Chapter 1
The Area of Origin
My ancestors came primarily from the eastern part of Germany, that is, essentially, from the area between the Elbe
river on the West, the Oder river on the East, Bohemia on the South, and the Baltic Sea on the North.*
* This area largely overlaps with the area of the present Deutsche Demokratische Republik (East Germany),
except for parts in the northwest which are in the present “Deutsche Bundesrepublik” (West Germany) and parts
in the southeast that are in present day Poland.
Close to the coast, halfway between Berlin arid Sweden, there is a large island, called Rügen. The Friedrichs
family comes from this island.
Click here to see a current day map of this area in Germany
Click here for period (1801) map of the area - (Large file may be slow)
Click here for detail 1801 map of Rugen Island Area
Click here for Kurt O. Friedrichs Original hand drawn map showing key town locations
Before telling the story of this family I should like to mention some historical facts about the area described.
Except for its extreme northwestern part, this area was formerly occupied by various Slavic tribes, related to the
Poles, called “wendisch” by the Germans. (The had come from the east after about 500 A.D.) They are also
referred to as “Elbslaven” by a Polish author writing in German. These tribes had settled in this area at about 550
AD Up to about 1,000 AD there had been frequent fighting between the Wends and the Germans living to the
west of them. But later on the Wendish rulers accepted German settlers in their land since the Germans had
farming methods and were effective craftsmen and merchants in the towns. This wave of settlement had its high
point at about 1150 AD, but it continued for several centuries. Soon most of the population in this area consisted
of German or Germanized Wends; but there always existed some Wendish pockets. Most of them have
disappeared; but some of them still exist today.
There can be no doubt that I have quite a number of Wendish ancestors. Never the less, there are only two strictly
Wendish names among my known ancestors: the name “Subklev” of a serf and the name “Baudissin” of a noble
family. In addition there are three or four Germanized Wendish names. Germanization, and also translation of
Wendish names into German ones, happened all the time, even up to recent years. Still I am sure that the majority
of my ancestors were Germans.
The main reason for this assumption is that most of my earliest known ancestors were craftsmen and merchants in
the towns, while only few of them lived in the country.
The island of Rügen was gradually settled by Germans from 1200 AD on. After 1300 the Germans already
dominated there. In a will, issued in 1306, Prince Wizlaw II of Rügen implored his heirs to see to it that their
Wendish subjects would enjoy the same freedoms that they had enjoyed during his lifetime. By 1404 the
Germanization of Rügen was complete. It is reported that the last person on Rügen who still could speak
Wendish, an old woman, called Frau Gülz, had died on a remote peninsula in 1404.*
*In a Polish book I found the statement that Wendish was still spoken on Rügen in the 15th century.
Strictly speaking, this statement -as formulated - is correct.
Click here for oldest pictorial view of any of our ancestors dating to this period- MNF
The German settlers near the Baltic coast came mostly from the northern Rhineland and hence spoke Low
German. Among them there may have been one or more with the name “Frederiks” i.e. son of Frederik. In fact, at
about 1500, there were a mayor and a councilman in the city of Riga in Latvia with that name. Somewhat later
they changed their name to the High German from “Friedrichs”, perhaps under the influence of Luther’s Bible.
Such a change may have taken place in other parts of northern Germany. In any case the name Friedrichs is rather
common on the island of Rügen.
It should be mentioned that Rügen and the adjacent part of the mainland, called Pomerania, had become
subjected to the Grandduke of Brandehburg in the seventeenth century. The area called Brandenburg, south of
Pomerania, was the nucleus of the later Prussia. At the end of the Thirty Years War, 1648, the western part of
Pomerania, including Rügen, became subjected to Sweden and remained so up to 1815. Thus, between 1648 and
1815 the members of the Friedrichs family were Swedish subjects; but, of course they did not normally speak
Swedish.
My early ancestors on Rügen spoke Low German. They understood High German though, since Church services
and other ceremonies were conducted in High German. In later years educated people spoke only High German
among themselves, but spoke Low German to farm workers. That was still so in 1916, when I stayed on Rügen
for some time.
Click here to go to Chapter 2 The early Friedrichs Return to main History page
