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Some Old Schnake Dowries
Johann Friedrich Schnake/Marie Elisabeth Paul
Anne Marie Schnake/Herm. Lilienkamp
Marriage contracts of Johann Friedrich Schnake and Marie Elisabeth Paul
In Germany in past times, marriage was an economic rather than a romantic union. It involved the two families and sometimes there were protracted negotiations. A book titled BRAUTSCHATZMITGIFT VERSCHREIBUNG 1760-1808" (Dowry Contracts, 1760-1808) has the dowry contract for Johann Friedrich Schnake and Annemarie Elisabeth Paul. [Sorry, at this time I do not have the compiler or publisher.] There is also a contract for an Anne Marie Schnake and Herman Lilienkamp. She was apparently Johann's sister; however, there is a problem with this dowry as other records show her already married to someone else (see below). Here are the contracts in German, followed by translation and comments:
Johann and Annemarie Elisabeth's contract:
1797 August 25: Marie Elisabeth Paul heiratet Johann Friedrich SCHNACKE, Nr. 19 Unterlübbe. Braut zieht zum Brautigam und erhalt zum BrSchatz 50 Taler, 1 Kuh, 1 Rind, 2 Schweine, vollen Brautwagen landublich, Weinkauf. Leibzuchtverschrbg.
Translation (by Roy Johnson)
1797 August 25: Marie Elisabeth Paul marries Johann Friedrich Schnacke, Nr. 19 Unterluebbe. Bride moves in with the bridegroom and brings as dowry 50 Talers [Prussian money], one cow, one ox, two swine, customary full Bridewagon** as per local custom, glass of wine to seal the bargain***, Leibzuchter bond.****
Translator's notes:
**A "bride wagon" was something like a "hope chest" (if you are old enough to know what that was). It contained everything the couple needed to set up housekeeping. See Larry Knigga's comments at the end.
*** The German word is "Weinkauf.", literally "wine purchase". However, it also referred to a ceremonial glass of wine to seal a bargain. Larry Knigga says it was customary for the "lesser party" to a contract to provide the Weinkauf. This would indicate that the bride was "marrying up" to a higher class. Since Johann, the oldest son, was the heir to the estate, this could easily be the case.
**** A "Leibzuchter" was a "retiree" who turned the farm over to his heir in return for a contract that he could live there the rest of his life. A "Verschreibung" is a written contract of bond. I'm not quite sure how this fits here. At the time of the marriage, Johann Friedrich was already the "Colon" or owner of the leasehold, as his father was deceased. Why there would need to be a bond provided by the bride's family is uncertain to me.
Anne Marie Schnake's marriage contract:
1796 Nov. 23: Der Witwer Herm. Lilienkamp heiratet Anne Marie Schnacke, Nr. 19 Unterlübbe. Braut zieht zum Brautigam and bringt als BrSchatz mit: 12 1/2 Taler zu Weihnachten 1797, eine kuh u. einen Brautwagen, dessen Inhalt im Ehevertrag aufgefuhrt wird, Ehrenkleid, Weinkauf, Freibrief.
Translation (by Roy Johnson)
1796 Nov. 23: The widower Herm. Lilienkamp marries Anna Marie Schnacke nr. 19 Unterluebbe. Bride moves in with the bridegroom and brings as a dowry: 12 1/2 Talers (Prussian money) on Christmas 1797; one cow and one Bridewagon the contents of which will be produced at the time of matrimony; a ceremonial dress [not sure what this means. Local peasants wore elaborate costumes on market and festival days; perhaps this is it], ceremonial glass of wine, license.
Note that in this case, the Schnake family must provide the Weinkauf. However, this dowry is much smaller. This indicates that Anne Marie did not "marry up" as far as Marie Elisabeth Paul did.
There is a bit of a problem with this dowry. Johann had a sister Anne Marie Ilsebein, but she married a Wilhelm Drier in July 1796 and they both lived many years and produced children. So how does this dowry fit in? This Schnake-Lilienkamp marriage is not listed in the Bergkirchen church records that I have.
Johann was the son of Toenies (Brink) and Annamarie Engel Schnake -- remember that he moved to the Schnake residence and took the Schnake name. They married in 1774 and Johann was born March 16, 1775. Annamarie died in 1777 in childbirth.
NOTE: Larry Knigga is a Lutheran minister working on his Ph.D. degree. He is researching emigration from a town near Bergkirchen as his doctoral thesis. Since he would be more familiar with local customs than I, I emailed him my translations and asked for his comments. Here they are:
"There's not much to add, however I may be able to put a couple things in perspective...
Rather than being straight contract, these entries follow almost a poetic liturgy...with a standardized form and content...
The "Bridewagon" is the equivalent of our old "hope chest"...We don't hear the term much any more but a few decades ago young women kept a "hope chest" where they would either purchase or be given items for when they got married. It may not be an actual chest, but it was a way of describing the acquiring of things with which to set up housekeeping. Even teenagers were given dishes, bedding, cooking utensils, etc. The bridewagon was the wagon which contained the things which the bride had collected to set up housekeeping. The cow and money were listed separately because these were things which were her contribution to making a living....Since the property of unmarried daughters technically belonged to the girl's father, even a "hope chest" would have to be "given" in the marriage contract...
Instead of merely "customary" your landublich may mean that the brautwagen is full according to local custom, meaning that it continued everything or every item that a brautwagen should have. "
Relationships:
Johann Friedrich Schnake is the father of Ernst Heinrich Schnake AKA Henry), number 2 in the current list of Schnake lines, the half brother of Ernst Heinrich Schnake (AKA Henry F.), no. 5 on the list, and the grandfather of Karl Ludwig Hermann Schnake (AKA Herman), no. 9 on the list.
Just as I completed the above material (May 8, 2000), I received this extremely interesting e-mail, explaining the custom of the Bridewagon from the standpoint of a native German from the area.
[Letter from Klaus Bussmeyer, who grew up on a farm in the area near Bergkirchen, in the 1940s and 50s and who has a personal knowledge of customs which still survive and has also researched the older customs]
Roy,
There may have been many different customs in Germany at different times. With this I want to make sure this contribution is restricted to what I remember (from my family and literature) was custom in Westphalia.
(Brautwagen) (Bride Wagon) You are perfectly right in saying it was both, (originally) a wagon and (later) a term for a measure. For instance, the term "Scheffelsaat" falls into the same category: originally it was a pot that contained the seed needed for a certain amount of land, later it became a quare measure.
Originally, the Brautwagen was a vehicle that carried the bride to the groom's place. From my boyhood in Westphalia I remember the Brautwagen (as a ceremony kind of thing). Basically, it was a multi-purpose wagon used by the farmers, primarily used for harvesting hay and straw, also used in winter times for transporting wood, but also used for other purposes like transporting a bride, a dead person, or just people on their church visit, etc. Basically the vehicle consisted of two under-carriages, one at the front and one at the back, connected by a wooden beam. Each under-carriage had a square hole on each side to support an upright stanchion. We called this piece of wood "Runge" or in Plattdeutsch "Ringsten". Therefore this wagon was called Ringstenwagen (in Westphalia). Attached to the Ringsten was a kind of a ladder construction on each side so that it could be used for carrying hay, etc. Because of the ladder type of the side boards, we also called it "Leiterwagen" (without the "ladders" it was used in winter for transporting beams from the woods, by removing the Ringsten on one side, it was a kind of roll-on roll-off wagon).
To carry persons, there were wooden seats attached between and inserted into the two side ladders (especially made for this wagon). This was for church visit, bride transport and people transport in general. Sometimes the wagon also had a cover.
Here is a picture of a ringstenwagen being used for a funeral in the village of Herringhausen about 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of Bergkirchen:
Source of the above picture: Minden-Ravensberg: Ein Heimatbuch (Minden-Ravensberg: a Homeland Book), Bielefeld and Leipzig, Verlag von Velhagen & Klafing, 1929.
(Continuation of letter)
Although the term Weinkauf has often been used, I am not sure of it's origin. We used to call this procedure, when the bride came the groom's place, or vice versa, the "Auffahrt auf den Hof" (Plattdeutsch: Opfohrt) or "Gewinnung des Hofes". This may be translated as "entry to the farm" or "gaining access to the farm". To understand this, one must consider the situation of serfdom. The land and the people living on it were "owned" by the landlord (the latter with exceptions like the Meier in Ravensberg). In any case, the landlord had to give his permission to a marriage. And this permission costed a certain fee. But with this permission, the person had a right to live at the place and to inherit this right of living at the place to his/her successors.
What I want to stress is that "Auffahrt" and "Gewinn" and "Weinkauf" also had a double meaning, i.e. originally it meant the movement itself, combined with a kind of fee that went with it, later the fee (or purchase) itself. Today, where there is no fee anymore and the people own the places themselves, the ceremony of the "Auffahrt" is still celebrated by young people. In fact, there seems to be a revival of old customs in these days. I had the opportunity to watch this ceremony just recently very close to the place where your ancestors came from (in Neuenkirchen, Kreis Melle, south of the Wiehengebirge). They covered the road to the farm place with straw as a gesture of welcome.
Leibzuchterverschreibung is a written document. The rest is easily explained. Keep in mind that the marriage of the heir also meant a change of generations on the farm. The father of the groom took his "Altenteil" or "Leibzucht" and the son (or groom who married into the place) became the colon. This case of generation change had to be documented in terms of a contract, and the bride as part of her "Auffahrt" had to agree with it (i.e. the rights and the obligations that went with it). As far as I know, there was no payment on the side of the bride's parents for this, just the obligation to take care of the Leibzüchter or Altenteiler and his wife.
Maybe one should put some more light on this Leibzüchterverschreibung. Be aware there were three parties involved: the Leibzüchter and his wife, the newly married couple, i.e. the new colon, and the landlord. In order to maintain his tax [rent] income from his farm, the landlord had an interest in a continuous tax flow. But there were instances where this did not happen. For instance in times of bad harvest. Or when the new colon just did not run the farm quite well. In this latter case the new colon might have argued that he had to pay too much to his father or father-in-law or that most of the goods still belonged to the former generation. To avoid this case, the landlords pushed the people to this Leibzüchterverschreibung. The document clearly stated what was belonging to the Leibzüchter and what was belonging to the new colon and what kind of payment had to be done or what kind of food supply.
In addition, to avoid those conflicts, the landlords encouraged the colons at their active farm time to plan for their Leibzüchter time, i.e. plan to build their housing or flat at their active time on the farm. Some landlords held yearly meetings, called "Hofsprache", to remind the farmers at their duties.
Klaus Bussmeyer
Important links:
I wrote a beautiful song for the 50th wedding anniversary of my in-laws 20 years
ago. It is now available on CD and I havae set up several Internet sites to sell
it. Go to any of the following:
Golden Love site at
http://goldenlove.att.net
Golden Love site on SchnakeNet
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love site on Pace Network
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love on FortuneCity
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/cern/1343/ or
http://www.nav.to/compu-tutor1
Rick Schnake has an interesting hobby/part time business. He collects and
sells authentic historic signatures on original documents. He has US Presidents
and many other historical figures represented. Why not check it out?
Rick's main site
at "http://www.historyinink.com"
Mirror site on Schnakenet at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/HistoryInInk.htm
Mirror site on Pace Network
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/HistoryInInk.htm