-zinc battery in 1799. He soaked metal plates separated by wool in water and brine and later in acid.
The battery enabled Andre-Marie Ampere in particular to carry out systematic research into electrical currents and their magnetic fields in Paris between 1820 and 1827. While Volta still had to convince Napoleon Bonaparte in person that electricity was not purely an animal phenomenon, Ampere was already able to demonstrate the orthogonality between current flow and magnetic field without being misled by the Earth's magnetic field. Today, the Volt and the Ampere are the units of measurement for voltage and current. The output of a battery with a voltage of 1 Volt that delivers 1 Ampere of current is exactly 1 Watt.
George Stephenson was the leading railway pioneer in England. His locomotives were an advanced application of the steam engine.
In 1846, Elias Howe invented the modern sewing machine in the USA, which replaced 4 to 6 seamstresses. The machines were powered by people, horses, water power and steam engines. The technical advances in cloth and clothing production changed the world and had a direct impact on the cloth-making town of Salzwedel.
James Watt 1736 – 1819 Steam engine 1769
Edmund Cartwright 1743–1823, automatic loom 1785
Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827 Battery 1799
George Stephenson 1781 – 1841 Locomotive 1821
Napoleonic
Ten years after the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) staged a coup in Paris to become the first consul of France. He later became sole ruler. He then crowned himself emperor in 1804. Napoleon had military skills, but he turned Europe against him through senseless wars. He ended up a disorientated mass murderer and led his country to a catastrophic defeat. Napoleon defeated Prussia in the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt (1806) and revealed the limits of the defensive capabilities of the fragmented German speaking states. He brought about the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Salzwedel benefited as the district capital in the Elbe department of the so-called "Kingdom of Westphalia" under Napoleon from 1807 to 1813.
In 1807 Napoleon founded the Duchy of Warsaw, which served as a staging ground for his Russian campaign (1812/13). In doing so, he lifted the subjugation of Poland by its neighboring states for a few years. The Grande ArmÈe reached an evacuated Moscow but was expelled from Russian territory. Prussia, Austria and the German states of the Confederation of the Rhine began wars of liberation. Their victory in 1814 led to Napoleon's abdication. Napoleon returned to power briefly before he was forced to abdicate for good after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
decimation of the Grande ArmÈe at the hands of Russia‘s territorial defense Invasion
while withdrawing fromMoscow
This graphic by Charles Joseph Minard, published in 1869, shows the horrendous losses of the Napoleonic army in 1812/13. The number of men is represented by the width of the two colored bars; - 30 degrees RÈaumur = -37.5 oC (Celsius).
Waterloo 1815
Berlin 1806
Moscow 1812
Moscow
Vilnius
The Congress of Vienna, 1815
At the Congress of Vienna, the European powers negotiated an order after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. Poland was divided for a fourth time, with Russia gaining territory. France was rehabilitated. The mood among the participants was exuberant. "The Congress dances" has become a European bon mot.
Alexander I
Metternich 1783 - 1859
Friedrich W. III 1770 - 1840
Color drawing above by Jean Godefroy after the painting by Jean-Baptiste Isabey. 1 Arthur Wellesley for England, replacing Castlereagh, 2 Metternich for Habsburg, 3 Andrei Kirillovich Razumovsky for Russia, 4 Talleyrand for France, 5 Wilhelm von Humboldt for Prussia, 6 Karl August von Hardenberg for Prussia.
Palais at Ballhausplatz, site of the Congress of Vienna; today Chancellery. Photo: cc Extrawurst
Castlereagh 1769 - 1822
Tsar
*1777 1825
Prussia after the Congress of Vienna, 1815
After the Congress of Vienna, Prussia consisted of two parts (see map, blue areas). The PrussianAustrian rivalry (“dualism”) continued. In contrast to the situation in the Austrian Empire, the population in the Prussian territories at that time was predominantly German speaking.
The Gercken Foundation uses the conciseness of maps. Maps, however, can deceive, even negotiators in Vienna. Power and economic strength are more determined by population size and savoir faire than by land mass. The demographics and industrialization of the Rhineland caused Prussia to reorient itself westwards. Ultimately, most German patriots turned away from the Austrian Empire and placed their faith in Prussia as the unifier of Germany.
From 1815, pacification and the establishment of an order based on voluntary participation in the German speaking lands and their neighbors took almost another 200 years.
Prussia, Austria and the German Bund
Prussian
reforms, 1807 - 1815
The collapse of Prussia and the Peace Treaty of Tilsit (1807) forced reforms initiated by Karl Freiherr vom Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg: The liberation of the peasants, equality of citizens, self-government of the cities by elected representatives, reorganizationof the state administration, freedom of commerce and equal rights for Jews. Wilhelm von Humboldt introduced compulsory schooling and founded the University of Berlin. The army reforms of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Boyen led to the abolition of corporal punishment for soldiers and to general conscription. It was a "revolution from above".
Where it happened, 1719 - 1821
Salzwedel
Elbe
Osterburg
Stendal Tangermuende
Wanzleben
Magdeburg
20 km
Wallenstein, Tilly, Peter I, Katharina II, Friedrich II, Napoleon, much bloodshed for what?
A place in the history books is bought with a lot of blood
Gladau Birthplace Theodor Carl Cranz *1777, administrator 1820 – 1831
Kalbe/Milde Birthplace J. F. Danneil, *1783
Magdeburg 5th Patron Georg Friedrich II Gercken, 1726 –1738, mayor of Magdeburg
6th Patron Valentin Joachim Gercken 1738 – 1746
10th Patron Dr. med. Valentin G. Koehler 1819-1821, *1739, birthplace
Osterburg 9th Patron J. C. W. Schulze 1799 – 1819, *1762 Tangermuende, † in Osterburg
Salzwedel 4th Patron Georg II Gercken 1719-1726, (Foundation *1656 † 1726, birthplace, residence headquarter)
7th Patron Sebastian Nicolaus Gercken, 1746 – 1756, *1698, birthplace
8th Patron Philipp Wilhelm Gercken 1754 –1791, *1722, birthplace, † 1791 Worms
10th Patron Dr. med. Valentin G. Koehler 1819-1821, residence and place of death
11th Patron Carl Ludwig Carssow, residence from 1804
Contemporary history. Great Britain is the leading world power. Despite the victory over Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in 1815, the trauma of French occupation is still felt in Germany. Railways open up the continent. Industrialization raises prosperity. The extended period of peace exacerbates the unequal distribution of wealth. Through treaties and wars, the United States of America establishes itself within its current borders. Slavery is abolished in Europe and America. Democracy fails to prevail in Germany in 1848. The German Customs Union eliminates trade barriers. Prussia wins border wars against Denmark, Austria and France. The German Empire is proclaimed in 1871. Otto von Bismarck is Chancellor.
Family history. The Patrons Carssow and Solbrig run the foundation from 1821 to 1892, but a Testamentary outshines everyone from 1821 to 1868. The school principal and prehistorian Johann Friedrich Danneil publishes the family history in 1833 and a supplement in 1854. He documents an official family tree. From 1855 the foundation supports impoverished unmarried female family members. From 1865, “veil money” is paid to marrying female family members. In 1865, the first foundation statute is drafted.
Leadership of the foundation, 1821-1892, inclusion of women
The foundation's annual scholarship payouts reached their peak between 1853 and 1880. In these years, an annual average of over 38 kg of silver was distributed in the form of scholarships each year (pages E.7 and IV.7). This period is therefore referred to as the foundation’s flourishing. It was shaped by five long-serving personalities, most notably the Testamentary and high school principal Johann Friedrich Danneil (*1783 †1868), appointed in 1821 at the age of 38, the Testamentary Baron Carl Philipp von Nordeck (*1787 †1861), appointed in 1819 at the age of 32, the 11th Patron court director Carl Ludwig Carssow (*1774 †1850), appointed in 1821 at the age of 47, the 12th Patron preacher Paridam F. Otto Solbrig (*1818 †1892), appointed in 1850 at the age of 32, and the Testamentary and chancellor Carl Friedrich Anton Gersbach (*1806 †1895), appointed in 1850 at the age of 44. Von Nordeck was appointed during the term of the 10th Patron Koehler and served until Carssow left in 1850. Danneil served until his death in 1868, as did Carrsow in 1850, Solbrig in 1892 and Gersbach in 1895. Danneil and von Nordeck had married Gercken family members in 1808 and 1812. The other three descended from the Progenitor Nicolaus I Gercken (*1501 †1579). Pastor Rudolph Jahn was appointed as Danneil's successor on January 20th, 1868, the day of Danneil’s death. He died in office between 1910 and 1912.
Johann Friedrich Danneil (*1783 †1868)
Danneil wrote a history of the family foundation in 1833 and a supplement in 1854. For the years between 1610 and 1852, Danneil left behind precise evaluations of the foundation's income and scholarship payouts. From 1822 to 1858, he created pedigrees of the descendants of the Progenitor, Nicolaus I Gercken († 1579), which have served ever since as the basis for the Patrons and Testamentaries to determine who can be admitted to the foundation. In 1855, Danneil began to formulate a foundation statute, which was only approved by a court in 1872. On the basis of this document, a new statute was written in 1995, which was most recently confirmed by the State Administration in Saxony-Anhalt on January 15th , 2021. In 1821, the 11th Patron Carssow created the office of 2nd Testamentary and appointed Danneil.
Danneil was open to innovation throughout his life. He recognized the progressive forces of his time and campaigned for social progress. For example, the team Solbrig-Danneil-Gersbach introduced the consideration of women for the use of foundation funds. From 1855, assistance was introduced for single women over 40. From 1865, "veil money" was introduced for women about to marry.
Danneil was a tireless man. In 1808, at the age of 25, he married the 21-year-old Dorothea Elisabeth Wolterstorff, with whom he had five children. She died in 1823. In the same year, Danneil married Wilhelmine von Vofl, with whom he fathered another nine children. She died in 1858. Danneil surrounded himself with people from educated families. His first wife was the daughter of the pastor and high school principal in Salzwedel, his second wife the daughter of the district court director. Danneil spent the last ten years of his life as a widower.
Danneil was born on March 18th, 1783, in Kalbe on the Milde, about 35 km southeast of Salzwedel. From 1801 he studied theology, philology and philosophy at the University of Halle. From 1802 he taught at the Francke Foundations in Halle. In 1804 he became a teacher at Salzwedel high school, in 1807 "subcondirector" and from 1819 to 1853 rector (principal).
Johann Friedrich Danneil (*March 18th, 1783 † January 20th, 1868)
Danneil sported a fearsome work ethic. He did not grant himself much rest. The older he got, the more he avoided social events. He concentrated on work at his desk from 4 a.m. In 1832, Danneil founded the "Salzwedler Wochenblatt". Between 1824 and 1835, Danneil carried out around 100 archaeological excavations. In 1845, Danneil published findings that were seen as proof of the three-period system (stone,
bronze and iron age) In 1836, Danneil and his friends founded the "Altmark Association for Patriotic History and Industry". He left behind a church history of the town of Salzwedel (1842, published in Halle), a three-volume work on the von der Schulenburg family (1847, published in Salzwedel) and a dictionary of the Altmark Low German dialect (1859). Danneil wrote other works such as "History of the Introduction of the Reformation in Salzwedel", "History of the Clothmakers' Guild of the Town of Salzwedel" and "Historical News about
the Royal Castle of Salzwedel“ The history of settling the Altmark was another field on which he published in the annual reports of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History and Industry.
Patron Carssow died on March 31st, 1850. He had one son. The family selected Danneil as his successor as Patron, but the government agency supervising foundations overturned the decision [12]. As an in-law, Danneil was not deemed eligible. The family then selected the oldest known member of the foundation, Professor Dr. Christoph Solbrig from Magdeburg as Patron. Christoph soon realized that he could not fulfill the role from Magdeburg and proposed his son, a preacher and deacon at St. Mary’s church in Salzwedel, Friedrich Paridam Otto Solbrig as the 12th Patron (1850-1892). He had 5 children. In 1850, Friedrich Gersbach was appointed Testamentary, replacing Nordeck, who had fallen ill. In 1853, Danneil retired from his school office at the age of 70. He was still involved in the preparation of volume 14 of Riedel's collection of documents called Codex Diplomaticus [2]. Danneil died on January 20th, 1868 in Salzwedel. Patron Solbrig continued Danneil's work. In 1881 he published a second supplement to the family history in Salzwedel, in which he added income and scholarship payout data up to 1880. Solbrig died in 1892. In 1932 the Salzwedel city museum was opened, which bears Danneil's name to this day.
Statute and Family Conferences, from 1872
After the statute had been approved by the state authorities in 1872 after 17 years of preparation, Family Conference I was held on August 29th, 1873. The new statute declared the Family Conference the highest organ of the foundation. The 12th Patron Solbrig and the Testamentaries Friedrich Gersbach and Rudolph Jahn signed the minutes. Family Conference II followed on September 17th, 1874, Family Conference III on September 18th, 1879, Family Conference IV on November 15th, 1886 and Family Conference V on July 24th, 1889. The Patron and the Testamentaries had already been in office since 1868. Record amounts of scholarships were paid out (E.7, IV.7). Worth mentioning is a sale of three acres of land to the military treasury, approved at Family Conference II. The German military build-up was taking shape.
Danneil‘s draft of the statute dated 1865
Danneil Museum, Salzwedel, 2021
TheAmerican Civil War, 1861 – 1865
The US Constitution contains passages that the country still struggles with today, such as the politicization of the selection of constitutional judges and the election of the president by delegates from individual states, not by a majority vote of all voters. The vote tallying and the lengthy process until the president is actually elected by delegates was tailored to accommodate weeklong horse carriage rides from the states’ capitals to Washington. To this day it has undermined, though, the one citizen, one vote principle, favors rural voters and too often elevates a person to the presidency who does not have the backing of the majority of voters.
In 1857, the American Constitutional Court ruled in the Dred Scott vs. Sandford case that black Americans were not citizens and did not enjoy constitutional protections. Scott’s owner had taken him to slavery-free Missouri and then returned him to a slavery state. Scott sued to retain his freedom. However, the Constitutional Court saw Missouri's legislation as unconstitutionally curtailing the rights of the slave owner. It was a reckless miscarriage of justice. Since the court had denied Scott citizen status, it closed off the possibility of a ruling more in tune with the emerging understanding at the time of the true universality of other passages of the constitution. Abraham Lincoln and his Republicans vehemently disagreed with the ruling.
The American Civil War broke out in 1861 after a number of southern states seceded from the Union, formed their own government as the Confederation of the United States of America. They raised an army. The trigger was the presidential election, which was won by Abraham Lincoln in November 1860. He advocated a ban on slavery in the western territories. The southern states viewed this as undermining their right to keep slaves, whom they considered vital to the survival of their cotton industry, for example. After four years, the industrially superior Union of Northern States prevailed. On April 9th, 1865, the warring parties agreed to the terms of the Southern states' surrender. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14th, 1865 by a sympathizer with the southern cause. On May 10th, 1869, the railroad network from Sacramento (California) was connected to Omaha (Nebraska). In 1867, the Russian Empire ceded its claims to Alaska to the United States for US$7.2 million.
The German customs union (Zollverein), 1834- 1919
Duty-free trade strengthens the economy. Prussia had a vital interest in linking the foodproducing areas in the east with the mining regions in the west by abolishing trade barriers. The German customs union was founded. In the German speaking regions, there were many deliberations as to how the customs union could also be united politically, including or excluding Austria and the regions of the partially non-German-speaking Austrian Empire. In 1848, a strong, anti-feudal democracy movement formed, which Prussia bloodily crushed. In 1864, Prussia, in alliance with Austria, conquered southern parts of Denmark. In 1866, Prussia was victorious against Austria. Baden, the German-speaking half of Luxembourg, the Duchy of Nassau, the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and the Kingdom of Hanover joined the customs union by 1866. After 1866, the conquered parts of Denmark, the Duchy of Holstein and the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin were added. After the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871, Alsace-Lorraine was annexed by the German Reich.
Blue,green, yellow:Customsunion
Graphics:Gerckenfoundation Italics: Country borders not depicted
From 1834
From 1866
German Confederation 1815-1866
At the latest from 1871
The German customs union (Zollverein), 1834 - 1919
Salzwedel
Fr. 1839
green: Luxemburg
Magdeburg
S. Tyrol
The Customs Union came into force on January 1st, 1834 until it was rendered largely obsolete on January 18th, 1871. Luxembourg withdrew in the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th, 1919.
Contemporary caricature against trade restrictions and tariffs. Around 1790 there were about 1800 customs borders in Germany.
Founding the German Reich
The proclamation of the German Empire on January 18th, 1871, in Versailles, Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck, painting by Anton von Werner. Photo: Bismarck Museum Friedrichsruh
The so-called North German Confederation (1866 - 1871) included the founding areas of the Customs Union and Mecklenburg-Schwerin, but not Bavaria and W¸rttemberg. It was a temporary construct. The North German Confederation paved the way for the "small German solution" under the leadership of Prussia and excluding Austria. After victory over France, the German Empire was proclaimed on January 18th, 1871. Otto von Bismarck was Prussian Prime Minister from 1862 to 1890, Chancellor of the North German Confederation from 1867 to 1871 and Chancellor of the Reich from 1871 to 1890. He drew up the outlines of a welfare state. Bismarck foresaw Germany’s imperial temptations but was unable to establish his insights among his successors. Bismarck was born in Elbhausen, east of the Elbe river, which is part of the Altmark.
Austrian-Hungarian Compromise February 1867 until October 1918
Otto von Bismarck (*1815 †1898) First German Chancellor
Graphics: Gercken foundation S.Tyrol
Country borders not depicted
The German Reich from 1871, Austria, Hungary
Freedom of the press and the social condition, 1878 - 1890
In the winter of 1890, 25,000 Hamburg residents paid their last respects to Johannes Wedde at Ohlsdorf Cemetery. Karl Frohme delivered the eulogy on behalf of the SPD parliamentary group in the Reichstag. Wilhelm Blos spoke on behalf of the Hamburg social democrats. How could this member of the Gercken Foundation touch the hearts of so many people?
Johannes Wedde graduated from high school in Hamburg. He then studied law in Heidelberg and history and political science in Gˆttingen and Berlin. Poor health and financial problems forced him to work as a teacher at private schools from 1864 onwards in Hamburg.
Johannes Wedde also was a poet, a theater critic and an editor in Hamburg. He became a member of the Socialist German Workers' Party in 1872. With his collection of poems "Greetings of the Becoming", Wedde encouraged workers to defend themselves against the Bismarck state. In the poem "In Memory" (1875) he paid tribute to the Paris Commune of 1871. Wedde became editor and publisher for the “Hamburger Echo”
In 1878, the German Emperor Wilhelm I was seriously injured in an assassination attempt. As a result, the Reichstag, on the proposal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, passed the so-called Socialist Law, which was intended to restrict the political work of socialists and social democrats for 2 years, even though they attracted a third of the popular vote.
After two Hamburg newspapers had already been banned as a result of the Socialist Law, Wedde founded the "B¸rgerzeitung", whose authors included August Bebel. Bebel was the leading figure of social democracy during the period of Socialist Law. Wedde was expelled from Hamburg when a state of siege was declared. He moved to L¸beck. On October 12th, 1887, he was expelled from Germany. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, a congress to found the Second Socialist International took place in Paris in July 1889. Wedde was one of the German delegates alongside August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Karl Frohme, Hermann Molkenbuhr, Karl Pinkau and Carl Legien. The Socialist Law was extended several times. Only when it was repealed in 1890, Wedde was allowed to return to Germany
Johannes Wedde is registered as family member A 242 in table XI. His father, Friederich Albrecht August Ludwig Wedde, *April 1st, 1807, in Uelzen, was a cloth maker. His mother was called Marie Margarethe nÈe Ide. His grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm Anton Wedde, *October 13th , 1773, in Salzwedel, was a merchant in Salzwedel. His great-grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm Wedde, was a merchant and head of the tailors' guild in Salzwedel, married on January 15th, 1765, in Salzwedel to Johanna Friederike Meyer, A 46, 53 table IX. Their ancestors hail from family line A.
Foundation member Johannes Wedde (* 15.01.1843 Uelzen † 13. 01.1890 Luebeck), Photo: [35]
The abolition of the Socialist Law (ban on socialist party activity), 1890
Wedde Lasalle Marx
Demler Kayser
Hasenclever
Kraker
Geib
Jacobi
Bracke
Poster on the occasion of the abolition of the Socialist Law in Germany. "Work is the source of all wealth and all culture" “Workers of the world, unite!".
Scenes: Mass expulsion of socialists, farewell at the train station, expulsion on Christmas Eve, departure of the expelled, return from exile on October 1st, 1890.
Political
philosophy, 1821 - 1892
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, politician and economist. He is considered the most influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. He espoused a pragmatic version of utilitarianism, according to which actions, laws and institutions of government are to be judged by their ability to produce the “greatest aggregate happiness among all sentient beings, within reason”
In 1848 Mill published Principles of Political Economy. His economic philosophy was one of free markets. He advocated an income tax rate independent of the size of the income. Progressive tax rates he labelled "a mild form of robbery". He accepted interventions such as a tax on alcohol on utilitarian grounds. He later revised his flat tax preference to differentiate higher taxation of "unearned" incomes such as capital gains from lower taxation of "earned" incomes.
Mill differentiated the laws of production and wealth from the modes of their distribution. He believed it impossible to alter the laws of production. He erred here. By contrast, the modes of distribution of wealth he considered a matter of human institutions solely, starting with what Mill believed to be the primary and fundamental institution: Individual property
Mill believed in the role of government to establish social and economic policies that promote the equality of opportunity, not the equality of ends. He placed meritocracy above all other ideals in this regard. Therefore, he embraced inheritance taxes to help level the field. He advocated the division of the instruments of production fairly among all members of society.
In 1859, Mill published On Liberty. He discussed the nature and limits of the power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. Mill states the Principle of Liberty as: "the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection." "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." Mill called for a set of immunities, i.e. individual political rights and for the establishment of a system of constitutional checks. He referred to the term social liberty as protection from the tyranny of political rulers. Mill coined the term “tyranny of the majority” .
In 1859 Mill published A few words on nonintervention. He was a non-apologetic interventionist. “To suppose that the same international customs, and the same rules of international morality, can obtain between one civilized nation and another, and between civilized nations and barbarians, is a grave error”. “To characterize any conduct whatever towards a barbarous people as a violation of the law of nations, only shows that he who so speaks has never considered the subject.” He condoned a form of “benevolent despotism” towards those he considered barbarians. Mill was an apologist for colonialism. The world by and large did not follow Mill here.
John Stuart Mill 1806 - 1873
In 1861 Mill published Considerations on Representative Government. He defended the principles of extensive citizen participation and of enlightened competence of rulers.
In 1863 Mill published on Utilitarianism. His main contribution was the differentiation between “higher and lower pleasures”. The former are moral and must be prioritized whereas the latter are physical, sensationalist and easier to be dispensed with when assessing utility.
In 1869 Mill published his Defense of capital punishment. By and large, the world turned against Mill here.
In 1869 Mill published The Subjection of Women. Influenced by his formidable wife Harriet he rejected the existing gender roles and preconceptions about marriage, if for nothing else than for the detriment these exerted on economic utility . He was an adamant advocate of racial equality a question which he chose to address from his feminist insights. He formalized this in The Negro Question in 1850. In the US Civil War (1861-1865), he sided with the Union (The Northern states opposed to slavery), when many other British did not.
In 1879 Mill wrote on The Difficulties of Socialism. Mill's main objection to socialism focused on what he saw as its destruction of competition He argued that a socialist society would only be attainable through the provision of basic education for all, promoting economic democracy instead of capitalism, in the manner of substituting capitalist businesses with worker cooperatives. He clearly remained sceptic that economic democracy would perform for her stakeholders. Nevertheless, he saw the prevalence of poverty in contemporary industrial capitalist societies as “pro tanto a failure of the social arrangements”, and that attempts to condone this state of affairs as being the result of individual failings did not represent a justification of them but instead were "an irresistible claim upon every human being for protection against suffering“
Mill was a major proponent of the diffusion and use of public education to the working class. He saw the value of the individual person and believed that "man had the inherent capability of guiding his own destiny - but only if his faculties were developed and fulfilled", which could be achieved through education. Mill was prescient to include environmental impact in his philosophicalequation.
In a rare case of pandering to the spirit of the time, Mill opined the rate of profit to decline over time. He underestimated the role of innovation which gives companies ample levers to defend their margin.
In 1874 he published On Religion, Nature, The Utility of Religion and Theism. His views on religion were agnostic and sceptic, but he captured the power of the faith of others.
John Stuart Mill was a childhood prodigy and a superb writer. He joined the East India Company at age 17 and spent 35 years in a leading role in it. Mill always thought India a burden for England and England a blessing for India. He also stated his support for settler colonialism. From 1865 to 1868 Mill served as Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews. Since he was 24 years old, he had been in a close friendship with Harriet Taylor. John married Harriet when he was 45 years old. They had no children together. Mill was elected member of the American PhilosophicalSociety in 1867. He was a godfather of the atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell.
Science and technology, 1821 - 1892
Michael Faraday 1971-1867, Electromagnetism 1821
S.Morse 1791 – 1872
Telegraph1832
Morsecode 1837
Werner von Siemens 1816 -1882
Dynamo 1866
Cyrus W. Field, 1819 -1892
Sea cable 1866
Charles Darwin 1809 – 1882, Natural selection 1871
Michael Faraday conducted groundbreaking experiments with electromagnetism in England from 1821 onwards. In 1831, he invented the dynamo. A dynamo generates electrical energy by moving permanent magnets. The size of electrical capacitors is expressed in the unit farad(ay). Faraday was also a leading chemist in England.
Samuel Morse invented the single-wire telegraph system from 1832 onwards and later had it patented. In 1837 he was co-inventor of Morse code, which enables any text to be transmitted as a sequence of tones. Professional radio operators later ensured that Morse code was taught as "dit-dah" (.-) in a similar way to a tonal language. In 1848, Friedrich Gerke from Hamburg revised the code, which was adopted into the International Morse Code Recommendation, ITU-R M.1677-1.
Werner von Siemens developed the first dynamos to provide electrical energy. On October 12th, 1847, he founded the Telegraphen Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske in Berlin, from which today's Siemens AG emerged. In 1848, he was commissioned to build the telegraph line from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main. In 1852, the contract to build connections from Warsaw to St. Petersburg and from St. Petersburg to Moscow was won. In 1870, the Indo-European telegraph line from London via Teheran to Calcutta, with a length of over 11,000 kilometers, went into operation; in 1874, the second transatlantic telegraph line; in 1879, the first electric locomotive and the first electric street lighting (in Berlin); in 1880, the first electric elevator (in Mannheim); in 1881, the first electric tram (in Berlin-Lichterfelde); in 1882, the world's first test trolley bus.
The use of electricity began in Salzwedel in 1876. The municipal gas works opened in 1893. The central sewage system was put into operation in 1909.
In 1854, Cyrus W. Field acquired the exclusive right from the Newfoundland government to lay a cable from the USA to Newfoundland and further to Europe. It was laid in 1857/58 but only lasted a few weeks. In 1866, Field had a second cable laid. In 1871, Field was the driving force behind the construction of an underwater telegraph line through the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii to China and Japan. Samuel Morse was a supporter of Field. He invested US$ 10 000 in Field's Atlantic Telegraph Company, and had a seat on the board of directors.
Charles Darwin was a British naturalist. He published his main work, On the origin of species, in 1859. He presented a scientific explanation for the diversity of life and evolutionary biology. From 1864 he used the word pair Natural Selection or Survival of the Fittest. He explained the adaptation of all organisms to their habitat through variation and natural selection. This also explained species diversity. Darwin had been gathering evidence for his theory from 1838. In 1871, Darwin introduced sexual selection as another evolutionary mechanism in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
Graham Bell 1847 – 1922
Telephone in mass production 1876
Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
Tungsten filament lamp 1879
Fotomemory.loc.gov
William Jenney 1832 – 1907
Skyscraper 1885
The crafts in Salzwedel, layered cake, from 1841
Carl Benz 1844 – 1929
Automobile 1886
Otto Lilienthal 1848 – 1896
Flying glider 1891
There are several Baumkuchen manufacturers in Salzwedel. To bake Baumkuchen, a batter is spread with a ladle on a rotating roller, which is heated from the side by the radiation of a flame. Excess batter drips into a pan under the roller and is applied again. The random mountain and valley landscape of the Baumkuchen cylinder thus emerges. After cooling, Baumkuchen is covered with icing or chocolate.
Baumkuchen was first mentioned in a document in Berlin in 1682. A master chef came to Salzwedel from the Prussian court in the late 18th century and brought the recipe with him. Louise Lentz found it and served Baumkuchen to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV during a visit to Salzwedel in 1841. For Christmas 1841, she sent a Baumkuchen to the court in Berlin and received a porcelain set from Meissen in return. Orders from Vienna and Saint Petersburg soon followed. On November 22nd, 1865, the Salzwedel confectioner Andreas Fritz Schernikow delivered a decorated Baumkuchen to the banquet for King Wilhelm I in what is now the Danneil Museum. Schernikow was appointed Royal Court Supplier. His business was taken over by his nephew Fritz Gerecke. Another nephew, Emil Schernikow, founded a confectionery and Baumkuchen bakery. He delivered a richly decorated Baumkuchen to the court hunt in Letzlingen in 1878, whereupon Emperor Wilhelm I appointed him Royal Court Supplier [36].
Anyone who wants to bear the name “Salzwedler Baumkuchen” must bake in Salzwedel, apply the mixture by hand with a ladle to a rotating roller and must not use combs to smooth the coating. Each piece sold is unique in space and time. The recipe for the mixture is not standardized in a binding manner. Nevertheless, Johann Andreas Schernikow wrote a non-binding reference recipe in 1807 and documented it in his confectionery book [36].
The only correct cut
Photos: Mrs. Hennig. www.baumkuchen-salzwedel.de
Where it happened, 1821 - 1892
Elbe
Salzwedel
20 km Magdeburg
Yes. German readers have always been curious about news from abroad, as Kepler's example shows. Private foundations depend on a liberal legal framework. In the 20th and 21st centuries, even the most sceptic person will realize the extent of the influence of the Anglo-Saxon world on foundation practices.
Was a civil war in America really relevant to a Patron in the 19th century?
Were there no German speaking philosophers in the 19th century?
Did Danneil know of John Stuart Mill?
There were, but feudalism turned them away Even Karl Marx resided in London, but he never wrote as concisely as John Stuart Mill.
Why are you in Spiderman pose?
Probably
Salt Flash Salina
War and Peace in the Altmark
VI 1892 - 1990
The German Tragedy Stagnation of the Foundation
The22ndPatronECKARTREIHLEN andtheTestamentaries
LUTZBUCHMANNandMICHAELG÷LLNITZ
The17thPatronPAULGERHARDT
Contemporary history. As late as 1871, Germany had become a nation state. In the first half of the 20th century, Germany seeks to use its power to establish a new order in Europe by military force. Two attempts fail. Democracy and the rule of law only prevail through foreign intervention. Peace after 1945 is cemented by the founding of the United Nations, the World Bank, NATO and the European Union, as well as by the deterrent power of nuclear weapons. The United States of America extend their economic and military lead despite population growth in Asia and Africa. Major currencies are unpegged from precious metal backing.
Family history. After 1892, with the onset of the work of the 13th Patron Johann Friedrich Berendt, the foundation's documentation fades. Salzwedel is largely spared war damage. The foundation, however, suffers losses when purchasing compulsory war bonds in connection with the World Wars. The periods of fascism and the post-war communist order until 1990 bring reprisals such as confiscation, punitive property taxation, expropriation and the seizure of bank accounts. Land registers, however, remain unscathed. The documentation of the foundation holdings survives. A retired foundation member from Gardelegen, the 17th Patron Paul Gerhardt and his team, begin reestablishing the foundation from 1976 on.
Leadership of the foundation, 1892 - 1923
In 1892, the 12th Patron, Paridam F. Otto Solbrig, died. The 45-year-old Salzwedel high school teacher Johann Friedrich Berendt was elected the 13th Patron. Berendt later became a Testamentary and served at least until 1912.
As the 13th Patron, Berendt invited to Family Conference VI in November 1894. The conference took place on December 13th, 1894 with the long-standing Testamentaries Gersbach and Jahn in office. In 1895, Gersbach - Danneil's last companion in the foundation’s leadership - died.
At Family Conference VII on October 13th, 1898, the teacher Karl Weissenborn was elected 1st Testamentary replacing the deceased Gersbach. The 13th Patron, Berendt, Weissenborn and Jahn signed the minutes.
In 1898, the 47-year-old Salzwedel manufacturer Fritz Busse was elected 14th Patron. He had 2 children. Fritz Busse had married into the family on May 5th, 1877. The family had denied Danneil the post as Patron because he was an in-law. The statute drawn up by Danneil, approved in 1872 and published in [13], allowed Patrons by marriage, but stipulated other conditions such as "living in Salzwedel", "elder" and "authorized representative". The statute in force today only allows descendants of the Progenitor to become Patron but does not contain covenants to make elders automatically Patrons. Family Conferences VIII, IX, X and XI took place on November 5th, 1904, October 13th, 1910, October 17th, 1912, and July 10th, 1919. At each of these, proposals were submitted to include women for scholarship consideration. They were rejected every time. The progressiveness of the Danneil era was lost.
Karl Schrˆder was elected 2nd Testamentarius in place of the deceased Rudolph Jahn at Family Conference X.
At Family Conference XI, city councilor Conrad Meyer was elected 2nd Testamentarius, replacing J.F. Berendt.
Patron Paul Gerhardt wrote in 1997 that the foundation's assets were properly managed until 1914. Scholarships were awarded and surpluses were retained or invested in land purchases.
While scholarships were cut by 20% in 1912, they were increased by 20% again in 1919.
In comparison to the Danneil era up to 1868 or the Solbrig era up to 1881, the documentation of the foundation's income and scholarship payments after 1881 is sketchy. The 1st World War and hyperinflation are not covered in depth in the foundation's files.
Ulan parade through the Steintor (stone gate) in Salzwedel, 1906. The “Hennigs von Treffenfeld” regiment was a cavalry unit of the Prussian Army, which was stationed in Salzwedel and Gardelegen from 1866 to 1919. Photo: kussaw.de
Altperver Gate, Salzwedel, 1909 Photo: J.F. Danneil Museum
The 1st World War, 1914 - 1918
The First World War broke out after a period of peace and rearmament lasting over 40 years. The European powers could not agree on de-escalating the crisis after the assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, on June 28th, 1914, by a Serbian nationalist. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The German Empire covered Austria. Russia covered Serbia. France covered Russia. Germany began a campaign against France by invading Belgium
and Luxemburg Both were allied with Great Britain. The Turks covered the German Empire against Russia. In the end, 40 states with 70 million armed men fought. The German-French front froze just a few months after the German invasion and claimed millions of victims in trench warfare. Other low points of the 1st World War were gas and submarine warfare, which drew the USA into the war.
After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia and the German Empire concluded a peace agreement. The United States mobilized 4.7 million men and, from 1917, caused the collapse of the German Western Front at the cost of 116,000 of its own men and women. Emperor Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate following a sailors' revolt in Kiel in November 1918. The German Empire negotiated an armistice with France, which came into effect on November 11th, 1918. A postwar order was formalized in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
Trench warfare in Flanders, 1917, Australian soldiers
Hindenburg 1847 - 1934
Wilhelm II 1859 - 1941
Woodrow Wilson 1856 – 1924
Lloyd George 1863 - 1945
Raymond Poincare 1860 - 1934
Nicolaus II 1868 - 1918
V.I. Lenin 1870 - 1924
Gas war. Photo: Bundesarchiv
The German Tragedy. Stagnation
Foundation.
As a result of the 1st World War, Germany was forced to cede Alsace-Lorraine to France. Germany ceded further territories to Poland and Denmark, partly after holding referenda. Poland was re-established as a state. Austria and Hungary dissolved their association. A number of new, sovereign states emerged in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Austria was prohibited from merging with the German Reich. The demographics and economic prowess of the German Reich were weakened by this loss of territory only marginally. Against the pointed advice of John Maynard Keynes, the victorious powers imposed high reparations demands on Germany. In Berlin, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a republic. A democratic constitution was drawn up in Weimar. The League of Nations, a forerunner of today's United Nations, failed, because President Wilson was unable to convince his parliament of the United States’ role in this body. Isolationism initially prevailed in the USA.
Luxemburg
to France to Denmark to Italy to Poland to Poland to Ukraine
S. Tyrol
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians
Italics: Country borders not depicted
Graphics: Gercken foundation
German empire after 1920
Austria 1920
Hungary 1920
Territorial changes as a result of the 1st World War
The Weimar Republic, 1918 - 1933
On August 14th, 1919, the Weimar constitution came into force. It provided for a president (Reichspraesident) elected for seven years and a parliament (Reichstag) elected for four years, a chancellor (Reichskanzler) with a cabinet appointed by the president, and an independent judiciary. Appointing chancellor and cabinet required parliamentary approval. The constitution would last only 14 years.
Germany's soul was wounded in many ways after the 1st World War. The late formation as a nation in 1871 of a large linguistic community with undisputed capabilities in technology and cooperation had created an illusion of superiority The defeat in the war was unexpected. As there was hardly any destruction in Germany, large parts of the population were able to willfully ignore the true costs and risks of war, despite the many German war victims, wounded or deceased. Death was an everyday occurrence at the time. The nationalist part of the political spectrum propagated that Germany had been betrayed by “unpatriotic civilians" and "internal and external enemies of the Reich." In the 1st World War, Germany remained "undefeated in the field" and only received a "stab in the back" from home. Anti-Semites added the distorted image of "international Jewry" as Germany's enemy.
Personal freedom meant less to the Germans than it did to the French, English and Americans. Instead, the national conservative wing in particular mocked freely elected parliaments and propagated the need for a "strong man". In Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist movement had an eloquent figurehead with few personal affairs who knew how to achieve his goals.
Germany's obligation to pay reparations hindered economic recovery. At the latest in 1929, after the outbreak of the global economic crisis, these payments were no longer tenable. Even the all-dominating Americans did not know how to use their institutions to quickly restore trust after the stock market crash. Instead of creating money, maintaining liquidity and accepting inflation, too much was liquidated too quickly. Ultimately, America needed a decade and the stimulus of the "New Deal" (1933-1938) and of the 2nd World War to overcome the crisis, while the German economy under Hitler and Economics Minister Hjalmar Schacht was already working at full employment in 1936. Job creation programs such as the construction of motorways took effect in Germany.
A lack of knowledge of the English language did not help. On the progressive, welfare-state-friendly side of the political spectrum, the utopian and bombastic statements of Karl Marx and his followers caused damage. In England and in the English-speaking seafaring nations of Scandinavia or the Netherlands, such ideas did not take root. In Germany, they did.
Right, from above: „Jobs, freedom and bread“, „We farmers clean house“, „Volunteers wanted, youth harvest support service“ „Buy German goods“, „German week, German goods, German work“
Hitler youth from 1926
1932
Campaign poster NSDAP
Campaign poster NSDAP
From 1921, Hitler was chairman of the NSDAP, the National Socialist German Workers' Party. He was born in Austria and only became a German citizen in 1932 in Braunschweig, which was cogoverned by the NSDAP. The majority of Salzwedel, 100 km distant from Braunschweig, also voted early for the National Socialists [37].
Hitler had already attracted attention as a violent coup leader in 1923, was arrested and sentenced, but was released early. The NSDAP's share of the vote grew to about a third of the votes cast.
In 1933, Hitler was able to win over the support of Reichspraesident Paul von Hindenburg, who was considered a hero of the 1st World War. Hitler was appointed chancellor without a parliamentary majority on January 30th, 1933.
The NSDAP initially only provided the Minister of the Interior in the cabinet, Wilhelm Frick, and another minister without portfolio, Hermann Gˆring. Hitler knew that the Chancellery and the Ministry of the Interior gave him control over the German police.
On February 27th, 1933, the parliament building (the Reichstag) in Berlin was set on fire. On February 28th, a Reichstag Fire Decree was passed by the Hitler Cabinet. The first wave of arrests occurred. Personal freedoms, the right to free speech, freedom of the press, the right to association and assembly, and the secrecy of correspondence and telecommunications were restricted.
Despite some evidence, a National Socialist conspiracy to burn down the Reichstag remains unproven to this day.
On March 5th, 1933, the elections were repeated. Candidates from the Communist Party of Germany, KPD, won a good 12% of the seats. On March 8th, however, the KPD was prohibited from sending representatives to the Reichstag on the basis of the Reichstag Fire Decree. The NSDAP, together with the "Black-White-Red Combat Front", provided almost 53% of the representatives. The National Socialists introduced an enabling act ("Law to remedy the suffering of the people and the Reich") in the Reichstag, which established the National Socialist dictatorship.
On March 23rd, 1933, it was passed with almost 69% approval of the Reichstag's deputy seats. The non-approving 31% came mainly from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD, and the absent KPD.
Salzwedel Weekly (Salzwedler Wochenblatt) April 7th, 1933
Farmer‘s association, from 1933 „ Reichsnährstand“ „Blood and soil“
Depression 1929
„Blood and soil “ „German boys“
In the absence of the KPD deputies, only SPD deputies voted against the law, namely all present 94 SPD parliamentarians. Otto Wels had been party chairman from 1919 and gave his famous speech against the law, despite Hitler's appearance in a brown shirt and despite the presence of SA men in the hall. It was the darkest hour of German parliamentarism and the noblest hour of German social democracy.
In May 1933, Wels went to the French-controlled Saar region. Alittle later, the SPD moved its party headquarters to Prague. By July 1933, nationalist minded parties had been dissolved under threat. Most members and deputies joined the NSDAP. In August 1933, Wels was expatriated by the German authorities.
British cartoon. Source: Punch Magazine. The German Tragedy. Stagnation of the Foundation. 1892
Leadership
of the foundation, 1923 - 1945
Family Conf. XII Elected 1st Testamentary (T.) Dr. Fritz Busse, son of the 14th Patron. August23rd,1923 Elected 2nd T. Dr. F. W. Meyer, merchant from Salzwedel. Minutes signed by the 14th Patron, 1st T. Dr. Busse, 2nd T. Dr. Meyer.
Family Conf. XIII Income 13 100 Reichsmark in 1927, „Due to inflation, the appreciation of January20th,1927 mortgages, losses on government securities and war bonds, a large part of the foundation's assets has been lost. Income has been greatly reduced." Minutes signed by the 14th Patron and his Testamentaries.
Family Conf. XIV Payouts of scholarships to women rejected for the 5th time after 1904. October26th,1933 Minutes signed by the 14th Patron, 1st T. Dr. Busse, 2nd T. Dr. Meyer.
Family Conf. XV The factory of the 14th Patron went bankrupt.
July21st,1934 Dr. F. W. Meyer was elected as authorized representative of the foundation. (extraordinary) Elected 1st T. Wilhelm Seehausen, merchant from Salzwedel. Elected 2nd T. Ludwig Segert, foundation auditor from Salzwedel, † 1963.
Patron Paul Gerhardt wrote in 1997: "After 1933 the foundation suffered losses, particularly through the refinancing of many farmers, whose farms now became hereditary farms. The previous mortgages on these properties were converted into loans. Interest dates were set. However, interest payments were often late or not made at all. The foundation was also threatened by a law according to which all foundations had to give up their land holdings to the state. However, this law was never implemented. Some borrowers repaid their loans to the foundation during the 2nd World War. The foundation used the money to buy securities. Efforts were made to purchase safe securities, but Reich treasury notes and industrial bonds were also bought. The foundation's securities portfolio had increased from 2,720 RM in 1935 to 59,300 RM in 1945. After 1945 only a very small proportion of these securities were revalued in West Germany. At the end of the war, the foundation’s total assets amounted to 262,000 RM. ”
„Buying war bonds shortens the war.“ Nazi propaganda
National socialist dictatorship, 1933 - 1945
On June 30th, 1934, Hitler had at least 80 political opponents murdered in the "Night of the Long Knives." Hitler's predecessor as chancellor, Hitler's opponent in the 1923 coup in Munich, Hitler’s former allies in the SA (brown shirted party security), and non-cooperating officials of the Weimar Republic were also eliminated.
As early as March 1936 Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles and sent German troops to the Rhineland. The period of rearmament in Europe began. In October 1936, a four-year plan was published in Germany, according to which industry and military had to be expanded to become ready for war within four years.
On November 5th, 1937, at the latest, Hitler presented his war plans in an hour-long monologue in Berlin. His audience was his Wehrmacht adjutant Friedrich Hoflbach, his Foreign Minister von Neurath, and the four-man Wehrmacht leadership consisting of von Blomberg, von Fritsch, Raeder, and Gˆring. The Hoflbach transcript served as a key piece of evidence for the premeditated German war of aggression in the Nuremberg trials of 1946. The original of the Hoflbach transcript was lost in Allied custody, but had already been copy-typed by the Allies. It is identical to another, surviving Wehrmacht copy, which was also given to the Allies. Hoflbach (1894-1980) was available to posterity as a witness who cooperated with his interrogators. (The situation is similar to that of the will of the Founder of the Gercken Foundation.)
In the session on November 5th, 1937, von Blomberg, von Fritsch and von Neurath argued against another Russian campaign. Blomberg was subsequently dismissed on January 27th, 1938, and Fritsch and Neurath were replaced in February 1938. Only Raeder and Gˆring were allowed to continue in their posts.
After many threats, the Wehrmacht marched into Austria on March 12th, 1938. Hitler traveled to his homeland on the same day. Wehrmacht, SS and police units took over the command centers. The National Socialist federal government under Arthur Seyfl-Inquart carried out the annexation of Austria administratively on March 13th, 1938 on Hitler's orders.
On March 14th, 1938, the officers of the armed forces were sworn in promising allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Some Austrians welcomed the annexation, others were against it.
April 10th, 1938, election poster, referendum on the annexation of Austria
Four-year plan
Building freeways (Autobahnen)
In the summer of 1938, Hitler threatened Czechoslovakia with a military invasion during the so-called Sudeten Crisis. He demanded that border areas, some of which were German-speaking, be handed to the German Reich.
On September 29th, 1938, Germany concluded the "Munich Agreement" with England, France and Italy, excluding Czechoslovakia and Russia, according to which Czechoslovakia had to cede the Sudetenland to the German Reich and vacate it within ten days. The Wehrmacht's invasion began on October 1st, 1938. Poland occupied the Czech part of the Teschen region on October 2nd, 1938. Hungary was awarded areas in southern Slovakia and the Carpathian Ukraine on November 2nd, 1938. The Munich Agreement was the climax of the appeasement policy of Great Britain and France.
Hitler’s famous expression that the Sudetenland was Germany's last territorial claim was a lie. On October 21st, 1938, he had already ordered the Wehrmacht to prepare for the invasion of Czechoslovakia, as had been anticipated in the Hoflbach report. Following a German ultimatum, Slovakia declared itself independent of the Czech Republic on March 14th, 1939.
On March 15th, 1939, Hitler threatened to bomb Prague and persuaded the Czechoslovak president to place his country under "the protection of the German Reich." On the same day, Hitler occupied Czechia and annexed it as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on March 16th, 1939.
A week later, he forced Lithuania - again under threat of war - to cede the Memel region.
The invasion of Prague by the German Wehrmacht marked the end of the appeasement policy. Great Britain and France issued a declaration guaranteeing Poland's independence. During the summer, Hitler laid claim to the German-speaking city of Danzig, which had been in Polish hands from 1918. After the invasion of Prague, the British and the French made no further concessions.
After the October Revolution in 1917, civil war broke out in Russia, which lasted until the end of 1920. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was the undisputed leader of the revolution. On December 30th, 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin succeeded Lenin in 1924. In the following two decades, numerous Russian
„Was hier
bauen, verdanken
wir dem
Führer!“
colonies and affiliated territories such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were transformed into Soviet republics. In 1940, the Baltic states were occupied, annexed and transformed into Soviet republics. In 1956, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 republics.
Left from top:
„German girl chapter of the Hitler youth“
„Build youth hostels and orphanages“
„Youth serves the Fuehrer“
„All 10-year olds into the Hitler youth“
What we build here we owe to the Fuehrer! Nazi propaganda
On August 23rd, 1939, the German Reich and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact (also known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact or, after the names of the foreign ministers, the RibbentropMolotov Pact). In an additional secret protocol, both countries agreed to divide Poland, the Baltic states and Bessarabia (Western Moldavia) into German and Soviet spheres of interest in the event of "territorial-political changes". As Hitler believed that the guarantees of the British and French towards Poland could be overcome, it was left open whether a Polish state should continue to exist.
After the 5th partition of Poland was completed by the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in the west and the Red Army in the east of Poland, a second pact was signed on September 28th, 1939, by Stalin and Ribbentrop. It represented a border adjustment in the Kresy region.
During the Nuremberg trials of the major war criminals, the Soviet prosecution denied the existence of the additional protocol. For decades afterwards, the USSR described references to the protocol as anti-Soviet slander. The Kremlin leadership prohibited Soviet historians from mentioning it at all. Molotov, who died in Moscow only in 1986, lied until the end of his life. It was BorisYeltsin who first had the additionalsecret protocol published in Russia in 1993.
Molotow, Ribbentrop August 23rd, 1939
Stalin, Ribbentrop August.23rd, 1939
Secret protocol, signed by Ribbentrop, Molotow, August 23rd, 1939
Russian version August 23rd, 1939
Map dated Sep 28th, 1939, signed by Stalin and Ribbentrop
On August 31st, 1939, SS men disguised as Poles attacked the German radio station in Gleiwitz near the Polish border. On September 1st, Hitler lied in the Reichstag, "We have been firing back from 5:45 a.m." Germany had started the 2nd World War. On September 3rd, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Polish campaign ended in victory for Germany within a few weeks.
On May 10th, 1940, the Wehrmacht began occupying the Netherlands and, shortly afterwards, Belgium. It advanced through the Ardennes into France. After devastating defeats, France concluded the Armistice of CompiËgne with Germany on June 22nd, 1940, which amounted to France's surrender. Germany occupied 60% of France's area and annexed AlsaceLorraine.
On June 22nd, 1941, the Wehrmacht attacked the Soviet Union, breaking the non-aggression pact signed in 1939. The Soviets repelled the Germans in the outskirts of Moscow in the winter of 1941. By the end of the war, over 20 million Soviet citizens had lost their lives.
On December 7th, 1941, Japan, which was allied with Germany, attacked the USA in Pearl Harbor on Hawaii. On December 11th, 1941, Hitler declared war on the USA. The USA responded to the declarations of war by Japan and Germany in kind and mobilized 16.4 million men, of whom around 10 million were earmarked for the war in Europe, and of whom around 180,000 were killed [38].
The Americans converted most of their economy to war production [39]. In 1940, the USA produced 4.7 million civilian vehicles. In February 1943, civilian vehicle production was stopped. Instead, by the end of 1945, the USA had delivered almost half a million military vehicles to the Soviet Union, produced 17 million rifles and pistols, over 80,000 tanks, 41 billion pieces of ammunition and 4 million artillery shells, built over 2,000 large ships and 300,000 warready aircraft [39]. 40% of the US workforce worked in the weapons and ammunition industry in 1944 [39].
The US economy grew by 72% from 1940 to 1945 [39]. The USA supplied about two thirds of the Allies' war equipment. By the end of the war, the Allies' economies were about 5 times as large as those of the Axis powers (the German Reich and its allies) [39].
Adolf Hitler 1889 -1945
F.D. Roosevelt 1882 - 1945
Winston Churchill 1874 - 1965
Charles de Gaulle 1890 - 1970
Dwight Eisenhower 1890 - 1969
„Danzig greets its Fuehrer“
„The Russian must die, so that we may live “
Benito Mussolini 1883 - 1945
Ignacy Mościcki 1867 - 1946
Josef Stalin 1878 - 1953
The 2nd World War, 1939 – 1945
The Soviets were able to defeat the Wehrmacht in Stalingrad in February 1943. Together with its allies, the USA initiated the destruction of German infrastructure from the air and organized the landing in Normandy on June 6th, 1944. The Wehrmacht was confronted with two collapsing fronts ever after. It was pushed back on German territory and destroyed. On April 30th, 1945, Hitler committed suicide. On May 8th, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally. The map shows the extent of the countries occupied by German troops or allied with Germany. Such depictions were often used in German propaganda as proof of strength. What they really reflect is the overstretching of German resources. In the USA, in Great Britain and in the vastness of the Soviet Union, military resistance was forming that would break the Wehrmacht within three years.
Graphics:Gerckenfoundation Slovenia
GermanReich,beginning1943
German-occupiedor-alliedterritories
Salzwedel
Magdeburg
Italics: Country borders not depicted
Territories held or occupied by Germany and her allies, 1943
Vichy
France
Berlin 1945
Koeln 1945
Dresden 1945
Nuremberg 1945
Koeln 1945
VI.14
War and Peace in the Altmark
Destruction of Magdeburg 1945, Elbe river
The German Tragedy. Stagnation of the Foundation. 1892 – 1990 { VI.15 }
Destruction of Magdeburg 1945
Dictators underestimate the power of photography and of modern media. In 1946, Hermann Gˆring still believed the Holocaust could not be proven.
Before implementing his war plans, Hitler had been warned about the superior economic might of the Allies. He thought he could escape the dilemma given Germany's determination and the Allies' indecision. When it dawned on him in 1942 that he had been wrong, he intensified his pursuit of a substitute victory in the Holocaust, i.e. the extermination of the Jewish civilian population and other minorities in Europe. Around 6 million Jews and around another million persecuted non-Jewish minority members fell victim to the Holocaust. Additionally, in Poland, up to 1.8 million non-Jewish civilians also lost their lives.
Pile of shoes, Majdanek, August 1944
A Corporal of the 45th infantery division of the 7th US-army distributes cigarets, Dachau concentration camp, April 30th, 1945
Discrimination of Jewish shops
Liberation
Separation on the train platform of those capable of forced labor and those to be murdered right away, Birkenau
Liberation
As a result of the 2nd World War, Germany had to cede Koenigsberg to Russia and East Prussia and the areas east of the Oder-Neisse line to Poland. Austria became independent again. AlsaceLorraine remained with France. The Americans, British and French occupied West Germany and West Berlin, the Soviet Union occupied East Germany including East Berlin. The three Western Allies merged their zones, which in 1949 became the Federal Republic of Germany. From 1948 to 1952, the United States financed a "European Recovery Program" equivalent to 135 billion US$ in 2024, which did not benefit East Germany. It is more commonly known as the Marshall Plan. In 1949, the Soviet-occupied zone became the German Democratic Republic.
The Soviets did not withdraw their troops from the Eastern European countries over the next approximately 40 years but used the Soviet threat of use of military force to suppress the formation of free societies. The Soviet occupiers were unpopular. The “Iron Curtain” describes the limit of the Soviet military presence.
Red: the Iron Curtain
Luxemburg
Salzwedel
Westberlin
Magdeburg
S. Tyrol
Italics: Country borders are not depicted to Denmark to Italy
Graphics:Gerckenfoundation
Eastberlin
Poland
To Russia to Poland to Poland
Czechoslovakia
Austria Slovenia,Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia to Yugoslavia
Hungary
Belarus
Ukraine
Romania
Federal Republic of Germany
German Democratic Republic
The German Tragedy. Stagnation of the Foundation. 1892
Italics: Country borders not depicted
The Iron Curtain, 1945 - 1990
The Cold War, 1947 - 1990
In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded. West Germany joined as the 15th member in 1952. After the death of the Spanish dictator Franco, Spain was admitted in 1982. In 1990, NATO consisted of 16 member states. The core of NATO is its guarantee of assistance should one of its members be attacked. In 1990, NATO already accounted for around 10% of the world's population and around 50% of all defense spending. NATO offers its members access to the latest equipment, data integration, information and reconnaissance, and the peaceful resolution of internal conflicts. Despite a defense budget of only around 3% of gross domestic product, NATO was by far the most powerful military alliance in the world in 1990.
NATO was founded to counter the expansion of Soviet influence in Europe after the 2nd World War. Instead of reckoning with its cooperation with Fascist Germany in 1939, the Soviet Union constantly violated the sovereignty of its neighboring countries through its troop presence. In 1947, George Kennan wrote his now famous long telegram "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" from Moscow and recommended a containment strategy to Washington.
The Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955, an agreement between the Soviet Union and seven repressively ruled, Soviet-occupied states (East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania). Albania was a special case, had only one Soviet naval base and left the Warsaw Pact in 1968.
The Cold War describes a state of coexistence of two state systems that compete with each other but avoid direct military confrontation. The Cold War was cemented by war-weariness after the 2nd World War, the German guilt complex and the availability of nuclear weapons on both sides. The rules of the game were fluid. The secret services used violent force against each other. Numerous tragic proxy wars were fought outside Europe.
The Soviet Union respected the agreements with the Western Allies. Access to West Berlin by air was contractually guaranteed to the Allies. In 1948/1949, the East German post-war regime blocked land access to West Berlin ("Berlin Blockade"). The Western Allies supplied West Berlin by air for months until the blockade was lifted.
15 members of NATO 1952 + Spain, which joined in 1982
8 members of the Warsaw Pact 1955
9 neutral countries FI, SE, CH, LI, AT IE, YU, MT, CY
Graphics: Gercken foundation
Freedom of academia
After the arrest of students at the University Unter den Linden in the Soviet-occupied part of the city, the Free University of Berlin was founded in West Berlin in 1948 by students, teachers and American donors. To this day, the Free University (FU) bears the terms truth, justice and freedom in its seal.
Friedrich Meinecke was elected first principal of Free University of Berlin in 1948. The historical research institute of the FU still bears the name Friedrich Meinecke Institute (FMI).
Meinecke was an early internationalist. He rejected annexations beyond the German language borders during the 1st World War. Meinecke was one of the few German professors who advocated a negotiated peace. In 1917 he was involved in the founding of the People's League for Freedom and Fatherland, a counterweight to the extremist German Fatherland Party. After 1918 he campaigned for the Weimar Republic. In 1918 he cofounded the German Democratic Party. In 1933 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. After his retirement in 1932, Meinecke withdrew from all public offices during the Nazi era: In 1934 from the chairmanship of the Historical Reich Commission, which had been founded on his initiative in 1928, and in 1935 from the editorial board of the Historische Zeitschrift, the main organ of German historical science, which he had headed from 1896.
In 1946 Meinecke published his seminal work “The German catastrophe". Friedrich Meinecke was the son of the postmaster Friedrich Ludwig Meinecke from Salzwedel. In 1871 the family moved to Berlin. There Meinecke obtained his high school diploma, went to university, earned his doctorate and his academic teaching license in German and history at the University of Berlin. Friedrich Meinecke was married to Antonie Delhaes (1875–1971).They had four daughters.
Incorruptible conscience
Lesser men shirk when threatened by oppressive lawless regimes. Erhard H¸bener was of a different mind.
After Hitler was invested with dictatorial powers in 1933, Nazi thugs hoisted the swastika flag in front of his office as governor of the Prussian province of Saxony, to which he had been elected in 1924 and reelected in 1930. Erhard H¸bener took it down himself, citing a lack of legal regulation. Shortly afterwards, he was forced to retire and banned from practicing his profession. He then pursued scientific, artistic and literary interests.
After the end of the 2nd World War in 1945, Erhard H¸bener was reinstated as governor of the province of Saxony by the American military administration. Implementing agreements between the victors of the war, the Americans handed control of the Halle-Merseburg area to the Soviet military administration in Germany (SMAD) shortly thereafter.
foundation member Friedrich Meinecke (* Nov 30th, 1862 in Salzwedel † Feb 6th, 1954 in Berlin) Co-founder and first principal of Free University Berlin
Gercken
Friedrich Meinecke was born in the building which houses the foundation‘s office today
Photo: cc Axel Mauruszat
The German Tragedy. Stagnation of
Descendent of Nicolaus I Gercken Dr. phil. Erhard H¸bener, first prime minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, * August 4th 1881 † June 3rd, 1958
On December 3rd, 1946, H¸bener was elected Prime Minister of the newly formed State of Saxony Anhalt. The SMAD acquiesced. He was the only non-communist Prime Minister of the five states of East Germany. On June 5th, 1947, H¸bener participated in the Conference of the Prime Ministers of the German States (M¸nchener Ministerpr‰sidentenkonferenz), which he had helped instigate. Much to his dismay, his West German colleagues refused to take decisive action to preserve German unity. On May 30th, 1949, on the instructions of the SMAD, the “Third German People’s Congress” approved the constitution of the communist post war regime in East Germany. Erhard H¸bener appealed to the delegates as the main speaker of the liberal party LDPD: "Our future government should, will and must learn to stand with a free people on free ground.“ The delegates were pre-selected by the communists and did not heed his advice. In October 1949 H¸bener retired from politics. He was succeeded by a communist. He kept his home in Wernigerode in Saxony Anhalt.. Erhard H¸bener died in 1958. His grave in Wernigerode is honored and maintained to this day by the State of SaxonyAnhalt.
Erhard H¸bener came from a family of pastors and superintendents who had served congregations in the Altmark for eight generations. Erhard H¸bener was a descendant of Nicolaus I Gercken. He and his son received a Gercken scholarship. He attended the prestigious boarding school Landesschule Pforta. In 1905 he graduated in Berlin with a doctorate degree in law. He then worked as syndic in a trading company in Berlin, married and served in the 1st WorldWar. In 1919 he joined the Prussian trade ministry and then launched his political career.
The Berlin Wall, from 1961
On August 13th, 1961, the East German leadership under Walter Ulbricht began building the Berlin Wall and erecting a border fence between East and West Germany. Road blocks were set up east of the fence. Only residents with permits could pass these these road blocks and approach the border fortications. The few border crossings were heavily fortified. The main purpose of the fortifications was to stem the flow of economic refugees from East to West Germany, as the difference in prosperity between East and West Germany became glaringly clear in the early 1960s. Whereas the East German regime repressed private initiative, an agile private sector developed in West Germany, which conquered world markets. West German industry greatly aided the integration of refugees from East Germany and ethnic German repatriates from Poland and the Soviet Union. The East German rulers called the Wall the "anti-fascist protection wall. Willy Brandt, Ronald Reagan, Helmut Kohl and others called it by its real name.
The Brandenburg Gate is on the East side, the Tiergarten (park of trees) on the West side. The open space behind the gate reveals bomb damage in the center of Berlin in WWII. Photos: [40], Bundearchiv
Neither West nor East Germany, nor the Western Allies nor the Soviet Union had an interest in military escalation after the Berlin wall was built. Instead, the Western Allies, led by the USA, made it clear that they would hold on to West Berlin and strengthened their garrisons.
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) was mayor of Cologne from 1917 to 1933. After 1933, he was removed from office and imprisoned. From 1949 to 1963, he served as the first German Chancellor. In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union proposed reunifying a neutral Germany in the "Stalin Notes". Adenauer refused and led West Germany into NATO.
Walter Ulbricht (1893 - 1973) was a communist party cadre, born in Leipzig and trained in Moscow, who served as General Secretary of the SED from 1950 to 1971. He crushed the workers' uprising on June 17th, 1951 in East Berlin with violent force. He also welcomed the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary in 1956 and the Warsaw Pact's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He was responsible for the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Erich Honecker (1912 - 1994) was a Communist Party cadre born in Saarland and trained in Moscow. He succeeded Walter Ulbricht as General Secretary of the SED in 1971 as a reformer. In 1989 he was voted out of office after mass demonstrations erupted against his administration. Erich Honecker was personally modest but politically incorrigible. He wanted to continue his imaginary socialist struggle ad infinitum.
Adenauer
Ulbricht
Honecker
Photos above: Bundesarchiv
The 35th American President John F Kennedy speaks on June 26th , 1963 in West Berlin Excerpts: „Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ ” “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’” As in every crisis in Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries, the moral and military support of the USA was the guarantor of the liberal order Photo: Reuters
Detente, from 1965
Willy Brandt (1913-1992) was born in Luebeck from an illegitimate relationship of his mother, with whom he did not have a warm relationship. He never even had contact with his father. His birth name was Herbert Frahm. He was active in the SPD and in a party to the left of the SPD before emigrating to Oslo after the Nazis came to power. There he wrote for Scandinavian newspapers under his assumed name Willy Brandt before returning to Germany after the war. He rose in the Social Democrat Party, SPD. From 1957 to 1966 he was Governing (1st) Mayor of Berlin. Together with Ernst Reuter and a group of remigrants he vehemently advocated a western orientation of the SPD. Willy Brandt had the support of the Springer press and became known worldwide when the East German regime erected the Berlin Wall.
From 1969 to 1974 Brandt served as the 4th Chancellor of Germany. On December 7th, 1970, he sank to his knees at the memorial to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto and asked for forgiveness in a prayer pose. His gesture was met with almost unanimous approval in Germany. Hermann Schreiber from Der Spiegel wrote: "Then he, who does not need to, kneels there for all those who need to but do not kneel there - because they do not dare or are not able or are not able to dare. Then he admits to a guilt that he himself does not have to bear and asks for forgiveness that he himself does not need. Then he kneels there for Germany." Willy Brandt received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971. In 1974 he resigned from office after one of his close coworkers was exposed as an East German spy.
Helmut Schmidt (1918 – 2005) was elected 5th Chancellor of Germany by the German Bundestag in 1974. He won two elections and held the office until 1982. Schmidt was an economic expert from Hamburg and a stalwart of Atlanticism. Schmidt was only able to use his undisputed talents for a short time because the Social Democrats of the time did not share his social policy ideas and because he made political mistakes. Instead of immediately countering the Soviet Union's armament with nuclear-armed missiles, the West decided to negotiate with the Soviet Union before rearming.
The negotiations failed. The Social Democrats wanted to "renegotiate" and lost their coalition partner. Schmidt's political opponent, Helmut Kohl, came to power in 1982 in a vote of noconfidence against Schmidt. The Brandt and Schmidt governments achieved the looseneing of significant travel restrictions for East and West Germans in negotiations with the GDR. They never compromised on eventual unification of Germany within NATO. Brandt and Schmidt visited the GDR. Their East German counterpart Honecker visited the Federal Republic.
Photo: Jupp Darchinger
1963, from left Kennedy, Brandt, Adenauer. Photo: Will Mc Bride
Photo: Sven Simon / ullstein bild
Photo: Bundesarchiv
Slogan on the communist party’s leadership claim. Photo: picture alliance / Uwe Gerig
Slogan on friendship with the Soviet Union. Photo: Archive Neues Deutschland
In 1953, resistance to the political situation formed in East Germany. Around one million people took to the streets in the cities. The protests were largely peaceful until Russian tanks broke them up. Around fifty protesters died on the streets and as a result of subsequent death sentences. Five security guards lost their lives.
G¸nter Lehmann, My arrest on June 18th, 1953: "My place of work at the time was the inland port of Barby/Elbe. A colleague told me to go to the port's cultural room at 9 a.m. on June 18th , 1953. The management wanted to inform us there about the riots in the larger cities - and above all to calm us down. The opposite was achieved. All workers became rebellious, tore pictures and banners from the walls. The cultural room was then locked from the outside and the Soviet armed forces were called in. They took me and about 12 to 14 colleagues by truck to the Soviet command in Schˆnebeck. From there, we were all taken to the Magdeburg prison. Everyone was released there except for four men from Barby, including me. The four of us were sentenced after three weeks. I was sent to labor camp for eight years, which I had to spend in Bautzen. I was released on November 29th, 1961, six months early. I soon found a job at the Schˆnebeck Diesel engine factory as an electric cart driver. I did not suffer any difficulties or disadvantages as a result of my conviction." [41]
„Free elections“ Photo: NTV
Children burn socialist banners Photo: Magdeburg city
„Dismissal of the district administration“ Photo: BPB
Protest in Magdeburg. Photo: Magdeburg city
Failed liberation of prisoners in Magdeburg Sudenburg, Photo: jugendopposition.de
Magdeburg: State of emergency, ban on assembly, curfew, martial law, June 17th,.1953
State propaganda struggled to spin a narrative. "The attempt by provocateurs and fascist agents to disrupt order in Magdeburg has collapsed. ... Agents of foreign powers and their accomplices ... appeal to honest citizens ... to actively help to guide the people misled by the provocateurs onto the right path and to call on them to help expose the provocateurs."
Similar protests occurred in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968 (the "Prague Spring"). The Soviet occupiers quelled them with lethal force.
Volksstimme June 18th, 1953
East Berlin, June 17th, 1953, Photo: AP
East Berlin 1953
East Berlin, 1953, Photo: AP
Kati Witt, Gold Sarajevo 1984 Ice skater
Medal table Olympic summer games, Montreal 1976
Kornelia Ender, 4 x Gold Montreal 1976 Victim of state doping
Sewing shop.
Photo: Cottbus Chronik
Media coverage of an SED party conference, 1980s: Paid apparatchiks do their best to put on a show Photo: Archive Neues Deutschland
Photo: 40th anniversary of the GDR, October 7th, 1989, Neues Deutschland
Photo: Archive Neues Deutschland
Photo: Archive Neues Deutschland
The "National Front“ was a repression instrument, which allowed only pre-approved parties and candidates on the ballot. The courageous citizens of East Germany resorted to crossing off all names on the ballot. The regime responded by falsifying the vote tallies. Church affiliated opposition groups conducted exit polls among their members and laid the government scam bare. The last head of government of the GDR who came to power undemocratically, Hans Modrow, was convicted in the 1990s of incitement to electoral fraud and perjury.
Pre-approved candidates on the ballot and vote tally falsification, Archive Neues Deutschland
Personality cult and gerontocracy due to lack of political competition
Photos: Getty Images, DDR Museum, Archive Neues Deutschland
National Front Party congress of the Unified Socialist Party, SED
German Tragedy. Stagnation of
The period from 1948 to 1970 is known as the economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) due to (i) the achieved growth rates and (ii) full employment. In West Germany (iii) the D-Mark was introduced. It quickly became a stable national and international means of payment. West Germany became a net exporter of goods and was able to (iv) cover its import needs at any time.
(i) to (iv) describe the "magic square" of "Super Minister for Economics and Finance", Karl Schiller. Photo: 2nd Chancellor of Germany, Ludwig Erhard, †1977.
The war damage was repaired. The demands of the victims of the 2nd World War and of the neighboring countries were met and contractually settled in negotiations.
After the invasion of South Korea by Soviet-supported North Korea, in 1955 West Germany built up strong armed forces, the Bundeswehr.
German politics reacted to the citizens' demands for new freedoms. Birth control was permitted, discrimination against minorities was banned, and the media was partially privatized.
Opponents of the liberal constitution were treated with velvet gloves as long as they did not resort to violence. The liberal democratic order was ultimately supported by the vast majority of the population in both West and East Germany.
Photo: bundeskanzler.de
Photo: ndr.de
Photo: kaffeestadtbremen.de
Leadership of the foundation, 1945 - 1990
In February 1945, an air raid on the Salzwedel train station caused severe damage and claimed 300 lives. Otherwise, there was no direct destruction in Salzwedel during the 2nd World War.
The last pre-war entry in the foundation’s minutes covers Family Conference XV on July 21st , 1934. For the period from 1940 to 1950, the 17th Patron Paul Gerhardt (1986 - 1992) lists Walter Sckerl from Weimar near Kassel as the 15th Patron [14]. Sckerl was probably the oldest living foundation member Gerhardt could find in that period. For the year 1953, Gerhardt listed the Salzwedel dentist Gustav Schramm as the 16th Patron. Schramm had already appeared as an auditor at Family Conferences XI, XIII and XIV (1919, 1927 and 1933). Again, he was probably the oldest living foundation member of that period. Until 1959, Gerhardt listed a Christoph Meyer as a Testamentary [14]. Only in 1995 a new foundation statute was approved, which did not award the post of Patron automatically to the oldest living member. Gerhardt acted with these Patron designations out of an abundance of care, but these old men never were active Patrons.
After the end of the 2nd World War (May 8th, 1945), the following entry can be found in the foundation minutes book II on page 76: “After December 1944, the last meeting, big events have occured. The war has ended with our defeat. The Third Reich has collapsed.
On April 14th, 1945, Salzwedel was occupied by American troops. A senseless defensive battle was avoided, so that the city was not destroyed. After a temporary occupation by the English, the Altmark became part of Russian territory at the beginning of July 1945. The foundation has not suffered any losses to date. However, its bank account is blocked. One must expect to lose at least part of the assets. The same is true of the securities. It is not possible to say at the moment whether the foundation's continued existence is assured, since Germany does not yet have the power to decide for herself, but rather the military administrations of the occupying powers do this." [14]. Testamentary Ludwig Segert was sent to a Russian prisoner of war camp in Germany after being denounced as an officer in the Wehrmacht. He survived despite serious illness and resumed his work as Testamentary in 1948.
Paul Gerhardt, *1920 † 2001, active from 1986 to 2001, as 17th and 19th Patron and thereafter as Honorary Patron
Aerial attack on Salzwedel train station, February 1945. Photo: Volksstimme.de
In the meeting of the Patron with his Testamentaries on May 19th, 1954, it was recorded: "The council of the Salzwedel district, State Property Department, through the head of this department, Mr. Seehausen (explainer 2024: Seehausen was the first testamentary of the foundation from 1934), verbally requested that Patron and Testamentaries pass a resolution to dissolve the foundation, as it is alleged that it can no longer fulfill its purpose (§ 87 BGB). The Patron does not consider itself in a position to comply with this request without a written, legally justified request. Mr. Seehausen is instructed to inform the council of the district, State Property Department, of this “
At the next meeting of the Patron with his Testamentaries on July 7th, 1954, it was recorded: "In a letter dated June 2nd, 1954, the council of the Salzwedel district, State Property Department, requests the dissolution of the foundation by a corresponding resolution of the Patron and the Testamentaries, as the foundation is allegedly no longer able to fulfill its intended purpose (§§ 87, 88 BGB). The Patron has examined the provisions of the foundation charter of 1607, the statute and its supplements in detail and found that far less important decisions can only be made by a regular Family Conference. The Patron and the Testamentaries therefore do not see themselves in a position to comply with the request of the Salzwedel district council and to make a decision to dissolve the foundation. There is currently no possibility of convening a panGerman Family Conference.“
"This initially prevented the dissolution of the foundation. The composition of the foundation leadership changed relatively often in the following period and proper management was no longer guaranteed," Gerhardt wrote in 1997.
In the foundation minutes from 1955 to 1963, the last entry from June 23rd, 1963 reads: "Since Mr. Gerhard Schrˆder had to take over management without a proper handover from his now deceased predecessor, Mr. Christoph Meyer, he cannot guarantee the completeness of the books before he took over management. An attempt should therefore be made to have his management checked by an official auditing body so that he can be exonerated. Exoneration by the bodies of the foundation can no longer take place and would probably be impractical in the present case. The council of the city of Salzwedel, as the responsible local state body, should be informed that the leadership of the foundation has been dissolved and that the foundation’s management is not operational at the moment. Hence, the foundation cannot be dissolved by the current governing
bodies of the foundation, as this requires the convening and corresponding resolution of a Family Conference.“
“The foundation's files were handed over to the Salzwedel city archives. The old archives continued to be stored in St. Catherine's Church. What then happened between the district council as the superior body and the foundation could only be reconstructed on the basis of the documents returned after the reunification of Germany (1991)," Gerhardt wrote in 1997.
Confiscation of property, taxation of wealth, seizure of bank accounts, 1950s
The 17th Patron Paul Gerhardt wrote to the genealogists of Kulturbund Magdeburg (Magdeburg Cultural Association): “Having been born in 1920, I received a school fee scholarship from the foundation in the 1930s. My mother had a great interest in family history matters and fostered the same interest in me early on, especially since her father, the goldsmith Franz Schernikau, was a member of the foundation’s audit committee in Salzwedel until his death in 1923. Her brother-in-law Ludwig Segert was one of the last Testamentaries until 1963. My interest in the foundation and its continued existence came from this proximity to the Patron’s work. When I asked my uncle Ludwig Segert about the foundation during his lifetime, I was told that “where there is nothing left, there is nothing left to fetch”. That closed the topic for me for the time being. Because of my invalidity in 1976, I had time to actually do family research. In 1985 I met the Magdeburg genealogist Susanne Paasch, who gave me the address of a family member in West Germany, Hans-Joachim Krost. She also drew my attention to the foundation's files stored in St. Catherine's Church in Salzwedel. Through Hans-Joachim Krost I got in touch with the lawyer and family member Dr. Konrad Bluhm, who lived in West Germany and was able to provide me with copies of the foundation’s erstwhile assets. Together we discussed what to do to find out from the authorities whether the foundation still existed. I contacted the Salzwedel State Notary's Office under the pretext of wanting to have my children entered in the genealogical tables. After a while I received a telephone call from the Magdeburg District Council saying that the foundation "still existed". There was no Patron and no trusteeship either, but the family could take over the administration itself again. In a personal discussion with the Magdeburg District Council’s Finance Department, I then proposed names for a new Patron and new Testamentaries, which were later confirmed. With this confirmation, I had a tool in hand with which I could seek further information. First, I painstakingly determined the foundation's financial situation and confirmed it again with new land register extracts."
From the very beginning, East Germany was in a tougher position to overcome the consequences of the war than West Germany. The population shrank from 18.4 million people in 1946 to 16 million in 1990, while West Germany's population rose from 51 to 62 million. While the Russians were still dismantling machines in East Germany, the Marshall Plan was taking effect in West Germany. Unlike citizens of other Eastern European countries, East Germans who wanted to leave the country could always find asylum and work in West Germany. The state police, secret service and defense operations along the Iron Curtain consumed large sums of money and tied up hundreds of thousands of workers. East Germany imported many of the consumer goods shown on Western television. The foreign trade balance was structurally negative.
1949 – 1990: Modernization of East Germany
The land register excerpts of the GDR of 1988 show foundation property ownership of 50.583 hectares. Documents for Salzwedel (1973) Dambeck (1987) Wanzleben (1987) and Magdeburg (1988) are displayed here
February 2nd, 1973
February 9th, 1987
{ VI.34 } War and Peace in the Altmark
March 24th, 1977
November 24th, 1988
November 24th, 1988
East German land register entries
Patron Gerhardt wrote in 1996/1997[14]: “There were still lands in and around Salzwedel, including Dambeck, in Barleben, in Wanzleben and Magdeburg. unabridged version see [14]
All lands for agricultural purposes were used by state-owned entities and agricultural production cooperatives (LPG) free of charge. These companies paid property and wealth tax, so that the foundation was exempt from this, but income only stemmed from the foundation’s small plot garden colonies in Magdeburg. The foundation’s account had been seized by the tax authorities for decades.
After I had “made peace” with the tax authorities and concluded so-called usage contracts with the agricultural companies in order to secure our rights to the land not only through the land register, I tried to get compensation for the lands expropriated in Magdeburg. The authorities were obviously keen to restore a certain order to this foundation, which had been left over almost by mistake. In the finance department in Magdeburg, I had let it be known that our family foundation was perhaps the only private foundation left in the GDR. It could therefore serve as a "model foundation" for inquiries from the West about the whereabouts of foundations in the East.
I was proud that I had managed to get paid for the expropriated land in Salzwedel and Magdeburg. It was about 32,000 marks. The land compensation was 22,000 marks or 0.50 marks per square meter. The remaining 10 000 marks were interest minus taxes. This gave the foundation a financial base again; modest, but workable. As it turned out after the reunification of Germany, both the sloppiness of the GDR authorities and the absence of a Patron with Testamentaries caused serious damage to the foundation. ...
In 1974, the foundation was to accept an inheritance from the estate of Oberstudiendirektor (teacher) Dr. Gottfried Wolterstorff from Erfurt. By this time, there had been no Patron for a long time. The Magdeburg District Council, Finance Department (the superior body according to the German Civil Code still in force at the time) appointed the Salzwedel District Council as administrator of the foundation. The first and only official act of this administrative body was to renounce this inheritance, which was then accepted by three substitute heirs from West Germany and one from the GDR. It was certainly a worthwhile inheritance, otherwise the three West German heirs would have renounced it. The testator (G. Wolterstorff) estimated the value of his estate at 300,000 marks."
– 1990: Modernization of East Germany
Patron Gerhardt continues in [14]: “At this point at the latest, the Salzwedel District Council should have taken stock of the foundation’s assets. Since this did not happen, it is not surprising that the foundation’s account was constantly being seized, because the reduced unit values of the expropriated lands in Magdeburg, which were the basis for taxation, had not been taken into account when calculating the wealth tax.
The wealth tax rate, 2% per year, was relatively high. Reckoning 2% of the unit value of the expropriated lands of 80,000 marks, gives 1,600 marks per year that were collected too much and seized. According to my calculations, the foundation suffered a loss of 40,000 marks over a period of 23 years. Strangely, the reason given for the tax seizures was “general taxes”, although there were wealth, corporate and property taxes, each of which was collected separately by the authorities. This characterizes the legal uncertainty in the former GDR.
As it became clear after the unification of the two German states when the expropriation files were released and examined, the expropriation in Magdeburg went as follows: Based on a "Joint instruction from the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Finance dated October 11th, 1961," the foundation's real estate in Magdeburg was transferred to so-called public property. This also explains why, when I tried to "re-establish" the estate, the foundation's land register in Magdeburg was no longer available, because it had been closed. A memo from the State Property Department in Magdeburg also shows that our foundation's real estate in Magdeburg had been "erroneously" transferred to public property. It also states that this transfer to "public property" was unlawful (!). In order to get out of this shameful affair for the GDR, the foundation was paid compensation for the "claim" of the two plots of land in Magdeburg. From today's perspective, my application may have been a mistake, because the GDR's reconstruction law was used to determine the basis for compensation. The property law that has since been passed stipulates that there will be no further compensation if the prices paid for expropriation compensation were no lower than those for comparable properties owned by other GDR citizens. … "
1949 – 1990: Youth and youth organizations Photos: Chronik-der-Mauer.de, Bundesstelle f¸r Politische Bildung BPB, DDR Museum
In order to gain access to the foundation's public records, the Gardelegen translator and foundation member Paul Gerhardt (1920 - 2001) appointed himself the 17th Patron in 1986. He was joined by Erika Kibelksties from Salzwedel, the mother of the 21st Patron Christiane Peters, and by Ingeborg Bremer from Kakerbeck. Gerhardt had them confirmed as members of the leadership body (German: “Patronat”) of the Gercken Foundation by the Magdeburg District Council in a letter dated May 20th, 1986.
In 1996/1997, Patron Gerhardt concluded: "A great deal of injustice was committed during 40 years of communism. The reasons for this were partly the state's efforts to liquidate relics of capitalism, which our foundation was considered to be, or to restrict or make their work impossible, which could not have been done with a functioning leadership body of the foundation. On the other hand, no foundation member would have been willing to accept the Patron’s job because everyone had to fear for their career or their livelihood. The fact that the East German secret service ("Stasi") had a comparatively thin file (158 pages) assembled for the writer of these lines may illustrate how bad it was. May the foundation continue to exist even in the face of future difficulties and may there always be family members who are not indifferent to the fate of the family foundation that was initiated almost four centuries ago. ”
From left: Kibelksties, Krost, Ehepaar Gerhardt May 30th, 1991
Between 1949 and 1989, businesses with more than 100 hectares of land were expropriated by law. Since the foundation only had verifiable ownership of 55 hectares at that time, it escaped expropriation.
After East Germany was integrated into the legal framework of the Federal Republic of Germany, i.e. after 1990, land lease income was used to a considerable extent to increase the land holdings. At the same time, all of the family members' academic scholarship applications were granted.
Area in hectares
Fl‰che in ha 1987/88 200020062021 Grund-GPPGPPv7 buch
John Maynard Keynes 1883–1946 Theory of employment, interest and money
L Erhard 1897 – 1977, „Prosperity for All“
Joseph Schumpeter 1883 – 1950 „Capitalism at its core is creative destruction.“
John Paul II, 1920 -2005
“I plead with you - never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.”
Arthur Laffer, *1940 Increase tax income by lowering tax rates
Photo: laffercenter.org
people
„
and
Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
„There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.” Photo links: reaganlibrary.gov
understand
– 2022 „Life punishes those who come too late.” „ It will be difficult, even painful, but democracy will prevail in Russia. There will be no dictatorship. Even if authoritarian relapses are possible.”
Leo Strauss 1899 - 1973 „No bloody or unbloody change of society can eradicate the evil in man: as long as there will be men, there will be malice, envy and hatred, and hence there cannot be a society which does not have to employ coercive restraint.“
Photo: cc New York Times
Martin Luther King 1929 – 1968 „I have a dream“ Non-violence
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906 – 1945 Conscience
trust in God, „Protected wonderfully by good powers …“
Jean Paul Sartre, 1905 – 1980 Photo: israel.gov „Hell is Other People”. “Condemned to freedom”
Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) was a trade unionist and party secretary in Ukraine when he was young. After the 2nd World War he was responsible for the reconstruction of Ukraine and then made a career in the Moscow party apparatus. After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Khrushchev was appointed General Secretary of the CPSU on September 7th, 1953. In February 1954 the Soviet leadership transferred the Crimean peninsula from the Russian to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. The aim was to simplify the administration of the electrification and of the water supply of Crimea via the land bridge to Ukraine. Khrushchev's work in Ukraine may have played a role, as did ideological overtones that in the Soviet Union the national economy was prioritized over interests of individual Soviet republics. On February 25th, 1956, in a secret speech to the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev distanced himself from Stalin's violent excesses. Khrushchev was initially popular in the USSR. Together with the United States of America he had brought Great Britain, France and Israel before the UN. Israel had attacked Egypt on October 29th, 1956, and Great Britain and France on October 31st, 1956, with the aim of conquering the Suez Canal. The aggressors had to withdraw in shame by March 1957 and recognize Egypt's sovereignty over the canal. British Prime Minister Eden resigned. On November 4th, 1956, the Soviets marched into Hungary. On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into space. On May 1st, 1960, the Soviet Union was able to shoot down an American U2 over Soviet territory and refuted America’s subsequent denials by presenting the captured pilot Gary Powers. On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin undertook mankind's first manned space flight. The Cuban Missile Crisis (October 14th – 28th , 1962) nevertheless portended the end of Khrushchev's term in office. He had tried to set up nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba aimed at the USA. Khrushchev had to abandon the plan after the USA imposed a naval blockade of Cuba. In return, the USA discreetly dismantled missiles aimed at Russia in Italy and Turkey until April 24th, 1963. On October 14th, 1964, Khrushchev was unexpectedly deposed by the Politburo. Khrushchev was seen by the Moscow elite as being too clumsy in his language, appearance and tactics. The open de-Stalinization had also cost him supporters such as the former Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, who lived in Moscow until 1986.
Leonid Brezhnev (*1906) then served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982. Yuri Andropov (*1914) was named his successor. He had headed the KGB since 1967. Andropov died of diabetes and kidney failure in 1984 after only two years in office. His successor, Konstantin Chernenko (*1911), was only in office for 13 months and died in 1985 of chronic hepatitis and of liver, kidney and lung failure.
Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy, June 3rd, 1961
Leonid Brezhnev 1906-1982
On March 10th, 1985, the Central Committee of the CPSU elected 54-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the CPSU. Gorbachev announced transparency (glasnost) and a comprehensive restructuring (perestroika) of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev faced challenges. His country had been stagnating demographically and economically for over a decade [42]. His army was overstretched in Eastern Europe. The exact level of the defense budget at the end of the 1980s is still disputed today. Values between 9.4 and 20% of the Soviet gross domestic product have been published [43].
Since the Soviet Union had no convertible currency, it was hardly involved in trade with emerging Asia. In the Soviet Union, yarn was still spun, fabrics were woven, and clothes were sewn. Gas and oil was exported but finished goods and weapons were basically only marketable in the Eastern Bloc or in Third World countries such as India, Angola, Cambodia, North Korea, Vietnam, Egypt, Syria, etc.
On June 9th and 10th, 1982, one of the largest air battles in world history took place over Lebanon and Syria. The Israelis, coordinated by a flying E2C Hawkeye control center, attacked 30 Syrian, Soviet-built air defense batteries with 96 F4, F15 and F16 aircraft and a number of drones. They destroyed twenty-nine of the thirty batteries. On both days, the Israelis registered the launch of 100 Syrian jets of Soviet design, of which they shot down between 64 and 86. The Israeli losses amounted to one drone [44]. The Soviet military leadership was shocked.
A German amateur pilot, Matthias Rust, managed to land a plane on Red Square in May 1987, revealing to the world the desolate state of Soviet aerial reconnaissance. The Soviets were also unable to project power on the high seas. While the Americans operated at least 12 aircraft carrier groups, the Soviets never learned to truly master the technology [45]. Soviet aircraft carriers were decommissioned in the 1990s. By 2024, Russia had only one obsolete, damaged wreck in dock.
Mainframe and personal computers spread throughout western companies and armed forces. In West Germany, Deutsche Telekom was the first service provider in the world to offer digital ISDN connections to companies and households in 1989. The US Department of Defense Research Agency ARPA had been operating a predecessor version of the Internet from 1969. In France, the foundations for fast data packet traffic were laid, which provided the basis for the Internet protocol TCP/IP [46]. At the European laboratory CERN, the Englishman Sir Tim Berners Lee invented the Internet in 1989. In the Soviet Union, even copy machines were monitored by the state. Without trade with Asia, Russia was largely cut off from access to electronic data terminals.
Mikhail Gorbachev used the slogan "Our common home, Europe" to try to reconnect. Soviet politicians feared being left behind.
Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 - 2022
On April 26th, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. The reactor's design had fundamental weaknesses. (i) Vapor bubble formation in the cooling water increased the reactor's output. (ii) To increase the reactor's output when the moderator rods were completely pulled out, the latter were extended with graphite lances. (iii) During low-power operation, neutron-absorbing xenon-135 formed in the primary cooling circuit. Western designs of the same year were deliberately designed differently.
The operators wanted to carry out a test on April 24th, 1986. The test was intended to show that if the supply of fresh cooling water was interrupted and the power supply to the power plant failed, the rotational inertia of the turbines bore enough energy to operate emergency electric pumps in the primary cooling water circuit until the power plant's emergency Diesel generators started up.
The reactor's output was reduced for the experiment. Due to the failure of another power plant, the grid authority delayed the experiment by a good 9 hours. During the hours-long, reduced power state, the primary cooling water was poisoned with xenon-135, which almost brought the chain reaction to a standstill. Unaware of this effect, the operators broke the rules and removed almost all of the 211 moderator rods from the reactor. Information was lost during two shift handovers. The circulating cooling water, which was shut off from the external supply, became hot, which encouraged the formation of bubbles. The reactor was in a critical condition. The test was successful during the night shift: the Diesel generators started without external electrical supply. The primary cooling water circulation ran without interruption. To shut the experiment down, the operators wanted to reinsert the moderator rods in the reactor core. This displaced the xenon-135 saturated, chain reaction inhibiting water at the core’s bottom, with graphite that tremendously increased the chain reaction. The reactor output increased by a factor of 150 to
30 000 MW, ten times the rated reactor power In the lower part of the reactor, the power may have increased to 100 times the rated power. The fuel rods bent and broke.
The moderator rod drive jammed. Steam explosions occurred, the reactor shell burst, the core melted and a reactor fire broke out that could not be extinguished until May 4th, 1986.
The Chernobyl reactor accident shook the Soviet Union's confidence to the core. It could have been easily prevented by carefully studying earlier reports on power excursions of this type of reactor. Russia still operates Chernobyl-type reactors today, but has taken measures, accompanied by the German J¸lich Nuclear Research Center, to prevent a repeat of the Chernobyl mechanism.
Damaged power plant. Photo: IAEA, fall of 1986
The German Tragedy. Stagnation of the Foundation. 1892
The fall of the Iron Curtain
In Eastern Europe, Mikhail Gorbachev's reform signals were heard loudly and clearly in 1989. Poland led the process. Round table talks in Poland were concluded on April 5th, 1989.
On June 4th, 1989, the first semi-free elections in the Eastern Bloc were held: 35% of the seats in the Sejm, i.e. 161 out of 460, were freely electable. All seats went to the Solidarity Citizens' Committee in a free vote. The remaining 65% were reserved for the ruling communist PUWP. Tadeusz Mazowiecki formed his cabinet on August 24th, 1989.
Mass demonstrations took place in Leipzig from September 4th, 1989. In autumn, these spread to Dresden, Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Magdeburg, Plauen, Arnstadt, Rostock, Potsdam and Schwerin. Protesters shouted "We are the people." They demanded an end to SED rule, freedom of travel and the abolition of the Ministry for State Security.
On September 11th, 1989, Hungary opened its western border to citizens of the GDR. 14,000 East Germans crossed the border that day and traveled on to the Federal Republic (West Germany). By the time the Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, 1989, this number had risen to around 50,000. The opening of the Hungarian border accelerated the collapse of the East German state and thus contributed to the process of reunification.
„May I greet you on behalf of the West German government (Cheers) Please allow me to greet the folks from Halle especially (Genscher was born in Halle before WWII) …, (Cheers) I have come to you - (Audience: „Silence !“ „Louder!“) – I have come to you to tell you today that your departure to West Germany " (Crowd erupts in cheers)
September 30th, 1989, speech by Hans Dietrich Genscher (1927-2016) on the balcony of the German embassy in Prague
H.D. Genscher, foreign minister of West Germany
On October 7th, 1989, the 40th anniversary of the GDR was scheduled to be celebrated in East Berlin. By then, more than 1,000 demonstrators had already been arrested. On the day of the anniversary, some Western journalists were refused entry. There were counter-demonstrations and prayers for peace that made critical reference to the 40th anniversary. The GDR leadership had invited a large number of state guests, including Mikhail Gorbachev. Although the parade participants had been selected in advance, many shouted "Gorbi, Gorbi" or "Gorbi, help" at him. Mikhail Gorbachev had made it clear to the East German rulers that the Soviet armed forces would not intervene against the demonstrations.
October 26th, 1989, Neues Forum (New Forum) at the entrance of St. Catherine‘s Church in Salzwedel
Photo: J. F. Danneil Museum, Salzwedel
November 4th, 1989, St. Catherine‘s Church in Salzwedel in the back. Photo: J. F. Danneil Museum, Salzwedel
November 4th, 1989, Magdeburg
40-year anniversary, October 7th, 1989, Gorbachev, Honecker. Photo: Archive Neues Deutschland
September 10th,1989
The German Tragedy. Stagnation of the Foundation. 1892
The opening of the Wall was announced by the Secretary for Information of the Central Committee of the Communist Party,
immediately,
November 9th, 1989, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Photo:
dpa
Trabant on West German road, November 9th, 1989. Photo: Imago / REPORTERS
dpa Telegram, November 9th, 1989 Photo: dpa
G¸nter Schabowski (1929-2015), at a press conference on November 9th, 1989: “As far as I know, this will take effect
without delay.” Photo: Bundesarchiv
G¸nter Schabowski
Science and technology, 1892 -1990
In 1912, Henrietta Leavitt (1868-1921) discovered the relationship between luminous intensity and fluctuation period in Cepheid variables, a type of star. Before her, there was a star soup. After her, there was order.
In 1905, at the age of 26, Albert Einstein wrote four essays, each of which was worthy of a Nobel Prize. His ideas on the photoelectric effect, the Brownian motion of molecules, the finiteness of the speed of light (special relativity) and the significance of the energy-mass equivalence E = mc2 were groundbreaking. In 1915, Einstein gave a new explanation of gravity. He thus reconciled theory and experiment. Fundamental features of the interaction between energy and gravity are still not understood today.
Fritz Haber 1868 – 1934
Haber-Bosch process for the synthesis of fertilizer 1908
Takayanagi 1899 – 1990
Television. He was the first to use a cathode ray tube as an imager, 1926
Alexander Fleming 1881 – 1955
Noticed coincidentally, that penicillin impedes growth of Staphylokokkus, 1928
Jean Perrin (1870 - 1942) showed in Paris in 1926 that 32 grams of oxygen consist of 6.02214076 1023 molecules. Perrin called it Avogadro's number. Avogadro had discovered the molecular nature of all gases in 1811. Perrin thus confirmed Dalton's theory of the atomic structure of matter (1808) and Einstein's work from 1905. Each oxygen molecule contains 16 protons and 16 neutrons; 32g O2 = 1mol = 22.71095464 liters at 0 oC and 100 kPa = 1 bar.
Andrei Sakharov (1921 - 1989) revolutionized experimental plasma physics by using the conductivity of plasmas in 1954 to hold them better together. The "tokamak" remained unknown in the West for 11 years. It was not until Sakharov's colleagues in 1968 produced plasmas that exceeded all Western ones by an order of magnitude that an English team came to Russia. Shortly afterwards, Western experiments were switched to the "tokamak“ principle. Sakharov was involved in the construction of the Soviet hydrogen bomb (1955). He was a supporter of Israel and a human rights activist, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. He was treated as a dissident in the Soviet Union and exiled to Gorky, now Nizhny Novgorod, in 1980. Mikhail Gorbachev rehabilitated him.
James Watson Francis Crick *1928 1916 – 2004 DNA 1953 Photo: history.com
Korolew 1906 – 1966 Sputnik 1957
Moon landing 1969 Photo: NASA, Neil Armstrong
Don Estridge (1937- 1985) responsible for the development of the IBM PC 5150, which was marketed from August 12th, 1981
VLSI stands for very large scale integration of transistors on silicon chips. Gordon Moore is a pioneer of Fairchild Semiconductor. He predicted in 1965 that the number of transistors on a chip would double every year for the next ten years. In 1975 he prolonged his forecast, doubling every two years. Moore‘s law(s) held until at least 2019, i.e. about 54 years. An example: 1971, Intel-4004 processor, 2000 transistors, 2019 e g AMD Epyc Rome 40 bln transistors. In 48 years multiplication by 20m. 20m = ca. 224 .
Gordon Moore * 1929 – 2023, VLSI 1965 until today Photo: Fortune Magazine
Theodore Maiman 1927 – 2007, Laser 1960. Photo: LA Reader
Dmitri Blochinzew 1907-1979 1st Nuclear power plant 1954
John Presper Eckert 1919-1995, Tube computer Eniac 1946
Yuri Gagarin, 1st human in space, 1961
Andrei Sacharow (1921 - 1989) Nuclear & plasma physics
VII From 1990
Freedom, Property and Emancipation
Resurrection of the Foundation
The22nd PatronECKARTREIHLEN andtheTestamentaries
Contemporary history. The regimes that emerged after the 2nd World War are being reformed worldwide. Legal systems are once again encouraging property, profit and individual freedoms. The globalization of the world economy is leading several billion people out of poverty. The world's birth rate is falling to replacement level. The vast majority of households are using the Internet. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and TikTok are part of the family vocabulary. The Covid-19 epidemic propels home office and web conferences to acceptability worldwide. English is the lingua franca. The world’s addiction to fossil fuels changes the composition of the Earth's atmosphere. The sustainability transformation is becoming a powerful, global storyline.
Family history. An updated statute guides the work of the foundation. The foundation collects land lease fees. It pays scholarships and taxes. Land holdings and income grow steadily. Family Conferences are held every three years in Salzwedel. The 3rd supplement to the family history is published in 1996. Christiane Peters, the 21st Patron, (2013-2022) is the first woman to hold this office. All foundation data is stored in the cloud. The website is legible with a smart phone, a tablet or a laptop. Its content is colorful and presented in German and English. The first illustrated history of the Gercken Foundation is published under the title "War and Peace in the Altmark"
German Unification Treaty, August 31st, 1990
On August 31st, 1990, the German Unification Treaty was signed between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It provided for the dissolution of the GDR, its accession to the FRG and for German unity. It stipulated that Berlin would be the unified capital and that the FRG would take over the GDR's assets and the liability for its debts. The treaty entered into force on October 3rd, 1990.
September 23rd,
In the foreground Wolfgang Sch‰uble (West German chief negotiator), Lothar de Maiziere (first democratically elected prime minister of East Germany) and G¸nther Krause (East German chief negotiator). Exchange of the German Unification Treaty, August 31st, 1990. Photo: picture-alliance, IMAGNO
1990, German Unification Treaty with all signatures. Photo: picture-alliance, AP
The Two-Plus-Four-Treaty, September 12th, 1990
The Two-Plus-Four-Treaty marks the formal end of the 2nd World War. It was signed in Moscow on September 12th, 1990, and came into force on March 15th, 1991. It paved the way for the unification of Germany as a member of NATO: Full sovereignty. Renunciation of ABC weapons. Armed forces personnel limited to 370 000 staff. The treaty is considered a masterpiece of diplomacy because it overcame disagreements that had been entrenched for decades. Trenches there were aplenty. Poland wanted to negotiate, as did Italy and the Netherlands. Mrs. Thatcher feared a Fourth Reich. Soviet secret service agents feared NATO. Finally, it was the personalities of the era and the historically correct insight that NATO is capable of reaction but not aggression. It limits as much as it enables. An Englishman summed it up to the 22nd Patron with a pinch of humor : "NATO? Oh, it is there to keep the American army in and the German army out of Europe".
The Two-Plus-Four-Treaty has a rather unknown formal name, yet it is not called a "peace treaty". The reasons are that not all belligerents were invited and that reparation claims were left out. By 1990, time had moved on. Reparation claims had been settled contractually decades earlier. In the Two-Plus-Four-Treaty, Germany accepted the Oder Neisse line as the border to Poland. Germany, Austria and Italy concurred on the status of South Tyrol as a part of Italy.
Helmut Kohl 1930 – 2017 Chancellor 1982-98
Photo: Reuters
Mikhail Gorbachev, 1931 – 2022 General secretary of CPSU 1985 -1991 Photo: 14celebs.com, Ria Novosti
Francois Mitterand 1916 – 1996, French Pres. 1981 – 1995 Photo: Comet Photo AG
Margret Thatcher 1925 – 2013,UK PM-1979-1990
George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018, US Pres. 1988 - 1992
Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004, US Pres. 1980 - 1988
Lothar de Maiziere *1940, MP of GDR April – October 1990
Photo: Th. Wattenberg / dpa
John Major *1943, UK PM 1990 – 1997
Dumas, Shevardnadze Hurd, Baker
The Two
The Four
The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, July 1st, 1991
On February 25th, 1991, the seven remaining signatories of the Warsaw Pact decided to dissolve their pact. All signatories of the Warsaw Pact except the Soviet Union sought and found protection under the umbrella of NATO by 2004. Of the fifteen states of the Soviet Union, three - namely the Baltic states - joined NATO in 2004. The refusal of Russia after 2007 to build a fearless, enlightened democracy and the latent reflex to use violence against her neighbors in the mistaken belief that this will strengthen Russia’s internal cohesion are forcing other former Soviet republics to try to obtain security guarantees from NATO or NATO members.
16 members of NATO 1990
7 members of the Warsaw pact 1990
10 neutral 1990
Graphics: Gercken foundation
Special meeting of the Warsaw Pact's Advisory Political Committee February 25th, 1991 in Budapest. Photo: picture-alliance/ dpa
On August 19th, 1991, officials of the USSR attempted to seize power before a new union treaty negotiated by Mikhail Gorbachev's team came into force on August 20th, 1991. This treaty was intended to give the member republics more rights and enable private enterprise to thrive. Among the coup leaders were the Vice President of the USSR, the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, the Minister of Defense, the Deputy Minister of Defense, the Chairman of the KGB, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior, the Chairman of the Farmers' Union and the Head of the Security Services. The coup failed because the population especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg followed the call of the President of the Russian republic, Boris Yeltsin to take to the streets. The armed forces refused to obey the coup leaders. The latter did not know who they should have ordered to be shot. The coup achieved the opposite of its leaders’ intent.
Gorbachev's plan for a new union of stronger states was dashed. When the coup faltered, Yeltsin emerged as the preeminent leader. Yeltsin believed that the Russian republic was large and complex enough for all Russian vital concerns. Many Russians were tired of having to take on responsibility for the less developed republics while being insulted as being oppressors.
The end of the Soviet Union began in earnest with Lithuania's declaration of independence on March 11th, 1990. Lithuania was only one of 15 union republics at the time. On December 8th , 1991, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed the Belovezh Agreement, according to which "the USSR as a subject of international law and as a geopolitical reality..." had ended its existence. The founding treaty of the USSR from 1922 was repealed. Instead, a Commonwealth of Independent States was founded. The other republics of the USSR except the Baltic states and Georgia confirmed this in Alma Ata on December 21st, 1991. After Gorbachev's resignation on December 25th, 1991, the USSR ceased to exist on December 26th, 1991.
Leonid Kravchuk 2nd from left., Stanislav Shushkevich 3rd from left, Boris Yeltsin, 2nd from right; Viskuly House, Ria Novosti
Photo: TASS, Valery Khristoforov, Alexander Chumichev
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, December 8th, 1991
European Union and the Euro, 1957 - 1999
Jean Monnet 1888 – 1979 Honorary citizen of Europe
Photo: B. Sapran
R. Schumann 1886 – 1963 French foreign minister
Konrad Adenauer 1876 - 1967 1st Chancellor of FRG 1949 – 1963
Walter Peter Hallstein (1901-1982) ab 1957 der 1st President of the Commission of the EEC
Antonio Segni (1891 – 1972) Prime minister and President of Italy
Treaty of Rome 1957, European Economic Community EEC: Free movement of persons, goods, services and capital. Photos: Bundesarchiv, EU, EPP, cc Niccolo Caranti, EPP, EPP
Jacques Delors 1925 – 2023
1st Pres. EU Commission 1985 - 1995
Jacques Santer *1937 2nd Pres. EU Commission 1995 - 1999
Romano Prodi *1939
3rd Pres. EU Commission 1999 -2004
M. Barroso *1956
4th. Pres.EU Commission 2004 -2014
J.C. Juncker *1954
5th Pres. EU Commission 2014 -2019
Ursula von der Leyen *1958
6th President of the EU Commission, from 2019 Photos: mladina.si, 1982 und EU
Treaty of Maastricht, 1992, European Community; from 2007 European Union
Wim Duisenberg 1935 - 2005
1st President 1998-2003
Jean-Claude Trichet *1942 2nd President 2003-2011 Photo: World Econ.Forum
Mario Draghi *1947
3rd President of ECB 2011 – 2019
Photos: urbanpost.it, cc Fattili
Christine Lagarde *1956
4th President from 2019
Photos: 24celebs.com, EU
European Central Bank (ECB), introduction of the Euro from January 1st, 1999
In 1951 the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community was signed by Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, These six countries thus formed a duty-free customs union for coal and steel.
In 1957 the Treaty of Rome was signed. The signatories of the European Coal and Steel Community founded the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom.
In 1992, the Treaty of Maastricht was signed. The EEC was renamed the European Community (EC) and had 12 members.
In 2007 the Treaty of Lisbon was signed, which defines today's European Union as the legal successor to the EC. In 2007 it was composed of 28 members.
In 2016 the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU (“Brexit”). In 2020 the EU and the United Kingdom arranged their future cooperation in the EU UK TCA (Trade and CooperationAgreement). The EU today is composed of 27 states.
Norway is a very rich, sparsely populated country that is closely aligned with the USA. Norway is a stronger partner for Brussels than some EU members.
Brexit was a farce of false promises. The UK and the EU are cooperating well under the EU UK TCA.
Switzerland believes it benefits from what it calls a neutrality policy.
Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Ukraine and Moldova are candidates for accession and in negotiations with the EU.
Kosovo is de jure a part of Serbia and cannot acquire candidate status. Kosovo will likely be admitted to the EU one day together with Serbia.
Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are candidates for accession. Negotiations have not yet begun.
Accession negotiations with Turkiye are currently suspended. Turkiye is a vital partner of the EU. There are good reasons for EU membership, but many EU citizens are worried about giving freedom of access into Europe to as many as 85 million people, many of whom are not of European origin. The EU and Turkiye are not ready yet.
Graphics: Gercken foundation
Belarus
Russia
World Europe Currency Defense
Leadership of the foundation, from 1990
On May 30th, 1991, the first foundation leadership meeting after German reunification was held in Salzwedel. Present were the self-appointed 17th Patron Paul Gerhardt, his wife, Erika Kibelksties, the mother of the 21st Patron Christiane Peters, H.-J. Krost and Dr. Roland Jacob.
On May 30th, 1992, Family Conference XVI took place in Salzwedel. Since the medical officer Dr. Ernst Wehmann from Salzwedel was the oldest known member of the family, Gerhardt listed him as the 18th Patron from May 30th, 1992 until his death in 1993. Wehmann however never assumed a leading role. Paul Gerhardt was appointed “authorized representative” in 1992. Erika Kibelksties and Elisabeth Platt were appointed as Testamentaries.
Commissions were established to draw up a new statute and to write a 3rd supplement to the family history, which was published in two editions in 1996 and 1997 [14]. Dr. Bluhm, M. Bluhm, Karl Buhr, Prof. Adler, Dr. Jacob, H.-J. Krost and K.-J. Steffens were appointed to the commissions.
After Dr. Wehmann's death, Paul Gerhardt was appointed the 19th Patron from 1994 to 2001. An overview of the terms of all Patrons is listed on page Q.11.
In 1991, Ines Jacob, Roland and Barbara Jacob’s daughter, was the first recipient of a scholarship after the reunification of Germany. She went on to become a veterinarian. Her daughter Hannah, born in 2001, is currently studying molecular medicine in Freiburg. Hannah is also a Gercken scholarship holder.
17th Patron Paul Gerhardt, Dr. Roland Jacob, early 1990s
2023 from left Hannah Jacob *2001 in Offenburg , Dr. Ines Jacob *1968 in Halle
Erika Kibelksties with Dr. Roland Jacob, May 30th, 1991
Family Conference XVII took place on May 29th, 1994, in Salzwedel. Paul Gerhardt was elected the 19th Patron. He had 2 children. Reinhard Schrˆder and Christiane Peters were elected Testamentaries.
The 19th Patron was present at Family Conference XVIII on May 20th, 1995, in Salzwedel. A new statute and a draft of the 3rd supplement to the family history were adopted [14] .
The 19th Patron was reelected at Family Conference XIX on May 24th, 1998, in Salzwedel. Dr. med. dent. Karl-Heinrich Eiselt and Christiane Peters were electedTestamentaries.
At Family Conference XX on May 20th, 2001, in Salzwedel, Dr. med. dent. Karl-Heinrich Eiselt was elected 20th Patron. He lived in Gorleben, a few kilometers north of the Altmark. He had one child. Christiane Peters and Bernd Gehrke were elected Testamentaries.
The 20th Patron and his Testamentaries were present at Family Conference XXI on May 22nd and 23rd, 2004, in Salzwedel.
The 20th Patron and the Testamentaries were reelected at Family Conference XXII on May 5th, 2007, in Salzwedel. Dr. Lutz Buchmann from Moeser was elected Testamentary in reserve.
5.5.2007. In the 1st row from left Gehrke, Peters, Mrs. Gerhardt, Paul Gerhardt, Dr. Eiselt. Behind Mrs. Gerhardt Dr. Buchmann, to his right (elevated) Dr. Jacob, further right and below Barbara Jacob
2004 from left Dr. Buchmann, Peters, Dr. Eiselt, Diana Nelke, Bernd Gehrke
The 20th Patron was present at Family Conference XXIII on June 6th, 2010, in Salzwedel. The Testamentaries Christiane Peters and Lutz Buchmann were also present. At Family Conference XXIV on May 5th, 2013 in Salzwedel, Christiane Peters was elected the 21st Patron. She has 3 children. Testamentary Dr. Buchmann was reelected. Michael Gˆllnitz from Grofl Rheide was elected 2nd Testamentary. Christiane Peters was supported by her husband Klaus Peters in the foundation office. When he passed away in 2014, Toralf Meyer was recruited as secretary. The 20th Patron Dr. Eiselt died in 2015. The 21st Patron and her Testamentaries were present at Family Conference XXV on May 29th, 2016.
In the foreground Michael Gˆllnitz, in the background 3rd from left Dr. Buchmann, rightmost in the back the 21st Patron Christiane Peters
2010 The 20th Patron Dr. Eiselt with a red tie
2013 Dr. Buchmann and Bernd Gehrke depicted
The 21st Patron Christiane Peters, 2016
2016, Zoia and Eckart Reihlen, the 22nd Patron
At Family Conference XXVI on May 18th, 2019, in Salzwedel, the 21st Patron was reelected.
Eckart Reihlen had taken over the offices of webmaster and land lease manager during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic led to shortages of goods and price inflation worldwide. There are no known cases of family members succombing to Covid-19. As price indices had risen, the land lease fees could be increased significantly in 2021.
On January 15th, 2021, a slightly amended foundation statute was approved by the State Administration Office. During the Covid-19 quarantine period (“lockdowns”), the first online foundation leadership meeting was held as a web conference on March 17th, 2021. On March 25th, 2021, the foundation purchased land online for the first time.
At Family Conference XXVII on May 15th, 2022, the 21st Patron was present. Christiane Peters informed that she wished to retire as Patron and proposed Eckart Reihlen as her successor. He was elected unanimously. The Progenitor Nicolaus I Gercken, lived in Salzwedel 14 generations ago. Eckart's maternal ancestors lived in Salzwedel until five generations ago. Helmut and Erika Reihlen, his parents, were among the early supporters of the foundation in the late 1980s. Eckart and Zoia Reihlen live in Calvoerde, a few kilometers south of the Altmark. They have four children. Eckart grew up in Berlin, Zoia in St. Petersburg, Russia.
2019 front left: Michael Gˆllnitz and Dr. Buchmann, front right: the 21st Patron Christiane Peters. Hotel Union has become the preferred conference venue.
The 22nd Patron with Testamentaries and auditors and the 21st Patron: From left Gˆllnitz, Feuerstack, Reihlen, Peters, L¸der Meier, Buchmann
1st row, the 21st Patron and Testamentaries, from left: Dr. Buchmann, Christiane Peters, Michael Gˆllnitz. On the far right the auditor Carmen L¸der Meier, on the far left the auditor Dorothee Feuerstack.
Family Conference XXVII, 2022, Salzwedel. To the left below the 22nd Patron stands secretary Toralf Meyer. He is an IT specialist and a public servant.
NATO, from 1990
In 2024, NATO has 32 North American and European members. The last two, Finland and Sweden, joined after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO in 2024 still accounts for around 10% of the world's population and around 50% of all defense spending.
NATO is currently keeping the peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina (IFOR mission) and Kosovo (KFOR mission). It is also providing Ukraine with support against the Russian invaders. NATO offers her members collective assistance in case they are attacked, access to modern equipment, technical and organizational integration as well as information and reconnaissance. It supports the peaceful resolution of conflicts (e.g. between Greece and Turkiye or Greece and North Macedonia). Despite a defense budget of only around 2.5% of gross domestic product, NATO is the most powerful military alliance in the world.
The main threat to NATO members stems from Russia, which has repeatedly violated the sovereignty of her neighbors. The CSTO (Collective Security Organization) was founded in 2002 under Russia's leadership. Of the original nine members (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), only six remain. Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Georgia have left. Armenia has announced its withdrawal in 2024.
32 NATO members 2024
BosniaHerzegovina, Kosovo, Ukraine
Graphics: Gercken foundation
NATO-summit, 75-year anniversary, Washington DC 2024 Photo: Shutterstock, NATO
On February 9th, 1990, the American Secretary of State James Baker III assured Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand an inch eastward as part of German reunification. On February 10th, Gorbachev and Chancellor Kohl agreed that a united Germany would be a member of NATO. On October 3rd, 1990, Germany was united. On February 25th, 1991, the signees of the Warsaw Pact dissolved the pact. On December 8th, 1991, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine decided the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The NATO states made important concessions to Russia in order to keep Russia's trust. The most important was that the USA and Great Britain signed the Budapest Memorandum with Russia and Ukraine on December 5th, 1994. It guaranteed the peaceful transfer of all Ukrainian nuclear weapons to Russia. In return, Russia guaranteed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within the 1994 borders. The four signatory states had the treaty distributed to all members of the UN on December 19th, 1994, as a document of the UN General Assembly and of the Security Council. Boris Yeltsin and the Russian Ambassador to the UN Sergey Lavrov signed on behalf of Russia [47]. It is reprinted on page Q.5.
In 1997, the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed. In 1998, the world's seven largest Western economies, the G7, invited Russia to join, becoming the G8. Several European states began to source the lion's share of their fossil fuel needs from Russia. The most enthusiastic was Germany. By 2021, Russia's share of Germany's fossil fuel supply had risen to 35%, an unprecedented token of trust. Western firms established around 2 000 companies in Russia. A Partnership for Peace (PFP) program was initiated, a joint military exchange that many Eastern European nations joined, including Russia in 1994.
NATO Russia Council 2002 Putin, Berlusconi, Bush
Photo: cc kremlin.ru
Signatures under the Budapest Memorandum dated December 5th, 1994 from left Yeltsin, Clinton, Kuchma, Major Photo: Win McNamee / Reuters
In 1999, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on a declaration guaranteeing sovereignty and the freedom to choose alliances for all states as long as they did not threaten their neighbors. Russia signed. Russia considered applying to join NATO, but both sides backed away. For example, it did not seem likely that countries like Portugal would help defend Russia in a war with North Korea.
As late as 2004, Russia declared that Polish NATO membership did not undermine Russian security. NATO did not base fighting battalions in Poland until 2017, i. e. after Russia broke international law by seizing Ukrainian lands from 2014 on.
The Baltic states' accession to NATO in 2004 drew Russian criticism. The Russian nationalist school of thought, that Russia can only be held together and prosper by exercising authoritarian force gained prominence, and the defeat of the Chechen separatists gained relevance. NATO accession was rightly seen by Russian nationalists as the removal of the authoritarian threat from Russia’s neighbors. What Russia granted to the Poles, which had been antagonistic for centuries, did not apply from the Russian perspective to the Baltic states, which include ethnic Russian minorities. It certainly did not apply to Ukraine. Russia regressed to the times of the Soviet Union: Treaties with weaker countries mean nothing. The truth is dictated by the ruler and subordinated to his perception of the national interest. The task of a patriotic Russian is to spin narratives that condone this interest. The urge of Russia's neighbors to join NATO should therefore come as no surprise to anyone.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO carried out twenty-two operations, five of which were to protect members (2x USA after 2001, 2x Turkiye against Syria and Iraq, 1x North Macedonia against Kosovar rebels). Another five operations were carried out in crisis areas outside Europe (2x Afghanistan against the Taliban, 1x Libya against Gaddafi, 1x Pakistan after an earthquake, 1x Somalia against pirates). 11 operations were directed against Serbia, which in the 1990s started and lost wars against Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The latter two cost the lives of about 100 000 and 13 000 people respectively and resulted in floods of 1 million refugees each, some of whom reached Western Europe. NATO operations ended both wars. The Bosnian War ended with few casualties and the Dayton Peace Agreement. To end the Kosovo War, NATO forces killed about 600 Serb civilians and 1 000 Serb soldiers. The war ended with the Kumanovo Agreement. Dayton established a Serb political entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska. Kumanovo established de facto, if not de jure, a new landlocked country called Kosovo, whose population is more than 95% of Albanian descent. Serbia with Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina with Republika Srpska have achieved candidate status for EU membership. The pacification of the Balkans is one of NATO's greatest successes.
Once again, under American leadership, peace was accomplished, a feat that the European powers could not accomplish on their own for centuries. Russia opposed most of these operations, but was a major beneficiary as it accumulated economically thriving customers for its fossil fuel exports.
After Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Ukrainian territories in 2014, the remaining 22nd NATO operation has been aimed at training and equipping Ukraine. It is called "Atlantic Resolve".
The Serbian President Vucic with EU Commission President von der Leyen, 2020, Photo: EWB
The demise of Russia
Russia's power and influence have been declining from the late 18th century (see pages III.18 and J.2). No one is more concerned about this than the Russian leadership. German fascism gave Russia a new lever of influence for half a century, but that period ended. The Russian leadership and parts of the population deny reality. An image of Russia's benevolent influence is projected, which is not confirmed by Russia's neighbors, all of whom are arming themselves against Russia, thereby offsetting Russia’s capabilities.
The current Russian potentate is not writing foreign policy, he is writing his own crime register. He came to power by intimidating the population, accepting dozens of civilian deaths, murdered his domestic political opponents, reintroduced state doping for the 2014 Winter Olympics in his country, was caught and stopped the program, broke contracts he had just signed, paid homage to Goebbels, attacked his neighbors under the pretext of protecting a Russian-speaking minority but accepted a thousandfold increase in Russian-speaking victims to further his imperial aims. In the two constitutionally stipulated terms of office of the current potentate, Russia has made great progress in achieving half of the German per capita gross domestic product adjusted for purchasing power. However, the potentate has now ruled for another 14 years in order to avenge Russia, something he believes only a strong man (himself) is capable of. In these 14 years, Russia's economy grew less than the OECD average. It has now about the same size as Italy's [48]. Russia's capabilities are limited.
Boris Nemtsov (1959 – 2015) was murdered by the Russian secret service at the foot of the Kremlin in 2015 [49]. He was previously governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region and a Russian cabinet member. He described a "European path" that envisaged Russia's peaceful integration into the community of nations. He recognized early the dangers of Russian nationalism in the 21st century. He is the key identification figure of democratic Russia today. Nemtsov was a Russian patriot. Photo: of Nemtsov cc World Economic Forum.
Alexei Navalny (1976 – 2024) was murdered by the Russian secret service as a prisoner. Before that, he was attacked by the Russian secret service with a chemical weapon with the intent to kill [49]. The Russian secret service agent confessed. Navalny ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013. He received a quarter of the votes. He then exposed the actions of the Russian potentate in videos. He is the second key identification figure of democratic Russia. Navalny was a Russian patriot. For further information on the proofs of who committed the murders, see the text in the list of sources at source [49]. Photo of Navalny: Dmitri Aleschkowski.
Boris Nemtsov, murdered in 2015
Alexei Navalny, murdered in 2024
Milton Friedman was the leading figure of the Chicago School of Economics, a school that opposed Keynesianism (government stimulus and public borrowing to prevent economic contraction) in favor of monetarism. He stood for limiting the role of the state and for the theory of the natural rate of unemployment. Fighting this rate would only fuel inflation and not yield benefits. In economic terms, the world has followed Keynes more than Friedman. Friedman described the abolition of the conscription in the USA as his greatest success. He also advocated the legalization of drugs.
"Courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it“, is a typical Mandela quote. Nelson Mandela was President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 and the key guarantor of the peaceful transition of power to the black majority. From 1963 to 1990, Nelson Mandela was a political prisoner of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Mandela was a Methodist and came from the Thembu royal family. He never personally engaged in violent struggle and managed not to become bitter during his long imprisonment. In 1990, President Frederik de Klerk ordered his release and the legalization of his party, the ANC. Mandela is considered a great statesman of the 20th century. His relations with George W. Bush were strained by Mandela’s opposition to the 2nd Iraq War of 2003.
Sean Carroll is a physicist, author and leading string theorist. String theory attempts to unite quantum theory with Einstein's theory of gravity. It lies at the far boundary of human understanding and modelling of the universe. For now, it is a mathematical exercise without predictive power or empiric proof. Carroll is a public, at times abrasive, contemporary atheist.
Freeman Dyson was an English mathematician and physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Among the greats of quantum field theory, he was the one who most clearly called for not giving up Christian belief in God. His interest was in good deeds, rather than theological rigor.
In May 2018, Greta Thunberg won a writing competition organized by a major Swedish daily newspaper. She is the founder of the school boycotts whereby she wants to force the Swedish government to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015. She founded "Fridays for Future". Greta is the youngest person to be named by Time Magazine as "Person of the Year". "We cannot save the world by playing by the rules.“ is her creed.
Look at the century time lines in the last chapter Salina
Milton Friedman 1912 - 2006
Nelson Mandela 1918 - 2013
Greta Thunberg *2003 Photo: cc Kushal Das
Sean Carroll *1966
Photo: cc Sgerbic
Freeman Dyson 1923 – 2020
Photo: cc Monroem
Photo M. Friedman: Friedman Foundation
Photo N. Mandela: cc John Mathew Smith
Political philosophy of Henry Kissinger, 1969 - 2023
Henry Kissinger has published his thoughts in several books, including "World Order" in 2014, and "Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy“ in 2022. Kissinger sees the Peace of Westphalia (1648) as the beginning of political order in continental Europe and as a model for the pacification of the Middle East and Asia.
Kissinger was a realist. He writes: "The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 corresponded to a pragmatic adaptation to reality and by no means to a unique moral insight. Today's global Westphalian system - which we colloquially refer to as the world community - is aimed at taming the inherently anarchic character of the world through an extensive network of international legal and regulatory structures."
Whether 1648 or 2023, Kissinger always returned to his principles:
- No one power is strong enough to control all the others.
- State sovereignty. Coexistence of systems and denominations. No moralizing.
- Peace imperative: Maintaining the status quo is often the most peaceful and profitable solution.
- Willingness to use violence: War must be waged if opponents have the intention of changing the status quo militarily (Napoleon Bonaparte, Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin to name a few).
Kissinger is criticized for the USA's shared responsibility for the coup in Chile in 1973 and for the crimes of the junta in Argentina. He advocated the bombing of Laos, which he considered essential for his later negotiating success. If he was not involved in an initiative, it was difficult for Kissinger to find words of praise for others.
Henry Kissinger was of German, Jewish descent. He was born on May 27th, 1923, as Heinz Alfred Kissinger in F¸rth. His family hails from Bad Kissingen. He emigrated to the USA in 1938, returned to Germany with the US Army in 1945 and then studied political science at Harvard. He passed away a tremendously accomplished man on November 29th, 2023.
- 1969 to 1977, security advisor, then US Secretary of State
- 1972, initiator and pioneer of US President Nixon's visit to China
- 1973, Nobel Peace Prize for ceasefire and withdrawal agreement with North Vietnam
- 1973, shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, negotiated the end of the Yom Kippur War
- 1975, dÈtente. CSCE Final Act at Helsinki left way open for German unification
- 1989, support for the reunification of Germany, friend of Helmut Schmidt
Sir Tim Berners Lee invented the Internet. In 1989, he developed a simple page description language, HTML or hypertext markup language, the hypertext transfer protocol http, and the node identifier, which would later be called URL (uniform resource locator), for the CERN particle laboratory near Geneva. Berners-Lee created the first website, info.cern.ch. Today he heads the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and teaches at MIT in the USA.
Bill Gates is one of the founders of Microsoft. He developed the DOS operating system for the IBM PC and took it to unprecedented heights with software such as Windows, Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Publisher, Teams, OneDrive and much more. He was able to keep his company independent of computer manufacturers. Bill Gates was an outstanding mathematics student at Harvard University (google “pancake problem”). He is a college dropout, entrepreneur, inventor, investor and philanthropist.
Steve Jobs was the leading mind behind Apple, an obsessive marketing genius who was able to create expensive, high-performance products that delighted customers. The Apple Macintosh, iPod, iPad and iPhone are among them. Jobs is also the founder of Next Computer and Pixar Studios. He was celebrated, fired and reinstated. He foresaw things that market leaders like Nokia or Microsoft did not see coming.
Elon Musk is one of the leading minds behind PayPal, a payment system. He also founded a large manufacturer of electric vehicles, Tesla. He then revolutionized space travel e.g. with the landing stages of SpaceX rockets or the swarms of satellites of Starlink. Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, an online retailer, Amazon Web Services, a cloud host, and Blue Origins, a spaceship manufacturer.
Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor are Swiss astronomers who discovered the first exoplanet in 1995. Several thousands have since been found. The search for life outside the solar system is currently the holy grail of astronomy. It is only a matter of time before humanity finds it and reopens all material and spiritual questions about its history and future.
Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor, 1st planet outside the solar system orbiting a sun-like star, 1995 Photo: L. Weinstein/Ciel et Espace Photos
Tim Berners Lee 1955 –, Internet 1991 Photos: watson.ch, cc Paul Clarke
Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011, smart phone 2007, user friendly operation Photo with glasses: cc Metal Gear Liquid
Bill Gates 1955 –, DOS operating system 1981, Windows Photo (young): cc Rich Frischman
Elon Musk PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink
Jeff Bezos Amazon, Blue Origins Photo: cc Seattle City Council
Until the end of episode VI (1989), technological progress was dominated by physical discoveries. There were more physical advances in episode VII, e.g. in space travel, astronomy, mass production and cost reduction of goods in the chip, IT, smart phone, battery, sensor, solar cell, color screen, automobile, drone and guided missile industries.
In episode VII, however, the most effort was spent and the most stunning advances achieved in the software, data processing and networking industries. They have transformed the nature of human collaboration. Today everyone has access to information. Working from home has become part of life. With opportunities come temptations. Lifestyle, self-discipline and prioritization have become more important than ever, as has mastery of the English language.
Modern data processing allows collaboration over long distances. It leads to natural monopolies where the size of the marketplace and intellectual property rights are crucial. Examples are Google, eBay, Amazon, YouTube, Microsoft Office, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Word Press, Wikipedia, Apple or X. The companies behind them launch their products almost simultaneously in all countries under rule of law at attractive prices with interfaces in the local language. They are the strongest driver of standardization and cooperation that the world has ever seen, stronger than any supranational organization. These companies are essentially based in the USA. Every day, they enrich our lives and enhance prosperity and personal freedom at unprecedented scale.
Nicolaus I (Clawes) Gercken (1501-1579), the Progenitor of the foundation and grandfather of the childless Founder Nicolaus III Gercken (15551610), had 40 grandchildren. Hence, in 1610, the foundation consisted of about 40 descendants who were mostly capable of reproduction. If these had multiplied in the following 414 years as the German population has, and all descendants had registered as foundation members, there would be about 3.3 million members in 2024.
The reality is different. Family foundations are being forgotten. The Gercken Foundation currently lists around 230 descendants of Nicolaus I as family members. The foundation is present on the Internet in German and English. All data is recorded digitally. Registering a descendant takes barely 15 minutes with a smartphone, which can be used to photograph the parents' family ID and the applicant’s birth certificate. In the long term, this may lead to an increase in the number of family members.
Stamp of the foundation Coat of arms of 1579. Stamp design 1937.
The statute, most recently approved by the State Administration of Saxony-Anhalt on January 15th, 2021, provides for three foundation bodies. (i) A Family Conference to be convened every three years, to which all members of the family are invited. It can change the statute with a twothirds majority of the participating members, as long as it complies with German law and the will of the Founder. Each present adult member can cast votes for up to three other adult members of the family who have given a written authorization to do so. (ii) The three-person foundation leadership consisting of a Patron and two Testamentaries. Only the Patron needs to be a descendant of Nicolaus I Gercken. This was not always the case. The Founder’s will prescribed the family elder as Patron. On pages IV.4 (1726), V.3 (1850), VI.2 (1898) and VI.31 (1945 –1994) instances are described, where application of the elder rule or ignoring the descendant rule put the family’s unity or the foundation’s governance at risk. The Family Conference elects the Patron and the Testamentaries for six years. (iii) Two auditors. The Family Conference elects the auditors every six years. The statute was first presented on March 26th, 1865 by the 12th Patron and his Testamentaries (Solbrig, Danneil, Gersbach) and first confirmed by a court on October 22nd, 1872. The present version was drawn up by the Statute Commission under the 17th Patron and has since been adapted only in nuances by the 21st Patron.
Archives
The foundation's data is mirrored in at least one Cloud. Microsoft One Drive, Microsoft 365 and the associated security programs are the main tools. Secretary and Patron have local copies on hard drives. The website and email domain are hosted by all-in-one. The foundation's PDF files are hosted by issuu. Digital archives: Property register, family register, scholarship register, accounting register, balance sheet, genealogical archive, historical archive. Physical storage at Grofle St. Ilsen Str. 22, Salzwedel and Salzwedel City Archive, Ackerstr. 13, Salzwedel
Checks and balances
Annual audit and tax return filed by an independent advisor. Annual tax audit by the Salzwedel tax office. Annual review by the Saxony-Anhalt State Administration. The Gercken Foundation is a member of the transparency register of the German Federal Ministry of Economics
Brand
Name Relation to Founder, family, legal entity, Salzwedel
Logo Coat of arms, name, place
Coat of arms Design of 1579 depicted on the epitaph of the Progenitor Black/white design of 1937 is used.
Slogan* Purpose education Longevity
Signature Name, slogan*, coat of arms
Public posture of the foundation
History of the family foundation1833
First supplement to the family history, Magdeburg 1854
Second supplement to the family history Salzwedel 1881
Third supplement to the family history, Salzwedel 1996
Conference posters 2024
1833 - 1996
Wikipedia entry German / English, 2022
Website German / English, 2021
Foundation office 2024
Illustrated family history, 2024
Angela Merkel *1954, Minister of Family Affairs, first female Chancellor and first Chanellor from East Germany, 2005 – 2021. Photos: celebs.com, cc aleph
Cem ÷zdemir *1965 in Bad Urach, son of a Turkish immigrant worker 2021: Won seat in the Bundestag, 40% of all votes, top value among The Greens, Minister of Agriculture, vegetarian, VfB Stuttgart fan, self-confessed „secular Muslim“ Photos: cc Cosimamz, BMEL
Christiane Peters *1955
21st Patron of the Gercken Foundation 2013 – 2022
First woman in this position in 403 years (1610 – 2013)
Agricultural engineer
Mother of three children
Involved with the Lions Club
Involved in the CDU
Runs a grooming salon in Salzwedel
Barack Obama *1961, 44th President of USA Slogan: „Yes we can“.
Donald Tusk *1957, Polish MP President of the European Council 2014 - 2019, champion of European values EAST NEWS/Wierzejski/FOTONOVA, gov.pl
Elvira Nabiullina (*1963 in Tatarstan, Russia) Governor of the Russian Central Bank since 2013. Closed 500 corrupt banks. Advised against the war. Photo: gov.ru
Photo left: Beitbart
Helmut Kohl (1930 - 2017), was Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1969 to 1976 and the 6th Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1982 to 1998 . Helmut Kohl was a team player, determined to lead but willing to engage in dialogue and loyal to those who were loyal to him. He enjoyed his successes discreetly. Kohl won elections, was popular with female voters and played an early role in shaping Rhineland-Palatinate's success. Kohl was a pragmatist. His party, the CDU, had rejected the reconciliatory draft of the “Poland laws” in the Bundestag in 1976. Nevertheless, Kohl organized the approval of the CDU-led states in the Bundesrat which ensured the draft became law. Kohl was not close to business - that did not win electionsbut had a keen interest in the social condition. For example, he introduced mandatory long-term care insurance, mainly to the benefit of the elderly.
Helmut Kohl was the Chancellor of German unity. Surrounded by a strong team (Sch‰uble, Genscher, Merkel, Bl¸m, Waigel et al.), he seized the moment and mastered it. Kohl was a European statesman. Perhaps he stayed in office for too long. He underestimated the power of the private sector to create jobs in the service economy if the state set the right conditions.
Helmut Kohl ran for the Chancellor's office for a fourth time and lost. He died on June 16th , 2017. On July 1st, 2017, he was the first person in the history of the EU to be honored with an act of mourning by the EU.
Sep 22nd, 1984, with Mitterand, Verdun, Photo: Bundesbildstelle
Oct 3rd, 1990 Day of German Unity, Genscher, Hannelore Kohl, Helmut Kohl, R. v.Weizs‰cker Photo: dpa Wolfgang Kumm
1969, Bundesarchiv Detlef Gr‰fingholt
1975 in Leipzig. Photo: Waltraud
1990, with Gorbachev Photo: Roberto Pfeil, AP
Willy Brandt, Helmut Kohl September 30th, 1990 Phoenix/WDR
1980s. Photo: Bundesarchiv
From left Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton, Jean-Claude Juncker, Angela Merkel, Photo. AA
Gerhard Schrˆder *1944, Chairman of the Young Socialists (Youth organization of the SPD) from 1978 to 1980. Prime Minister of Lower Saxony from 1990 to 1998. 7th Chancellor from 1998 to 2005. Afterwards worked for Russian energy companies. Gerhard Schrˆder grew up modestly and was raised by his single mother. He was a very popular, warm-hearted, charming and humorous politician with an unmistakable instinct for the voter. He ended the era Albrecht
(Ursula von der Leyen's father), and the Kohl era, spoke out against the 2nd Iraq war, linked the granting of social benefits to the willingness to work (a first for an SPD man) and took up issues in his “Agenda 2010” where others lacked courage. He neglected the Bundeswehr and paid homage to the Russian potentate at a time when contemporaries such as the Pole Tusk or the Briton Blair recognized the threat.
Angela Merkel *1954, Minister of Family Affairs from 1991 to 1998, 8th Chancellor from 2005 to 2021, the first woman and the first person from East Germany to hold this office. Angela Merkel had the fortune to inherit a sensible reform package “Agenda 2010” from her predecessor. She often played her cards brilliantly, saw opponents fail and kept her Bavarian antagonists in check. In 2015, she supported the admission of Syrian refugees to Germany and thereby relieved the burden on exhausted EU border countries. In other times, the addition of a million men of working age would have been seen as a big win - in Germany in 2015, Merkel was met with hostility. She was popular with her foreign colleagues and with the press. She often moderated when she should have led. Her Russian counterpart saw in Mrs Merkel a feminist without children devoid of a national purpose and without the ability to defend herself. He despised and exploited her.
Olaf Scholz *1958, Deputy Chairman of the Young Socialists from 1982 to 1988, mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018. 9th Chancellor from 2021. Olaf Scholz is an Anglophile like Helmut Schmidt, a politically experienced operator like Gerhard Schrˆder, and a discreet lawyer and power broker like Hans-Dietrich Genscher. He was lucky that the parties competing with the SPD put forward their second-best candidates in the 2021 elections.
Olaf Scholz won and from then on worked with and against the best and the second best. Perhaps Scholz, who declined to serve in the armed forces, is underestimating the security situation. He would reply that - unlike Helmut Schmidt - he is setting up long-range deterrent weapons capable of carrying nuclear warheads without offering to negotiate with Russia, and that the ongoing long land war will justify his militaryindustrial, land-force-focused approach.
2015, Time Magazine Person of the Year Angela Merkel „Chancellor of the Free World“ Fotos: CDU / Time
Photo: Kurt Strumpf, AP Photo: cc Alden McGeady
Photo: Andreas Chudowsky, Der Spiegel
Photo: Gladstone, Wikipedia
The Nicolaus Gercken Family Foundation relies on consensus decisions. Changes are postponed if there is a prospect of reaching agreement after further discussion. The Family Conference, which meets every three years, is the highest decision-making authority, bound only by the Founder's will of 1607 and to the applicable law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Between Family Conferences, no decision can be made against the Patron's vote. The Family Conference can be called at any time.
Letter sticker
Kinship vs. checks and balances. The number of people willing to participate in running family foundations is limited. It can happen that a Patron and/or Testamentary and/or auditor are closely related. There were lively discussions, but no Family Conference has ever restricted members to hold office even if close relatives hold other offices.
Data protection. Family Conference XXVII and the authors have agreed to the use of cloud technology in order to further improve the security and longevity of the foundation's data.
Implementation of the four-eyes principle. Sparkasse Altmark-West does not offer a solution in which two responsible persons can authorize each payment at different times and in different places. All payments are therefore made digitally and close to the due date by the Patron from his or her home office. The Patron gives an annual account statement to the tax consultant and thus also to the elected auditors. There are around 180 transactions per year, most of which are repeated periodically.
Leasing to operators of renewable power generation plants. Family Conference XXVII has decided that the Patron can lease land to operators if the responsible local council approves a photovoltaic project. If the local council does not approve, foundation land should not be leased or the Family Conference should be consulted. Leasing to wind turbine operators and land sales of more than, say, 0.5 hectares should be discussed during a Family Conference. If, for example, 0.2 hectares must be sold to build an electric transformer substation and the price is in line with the market, such a sale can be approved by the Patron and his Testamentaries.
Lease policy. Some of the land has been leased to the same tenants for decades. The question was how the Patron decides who gets the lease. The Patron’s answer was that the land lease market level is published annually by public authorities differentiated by soil quality. If the tenant is not prepared to lease at market conditions, the Patron looks for alternatives. The foundation is currently working with 16 tenants. Cooperation with two of these tenants is difficult. In the past, one tenant insisted on 35- and 45-year leases. The foundation's standard is 12 years. The same tenant has removed lease adjustment clauses without warning when extending the lease. The Patron terminates such contracts at the earliest possible date. The foundation’s leadership is always represented by two participants in critical negotiations.
Acceptance of external funds. A foundation member offered to donate money only if he can withdraw it later. This is impossible under German foundation law. Deposits that have been made once cannot be withdrawn.
Collaboration with the Karin Witte Foundation. Changes to the foundation's purpose are impossible under German foundation law. Collaboration with the Karin Witte Foundation was therefore discontinued many years ago, even though the Patron is in friendly contact with the chairman of the Witte Foundation (Olaf Meining, the current mayor of Salzwedel).
Paperless communication. In order to treat all family members equally and to save operating cost, the authors would like to limit communication with the family members to e-mails. The issue will be addressed at Family Conference XXVIII in the spring of 2025 in Salzwedel
Format and target group of this book. The intention is to increase awareness of the Gercken Foundation within and outside the family. Content is illustrated in color and pictures, as long as there are no copyright infringements. The foundation has acquired the right to use selected photographs from Salzwedel Fotoclub e.V.. Embedding family history in contemporary history is meant to increase interest of and in the family, of the city of Salzwedel, of the district, of the state authorities in Magdeburg, of the history society, of schools, libraries and archives.
Attracting new talent. The question was whether a "hostile" takeover of the foundation was possible. It is de facto impossible because the foundation statutes contain clear rules on the allocation of funds and on
the mechanisms how to elect leaders. In addition, the state administration supervising foundations in SaxonyAnhalt is an attentive guardian of adherence to law.
Risks due to worldwide exposure. See “Foundation membership size”, p. VII.20.
Absentee voting rights at the Family Conference See “Organization of the foundation”, p. VII.21.
• The impact of the atmosphere on the surface temperature of the Earth
• Anthropogenic temperature rise
• Conflict, cooperation, money, grain and the Gercken foundation
• Calculus of the silver purchasing power method
Economic power is quantifiable. Military power usually follows economic power. Attempts to shift the balance of power in Europe have threatened repeatedly the survival of the foundation. A liberal legal system such as that offered by Western democracies is the guarantor of any private foundation. In 2024, 70% of world power is united in Western democracies. The largely allied countries of South America and India account for a further 10% [50]. Graphics redrawn by Gerckenstiftung.
Capital is created by foregone consumption. Banks, bond markets and stock markets are formed when economic actors come together according to the principle "I have capital, you have better ideas than I have. Hence I will lend you my capital for a fee or a share in your opportunities and risks." The opening of the Amsterdam stock market in 1602 was a milestone of capitalism, five years before the Founder Nicolaus III Gercken wrote his will in Jueterbog. An unexpected prosperity boom began [51]. Graphics: Gercken foundation
Improved health care, the near completion of the seizure of land by man and the pacification of the world have quadrupled life expectancy since the foundation was founded in 1607. Because it was unclear which child would survive, in 1607 children were still given various versions of their paternal grandfather's first name (e.g. siblings Johannes, Hans and Hannes).
Prosperity, high life expectancy and pension systems have led to birth rates falling below the replacement value in China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Italy, Spain and in many other countries. In 2024, the stabilization of the world population at around 11 billion people seems a given. Countries without significant immigration and willingness to integrate immigrants are heading towards depopulation. Entities such as the USA and the EU, on the other hand, are becoming stronger demographically and economically [51]. The population of Africa also keeps expanding. Graphics: Gercken foundation
ThirtyYears‘ War
Datapriorto1800onlyreflectGreatBritain. Life expectancy, world
With advances in technology and peaceful cooperation, Germany's population has grown. The German share of the global population, however, has declined. Sources: Germany up to 1470 [52], Germany from 1600 to 1840 [53], Germany from 1860 [54], world population development from 10,000 BC [55]. Graphics: Gercken foundation
Million (m) German speaking inhabitants
1618, Outbreak of the Thirty Years‘ War Germany makes up 3.2% of the world population (518 m)
2020 1.03% of world population (8 045 m)
1950 after the end of the 2nd World War
1920 after the end of the 1st World War
1800 2.2% of world population (980 m)
1650,aftertheendoftheThirtyYears‘ War
Harvest yield in Germany
Grain yields per hectare of land have risen in Germany over the past two centuries. This is due to technical innovations such as irrigation, fertilization, mechanization and plant breeding [56].
Decitons (100kg) wheat / ha / a, Germany [56] Graphics Gercken foundation
Malthusian catastrophe postponed
The proportion of the population working in agriculture in Germany was around 50% in 1880. In 2024, it was less than 2% [57].
The graph below depicts the quotient of the harvest yield per hectare (above) and the Germanspeaking population (page back). It illustrates the Malthusian catastrophe up to around 1875, i.e. exponential population growth in times of linear harvest yield growth. The resulting yield per capita per hectare fell in Germany from 1650 to around 1830. This led to hunger and emigration. The yield then stagnated until around 1940 due to rapid population growth accompanied by technological advances. The National Socialists stoked fears of land shortages and propagated the need for living space ( “Lebensraum” ) East of the German empire.
Decitons wheat / ha / a per m inhabitants, Germany
History took a different turn. Innovation and the development of more agricultural lands increased food production in Germany after 1940 [58]. The Malthusian catastrophe never materialized after 1850.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere
From 1958, the CO2 concentration has been recorded using a mass spectrometer on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and soon afterwards elsewhere. Data valid prior to 1959 come from air inclusions in ice samples. The cause of the "large right angle" is the combustion of oil, gas and coal since the 1850s. For example, octane reacsts as 2 C8H18 + 25 O2 -> 18 H2O + 16 CO2 . The extent of the annual CO2 emissions into the atmosphere through combustion can easily be estimated from the fossil fuel production volumes (see graph below left). CO2 remains in the atmosphere for centuries.
The increase of the CO2 concentration is man-made. (i) Dynamics: Sudden increase can only be explained by human activity. (ii) Isotope dating: A portion of atmospheric carbon becomes radioactive due to cosmic radiation and decays with a half-life of 5 760 years. Oil, gas and coal have been underground for hundreds of thousands of years and do not contain radioactive carbon. (iii) Man-made CO2 emissions lead to oxygen depletion, volcanic emissions do not. Oxygen depletion is detected locally.
1012 kg/a
2015: 36.18 bln t
[59] and Wikipedia Graphics redrawn by Gerckenstiftung
Carbon isotope deviation in tree rings, 14C
Atomic bomb tests
The incorporation of nonradioactive carbon from fossil fuel combustion in the era of industrialization is depicted [61]. From 1950, atomic bomb tests have disrupted this measurement. Redrawn by Gercken foundation.
Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere
The impact of the atmosphere on the surface temperature of the Earth
The temperature of the sun's surface is around 5 800 oC or 6 073 Kelvin (K). The Earth's atmosphere is quite transparent to incoming solar radiation. The maximum value of the sun’s radiated energy spectrum lies at a wavelength of about 0.5 m, perceived by humans as green.
In the vacuum of space, the Earth’s illuminated surface reaches a temperature of roughly 27 oC or 300 K. The maximum value of the radiation spectrum of a black body at 300 K lies at a wavelength of around 10 m. Such radiation is strongly absorbed by carbon dioxide, methane and water, so that only a quarter of the Earth’s thermal radiation reaches space. With this mechanism, the Earth's atmosphere raises the temperature of the Earth's surface by about 20oC or 20 K. These findings are confirmed by measurements on Mars and on the Moon, which sport thin atmospheres. On Earth, about two thirds of the impact of man-made effects in 2024 can be attributed to carbon dioxide. Methane and nitrous oxide account for most of the rest. The water content of the atmosphere is not a driver but a consequence of the observed warming.
Blackbodyspectrum calculatedwith Planck‘s formula [59][60]Graphicsredrawnby Gerckenfoundation
MaxPlanck, Berlin, Nobelprize inPhysics, 1919,on black body radiation
Anthropogenic temperature rise
On October 5th, 2021, Klaus Hasselmann was awarded a quarter of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics. From 1975 to 1999, he was director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. He predicted man-made climate change caused by CO2, CH4 and water vapor. His predictions have borne out. As of November 2021, the average global surface temperature has risen by 1.1 - 1.2 ⁰C from the level in 1850. Sea levels have risen by about 3 mm/a from 1850 to 2020. Glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland, the Arctic and the Antarctic are shrinking. Ocean acidification is measurable and is changing ecosystems [62]. Graphics redrawn by Gercken foundation.
+1.5⁰C
+1.0⁰C
Red: Temperature model of Hasselmann et al., considering biogenic and anthropogenic (man-made) influences
Black: Observed temperature deviation from the pre-industrial average
Grey rectangle: Hasselmann et al.
The Nobel prize committee honored this work
+0.5⁰C
0 -0.5⁰C
Blue: Temperature model of biogenic influences 2020
Natural temperature fluctuations such as ice ages, the age and extinction of the dinosaurs, the medieval European warm period or the abandonment of Greenland by the Vikings are explained by natural mechanisms such as the position of the Earth's orbit, volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts [63], [64].
Prof. Klaus Hasselmann [65]
Conflict, cooperation, money, grain and the Gercken foundation 2000
Conflict and cooperation
The German-speaking states were loosely associated within the “Holy Roman Empire” from the 15th century until 1806. The Thirty Years’ War began as a religious war (emperor and Catholic League vs. Protestant Union) and ended as a territorial war between the Habsburg powers Austria and Spain against France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, mainly on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Germany did not become a nation until 1871. Two attempts to enforce a new European order by military force failed in the first half of the 20th century. Salzwedel was largely spared from war damage.
Grain Money
Money is a medium for trade and a store of wealth. In the 20th century, the leading currencies were unpegged from precious metal collateral. The foundation's historical assets and earnings can be compared to current values by using silver purchasing power equivalents. The foundation lost only few assets during the Thirty Years' War, but suffered significant losses when purchasing war bonds in the 20th century. The post-war order in East Germany harmed the foundation until 1990.
Grain prices and harvest yields have been well documented in Germany for centuries.
Nicolaus
Gercken family foundation
data allow the comparison of
[66].
1610Danneil schreibt 1833 in [11]S.19 f¸r 1610Ertrag, Pacht oder Kornpacht1610: Danneil bilanzierte Magdeburger Wispel in [11], g Ag/100l Roggen in [22] die 6/7 preussiche Wispel entsprechen Garten und Gartenacker 75 Rthlr[22] 157241
Ackerin der N‰he von Magdeburg 5 Wspl.Weizen1831 ff: Danneil bilanziert preussische Wispel in [11] 157947
3 Schffl.Weizen [22] Seite 118Weizenpreis / Roggenpreis immer etwa 1,375 158233
Acker in Magdeburgischen Dˆrfern 17 Wspl.Weizen [22] Seite 149Hektoliter Roggen in Leipzig in g Ag158538 16,5 Schffl.Roggen 159049 2 Wspl.Roggen liter in Salzwedel159529
Wiese bei Barleben 5 Rthlr Volumenmafle160049 Summe 440 Rthlr Wispel 24 Scheffel1154,4 dies sind Wispel / Scheffel nach altem 160525
22 Wspl.Weizen Scheffel 16 Metzen 48,1 Magdeburger Mafl [21] Seite 64 161059 19,5 Schffl.Weizen Wispel 24 Scheffel1319,04 dies sind Wispel / Scheffel nach neuem 161535 2 Wspl.Roggen Scheffel 16 Metzen 54,96 Magdeburger oder preussischem Mafl 162085
6.6.1611 Abschrift des Nachlassinvenatarium [17]. Wurde um 2Bˆgen erg‰nzt um am 6.6.1611
und von Joachim Stampehl und Notar Petrus Schultze unterschrieben.
T€ ein Neuer Reichstaler bzw. Thaler (ℛst.) 185249
2020 30,8 T€ 0,669 30 Silbergroschen (Sgr.) zu je 12 Kupferpfenni (n)g (₰). 2021 42,2 T€ 0,669 Von 1871 bis 1873 wurde in allen Staaten Roggen g Ag / 100l 18.Jh. 33
2022 42,1 T€ 0,669 des Deutschen Reichs der Taler durch Weizen 46
2023 43,1 T€ 0,695 die Mark zu 100 Pfennig abgelöst, die ⅓ Taler entsprach. 2024P Am 13.9.2021 kauften 0,669 EUR 1g Silber1 troy ounce = 31.103 g
Der durchschnittlicheWeizenpreis lag im 18. Jahrundert bei 45 g Ag / 100l Weizen
Calculus of the silver purchasing power method, scholarships
QuellePeriodeAnzahl Hˆhe der Zuwendungen in Zeitw‰hrung Zuwendungen in ewiger W‰hrung JahrePeriStipenAus-armesumStipenAus-armesumsumsumsum odendiensteuerFamilidiensteuerFamili20212021 w‰hrung antenanten in Periodenw‰hrung in Periode,siehe unten kg Ag in Periode kg Ag aT EUR/a TEUR
[11]Fam.gesch. S. 43/441648-1831194Rthlr401438011541256356670132579414,93630
[12]1. Nachtrag S. 121832-185221Rthlr208933940494029773349668249723,716333
[13]2. Nachtrag S. 101853-188028Mark 156880 1668019673 193233 87393110107638,426720 1881-19446400 1945-19894500
[1] „Die Familien-Stipendien-Stiftung des Domsyndicus Nicolaus Gercken“ by E.O. Wentz dated 1940, unpublished in 1940, published in excerpts in [14]
[2] Codex Diplomaticus Brandenburgensis, Band 25, S. 457–458, appeared 1863 at edition G.Reimer in Berlin, published by Adolph Friedrich Riedel, dated January 9th , 1496. Frank Moldenhauer, Magdeburg, informed the foundation on August 16th, 2023.
[3] Epitaph for Nicolaus I Gercken †1579, in St. Catharine‘s church in Salzwedel
[4] 1551. Records of the first general church visitations, 1540-1542, in the Altmark, incl. visitations of 1578-79 and 1600, vol. 2, booklet 4, page 364, published by the Altmark Association for Patriotic History in Salzwedel. Basis are minutes of visitations stored in the Salzwedel city archive, the state archive at Magdeburg and in archives in parishes and superintendencies.
[5] Pedigrees of the Gercken foundation, printed in 1833 in [11]
[6] About the S t a m p e h l family in Salzwedel, E.O. Wentz, 52nd annual report of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History in Salzwedel, 1938
[7] Chronicle of the Bˆtcher family, family traces from 8 centuries, chapter 4, foundations and donor families in Salzwedel, by Dr. Dagmar Wendler, Frankfurt / Main, 2012. Contained is a reference to the 1838 annual report of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History & Industry, secretary J. F. Danneil, who also served as Testamentary of the Gercken Foundation.
[8] The oldest known biography of the Founder of the Gercken foundation, Nicolaus III Gercken, as presented on August 21st, 1610, in the church St. Sebastian in Magdeburg as the funeral sermon by Philip Hahn. The original comes from the Herzog August Library Wolfenb¸ttel, Stolberg Collection LP 1041. Philipp Hahn, also known as Philippus Gallus. (May 1st, 1558 – July 6th, 1616). The sermon was reprinted in the 2022 annual family letter of the 22nd Patron and his Testamentaries.
[9] Philip Hahn (May 1st, 1558 – July 6th, 1616), also known as Philippus Gallus, Record of pastors of province Saxony (Pfarrerbuch der Provinz Sachsen), vol. 3, p.488
[10] https://magdeburg-law.com
[11] 1833, Magdeburg, History of the Gercken family foundation 1610 –1833 69 p.
Publisher J. F. Danneil, Magdeburg, 1833
Life of the Founder 2 p.
Will of the Founder 18 p.
Estate data, 1603 – 1833 4 p.
History of the foundation 18 p.
Attachments: Patrons, administrators, receivers, payouts, capital 4 p.
Genealogical tables 13 p.
[12] 1854, Magdeburg, first supplement 1833 – 1854 31 p.
Editor J. F. Danneil, Magdeburg, 1854
Supplemental text 12 p.
Completed genealogical tables 19 p.
[13] 1881, Salzwedel, second supplement 1853 – 1880 9 p. Editor 12th Patron P.O. Solbrig, Salzwedel, 1881
[14] 1996, Salzwedel, third supplement, 1881 – 1996, 110 p. Editor 19th Patron Paul Gerhardt, Salzwedel 1st edition 1996 and almost unchanged 2nd edition 1997 Continuation of the foundation‘s history until 1881. The Gercken Family, by E. O. Wentz, summarized by Dr. Roland Jacob 16 p. Continuation of the foundation‘s history until 1994.
Through hard times and hibernation until a new beginning, by Paul Gerhardt 7 p. Mayor Nicolaus Gercken I (1501 – 1579), by Hans-Joachim Krust 36 p. Max Kr¸ger (1848 – 1936) – pastor in the Altmark, by Dr. Heinz Borchert 7 p. The will of the Founder of 1607, by Dr. Gunta Haenicke 15 p. Names of the Patrons from 1610 to 1994 1 p. Testamentaries from 1819 to 1994 1 p.
Statute of the Gercken foundation, agreed May 20th, 1995, 16 paragraphs 5 p. Last names of registered family members – 985 last names 6 p. Family Conference decisions I. August 29th, 1873 to XVIII May 20th, 1995 16 p.
[15] Original issued by the Founder dated June 26th, 1604, city archive Haldensleben, found in 2021 by Michael Weigel, genealogist with interest in the Praetorius family, whose member, the notary public Petrus Schultze, advised the widow of the Founder, Margaretha Busse, after 1610.
[16] Handwritten copy of the estate inventory dated September 24th, 1610, preserved at Salzwedel city archive, photos April 28th, 2021, T3 notebook 1 (ii). Signing witnesses (p. 2) were Caspar Gartz, Joachim Giese, Nicolaus I Binde, an uncle of the Founder, who was married to Barbara Gercken, a daughter of the Progenitor, Moritz Busse and Jakob Busse, two brothers of the widow as well as the widow Margaretha Busse and her lawyer Philip Tieme. The copy also bears the signature of the notary public Petrus Schultze (presumably *1550 Saw †1615), who penned the handwritten copy.
P.25 "I Petrus Schultze, imperatoria Maiestate Publicus Notarius, and currently Ambtman zue Aldenhausen", p.26 "confirmed with my notarial sign and signature". The 22nd Patron assumes Petrus Schultze was not present on September 24th, 1610. The signees had an inventory at hand, which the deceased (Nicolaus III) had drawn up in 1603.
P.3, “die Lade geöffnet, des sel. Syndici eigene Register, 1603“ (The drawer opened, the register of the deceased dated 1603 at hand). Philip Tieme is mentioned as „Advocat und kriegerischer Vormund der Witwe“ (advocate and court-approved guardian of the widow). Mentioned real estate: p. 6 garden rent from „Garten in Grunde~“ (description of a location), p. 7 Hinter oder bey (behind or near) der Schrode [die Schrote, a creek near the city], p. 8 Meitendorff > Ackendorf Bulsen > Biehren [Biere] p. 10 Germersleben > Fermerschleben [Fermersleben]. The mother of the widow Margaretha Busse, apparently was nee Lentke Barsdof > Garstorff [= Gersdorf] Groflen Neuslingen > Grosen M¸hlingenn [Grofl M¸hlingen], p. 11 Grosen Otterschleben [Grofl Ottersleben] p. 13 Groflen Rodenschleben [Grofl Rodensleben] Harmenstorff [Hermsdorf], p. 14 Langen Wedding [Langenweddingen], p. 15 Haldensleben > L¸tcken Rodenschleben [Klein Rodensleben] Magdeburg In der Altenstadt S. 16 Newe Stadt Magdeburg [Neustadt Magdeburg] Oschersleben > Ochtmerschlebenn [Ochtmersleben] S. 18 Rodtmerschleben [Rottmersleben] Werfsleben > Welschleben [Welsleben] Westerhausen [Westerh¸sen] S. 19, Grafl, Baum Garten (tree, garden)
{ Q.2 } War and Peace in the Altmark
On June 6th, 1611, Joachim Stampehl, a cousin of the Founder and chief accountant (K‰mmerer) of Neustadt Salzwedel and the notary public Petrus Schultze signed an addendum, which specified the estate of the widow herself. The 22nd Patron assumes, that Petrus Schultze was present on June 6th, 1611.
[17] Frank Praetorius, “Traces of the Praetorius family”, May 19th, 2017. Notary public Petrus Schultze or his descendants changed their name from Schultze to Praetorius. P. 17, ISBN-10: 3848209217, ISBN-13: 978-3848209217, Frank Praetorius is mistaken: The witnesses of 1654, Matthias and Paul were brothers. Both were sons of the notary public Petrus Schultze. Michael Weigel has found the brothers’ university immatriculation numbers in Helmstedt. Matthias had number 124, Paul number 125. The brothers may have been twins. Matthias always comes before Paul in the copies of the will with seal and signature. Matthias must have been older than Paul, if only by a few minutes. Michael Weigel dates the death of Petrus Schultze in 1615. According to Frank Praetorius, Petrus Schultze lived until 1650 according to Matthias' autobiography. In 1645 he was bailiff (commander-in-chief) in Altenhausen. According to Michael Weigel, Petrus Schultze had at least 3 sons (Matthias, Paul and Peter) and probably 2 daughters (Gese (?) and Maria). The father of Petrus Schultze was also called Petrus Schultze. Petrus Schultze must have authenticated the will in 1610 or later, because all copies use the words "weiland ... " and “sehlig” (sacred). Weiland and sehlig are strong indications that the Founder had already passed away when Petrus Schultze certified. Weigel sees 1615 as the year of Petrus' death. Consequently, the copies of the Founder’s will were probably handwritten by Petrus between 1610 to 1615.
[18] City archive Salzwedel, https://www.kultour-saw.de/archiv/geschichte https://www.salzwedel.de/de/stadt/stadtgeschichte/ausfuehrliche-stadtgeschichte.html https://lha.sachsen-anhalt.de/fileadmin/Bibliothek/Politik_und_Verwaltung/MI/LHA/ Bibliothek_LHA/01._Startseite/2020/2020-12-21_Archive_in_Sachsen-Anhalt_2020/ Langusch_S--Quellen_zur_Geschichte_der_Altmark_im_Stadtarchiv_Salzwedel.pdf
[19] UN population, historic data, projection medium fertility
[20] E. O. Wentz, 53rd annual report of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History in Salzwedel, 1939, p. 24 – 27
[22] Handwritten copies of the will of the Founder are preserved in Salzwedel city archive, the original was lost during the 30 Years‘ War, original dated November 27th, 1607. The author of early copies was notary public Petrus Schultze.
[23] Copy of the will of the Founder, certified in 1654
[24] Debt note from the city of Magdeburg dated September 1st, 1649, signed and sealed by mayor Kuhlewein for Sebastian I Gercken. Preserved at Salzwedel city archive, photographed April 28th, 2021. According to the debt note, the money was lent by the Founder. The Founder’s estate administrator and the original of the will perished in the destruction of Magdeburg in May 1631.
[25] Old currency and measurement systems in Germany, ISBN 978-3-7686-1036-0
[26] Writings on history and regional studies, Auenthal Verlag Trier 1996, vol. 3, Thomas Rahlf, grain in social and economic history from the 16th to the 18th century. Cologne and regional comparisons. The book lists the prices in twelve German cities, of which Leipzig, 231 km distant from Salzwedel, was the most relevant grain market.
[27] Statistics of the German Reich, Stat. Reichsamt , 44th year, 1935, first booklet
[28] Epitaph Georg II Gercken, preserved in St. Catharine‘s church in Salzwedel, 2024
[29] Hommage to Philipp Wilhelm Gercken, 270th birthday and 200th anniversary of his death, Hans-Joachim Krost, print edition by the Altmark Association for Patriotic History in Salzwedel, 1992. Dr. Elias Hoppe was not the maternal uncle of the two sons of Ilsabe Anna Gercken. Elias Hoppe was a half brother of the husband of Ilsabe Anna Gercken.
[30] Pedigree of the Gercken family until ca. 1910, 20th Patron of the Gercken foundation, 2012. This useful document contains a few errors. For example, acc. to [28], the 8th Patron Philipp Wilhelm Gercken was the tenth child of Georg II, not the eighth. Dr. Elias Hoppe, the compiler of the Soltquellensien, was a half brother of the husband of Ilsabe Anna Gercken.
[31] Soltquellensien, compiled by Dr. Elias Hoppe in Salzwedel prior to 1761. Today, a fourvolume edition (ca. 3600 pages) is located at Salzwedel city archive for study purposes Owner is the library of the Protestant church parish of St. Catharine‘s [32].
[32] Certification of authenticity dated June 3rd, 1749, of [23] and [24], city archive Salzwedel, photography April 28th, 2021
[33] Certification of authenticity dated February 12th, 1766, of [23] and [24], see above [32]
[34] Certification of authenticity dated 1830 of [24] and [32], see above [32]
[35] Georg Wolf & Co, Hamburg - W. Blos, Memories of a Social Democrat
[36] Manfred L¸ders, Salzwedel
[37] Oliver Schmiedl, https://lpb.sachsen-anhalt.de/online-angebote/campuspublik/die -machtuebernahme-der-nationalsozialisten-in-der-altmark(powergrabbyNazisinAltmark)
[38] U.S. Involvement in WWII: How (and How Much) the Military Grew https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/us-involvement-in-wwii-how-the-military-grew
[39] World War II in America: Spending, deficits, multipliers, and sacrifice, Price Fishback November 12th, 2019, https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/world-war-ii-america-spendingdeficits-multipliers-and-sacrifice
[40] The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/11/photos-before-fall-berlin-wall/601714/
[41] Report by G¸nter Lehmann, September 2002, contained in: Landesbeauftragte f¸r die Stasi-Unterlagen in Sachsen-Anhalt, Inquiry reg. June 17th, 1953, Magdeburg 2002
[42] United States Dep’t of Agriculture, USSR, Situation and outlook report, May 1986
[43] Hans-Henning Schrˆder, "Versorgungskrise, R¸stungsabbau und Konversion in der UdSSR", Heft II, in Berichte des Bundesinstituts f¸r ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, Nr. 57-1989, p. 21, (Reports of the Federal Institute for Eastern Scientific and International Studies, Supply crisis in USSR)
[47] Budapest Memorandum, which gave Russia possession of all nuclear weapons and their precursors, which were stored in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus in 1994. It was signed by Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the USA on December 5th, 1994. (See page VII.14). On December 19th, 1994, it was distributed by the signatories as a document of the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to all UN members and registered as an international treaty in the UN portal UNTERM. They guaranteed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within her 1994 borders. Sergey Lavrov signed as ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations.
[49] Bellingcat. www.bellingcat.com Bellingcat has access to travel and telephone logs in Russia which are passed on to Bellingcat by regime opponents. The data sets allow compilation of detailed travel profiles of Russian intelligence agents. Nemtsov was shadowed by Russian intelligence services when he was murdered. The conclusiveness of proof in the Navalny case is even more overwhelming because the intelligence agent who carried out the chemical attack confessed and Navalny was murdered in captivity.
[50] Quelle: Rand McNally, Histomap, Chicago Illinois, USA
[51] Ray Dalio, Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order
[58] W.G. Hoffmann. Das Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jh. Unter Mitarbeit von F. Grumbach und H. Hesse. Mit 26 Schaubildern und 325 Tabellen. Enzyklop‰die der Rechts- und Staatswissenschaft. Abteilung Staatswissenschaft. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Springer-Verlag, 1965, XXVII p. 842, Tabelle Abbildung S. 449 (Growth of the Germany economy from the 19th century, German encyclopedia of law)
[59] Economist October 29th 2021, Our world in data, Nat’l Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin.
[60] IPCC, various reports, basics
[61] Stuyer and Quai, 1981
[62] 2021 Global Carbon Budget
[63] EPICA Dome C CO2 record 2015 and NOAA 2018, OurWorldInData.org/CO2-and-other- greenhouse-gas-emissions, CC BY
[64] IPCC, 2021
[65] Image, October 9th, 2021, DPA, Nobel prize committee / Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Press portrait of Prof. Hasselmann taken from deutschland.de.
[66] Annual report by the auditor from 2000 on, stored at foundation office and on OneDrive
Notes
Note of ownership
Please do not discard. Pass the book on to the next generation or return it to the foundation
Shushkevich, Stanislau, Head of State of Belarus †2022 VII.5 Kissinger,Henry,Statesman,USA †2023 III.8,VII.18 Berlusconi,Silvio,Italianprimeminister †2023 VII.14
Photos of contemporary Salzwedel were shot on behalf of the Gercken foundation by Fotoclub Salzwedel e.V.. The foundation was granted the right of use.
Photographies in Creative Commons are labelled with „cc“.
Photographies without a source note are from the public domain and for free use.
Sources, Notes, Note of ownership, References, Image credits {
