1. Behlkow, December 15, 1919
2. Behlkow, January 26, 1920
3. Behlkow, July 11, 1921
4. Behlkow, January 31, 1923
5. Behlkow, March 22, 1923
6. Behlkow, August 18, 1923
7. Behlkow, November 26, 1924
8. Behlkow, August 1, 1926
9. Triebs, July 31, 1922
10. Triebs, December 10, 1922
To Mom and Aunt Maxine,
Enclosed are letters written from two of your Grandmother Thurler's sisters in Prussia from December 15, 1919 through August 1, 1926.
The first eight letters were sent by the Widow Luedcke, the town Behlkow near Gummin, the district Stettin, the area farther Pomerania Prussia.
The last two letters have an address from Otto Kasten in Triebs near Treptow in the county Rega. He was the husband of sister, Auguste.
HISTORY:
POMERANIA -- an historic region of north-central Europe, extending along the south coast of the Baltic Sea from Stralsund to the Vistula River, now divided between Poland and East Germany.
PRUSSIA -- A former German state in northern and central Germany, 113,545 square miles in area, formally dissolved in 1947 and divided among East and West Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union.
SIBLINGS OF YOUR GRANDMOTHER PFEIL THURLER WHO LIVED IN GERMANY
*Brother, Erich, mentioned in letter 12/10/22 Sister, Auguste Kasten lived in Triebs, married to Otto [1863- ?] Sister, Karoline Luedcke, lived in Behlkow, widowed, husband died around 1903.
Children:
For pictures of Wilhelm & Sophia, return to main page. They came to the U.S. in about 1888.
* Cheryl's notes (above) are taken from these letters and (improperly) suggest unknown siblings Erich, Erna, and Willi (perhaps niece and nephews of Karoline?), while making no mention of Bertha.
There seems to be some change with last vowel of Wilhelmine/Wilhelmina, Albertine/Albertina, Auguste/Augusta, Therese/Theresa.
LETTER 1
Behlkow
December 15, 1919
Dear Sister and Brother-In-Law,
I also must write a few words to you that I am still now rather healthy. I am so happy about all of you that you have given me so many presents. It is a great help to me.
It is now a terrible time in Germany. The war can do such a thing. Everything is too expensive. It's all right for the farmers. They take in enough money so they can spend it, too.
Grain is now so expensive. A hundred pounds of oats cost 97 marks now. It was never this way before. I always say the world it cannot stand much longer. And a yard of material costs 70-80 marks. A suit for a man costs over a thousand marks. And a pair of boots costs 200 marks. And food is so expensive. A laborer cannot earn so much. Every four weeks I receive 26 marks. Now you can imagine what I can do with that!
Now I must write to you how high the dollar is in comparison to our money. Twenty-eight marks for a dollar. Now you can imagine how very glad I was. Recently I exchanged the money and I will give Auguste also her money. Auguste is all right. She still has her husband and her own home.
Erna is also already married and has two children. They live in Berlin. Her husband is with the electric street car. But in Berlin there is now also nothing to eat.
And Willi is not yet married. He was also badly injured but his wounds are healed now.
Auguste, she says she also wants to write but she keeps forgetting to.
Dear sister and brother-in-law, how many children do you have? Ida, she has eight children. Anna, five. Rosa, she has no children. They all have a good husband. I was very glad that they came back home again from the war. And they all became healthy.
Now I will close. Many greetings and kisses from me and my children and I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, early healthy Christmas festival and also say my best thanks.
Your sister,
Karoline
My address Mrs. Widow Luedcke, Behlkow near Gummin Farther Pomerania Prussia
Behlkow
January 26, 1920
Dear Sister and Brother-in-law.
With longing heart that we thank God are all now healthy. For 14 days I laid in bed but now it's all right again pretty much. In the winter it is always pretty bad with me. I cannot bear the cold any more.
Dear sister, how are you? How are your children? How many do you have? I wouldn't have believed that I would still hear from you. But I cannot write to you at all how very happy I am when I received the first letter that you were all still alive.
How is sister, Maria? Probably she is not now so well since her husband is dead. Death makes deep wounds. I have felt this. But, dear sister, what does that help? We must bear everything with patience. What has this war done to everything? So much misery and need in the world. What has become of Germany? It is good that our parents have not lived to see this. We always said when the war is over it will be better and now it becomes worse and worse and every day more expensive if one goes and wants to buy something.
For one yard of material 70-75 marks and even more. And groceries become also every day more expensive. It is now unheard of. I always say the world it cannot stand much longer.
Dear sister, on January 23rd I received my package from sister, Bertha. It took indeed longer than a letter. I was thinking that it had got lost. I was so very glad about the beautiful shoes and the beautiful stockings and gloves. The shoes fit so very well and they are warm.
Dear sister and brother-in-law, I cannot thank you at all enough for what you all have done for me. It would have looked bad for me if you hadn't given me so many presents. I have so often said God gives advice to he who has nothing and so it has been. For I receive 26 marks every month. Now you can imagine what one can buy with that. Your money now has a lot of value. Here the dollar costs according to our money, 30 marks. Our money now has no value. For this reason we must pay for everything so expensively.
I could still write to you so much more. But I am already so tired. I want to go to bed. I say to you once again my best thanks. The dear Lord will give it back to you four times over.
More in the next letter. Don't be angry that I did not write sooner. I laid in bed over Christmas. Greet everyone for me and also write sometime.
Now be all of you warmly greeted and kissed from your sister, Karoline
LETTER 3
Behlkow
July 11, 1921
Dear So Much Beloved Sister and Brother-In-Law,
I must write again to you a few lines that I am up till now still so rather healthy. I spent the entire winter with Ida. Five months she was very sick. She has had rheumatism and pleurisy and pneumonia and is still not very much better. The rheumatism will not leave the body. She still lies in bed, the cleaning, and then seven children. I suffered a lot this winter. You can imagine, dear sister, what's happening where there are seven children and then with patching, mending, and washing, for seven children and material is so very expensive. New things cannot be bought very much. She has a good husband. He can, however, not earn so much what that costs. She can now eat some but it is still all too expensive here. And a laborer cannot manage this at all. What the doctors all prescribe she is supposed to drink wine and cognac.
Dear sister and brother-in-law, when one is healthy one does not know that one has it good. But where sickness is there it's really bad. Dear sister, how much I have to suffer on this world. How many tears I have already shed. In the war the women work themselves completely kaput. That still will all come.
What has become of our beautiful Gemany? We always thought when the war would be over then it would be better. But it is not yet much better.
I bought myself a mattress comforter. It costs 240 marks from the money which you and Wilhelmine sent to me the last time. If you had not done so much for me then I couldn't buy myself a yard of material. I can still be glad that I still have such siblings. I owe you very many thanks. Dear sister and brother-in-law, write to me once how things are now there. How are your children? Ida, her second daughter will be confirmed now in the fall. Anna, one of her sons, too.
Dear sister, brother Hermann is too hard with me. He does not write a letter to me. I also wrote to him. From Mathilde I also received a letter.
I am still alone. I still live in Behlkow. Until now I have still been with Ida. If she would only get well again so that she could stay with her children.
Now I will close.
Many greetings and kisses from you sister, Karoline and from my children.
Behlkow
January 31, 1923
Beloved Sister and Brother-in-law and Children,
I must once again write to you. You don't let anything more be heard from you. Are you all angry with me? I cannot now write anymore so much. It costs now too much. A letter to America comes to way more than 100 marks. You can't imagine at all how it now is in Germany. Soon we cannot eat bread anymore. A hundred pounds of rye already costs 47,000 marks and one pound of butter costs 4,000 marks. One herring costs 200 marks. A pound of salt 100 marks. One pound, 300 marks. One pound coffee beans, 8,000 marks. Meat one cannot ask for it at all anymore. One liter petroleum 1,000 marks. One piglet costs 75,000-80,000 marks.
Dear sister and brother-in-law, I cannot really write it to you at all.
The prices are going every day higher and higher.
Write to me once how it is with you. With us it looks very very sad. Everything that we buy that goes right away into the thousands. So many are already going begging. The city people cannot buy bread any more. Now every day the dollar goes higher and higher. Today it stands at 33,000 marks. Our money has no worth at all anymore. For that reason we must pay for everything so expensively. If I would now have a few dollars then I could buy myself once more 100 pounds of rye.
I think so often of the song. "Why do you want to care for tomorrow? Poor heart. Continuously like a heathen. To what purpose serves your daily worry? Because God wants to take on in the quiet the need."
Dear sister, such comfort we must now take. Relying always on dear God.
Dear sister and brother-in-law, write to me again and answer how everything is with you. Sister, Auguste, she still has her husband who cares for her.
Now I will close.
Many greetings and kisses from your sister, Karoline.
Greet all my siblings and say to them they should also write once again and then write my address very correctly.
LETTER 5
Behlkow
March 22, 1923
Dear Sister,
Today, the 22nd of March I received your dear letter. Dear sister, I have received nothing from the money and no letter. I am very sorry. Now gladly I would have taken that. Then I would have written again immediately. I was thinking that you were angry with me. Dear sister, did you not send a registered letter with the money? Or how did you send it then? I have received it from the other siblings. Or didn't you write the address correctly? Wilhelmina and Albertine, they have sent me a package. That arrived so well and I was so very glad about it. When they send money that always lies in a registered letter. I have also always received it. I am so very sorry. You send it to me and other people take it away. There are such people. They probably do that at the post office. Some people they deposit the money right away then it must arrive.
Dear sister, you write about Ida. She was already better. She can already move around in the house but she cannot work. She has to have her oldest daughter at home. She also cannot earn anything. On April 18th she will be 19 years old. There are seven children. Been already sick for two years. You car, imagine. And then everything so expensive.
And Anna, her husband had to die so young. I have to let so much-go through my head.
Auguste, she has it better in this world. She has her husband. She has plenty to eat. She could also give me something once in a while. But she can't miss anything. If my siblings in America had not sent me so much then it would have gone very badly for me. Anna, she also helps me but she has her five children. Frida, she works as a servant already. And the two young boys they also must now support her. The one is 19 and the other 15 years and the small one 11 years. Here it is still so expensive. Butter costs 4,000 marks
[THE LETTER STOPS HERE]
Behlkow
August 18, 1923
Dear Much Beloved Sister and Brother-In-Law and Children,
On August 16th I received your dear letter. I was very glad that I received a letter from you. Up until now I do not yet have the money. I hope that it will come. If you send a registered letter then it does not get lost and if it doesn't come then you can demand it again from the post office where you sent it.
Dear sister and brother-in-law, you cannot imagine how it now is here. In fourteen days the prices for groceries go higher. In one day the price goes three to four marks more expensive. Now one herring costs 35,000 marks which earlier costs five pennies. One pound of sugar 100,000 marks and one pound of coffee one million marks. I was very glad then to get the package from you with the coffee and the sugar and the beautiful sausage. I ate the last of it in July. And the coffee beans this morning I had the last of them.
Greet Albertine and Wilhelmina many many times for me for the wonderful coffee. I like to drink coffee so much.
Now things have gone so far that we can no longer buy a herring. Butter costs also a million and the American lard, one and a half million. Thus you can imagine how it is in Germany. Many people go into their death with desperation. Many people go begging. There is nothing anymore which isn't expensive and one letter to America costs, beginning August 20th, 60,000 marks. Today and tomorrow it still costs 3,000. Dear sister, when you write then be so nice and put a postage stamp in the letter. So many are doing that already. The mailman says that is then exchanged at the post office. Also it is not so expensive. I can no longer pay for it. You will have to ask about it there.
You write that it is so dry. We have here much rain and it is always cold and the rye has not been brought in at all. This year we have had little heat.
I will close now.
Many greetings and kisses from me and my children.
Your sister, Karoline.
Behlkow
November 26, 1924
Dear Much Beloved Sister and Brother-In-Law and Children,
I must write once to you that I have received the money and package from Mathilde. I thank her very very much and Ida was very glad. She can really use it for her children. They were very glad.
The things which we buy here are still three times as expensive as before the war. Ida, she still can't do anything. She has so much rheumatism in all her joints. Everything in her is so stiff. Greet Mathilde many times from her. She thanks her very much.
Dear sister and brother-in-law, write to me once what kind of times you have and what kind of weather. Here it rains all the time a lot. The potatoes will probably spoil again. Here the potatoes are already being harvested again and then it will be winter again. This summer we had a lot of rain and thunderstorms.
Sister, Bertha, she hasn't written for a long time. And I am so very sad about Wilhelmine's son. Write to me once how this came about. That must have been terrible. What one has to live through in this world.
When I lie in bed at night then I think about you all so often and what you all the good things you have done for me. Now it is already 21 years that I have to support myself alone. I cannot work anymore. The dear Lord has taken care of me so long. He will also help me further. I still have this consolation, "Who never has eaten his bread with tears he does not know the sorrow filled nights". [BY THE WAY THAT WAS A QUOTE FROM GOETHE]
Now good night I want to go to sleep.
Many greetings and kisses from all of us.
Your sister,
Karoline
Behlkow
August 1, 1926
Dear Sister and Brother-in-law and Children,
I have received the letter from sister, Bertha, and I was very glad that you thought of me again. I cried for joy. I didn't know anymore what I should eat. Now on Friday, July 30th the mailman came and brought me the letter. Then I could go immediately on Saturday to town and get myself something to eat. You can probably imagine how happy I was.
I am already so weak I cannot work anymore. And my sight is also bad. Here everything is so very expensive. Pork costs one mark forty pennies. And butter two marks 20 pennies and pieces of clothing can no longer be paid for.
Dear sister, thus it is so expensive and the people here do not earn very much money. And then so many unemployed. Then it rains a lot here. The people have not brought in any rye. The harvest will be very late this year if it does not soon become different.
Dear sister, it is not very pleasant when one's children are grown up and then one has to deal again with small children. They make for so much work. As Bertha wrote, the wife of your son is also dead already. It is very sad. This I know from myself. What one must go through.
I have already gone five times to the eye doctor in Kolberg for my eyes. There I visited Bertha Krug. She was so very glad. We have not seen each other in 30 years. She still looks so thin as always. She is also always sickly.
Auguste, she can still lift things pretty well. Her husband earns still so much that they can live. She is also very hard. She cannot think herself at all into my position. She comes every three to four years to me. She never has any time. She could also help me once in a while. For my children they cannot help me. Anna, she lives with her son. And Ida, she has been sick already for six years. She is getting worse. She walks around but she cannot do anything.
Now many greetings and kisses from your sister, Karoline.
And many thanks for all the good things that you have done for me.
[Contains a pressed flower. Otto is the husband of Auguste]
[Auguste writes first]
Triebs
July 31, 1922
Dear Sister and Brother-In-Law,
For a long time we have waited for a letter from you but always in vain. Now we must ask once again how things are with you. I hope that you are all healthy as I can write about us. Only it is a terrible time here. Everything is so awfully so expensive. Butter costs 100 marks a pound. The lard which comes from your country, costs 90 marks a pound. Material cannot be paid for at all. A pair of boots costs 2,000 marks. And next year we will have a famine here for it has been raining for three weeks and everything is flooded. The hay lies in water. The potatoes and rutabaga are standing in water. The land is so soft that the grain cannot be cut and brought in. It just looks hopeless. Rye now costs already 1,000 marks for a hundred pounds and wheat 1,400 marks. You will probably have already read in the newspaper how things stand here.
Now dear sister and brother-in-law, write to us once how things are with you and how you live there and what your children are doing. We wrote once to sister, Mathilde, but she has not answered us. Whether she didn't receive the letter? It is very sad that she had to lose her husband and daughter so early. Greet her from us. Tell her she should write to us, too.
And you, dear sister and brother-in-law, be right warmly greeted from Otto. Your sister, Auguste.
[NOW OTTO WRITES:]
Dear Sister,
I cannot write to you at all how everything is here. When your dollar goes so high then our products become more expensive. How are sister, Maria and sister, Wilhelmine? They don't let anything be heard from them at all.
Now once again warm greetings. Good-bye.
Triebs
December 10, 1922
Much Beloved Sister and Brother-In-Law,
With tears in my eyes I read your letter that you still think of us and have not forgotten us. But how should I make it up to you? But the dear Lord will repay it to you.
Dear sister, we have received your letter and the money. Our dear dear thanks for it.
Dear sister, you write that sister, Maria, has passed away. This made us very sad. According to her age she could have still had a few years. But the dear Lord knows what's best. Let her rest in peace.
Is Erich also already married? Write to me at once and what are your children doing? Are they also already married? How is then Albertine? She doesn't write at all. She could also write to us once. When you see her then greet her once from me heartily.
You write, dear sister, how are Otto's father and mother? His father has been dead a long time. His mother is still living. She still gets around well. But his brother, Albert, died on the day of Penance. He only laid in bed for eight days. He was only 56 years old. Still so young. Death can come so fast.
Here we still have beautiful weather. Almost no snow and also not much frost. But the prices which we here have, they are not very pretty. I can no longer write them. They are unbelievable.
Dear sister, I wrote immediately to Mathilde. She also sent us two dollars. The first letter is presumably lost. That is too bad.
Now I will close.
Many greetings from all of us.
Happy holidays and a healthy new year.
Wishes,
Otto and Auguste.