Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia.

I start this piece in December of 2003 and instead of visions of sugar plums dancing through my head, it is long ago visions of Otto and Amelia. Some days they haunt me. Other days I smile. Other days I am curious about them. Other days it is joy to discover an unknown fact. This is a season that is suppose to be made of peace, love, and good will toward men. Instead I have been immersed in trying to understand what tears families and nations apart. I have traveled this path of discovery with two cousins.

They are Greg Rittenhouse, a first cousin, who lived within five miles of me growing up in Illinois. Now he lives in Los Angeles and I live in Eugene, Oregon. We have not seen each other for over 40 years, but contact each other on email usually several times a week. The other cousin is Markus Klein, a fourth cousin, twice removed, who lives in Webenheim, Germany. Markus discovered me on the internet now almost 3 years ago after I uploaded stories about my German ancestry. Since then the distance between the relatives leaving Germany over 150 years ago has eclipsed to nothing. Markus and his family seem a part of my current family. My husband and I traveled to meet with Markus in Germany in June 2002, connecting a loop that had been broken since about 1939.

Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia

Who were they?

Otto is the great grandfather of Markus Klein. He was born, raised, and died in Webenheim, Germany. Both of his parents were German and probably the farthest Otto ever got from home was to serve in WWI. Otto was born in 1881.

Amelia is the maternal grandmother of both Greg and myself. She was born, raised, and died in downstate Illinois. Both of her parents immigrated from Germany as young adults. Amelia was also born in 1881, like Otto.

Otto and Amelia were distant Moschel cousins, but close enough for us to contrast their lives at a very important time in history. They both had children who served in WWII, which is a story we hope to tell later.

Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia

We use Otto and Amelia to understand the life and times of this crucial era of world history. My personal memories of Amelia are those of a granddaughter who lived on a nearby farm. I visited with my grandparents often when I was small and saw them play cards with friends and enjoy listening to music on records (Buttons and Bows was one record I remember being played often). My grandfather announced to my brother when I was born, "She is the eleventh grandchild born at 11:11." I found this fact years later when I lamented that my birth certificate did not have the time of birth. Both of my parents were dead by then and I assumed I would never know the time I saw the light of day. Wrong! I still had an oral historian in my brother who conjured up this tiny fact from the depths of memory.

And conjuring up tiny and not so tiny facts and thinking about them is what this whole project has been about.

Markus has no personal memory of his great grandfather, but he does adore his grandfather, Otto, son of Otto. This study of family history has spurred Markus to recreate his great grandfather's journey in World War I. Markus' attention to details of history led him to the site where Otto was injured in the war and envision a time past and how it must have affected Otto and his family, which at the time consisted of his daughter and wife, who was 8 months pregnant with their second child, Otto.

Greg is the person who keeps us precise in detail via clarifying circumstances and verifying facts. His accountant skills serve him well as a genealogist.

This team of three cousins began clarifying the lives of Amelia and Otto, both 100% German who ended up on the opposite sides of World War I. I started this search over a year ago believing I knew who was "wrong" in the war and who was "right." After a year's study, I am less certain. I've read many books, and viewed over 20 hours of video tape recordings specific to the war. I have read material that cause me to wonder if the allies had everything right. I've also read things that reinforce the belief that the Kaiser's personality and actions should have been questioned. But I found more gray than black and white answers. That surprised me.

What I do know is that our family was affected tremendously by this war. German-Americans in the U.S. were persecuted and it was the beginning of the end of being proud of having a German heritage in America. That is true in my case as well. I have been interested in studying genealogy since I was in my late 20's. I gathered facts and dates and then started to visit the places from which relatives emigrated. Soon that was not enough and I began writing about them, in a faction (fiction and facts) sort of way. I started writing about my Scottish roots first; then my Irish roots; and then began to look at my German roots. What would I find when I dug into my German roots? I didn't know. I'm still finding out.

Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia...Otto...Amelia

We set about collecting the details of Otto and Amelia's lives. Where were they born? What was the nature of their early childhoods? Where did they go to school? What might they have studied? What did they do in the their leisure time? Where did they attend church? What were their living conditions? What work did their parents do? What relations did they have with their siblings and how did that affect them? When did they meet their future spouses? What kind of work did they do? When did they have children? What kind of technology, or lack of same, did they have in their lives? How involved were they with their extended family?

We have the beginnings of understanding of many such questions. We know we will never know it all, but we have tried to understand the facts uncovered and how they affected the person involved. In this process, Markus probably knows more about Amelia Klein Phillips than 10 of her living grandchildren. He has become invested in understanding her Illinois roots and where she went to school and how she related to her Scottish mother-in-law among many other things. In turn Greg and I have grown to know Otto Klein perhaps better than some of his closer relatives in Germany. There was also the day after I read Markus's account for the third time of retracing his great grandfather's war experiences, that I started to grieve for the son, husband, and father that had to endure that war with its many faces of suffering. Otto was no longer the enemy. He was family. The Great War had a face and it was a very handsome face. Much like the face Markus carries today.

As I have written this introduction, I realize we have two stories. The stories of Otto and Amelia, and the stories of Markus, Greg, and Theresa trying to understand Otto and Amelia. When cousin Greg read this introduction he suggested there is a third focus, which is Theresa's feeling about war, any war. I accept that. As I said, Greg keeps me honest. The stories converge with each other and cross a century of time and space. One is a story of families going apart; the other is a story of families coming together; and perhaps the third is the story of one Moschel cousin coming to terms with what war does to families and nations in the 20th and 21st century through the vehicle of studying genealogy.

This December we face another time that the world is at war. It might behoove us to look back 85 years ago to another war and another time when people were fighting each other instead of bringing good will to each other. Will we ever learn?

I reprint two items said on one of the many video tapes I watched about The Great War. It is about the Christmas Truce in 1914. First comments by Peter Simkins of the Imperial War Museum in London.

"Along the British section of the line, about 22 miles in Flanders, particularly on and around Christmas Day (it wasn't just a Christmas Day phenomenon), both sides began to detect in the opposing trenches, certain signs of Christmas celebration (if celebration is the right word in such a setting). Germans would be heard singing, "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht." The British would respond with a British Christmas carol. In some places, food was lobbed over into the opposing trenches. I think on one or two instances, the Germans erected Christmas trees. And, there was a kind of mutual curiosity, and certainly instances of soldiers applauding each others' singing; and it became a kind of friendly duel, if you like. And, people would shout messages like: "Fritz, here. I was a waiter in a Manchester hotel before the war. How are my friends from the Lancashire? (Fusiliers? etc., etc.)" On Christmas Day itself, the first curious, slightly headstrong people, perhaps, from both sides poked their head above the trenches, and being made aware that somebody on the other side wasn't going to shoot it off, then clambered cautiously out. Others followed suit. People stopped in the middle of no-man's-land, shook hands, exchanged buttons and badges, cigarettes. And, this went on, in some parts for two or three days. And, then, partly because the Generals didn't want it to happen, and partly because units moved out of the line and others came in, the thing died away. It was never repeated. So, it is very much a 1914 phenomenon. I think it's wrapped up with the fact that you could still be sentimental in 1914. Whereas, when total war became much more all-pervasive later in the war, and the war became much more sort of a mass war for everybody, I think the sort of slightly old-fashioned sentiments lost their place and it became much nastier business."

And in the same video series, Paul Fussell, author and historian, reported,

"The Christmas truce was the last twitch of the 19th Century. By that, I mean it was the last public moment in which it was assumed that people were nice, and that the Dickens view of the world was a credible view. What happened was this: on Christmas morning, 1914, the German troops were dug in over there, and the British troops were dug in here. Somebody, some bright boy, sent a message over. (Probably threw it wrapped around a grenade without the pin pulled.) And, it said something like: "Let's have a party. Let's meet in the middle. We will not shoot. And, do not shoot us if we come between the lines." And, so, the British thought this was a good idea. And, a few people got up tentatively, left their rifles behind, found they were not shot at, and came out. And, the Germans came out, too. Probably, at first, only a dozen, but gradually, it spread all the way up and down the line. Gradually, battalions and regiments were fraternizing between the lines.

"A wonderful ironic moment. And, they were exchanging cigarettes and addresses and exchanging insignias, treating each other like friends. It was a high emotional moment I would say. It's the last gesture of the 19th Century idea that human beings are getting better the longer the human race goes on. Nobody could believe that after the First World War, and certainly not after the Second."

****

I think we all need more Christmas truces.

We report the facts of Otto and Amelia and Markus, Greg, and Theresa in the same spirit. If one can believe peace is a goal of living, let us think and reflect on times when there has not been world peace and how it has affected those living in not peaceful times.

I can't think of a better way to spend the month of December 2003.

****

It is now the night before the night before Christmas. I have not worked on the piece of Otto and Amelia much at all in December. I did not know where to go next. The individual lives of Otto and Amelia are not remarkable prior to WWI as far as we know. We can contrast various aspects of their lives and know that, in general, there were some differences in being a farmer's son in Webenheim and a farmer's daughter in rural Illinois.

The differences are not overwhelming, but we do get a sense that life in Webenheim probably had more social components to it than the more isolated life in rural Illinois. Webenheim peasants lived "in town" and went out to their property. The reverse was true in Illinois. Webenheimers got together easily in the evenings, but people in rural Illinois, who always lived on their property, would have more difficulty doing the same thing, particularly in winter.

Educational opportunities, or lack of same, appear to be somewhat similar between rural Illinois and rural Germany. Both Amelia and Otto had early schooling and early church education.

The biggest difference in family upbringing was that Otto was raised by his grandmother and father after his mother died very early and had only one brother. Amelia was raised by both parents and was the youngest of seven. That had to be different as far as daily life in the two households.

Amelia married before Otto. Amelia marrying in 1904 and Otto in 1910. Amelia did not marry in the Lutheran church her father helped to erect. We don't understand this fact. Amelia had her first child in 1908 and Otto in 1910. Nothing too unusual here.

It appears life in rural Illinois was more technologically advanced as Amelia's husband, Ralph, got a car before the WWI and a tractor, date undetermined, but very early compared to the rest of his Illinois neighbors. Otto never had a car in his life and he also never had a tractor.

What is unusual is how Otto and Amelia's lives diverge in 1914. Otto is immediately called up to serve in the war at age 33 and spends the next four years in a war and then a war-weary nation. That, in no way, can compare to what is happening to Amelia in the U.S. Amelia is taking care of babies and having miscarriages and more babies in the same time frame. Amelia's husband, who is the exactly the same age as Otto, is not called up to war, not even when the U.S. enters the war in 1917. Otto is separated from his family and is injured in a war, but he does father a son during this time.

War makes the difference in life probably from then on. Otto, it would seem, is deeply affected by World War I and its aftermath, and Amelia less so, even though she has 100% German roots and her German mother is still alive at war's end. By WWII we know both the families of Otto and Amelia are deeply involved in next war.

****

Probably the most significant thing we can say about gathering the facts of Otto and Amelia is that it has brought the lives of Markus, Greg, and Theresa even closer together than they were before.

Now the wars of the 20th century are history. What is happening today are the wars of the 21stcentury. One wonders if 85 years from now, there will be some descendants of people from Afghanistan or Iraq who will find distant cousins from the U.S. and try to bridge the gap that might have been caused in 2002 and 2003 by then distant bombing and terror.

One wonders just where it all ends.

In the meantime we will continue to tell the stories of those before us in hopes that understanding and reconciliation are a part of the process of learning to live in peace.

To end this story, we have two other links for those readers who are interested.

First, are the notes collected by Markus, Greg, and Theresa contrasting the lives of Otto and Amelia. These are the facts as we know them for others to use and ponder. They give quite a clear picture of these people from their birth through the end of WWI. Here is the link to: Facts About Otto and Amelia

Second, is the story of Markus retracing his great grandfather's footsteps in war. It is a personal journey that takes place in one day in May 2003 but will last in a lifetime in memory for Markus. We call the story Back to Verdun 87 Years Later.

***

For us three cousins, this officially ends our investigation into WWI. We've spent more than a year on this phase of the project. I have not wanted it to be over. The reason for this laggard feeling is I'm not sure we're ready to face WWII in either one of our families. By this time in our project, we care about the families on both sides of the Atlantic. If researching WWI is any indication, what we uncover and face in WWII will no longer seem remote. Are we ready to start? We'll let another new year start and see. I've discovered this research and path of discovery unfolds at its own rate. We'll discover the pace that is good for us. Of that I'm very confident.

The other thing I'm confident of is that we know some of the facts of the those who are deceased, and we also know better the personalities of those that are in pursuit of our ancestors. I anticipate that Markus will be enthusiastic, energetic, and will bring youth to the project. I anticipate that Greg will discover more facts than we ever anticipated and modulate us in going too much in one direction in speculation.

I anticipate that I will continue to wonder about peace and war and how the events from yesterday continue to affect all of us today and the many todays yet to come. I also anticipate that I will be less willing to speak from the third person and will bring more of myself into the written words. I have been bursting to get out on these Moschel pages for several years in first person. I'm willing to take the risk of acknowledging my own words and feelings. I think I've been wanting to do this for a long time...perhaps since I first wondered what it was like to be of German-American heritage. I feel I'm beginning to be ready to look at that and write about it.

I look forward to seeing what we discover about our ancestors and about ourselves as we journey forth into the era of WWII.