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Remembered Today:

Coucy Le Chateau May 1917


GROBBY

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Both these postcards were written by a woman. The recipient seem to have been serving domestically in the Austro-Hungarian army; the cards are postmarked Stanzach (Austria) and addressed to Reutte, a distance of about 20 km.

An Herrn Lechleitner Albrecht, Komp. Reutte II, Feldpost 2

31.X.17

Lieber Albrecht!

Von dir heute eine Karte erhalten

welche du am 27.X geschrieben hast.

Habe gelesen dass du gesund bist,

das gleiche kan[n] ich von mir berichten.

Was ist den mit Urlaub? Verschicke

dich mit den miteln nicht, setzte

alle zu? der? . . . .benlegung _ _ _

Sei recht herzlich gegrüsst u[nd] gekusst

Auf Wiedersehen von d[einer] Anna

 

To Mr Lechleitner Albrecht, Komp. Ruette II, Fieldpost 2

31 October 1917

Dear Albrecht! Received a card today that you wrote on 27 October. I read that you are healthy, and I can report the same of myself. What is going on with leave? Do not delay with the funds (?), put them . . . . Warm greetings and kisses, until our reunion, from Anna

 

16.XI.17

L[ieber] A[lbrecht]

die herzlichsten Grüsse sendet dir deine

Anna. Ich bin gesund und hoffe das

gleiche von dir. Habe jetzt schon wieder

3 Tage keine Post erhalten von

dir. Wie mir mein Bruder gesch[rieben]

hat seid ihr wieder weg gekommen

und geht deshalb der Postverke[h]r (?)

nicht gut. Unsere beschäftigung ist

. . . . . und haben fast keinen

Schnee. Nochmals Gruss Anna

 

16 November 1917

Dear Albrecht! Your Anna sends the warmest of greetings. I am healthy and hope that you are too. For the past 3 days, I have not received any mail from you. As my brother wrote, you have all gone away and for this reason the post is delayed. Our activity/employment is . . . and we have almost no snow. Greetings again from Anna

 

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Thank you Knittinganddeath .It makes a change to have an Austrian although I have not a lot of idea where his unit could have been fighting knowing hardly anything about the Austro Hungarians  .I see the horse is still  photo bombing,he will be taking selfies next.I only have one other of the group after these 2 and will then get on with the rest

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Thank you Charlie 2 .That was very interesting .Im learning more and more about the different troops of Germany and Austria

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I thought 2 horse cards were enough, but a whole series?!

 

a[m] 4. No. (?) 17.

Lieber Albrecht!

Da ich gerade Zeit habe will

ich dir das Meisten berichten. Der

Wilhelm Friedle (?) und Heinrich Gugge (?)

sind heute nach Rotholz Seminar Kreuz

mitmachen 6 Monate. . . . . . . . . .  .

ist Filib Lechleitner gestorben und

hat keine besondere Krankheiten

gehabt. Es grüsst dich herzlich deine liebente Anna

 

4 November (?) 1917

Dear Albrecht! As I have time now, I will tell most of the news. Wilhelm Friedle and Heinrich Gugge left today for Rotholz for a seminar about cross-breeding (?) that will last 6 months. . . . . . Filip Lechleitner died and had no particular illnesses. Warm greetings from your loving Anna

 

Stanzach am 1.12.17

Lieber Albrecht!

Von dir gestern einen Brief erhalten,

für welchen ich dir herzlich danke. Wollte

dir gleich auch einen schreiben. Habe

das vor einige Tagen schrieben,

glaube das[s] du ihn erhalten hast.

Schlüsse (schliesse?) diese Karte in bester

Gesundheit mit 1000 Grüsse und Küsse.

von deiner liebente Anna

 

Stanzach, 1 December 1917

Dear Albrecht! Received a letter from you yesterday, for which I thank you warmly. I wanted to write you just now. Wrote a few days ago, and believe that you've probably received it. Ending this card in best health with 1000 greetings and kisses from your loving Anna

 

Edited by knittinganddeath
Wilhelm and Heinrich probably went to the agricultural college in Rotholz, not a seminary; thanks charlie2!
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12 minutes ago, charlie2 said:

Agricultural College in Rotholz

Thank you! Not sure why I was so focused on the religious aspect, but I did get very confused when my search for a seminary/monastery in Rotholz came up completely blank. An agricultural college makes a lot more sense.

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Duplicate post. Deleted.

Edited by knittinganddeath
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Thank you for that Knitting and charlie2 .Its interesting to know they were still holding seminars about crossbreeding during the war .Heres the last card with a horsey on and now they have to go and shovel the manur out of the parlour. I will post another 2

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20 hours ago, knittinganddeath said:

Not sure why I was so focused on the religious aspect,

Understandable, its sometimes very hard to understand what two people are writing about when they use use shortened or cryptic sentences. 
Charlie

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The horse card (I wonder if the photographer wanted a "springtime in the meadow" vibe but had to compensate for the wrong season and wrong location...)

Stanzach am 26.11.17

Lieber Albrecht!

Deine Karten vom 20, 22, u[nd] 23 erhalten

gelesen das[s] du gesund bist und dir

gut geht, was ich auch von

mir berichten kann. Neues kann

ich dir schreiben des (?) Wochenes (?)

Maria heute Hochzeit gefeiert

hat. Und Adlheit Friedle ist jetzt

Stroh Wittwe, der. . . .ber Adam

ist schon seit dem Jahr 15 ferheiratet.

Es grüsst dich herzlich Anna

 

Stanzach, 26 November 1917

Dear Albrecht! Received your cards from the 20th, 22nd, and 23rd. Read that you are healthy and doing well, which I can also say of myself. I can write you the week's news. Today Maria got married. And Adlheit Friedle is now a straw widow, . . . . Adam has been married since the year 1915. Warm greetings from Anna

"Strohwitwe" or "straw widow" refers to a person who is living without their spouse. Maybe Adlheit (Adelheid?) was married to Wilhelm Friedle, who went off to Rotholz.

 

An Hedwig Gebensleben in Hedeper, Kreis Wolfenbüttel

Abs. Landstrm. Gebensleben, Rekr. Depot X 25, Nordheim (Hannover), 8. Korporalschaft

den 26. September 1916

L[iebe] H[edwig]

Gut sind wir wieder gelandet und haben die

Tätigkeit im Dienst wieder aufgenommen. Hoffentlich

bist auch du gut zu Hause gekommen. Gestern

schrieb mir Vater, seine Erwartungen haben ihn

auch getäuscht, er glaubt + hofft immer noch auf ein

anderes Urteil. Ernst muss in circa (?) 8 Tagen wieder

ke[h]ren (?), sie werden ihn auch solange fordern (fördern?) bis

er bleiben muss. Wie geht's den Kindern, lass Ernst

nicht von andern am Arme g[e]nesen damit er erst wieder

in Ordnung kommt. In Kurze, empfange

herzliche Grüsse & Küsse auch für alle von deinen . . . . . . .

 

To Mrs Hedwig Gebensleben in Hedeper, Wolfenbüttel district

From Landsturmer Gebensleben, Recruit Depot X 25, Nordheim (Hannover), 8th squad

26 September 1916

Dear Hedwig,

We landed (arrived?) safely and have resumed our duties. Hopefully you got home safely too. Father wrote to me yesterday; his expectations have come to naught, and he still believes in and hopes for a different judgment. Ernst has to return in about 8 days, they will also continue to challenge (support?) him until he has to remain. How are the children doing, so that Ernst's arm heals properly don't let anyone else treat it. In short, warm greetings and kisses for you and everyone else from your . . . . .

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Thank you Knittinganddeath .You could well be right about the springtime vibe and its nice to see a lovers cards in time of war .I wonder if there were more of these horsey cards sent by the wife and how many of this type did they produce.Im posting another 2 ,you might have trouble with them but you ar getting so good you probably wont .I have a lot coming all from the same man and family next week

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Liege, Caserne des Lanciers

Abs. W. Leske (?) Inf. Regt. 416, 2. Batl., 7. Komp. 204 des 408 . . . .

An Herrn Reinhard H. . . . Forma, Chemnitz i[n] Sa[chsen], Altendorferstrasse 5.I

6./8.16

Lieber Reinhard!

Habe heute mit vielen

Dank deine Karte erhalten.

Ich war jetzt 6 Tage in der

vordersten Stellung und

set heute bin ich wieder

6 Tage in der Reserven.

Näheres werde ich Euch noch

mitteilen. Inzwischen

grüsst dich herzlich

dein Schwager Willy (?)

 

From W. Leske (?), Infanterie-Regiment 416, 2nd Battalion, 7th company, 204 of the 408 . . .

To Mr Reinhard H. . . ., Forma, Chemnitz in Saxony, Altendorferstrasse 5.I

Dear Reinhard!

I received your card today, many thanks. For the past 6 days I was in the foremost position/trench and from today I will now be 6 days in the reserves. I will share further details with you all. Until then warm greetings from your brother-in-law Willy (?)

 

The letter

Abs. Hauptmann Ehrenberg, Wasserbauamt, Brüssel

An Frau Regierungsbaumeister Ehrenberg, St Peter Nordsee, über Hamburg

Brüssel, 2.4.18

Mein liebes Liekchen (?) !

Für deine lieben Gruss von Gründonnerstag Abend, den du anstatt vom 28. vom 23. adressiert hast, vielen Dank. Dass der Füllfederhalter ein so unheiloses Ende ge. . . . hat, tut mir sehr leid. Wenn dur mir die Feder herschickst, oder vielleicht den ganzen Halte, kann ich dir einen anderen besorgen. Das wäre ja ein. . . . .  Geburtstagsgeschenk gewesen. Das kann es ja aber immer noch nachträglich sein. Bist du eigentlich schon in Besitz deiner verjährigen (?) Geschenke, Storms Werke?

Du erwähnst den Leinenstoff als schön. Die Frau hatte damals noch folg (?) Stück. Soll ich mal sehen, ob sie es noch hat. Ich glaube ja nicht, dass es noch da ist. Es hat 10M gekostet. Die Handschuhe hätte ich auch lieber in dunkel gehabt, aber man muss nehmen, was da ist, und der Auswahl war nicht gross und alles nur in hellen Farben.

Nun ist wieder eine Sperre angesetzt für Päckchen und Paket, aber diesmal umgekehrt an Deutschland hierher und zwar auf unbestimmte Zeit. Das hindert leider die Rücksendung der . . . . Kiste und Kartons die eins (?) glücklicherweise alle dort sind. Es geht heute noch ein kleines rollenförmiges Päcken mit etwas Schokolade ab. Das Päckchen mit Pralines und Bonbons ab am 15.3, soll du doch wohl erhalten. Von 41 Päckchen und Pakete die ich seit dem 15 November abgeschickt habe und von denen 33 an dich waren sind alle angekommen auch früher ist alles angekommen und die Gemüsekiste da mit der Bahn ging ist verschollen und . . . . . auch verschanzt (?) obwohl die Kiste als solche sehr vermisst wird.

Bezüglich . . . . . . wirst du ja nun wohl voll (?) im Bild sein, und ich nehme an, dass du nicht gekündigt hast. Das Osterfest ist teils bei Schlachten und teils bei gutem (?) Wetter (?) ver. . . . . .

Viel 1000 (?) herzliche Grüsse

dein lieber . . . Leo (?)

From Hauptmann Ehrenberg, Hydraulic Engineering Office, Brussels

To Mrs Construction Engineer Ehrenberg, St Peter North Sea, above Hamburg

Brussels, 2 April 1918

My dearest darling!

Thank you for your dear message from Maundy Thursday evening, that you addressed to No. 28 instead of No. 23. That the fountain pen should experience such a terrible end is quite upsetting. If you send me the nib or maybe the whole pen, I can get a new one for you. That would indeed have been a . . . birthday present. It can of course always be belated. Are you already in possession of your previous gift, the collected works of Theodor Storm?

You said the linen cloth was nice. The woman had at the time also another piece. Should I go and see if she still has it. I don't think that it will still be there. It cost 10 Marks. I would also have rather had the gloves in a dark colour but one must take what is there and the selection wasn't large and everything was only in light colours.

There is another stoppage again for packages, this time the other way round to Germany, and that for an unknown length of time. This unfortunately hinders the return sending of the . . . . chest and cartons that luckily are already there. Today a small roll-shaped package with a bit of chocolate is going out. You should have already received the package with pralines and candies sent out on 15 March. Of the 41 packages that I have sent since 15 November and of which 33 were for you, all have arrived, previously everything arrived too, and the box of vegetables that was sent with the train is lost and . . . . also . . . . although the box as such will be very missed.

With the regard to the. . . . .you will now be wholly in the picture and I assume that you have not quit. The Easter celebrations were spent (?) partly in battle and partly in good weather (?).

Many thousand warm greetings from your dear . . . Leo (?)

 

In 1918, Easter was on 31 March.

 

Edited by knittinganddeath
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Thank you for that Knittinganddeath .That last letter was interesting with what was being sent backwards and fowards at the end of the war ,and thank you for the extra information.You said you would rather do translations from a single person so if it would interest you this morning I received a personal collection of 116 Feldpostbreif Feldpostkarte and letters all from the same person (apart from 2 they were to him) mostly I think to his wife .I will post the first 2 and if you want to translate them I would love you to do this .These might be interesting as he was writing at least once a week and sometimes a lot of days .Also I think he was an officer so he could be an interesting writer .They range from the end of 1914 to sometime in 1916  I think

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53 minutes ago, knittinganddeath said:

Inf. Regt. 416, 2. Batl., 7. Komp. 204 des 408 . . . .

... der 408. Brig(ade)

Recipient is Reinhard Haneg

Forma= Former (his profession is castor)

 

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@GROBBY If I were a computer program, I would say that I need more data. His handwriting is fairly awful, but I think it will eventually be possible to read, I just need more examples to learn from. Could you post more by any chance please? Thank you!

 

On 21/08/2021 at 18:23, GreyC said:

... der 408. Brig(ade)

Recipient is Reinhard Haneg

Forma= Former (his profession is castor)

Thank you! I actually read the surname as Haneg, then put it into the Verlustlisten and got no hits so decided that it must be wrong :-S And it never occurred to me that Forma could be a profession, I thought it might be the company he worked for.

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2 hours ago, knittinganddeath said:

@GROBBY If I were a computer program, I would say that I need more data. His handwriting is fairly awful, but I think it will eventually be possible to read, I just need more examples to learn from. Could you post more by any chance please? Thank you!

 

Thank you! I actually read the surname as Haneg, then put it into the Verlustlisten and got no hits so decided that it must be wrong :-S And it never occurred to me that Forma could be a profession, I thought it might be the company he worked for.

Hi I can post as many as you want .Unfortunately I dont think it gets much better but as I say theres about 116 of them .Im posting them in date order just so they might make sense.I will post another 3 but if nessesary I will go through the lot to see if I can find some more readable ones .Thank you for yous help and patiance

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Thanks @GROBBY. Those new examples helped. It is coming along better than I had expected. It's like overhearing a conversation and being able to understand single words but not really put any of them together. As soon as I figure out one bit, he goes off on a tangent.

Anyway, here's a teaser for now: the diagram of his living quarters that he drew in his letter from 28.1.15.

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I think I am right in saying that the letters were written by Major Kurt Schaumann. He was a pre-war regular officer and was in 1914 a Rittmeister in Dragoner Regt 15 and was the holder of the Königlicher Kronen Order 4th Class and the Roter Adler Orden 4th Class. He was killed on 22.08.1917 at Forges-sur-Meuse near Verdun when his command post received a direct hit. He was at the time of his death the Officer Commanding the 1st Bn RIR221.

Charlie

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Thank you Knittinganddeath and Charlie2 for your information ,hopefully it is him as it is great to know some history of the man and his fate.I know that the first letter written is about the date of the formation of the 221st which was August to October 1914 training at Oberhofen camp and then to Metz and fighting the  Armentieres area and on to Poland  fighting near Warsaw early December till January 28th, Moving on to the Carpathians on February 2nd. As nearly all of the post is 1915 and 1916 it works for the period.

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WOW, Charlie, that is amazing. I was wondering who he was as I only (barely) managed to read his first name.

He seems to have been the owner of this Lucas Cranach painting from 1526, "Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg as St Jerome." According to the painting's provenance, it was in "1908 in the collection of Cavalry Captain Kurt Schaumann, Haguenau." (The letters are addressed to his wife in Hagenau, Elsass/Alsace. It's now part of France.)

He is listed on the Roll of Honour at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Braunschweig. There his birthdate is given as 14.10.1872 in that city.

I can't find him in the Verlustlisten or in the VDK grave search. Maybe his body was repatriated (or maybe there wasn't anything left of him to bury, if he was the subject of a direct hit).

 

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55 minutes ago, knittinganddeath said:

I can't find him in the Verlustlisten

Just to keep us on our toes he is recorded as Curt Schaumann in the VL.
http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/6937439
Haguenau was the peacetime garrison of Dragoner Regt 15. Luckily there is a photo of Major Schaumann in the regimental history.

Charlie

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