Seeing Anew: Thursday, 14 June 2018: From Timmendorfer Strand to Elmshorn and Hamburg, Germany

After a morning swim and breakfast at the Royal Hotel in Timmendorfer Strand, we checked out and drove to Elmshorn to see where my ancestors came from. Would Elmshorn be a prosperous industrial city, a quaint market town, or a struggling urban area?

First we drove southwest through Schleswig-Holstein, a farming area, with a lot of dairy farms and pasture land. The GPS directed us into the outskirts of Hamburg, and then sent us northwest into Elmshorn. It seemed like a round-about way to go!

Dairy farming in Schleswig-Holstein

When we arrived in Elmshorn, we parked alongside The Krückau, a tributary of the Elbe. On the other side sat the blue Kölln silos and plant. I recognized Kölln as the brand of oats and muesli that I sometimes buy at Aldi back home.

Kölln plant (oats and cereals) on The Krückau

We walked up a pedestrian way and stopped at the Stadtcafé, where we each had a half Brötchen with smoked salmon, tomato and cucumber. Then we went to Heymanns bookstore next door to browse for gifts, and finally we walked up to the Buttermarkt, Elmshorn's quaint little Marketplace. There was a fruit stand, a flower stall, and more cafes and shops. Right in the center stood St. Nikolai Church. According to records I have, my great-great-grandparents had lived near here on Wedencamp, an old street on the edge of the pedestrian way.

The Buttermarkt in Elmshorn

Strawberries are in season

St. Nikolai Church in Elmshorn

A lucky encounter!

The church was closed, but soon we spotted a woman tacking up a sign for a flea-market on the bulletin board. I went over and asked her if the church was ever open during the week. She was so helpful! She led us a block away to the church office, and there I was able to leave an inquiry about baptismal and other church records. As we were about to leave, we happened to meet the pastor, who very kindly offered to take us on a tour of the church, after he met with people regarding an exhibition relating to the refugee crisis.

We went to Junge Die Bäckerei, a bakery cafe in the Buttermarkt and passed the time with a coffee and a Franzbrötchen, which is like a flat, cinnamon croissant.

Franzbrötchen and other German pastries

Around 2:00 p.m. we walked back to the church just as the pastor was arriving. Fortunately for us, he spoke English. He had spent a year at Duke University, where he studied theology and served an internship in hospital pastoral care. His father was a journalist and an early Fulbright scholar at Columbia University.

He showed us around the beautiful Baroque church, one of the few we had seen that still retained its original Baroque interior. So many other churches had been destroyed during the war, and modern or neoclassical structures had been built to replace them. The original Nikolaikirche had been built in A.D. 1360. It had been destroyed during a war with Denmark-Sweden, and then was rebuilt in 1661, and that was the building we were now standing in.

A tour of the church

Nave and altar

Carved baptismal font

In 1733 an addition called the Schiffers Church had been added. It was a place for the sailors to sit, since at that time Elmshorn was a center for the whaling industry.

The Schiffers Church, an addition to the church

During World War II, the church had miraculously been spared from the bombing, but over the years it faced another challenge. Whenever the Elbe flooded, the Krückau also flooded, and the church was inundated with water. He showed us a sign on a pew marking the water level in the church after the 1962 flood.

1962 Flood level inside the church

While Dan and the pastor were talking, I searched on my phone and found a photo of a box and salad serving set that my great-grandfather, William C. Schmidt (1854-1915), had carved after emigrating to America. He had been born in Elmshorn, and was 21 years old when he came to America. He found work as a carpenter, but later in life he became an architect. I always wondered if his forefathers had been church woodcarvers, because his ornate leafy carvings reminded me of the kind of carving you often see on Baroque pulpits and organs.

Carved salad set box by Wilhelm Christopher Schmidt (1854-1915)

Carved salad set by William C. Schmidt. Note 1878 date.

Note William C. Schmidt's initials, W Sch, and 1878, on the fork and spoon handles

I showed the photo to the pastor, and he immediately recognized the type of carving (Arcantus). He then pointed up at the ceiling. The same motif was all over the ceiling! He looked at William C. Schmidt's initials and date (1878) on the box, and said that it was possible that William's grandfather might have been one of the church Holzschnitzer (woodcarvers)!

The nave. Note the intricate carvings on the ceiling

Then we were very kindly invited for coffee in a beautiful study, and we sat discussing the history of the church and the present day refugee crisis. The pastor said St. Nikolai's most important role was teaching German to the refugees, because language was fundamental to meeting all their other needs. They also assisted refugees with finding housing and basic supplies. It is a difficult role, especially as the government's definition of refugee status has been narrowing. For example, now Iraq is considered to be a "safe" country, so refugees from there are no longer allowed asylum.

The afternoon grew late and we needed to get to Das Weiss Hotel an der Elbchaussee in Hamburg to check in. The pastor was familiar with the hotel. He said it was not far from Altona, which once was the second largest city in Denmark. He told us that the large villas on the Elbchaussee were once owned by the river pilots. Every commercial vessel on the Elbe needs a pilot boat to guide it into and out of the harbor. He also said the hotel was across the street from Jenisch Park, his favorite park in Hamburg. He mentioned some connection with Hans Barlach (or Ernst Barlach?) and the church and the park, but my notes are rather incomplete on that.

He also invited us to a free concert at St. Petri in Hamburg on Saturday. He was singing in it, and he offered to show us around Hamburg afterwards. We had plans with other friends for Saturday, so we sadly had to decline.

When we got back to our car, we found we had a parking ticket! Someone told us that we could pay it at the bank, but when we got there, the teller said we'd have to open an account! We were then directed to the Rathaus (City Hall) to pay for it. This was a bit of a hike, but fortunately the nightmarish stories I heard about German bureaucracy proved untrue. We easily found the right office and they were happy to take our 20 Euros and soon we were on the way to Hamburg.

The traffic to Hamburg was another story. It took us a couple hours to go just 30 kilometers. There was so much traffic and construction, and we were at a standstill a lot of the time. It put an end to any hope of going to the 10 a.m. church service in Elmshorn before our flight on Sunday.

We finally arrived at Das Weiss Hotel. We had a beautiful corner room, with windows on two sides, letting in the cool breezes from the river. The balcony overlooked the Elbe. The river was huge! Large container ships came into the harbor every few minutes, each one guided by one tug towing, one pushing, and one dragging.

We unpacked and sat out on the balcony and watched the commercial vessels, sailboats, water taxis, tour boats, barges, and even tall ships, make their way through the harbor.

A tall ship on the Elbe

For dinner we went to Landhaus Scherer, about five minutes from the hotel. Since it was late, we just ate in the Bistro. The waitress encouraged us to try Matjes Filets (a local white herring that had just come into season). It was served with a bacon onion sauce, parsley potatoes, and green beans. One of us got that, and the other got salmon tartar and potato pancakes. Both were great choices.

I mentioned to the waitress that I had not been able to find Rote Grütze (supposedly, a summer specialty in northern Germany) anywhere on our trip, and it was not on the menu here either. She asked the chef, and he offered to make us some for dessert! It came out with homemade vanilla ice cream and a garnish of mint, and it really hit the spot!