St. Nicolas Catholic Church in Schirrhein An extract of Volume I, "The Falter-Scharf Family Fron About 1585" Quoted Segments Are Translated by Vince Falter from "A Lisiere De La Foret" the history of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France St. Nicolas Church has been the center of all activity in Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen for over two centuries and it has a well-documented and carefully preserved history. In view of the fact that the conditions in Schirrhein of the Steinmetzes were roughly equivalent to the conditions in the villages in which the Scharfs, Falters, Kihms, Ardners, and Müllers lived, it is presented here. The following exerpted translation was made by Vincent FALTER from the original French text in À La Lisière De La Forêt, Schirrhein-Schirrhoffen;1995; editions COPUR, the history of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen. “Until the beginning of XVIIth century, the parish of Saint Nicolas de Schirrhein-Schirrhoffen was a grubby (of minor importance] extension of the parish of Saint-Georges de Haguenau. It was controlled by the Franciscans. Dr. PFLEGER wrote in his work " Die elsâssische Pfarrei: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung [The Alsatian Parishes: Their Emergence and Development]" the priests from Haguenau in Schirr Rhin [sic] were provided ‘cold living and hard living, far removed [from Haguenau].’ Throughout the XVIII century the Franciscans extracted a yearly donation [fee], fixed by a contract. The monastery signed this contract with Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen. Each year, Schirrhein provided 100 guilders to the monastery of the Franciscans. This sum was payable quarterly. It also annually donated 40 guilders to the landlord of the village that fed and boarded the Franciscans in service to the community. These two villages [Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen] also delivered 13 cartloads of wood per annum to the monastery. “As of 1693, Schirrhein had a small church or chapel which made it possible to celebrate the mass. This small church was located between Church Street and the Street of the Gentlemen. The material and financial administration of the parish was entrusted to a Heiligenmeyer. The Heileigenmeyer [this interpretation is not precise, but it roughly means Holy Mayor, which is something like a Church Deacon] took care of the purchases, kept the books on the expenditures of the church, and drew up the parish accounts each year.” Since our Steinmetzes were related to the Halters by marriage, the following information is of interest. The first known Heiligenmeyer was Abraham Halter. His wife was Agathe ____. In 1682, he bought a house in the village for 400 Guilders. The First Priests in Schirrhein “It was in 1712, thanks to an intervention of the Lord Niedheimer de Wasenbourg, owners of the fields around Schirrhoffen, that Schirrhein was set up as a parish, and Schirrhoffen became an appendage. The first [resident] priest of Schirrhein was François Joseph ROTHJACOB. … He was initially a Vicar at Haguenau, and was named pastor of Schirrhein on October 23, 1712. He occupied this position until January 21, 1725. … In 1718, the Lord Niedheimer de Wasenbourg presented a chalice to the new parish and placed it under the protection of Saint Nicolas. Nicolas was a rather widespread first name in this community. This chalice witnessed the first days of the existence of our parish and is currently carefully and securely preserved in the parish presbytery. “The second priest of the parish was Joseph GRAU. … He was named to lead the parish of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen in October 17, 1725. As he took his station, there arose litigation against his predecessor. Father ROTHJACOB who had continued to receive the benefits and the income of his pastorate, even after his departure, whereas the [replacement] priest Joseph GRAU received no income during the first five months of his presence in Schirrhein. He reported this unseemly business to a Diocese judge. The Diocese judge directed Father ROTHJACOB to return to his successor the proportion of the income that he received during the time that Father GRAU was there [in Schirrhein], and to begin counting from Saint-Jean-Baptiste day, June 24, 1725 [before Father GRAU had been selected to go to Schirrhein]. He was also ordered to pay 46 guilders for the court expenses. “Father Joseph GRAU, remained a very long time in Schirrhein. It is he who made the arrangements to build the new church. In 1768, he was reassigned to Mutzig, because of his great age and his illnesses. The magistrate of Haguenau granted to him a pension. “Joseph Richard ZIPP succeeded him in 1769 and remained in the parish until 1805. He and his nephew were stopped on March 28, 1791 (during the French Revolution) and detained for seditious writings. Released, he immigrated [fled] to the Country of Baden [Germany]. He returned to Schirrhein in 1802 and continued to lead its ministry until his death.” Construction of the New Church in 1749 “During first half of the XVIIIth century, the population of the two villages had greatly increased. In 1693, Schirrhein was a very small village of only 30 families. By 1773, the village counted 660 inhabitants. It was thus necessary to build a new church. “Built in 1749, the parish church was expanded in 1866. Its [current] bell- tower dates back to 1776. At its side we can still see the presbytery which was built in 1772. “On 18 August 1721, Fez, the Vicar General and an official of the Diocese of Strasbourg, in a visit to Schirrhein, noted that the old church was in very bad condition and too small to hold all parishioners. He ordered it to be rebuilt or at least enlarged. But the two communes had no resources and were unable to support such a significant project. On July 9, of 1736, Father GRAU addressed a letter to the magistrate of Haguenau, requesting him to undertake the construction of the new church. He invited the magistrate to come to the village to negotiate an arrangement. On February 18, 1771, Stettmeister ROTHJACOB ordered the committee of the church to make a new plan and a new estimate and to present it to him in order to finally put the work in action. The new parish house was built in 1772. Today this building is still used and is undoubtedly the oldest building of the village. Schirrheiners During the French Revolution “On July 12, 1790, the National Assembly voted upon the civil constitution of the clergy, which marked a turning point in the Revolution. Based on this [constitution], the members of the clergy were regarded as functionaries of the State and were thus to be paid by the State. They had to swear an oath to the new constitution and to commit themselves to respecting it scrupulously. Those who refused to swear the oath lost both their office and the right to conduct worship services. They were treated like rebels and disturbers of law and order. “The civil constitution of the clergy also removed the old episcopal sees and set up one in each department. Alsace was divided into two; Strasbourg and Colmar. It prescribed, finally, that all the bishops and priests were to be elected by the whole of the citizens, i.e. also by Protestant, Jewish and atheistic citizens. That created a major scandal throughout the country. “Later, Prince TALLEYRAND stated: “do not fear to recognize that the civil constitution of the clergy, issued by the Constituent Assembly, is the greatest political fault of this assembly, independently of the dreadful crimes which were the consequence. “The reaction against the civil constitution for the clergy was extremely critical in Alsace. As of June 13, 1790, the bishop of Strasbourg, i.e. the Cardinal of Rohan, left his residence since he no longer felt safe. He settled in Ettenheim, which was in Baden, Germany. “Father ZIPP was not impressed by the constitution, however. The following Sunday, he publicly denounced it from the pulpit. “Alsace then underwent a major religious crisis. The majority of the priests refused to take the oath [to the French state]. And the population supported them. The priests who did swear were badly treated in the parishes. The government increasingly abandoned its revolutionary ideals, but it continued to condemn the recalcitrant priests. At that moment, many priests left the country. Those that remained were forced to hide and work clandestinely. Thus opened a dark period in the history of our country [France]. “The contrary declarations and the orders published by the bishop were distributed clandestinely throughout the diocese and this put the revolutionists in a rage. They viewed these publications as seditious writings, which had the sole goal of fomenting a counter-revolution in the province. “The situation became increasingly difficult for him [Father ZIPP]. Opinions started to heat up in the village. Local quarrels became more frequent. The "warlike" conflict of the municipality of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen in March 1792 was a typical example of these quarrels. One incident started when a woman reported that some people of Schirrhoffen threatened the priest and that there was over 'there” [in Schirrhoffen] a great conflict between the patriots [peasants] and the aristocrats [landholders].' Immediately, the Mayor of Schirrhein, Mr. HALTER, sounded the alarm bell and got under way towards Schirrhoffen. The Schirrhein municipal officer and schoolmaster Chrétien RICHTER accompanied him. Mr. BERTRAND confirmed in his report of April 6, the violence of the attackers who had seriously wounded several citizens of the guard of Schirrhoffen, and who appeared to have had their hatred and that of their neighbors excited by the patriotism and opposition to the priests [by the people of Schirrhoffen]. The Director suspended the mayor and the schoolmaster of Schirrhein and directed the remaining primary municipal officers to take over the functions of the mayor at the time of the meeting, held May 18. He denounced the three culprits to the court and required that the court’s findings to be read by one of the [Schirrhein or Schirrhoffen?] municipal officers before the gathered community, and then be transcribed in the registers of the commune. The expenses of the court’s investigation were charged to the culprits, that is to say, 41.10 pounds. Moreover, the Director wrote a letter to the Ministry of the Interior denouncing the illegal control exercised by these guilty civil servants. “Feeling that their presence in Schirrhein would cause still other disturbances, Father ZIPP and his Vicar left the territory on August 14, 1792. They went to Buhl in the Country of Baden [Germany] where, awaiting him was the former Master of Schirrhof, the Baron DE VORSTATT, as well as other emigrants of the [Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen] area. The parish did not remain for a long time without a priest after the departure of Father ZIPP. On October 2, 1792, the new bishop named as priest of the parish, Father Alexandre RUCH. “Alexandre RUCH … was ordained a priest in 1791. [The seminary of his order counted 20 monks and 5 [religious] brothers at the beginning of the Revolution. All of these monks had been pensioned by the Director who fixed their pension at 700 pounds. … All of them refused to swear the oath [to the Revolutionaries], except Alexandre RUCH. “On May 15, 1791, the bishop appointed Alexandre [RUCH] as the Vicar of Saint- Georges de Haguenau. Then, after the departure of Father ZIPP, he was named head of the parish at Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen. He probably did not reside at the parish house, since this building had been declared property of the nation and had been allocated to Citizen LUX of Schirrhein who then resided in it. Father Alexandre RUCH was a supporter of the Revolution and did not remain in Schirrhein for very long. “The commune proposed to sell Father ZIPP’s goods at auction. His Zipp family [parents] of Haguenau then addressed a petition to the Director of Bas-Rhin, through a general intermediary who was the guard of the national forest, Joseph HARTRICH, to oppose this sale and to claim the goods of their son. According to the family, Father ZIPP had departed the territory to go to Switzerland, in conformity with the law of August 26. He could thus by no means be regarded as an emigrant. The Director examined the certificate issued by the commune, checked the passport and stated that it was not necessary for him to declare that he was removing from Schirrhein like an emigrant. He also declared that the inventory drawn up by the municipality was null and void. The Zipp family was authorized to have the goods of their son [Father ZIPP]. “Father ZIPP actually did not go to Switzerland, but to Buhl, in the territory of the Margrave of Baden [Germany], where he joined other old associates and friends. One year later, he was listed on the roster of emigrants. His goods and rent were sequestered and sold at auction. “A short time afterwards, when this lease continued in force, the municipality wanted to sell the parish house, its garden and its other properties. Joseph HALTER, Christian RICHTER and D. HEISSERER were prepared to acquire them in court for 4,000 pounds. Outraged [at the proposed sale of the church property that he was living in], George LUX protested to the Director of Haguenau. Article 6 of the law of November 17, 1794 specified that the parish houses were to be sold, with the profit to the Republic to be placed at the disposal of the municipalities to be used for housing teachers and to receive pupils. Finally, however, the parish house was not sold and it remained property of the commune. “It was also during this revolutionary period that part of our [parish] records disappeared. The registers of baptism, of marriage, and of death of all persons before the Revolution are untraceable. The [Haguenau] Departmental records state that these registers “would have been destroyed by fire.” [There is no further explanation for the “fire” comment. Nonetheless, it is unfortunate that the records no longer exist]. Saint Nicolas Parish in the XIXth Century “About the middle of the XIXth century, the parish church, built in 1749, was much too small to contain all the faithful ones. The population of the two villages had increased considerably. From 44 families in 1750, Schirrhein grew to 1337 inhabitants. Thus there was a need to increase the size of the church. Then there arose the difficulty of financing the work, because the commune was without any income and the majority of the inhabitants were poor. The town council had already made a decision in this direction in 1748, but it finally had to give up the project, due to the lack of financial means. “On May 5, 1861, [the Priest?] consulted the Fabric Committee of the Church [an ecclesiastical council], chaired by Ignace HALTER, and decided to undertake, without delay, the work of enlarging the building. This decision was made in presence of Father Armand BRONNER and of the mayor, Joseph HALTER. The commune called upon the architect of the Department, who drew up a plan and worked out an estimate. This estimate rose to 15,000 francs. The commune requested from the prefect of the Department a subsidy of 5,000 francs. “Work was completed quickly. It began on August 1, 1866 and was completed on October 29 of the same year. Thus, the capacity was increased thanks to the generosity of the parishioners and without the commune spending money. It was with an obvious satisfaction that Father Armand BRONNER could write in the Register regarding the deliberations of the Fabric Committee that served the inhabitants of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen. All owed them a debt for their genuine Christian faith, placing the parish between the hands of their Pastor and [as] they surrendered their last mite to have a house worthy of God. “Hitherto, it was necessary to cross the cemetery to reach the church [note: cemeteries in Alsace and other places in Western Europe until perhaps 1900 were habitually placed around the church itself]. Father Armand BRONNER, very content with his parishioners, donated five acres of the court of the presbytery to provide easier access to the church. The commune could thus build a road connecting Station Street to the church. Moreover, Father BRONNER paid the cost of 571 francs out of his own pocket. “Mr. BERNHART, architect of the town of Haguenau, calculated the expenditure and dealt with the work. It was [contracted with] the company Zimmermann de Gries, of the canton of Brumath, which was in charge of the completion of the work. It was a duty to scrupulously respect the [engineering] plan and the [cost] estimate established by the architect. This estimate was 6,700 marks, but it proved so inadequate that this sum was greatly exceeded. The cost of construction, including the fees of the architect, rose to 11,685 marks. To cover this expenditure, the commune took a loan of 8,000 marks. The parish provided the remainder, i.e. 3,685 marks. “On June 12, 1876, the wall of the church was completed and on December 15 of the same year the tower was completed. The horsedrawn wagon carriers of the village carted to the construction site the various necessary materials. Thus was bought the gravel from Sessenheim, the stone from Bischwiller, and the sand [for the cement] from Henri DORRFFER of Schirrhein. “The belltower was the responsibility of Mayor Antoine HALTER during the year 1877, and it was financed by the commune. On the other hand, the priest and his faithful parishioners provided the bells, as well as the organ. The two new bells, the largest of which weighed 366 kilograms [over 500 pounds] and the smallest 178 kilograms, came from the company of Edel LUDWIG, a founder of the company of that name in Strasbourg. Opening of the Vicarate in 1892 “About 1890, the parish counted about 1600 people. With this number, the priest did not have yet the right of biner - authority to celebrate two masses the same day - and the church was not large enough to accommodate everyone. Therefore many of the faithful could not attend church each Sunday, nor make an act of confession and attend the church on feastdays. In addition, the priest, [Father] ZITVOGEL, a fragile and sick man, could not ensure [that he could provide] the required hours of religious teaching in the schools. The parish had about 350 children of an age that required them to be provided such education. Thus, it was judged that it was necessary to open a vicariate in Schirrhein. LÉVÊQUE answered this request favorably. “The town council granted to the first Vicar the annual pay of 280 marks and made arrangements for a room [a residence]. The town council of Schirrhein asked Schirrhoffen to pay for part of the costs of opening a vicariate and to pay the Vicar an annual wage of 150 marks. But Schirrhoffen categorically refused to pay such the money. “The vicariate was of short duration. It was eliminated in 1900 after the departure of the priest François REICHERT. The following is a list of the priests of Schirrhein during this [latter] period: - Auguste SCHMITT (February through December 1892). - Joseph WAGNER (1892-1894). - Alphonse EGER (1894-1896). - François-Xavier AUGUSTIN (1896-1897). - Jean-Baptiste DÜFFNER (1897-1899). - Louis KEMMEL (he signed his last document in 1899). - Jean-Baptiste DÜFFNER (1897-1899). - Louis KEMMEL (he signed his last document in 1899).” [Note: There is some ambiguity regarding dates above. This is taken directly from the book.] New Additions to Saint Nicolas “It was Father François REICHERT who completed the interior renovation of our old parish church. The record of the deliberations of the parish committee mentions that on July 4, 1897, the curé REICHERT and the members of the consulting committee organized a collection in the parish. On their part, the Muttergottes Jungfrauen [a parish association] also conducted a collection for the acquisition of a new banner. On the whole, the two collections made it possible to gather the sum of 2,146 marks. Thanks to this money, additional work was undertaken inside the church: repairs, installation of a floor under the benches as well as the repair of the gates. A new pulpit was installed. It came from Saint-Louis of Strasbourg. They also bought a new cupboard for the robes of the children of the choir and another for the surplis and robes of the priests. In addition, flagstones were procured from Sarreguemines and were laid in the nave of the church. The interior of the church remained thus [unaltered] to the Second World War.” Today, St. Nicolas Catholic Church is still the only church in either town and it serves both Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen. As earlier indicated, there was a small, ancient chapel in Schirrhoffen that had St. Jacques as its patron saint, but in 1712, it apparently became inactive or was possibly destroyed when Schirrhoffen became a part of the parish of St. Nicolas of Schirrhein. As a result, the church at Schirrhein gained a secondary patron saint, St. Jacques. Later in the 1700s, St. Nicolas church maintained separate parish books for each community and did so for many years. The reason for this unusual arrangement is not known, definitively. It could be a carry-over from the period when Schirrhoffen considered itself as a separate parish (St. Jacques), but it is suspected that this has something to do with the history of the two towns. According to the volume on Bas-Rhin in the series Paroisses et communes de France, Schirrhein was historically under the control and governance of Haguenau. Schirrhoffen was part of the Seigneurie de Warstatt. When Alsace was first organized into départements, arrondissements and cantons during the French Revolution Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen were put into different cantons, despite the fact that they are virtually one village. That indicates there may have been administrative or bureaucratic reasons for keeping separate records. It is interesting to note the religious differences between the two villages. As already stated, the only Christian church in either village was St. Nicolas Catholic Church in Schirrhein. Schirrhein was totally Catholic in 1807 despite the after-effects of the anti-Catholic French Revolution. According to Paroisses et communes de France, Schirrhoffen however, was 38% Jewish and about 55% Catholic during the same period. Twenty years earlier, there were no Jews in Schirrhoffen. There were historically few conflicts between the Catholics and the Jews (but the ones that did occur were very divisive). When World War I came on the scene, the Jews of Schirrhoffen had built a synagogue and school, and were respected citizens. Most of the Jews departed Schirrhoffen about the time of World War I and most of those who were still there at the beginning of World War II either fled Schirrhoffen or were deported to the concentration camps. In the final stages of the War in France in February 1945, an artillery bombardment by US and Allied forces against the German defenders of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen destroyed both St. Nicolas Catholic Church and the Jewish synagogue in Schirrhoffen. Much of both of the villages had to be completely rebuilt. Despite the political combinations and separations of the two villages, some of the inhabitants of Schirrhoffen maintain to this day that their village patron saint is St. Jacques, not St. Nicolas. To them, St. Nicolas is only the name of the parish where they attend Mass. It is not considered the name of their village patron saint, which lent his name to their chapel in the early 1700s. A number of persons surnamed Steinmetz lived in the towns of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen after 1793, the first year of the Catholic parish records in the village, to include my 4th greatgrandfather, General Sebastien Steinmetz. While the church records beginning in 1793 survive, headstones in the cemetery can no longer be checked for dates and names since cemetery plots are “recycled” by the families every 75 years or so and, in any event, the newer Catholic church was built over the old cemetery. The new cemetery, on the northwest outskirts of the town, contains several Steinmetz family plots, but none of the dated headstones and monuments is more than 50 years old.