Читать книгу The Great Hollenberg Saga - Heinz Niederste-Hollenberg - Страница 11

Introduction and Acknowledgement

Having reached retirement in 1996, I channelled my ardent interest in history and politics into the investigation of the past of our family and historical events in the area in order to better understand the correlations of the land and the people, their lifestyle and tradition.

The fact, however, that I did spent considerable periods of my life on both sides of the Atlantic proved to be most helpful in the pursuit of this project.

In writing this story, I dug through old papers, faded pictures, historical data that were available in miscellane-ous archives, and beyond all of it, the many memories of my childhood at the parental home, the old Hollenberg estate.

To my surprise, I found old documents, which gave me the opportunity to take a glance at the lives of our ancestors, of many generations which carried our name through at least eleven centuries in time of despair as well as in moments of glory.

However, this book should beyond the very personal and private element also help to give an insight to details and developments of our common past on both sides of the Atlantic.

Let’s confront us with our history and determine whence we came from.

The prime emphasis in this edition is the migration of people across the Atlantic, their reasons and their get-ting along. I have taken some effort throughout this book to explain certain historical facts about their “Why”, the“Why”of those who decided to take their life into their own hands.

Instead of starting with the macro picture, I used the micro approach: The basis were many data of several dozen of families gathered and analyzed over years from their familiar historical background in order to find a very per-sonal answer to their “why” --- whatever the circunstances might have been. This question”why”, however, has many answers necessitating some specific explanations of a few historical developments in the early centuries of the Middle-Ages, like:

--- The “tithe” and the consequences thereof, first issued by Charlemagne around 782 A.D.

at the Imperial Diet near Lippspringe, Saxony, in his attempt to Christianize the territory under his control, after he had subdued the Saxons in a 30 year long struggle.In one of the 14 laws of the “Capitulatio departibus Saxonae”, he declares that

every parish is to receive 2 “Hufe” (approx. 50 acres) of land, plus the services of farm hands and maids and the tenth (tithe) of any income.