Tales From the Land of the Moose

For those of my Haupt cousins here in America, I present you with Tales from the Homeland! As some of you may know, after the end of the 2nd World War, East Prussia was divided into three countries - in the north to Lithuania, the southern part to Poland and the middle part to Russia. Our history refers to this middle part, today's Russian Kaliningrad Oblast. Our ancestor Gustav Haupt left Germany in 1914 to make a new life for his wife and children here in America. This post tells the story of those he left behind, especially his beloved brother Daniel and his family. The last picture shows a detailed family tree.

And now to East Prussia - the Land of the Moose. The heraldic animal and symbol of East Prussia is the moose in all of the land. The home of these powerful animals within East Prussia was above all the landscape on the Curonian Lagoon, which was crisscrossed by rivers and swamps, precisely where our ancestors settled for centuries. The symbol of the moose antler (see figure) has also been used on the original Trakehner horses since 1787. Each horse was branded on its right flank with a single seven-pointed moose antler.

Where did our Haupt ancestors come from and how did they live?

Germany and Prussia have undergone many changes in their borders over the centuries. I would just like to take a brief look at the section that concerns us - today it belongs to Russia and, within the historical Osptreussen, is the region east of the Curonian Lagoon, which belonged to Prussian-Lithuania for centuries. Largely due to its location below sea level, it is crisscrossed by rivers and swamps and is difficult to access. As "The Great Wilderness", it provided refuge and settlement for the original inhabitants, the Prusses and some Lithuanian tribes during the centuries-long battles with the Teutonic Order.

Our Haupt ancestors (possibly immigrated from the Netherlands before the beginning of the 18th century) lived here e.g. as Krugers (innkeepers), farmers and fishermen, almost always settling on one of the rivers. Until the 19th century, Lithuanian was preserved as an everyday language in addition to German in this region. Thus, the family of our three protagonists Gustav, and Mathilde and Daniel Haupt was still mentioned in a document (source Schulsozietät Lauknen) as litausche Seelen. As Anna-Luise, Daniel's daughter, reported, these three also spoke Lithuanian.

Gustav, Mathilde and Daniel saw the light of day in the 1870s in the tiny moor colony of Julienbruch on the edge of the Großer Moosbruch, where the original geographical landscape of rivers, swamps and our famous heraldic animal is still most likely to be preserved. And even today These majestic animals roam this landscape, which has developed back into an overgrown cultural landscape in recent decades.

Julienbruch was one of the six moor colonies in East Prussia, which are probably among the last inland colonies established in Europe. The great-grandfather of the three, Samuel Wilkowski, is mentioned from 1824 as one of the first colonists mentioned in a document. His granddaughter Wilhelmine Wilkowski later married Daniel Haupt from neighbouring Kastaunen on the Tawell River. This is how our three came to the family name HAUPT. Unfortunately, the colony of Julienbruch, located on the Welmteich and the Greituschke river, no longer exists today, but during a walk through this enchanted landscape you can still guess the structure of the extinct settlement on two overgrown paved forest paths.

WWI (the Great War)

Daniel Haupt (on the left) as a soldier in WW1 before 1918. I just noticed a doggie behind the cart! You can see its two back legs.

Anna-Luise Grade, the bride of Daniel Haupt, on her 18th birthday in Königsberg (c.1897). In this Victorian era, flowers were used as symbols. Lilies of the valley could be interpreted as sensitivity. Anna-Luise comes from Ilmsdorf in the district of Gerdauen in East Prussia.

Sometime around 1900 she married Daniel Haupt from Julienbruch. They first lived in Königsberg and had two sons, Gustav (after uncle Gustav, who emigrated to the USA) and Hermann; both died there as children. During the 1st World War, when Königsberg became too unsafe, people moved to the vicinity of Daniel's home village of Julienbruch, to Nemonia, a fishing village on the Curonian Lagoon. Paul, Willi and Anna-Luise were born there. Years later Anna-Luise and Daniel were forced to evacuate their wonderful home on the Großer Friedrichsgraben during the Flight of 1945. They were never seen by family again.

New House! c.1920

Daniel and Anna-Luise's new house on the Großer Friedrichsgraben was built with the support of Aunt Mathilde, who had moved to Florida. It was built along the edge of the Großer Friedrichsgraben canal bank. You can almost see the canal to the left of the house.

Left to Right

Anna-Luise II, Willi, Paul, Anna-Luise I, and Daniel Haupt

The two in the background are the sisters of Anna-Luise 1, Auguste Hempel and Wilhelmine Neumann. What happened to them: Auguste survived the war, but her family of four people died of Hungerthyphus in 1946 in Wehlau in East Prussia. Daniel and Anna-Luise 1 also failed to escape. On January 21, 1945, during the great escape and at over 20 degrees minus, they were forced to leave the house and yard with all the animals behind. But it was already too late. Nothing is known about their further fate. Paul and Willi later survived the war and founded their own families in West Germany. After a successful escape, Anna -Luise arrived in Denmark by ship and internment there she was able to move to West Germany at the end of 1947.

Paul Haupt with shoemaker colleagues in front of the workshop in Seckenburg where he learned his craft. I think Paul is the tallest man in the center. You can locate Seckenburg in the map above - top left corner.

Shoemaker Open for Business

Paul Haupt with the self-made advertising sign for his shoemaking business. The house was located directly on the Großer Friedrichsgraben, so that the sign could be seen very well from the boats passing by.

Paul Gets Married

Wedding picture (c. 1938/39) of Daniel's son Paul and his new bride Rosa Altrock. Top row on the left is Daniel's daughter Anna-Luise Haupt. The photo and documentation of the family can be found in the Museum Alte Schule in Kelladen / Waldwinkel, where Rosa's family lived.

Last Photos

The last family photo before the failed escape of Anna-Luise and Daniel.

At their home on the Großer Friedrichsgraben.

Standing: Anna-Luise II

Seated Left to Right: Anna-Luise I, Daniel, Irmgard (their granddaughter/Paul's daughter)

The Flight - On the Run

An estimated seven million Germans were hoping to be evacuated from Kurland (Latvia) and East Prussia between 20 January and March 1945. As the days went by, hope gradually wore thin for the trapped civilians. The lack of a coherent evacuation plan left them desperate. Following rumors of an evacuation, thousands tried to cross the frozen waters between Pilau and Danzig, but Russian air raids smashed the ice and they drowned. About 20,000 drowned in shipwrecks on the Baltic Sea. About 150,000 people did not manage to flee East Prussia. The few survivors (estimated at about 20,000) were deported to Germany from the Russian-administered part of East Prussia until 1948. This flight was not spoken of very often by the people who survived. Recently, regional and online groups have formed to document this evacuation and the testimonies of the survivors and to process them biographically. They usually refer to the event as "On the Run". The photo above is from this period, but is not from the Haupt family.

Searching for Family

From the time of the internment in Denmark (1945-47) a German Red Cross search card requesting information on missing loved ones.

Children's Camp in Denmark

Anna-Luise II managed to escape from East Prussia on the MARS ship to Denmark on February 29, 1944. In autumn 1947 she was able to emigrate to Germany. Later she met her brothers Willi and Paul there after their release from captivity.

Photo is from 1947 from the Graaske camp at near the Aarhus Airport. At that time, the inmates were already feeling a little better. Anna-Luise II is in the center. She sewed pretty clothes for the other women from checkered old bed linen as seen in the photo.

Innkeepers

Postcard of the inn of Ewald Haupt, which belonged to an uncle or cousin of the family from 1900 to the 1930s. Anna-Luise II said that as a small child she often accompanied her father Daniel Haupt from home after a few schnapps. From the Gasthof at Wasserkreuz (water crossing) to her house on the Großer Friedrichsgraben, it was only a few steps away on foot. This inn was located in Nemonien on the Curonian Lagoon. It fell victim to a fire in the 2000s. There had been an inn (known as a jug) on that spot--on the banks of the water cross of the Nemonia Current since about 1600.

Gustav's sister Mathilde Haupt operated another inn in the city of Königsberg before 1910. She would ride a bicycle to work. This is not her but I imagine that she was just as lively as this young lady! Her first marriage was at 20 years old. She later immigrated to Tampa, Florida in America and married a man named John Carl. She never had any children.

She was very close with her brother Daniel and sent him support from America. She had intended to bring his son Paul to the U.S. but she died in 1930 before she could fulfill her promise.

We have a distant Haupt cousin living in Bonn (she is a travel guide). She has provided most of the descriptions and photos for this blog post. She has also provided me with edits to the automated German translation.

Thank you, Cousin!

We also have another wonderful Haupt cousin who is a civil servant in Bavaria. The Ewald Haupt postcard was provided by him.

Vielen Dank, Cousin!

For those in my American family, please contact me if you would like more information. You can also access more of the finer details in my Ancestry tree. I can give you a link.