The Tietje Family in Verdenermoor, Germany

I am so pleased that Kerstin is back to continue her story of the Tietje family.

Kerstin is a descendent of Johann Heinrich Tietje and his wife Maria Schwiebert, who immigrated to Henry County, Ohio. Kerstin has been researching the family in Germany and has discovered that the Tietje family lived in the small village of Verdenermoor for nine generations.  This segment of her story will reveal more about the history of Verdenermoor and the Plattdeusch language. 

Here's Kerstin:

“In 1500 the territory of today’s Verdenermoor was called “The Wild Moor” because of its impassable and rough nature.  Until the 16^th century, it was a 200 hectare territory entirely consisting of moor.”*

(Dianne: 200 hectare = 494.2 acres.  Moor = a tract of open, peaty, wasteland, often overgrown with heath, common in high latitudes and altitudes where drainage is poor; heath.  No wonder our ancestors felt right at home in the Great Black Swamp of Northwestern Ohio!)

Kerstin continues,

“The bishop from Bremen, Christoph, gave the moor to the town of Verden as a present in 1551, so it was named Verdener Moor.  The people had to dig peat for fuel for heating, as he wanted to save his own valuable forests.

In 1789, this territory was settled for the first time, and the moor territory was reclaimed for agriculture.  The people lived in large houses, together with their cattle, under one roof.  This had the advantage of saving energy and building materials.  Most of the old farms were pure wooden buildings.  In the middle of the room was usually a walled fireplace.  The roof gables could pull the smoke up and at the same time the sausage and ham products hanging from the ceiling could be smoked. 

Today there is the small village, Verdenermoor, which has sixteen farms, but only three of them are fully used for agriculture.  You can find some beautiful, old farms there where you can spend the holidays in the country.  Today, people try to protect the moors and the heath; there are places where you already can see the remains of peat extraction.  I know from my ancestors, that the streets were impassable and muddy, and that sometimes it must have been impossible for coaches to go from one village to another.  This is long ago, but today there are still some very old, original lanes out of sandy ground, with old trees along, and some streets of old cobblestone.

It is not surprising that the hard work and poverty shaped the mentality of the moorland farmers.  Often they are said to be a little stubborn and taciturn.  They had their own special dialect called “Plattdeusch” which is not easy to understand.  Plattdeusch or Niederdeutsch (Low German) was spoken many hundreds of years ago in the northern territory of Germany, when in the 16^th and 17^th centuries there was a change, and the educated middle class started to write and speak more and more in the High German language.  As time drew on, the major part of the North German population spoke High German, and only the people in the country held the tradition and used Low German, the Plattdeusch, in the small villages and farms.

I read that linguistic researchers think that it is not only a dialect, but a language of independent character, partly because it has its own vocabulary and partly because of the varying grammar.  There are parts of the vocabulary which agree with the Dutch language and have also Old English language influences.  “Platt” is translated “flat,” but it really doesn’t mean “flat,” but instead “clear,” “familiar,” or “good to understand.” 

I know that my ancestors spoke “Plattdeusch,” and I often heard a mixture of Plattdeusch and High German when I was a child and had been on a visit in Hamburg.  Once I visited a play in Hamburg city with my great-aunt Hertha, which was performed in original Plattdeusch.  First I didn’t understand anything, and I thought I heard a totally strange language.  While there was a break, my aunt had to tell me what had happened in the play.  With time, you get a feel to understand it, but it is not easy.  A very popular example: “Beten scheef hett Gott leef.”  In High German: Ein bisschen schief hat Gott lieb.”  In English: “A bit crooked loves God.”  They liked to use such funny patterns.  Today you still can hear Plattdeusch being talked in rural districts, and there are some organizations which associate with that way of speaking and try to save that dialect.  There are also books available in Plattdeusch, books of fairy tales and plays.”

Kerstin's story will continue ...

This post originally appeared on my previous blog on November 8, 2011.