Zeisset History Tour

Tuesday
August 1

Departure from Kansas City or Washington-Dulles on an overnight United flight to Frankfurt.

Wednesday
August 2

On arrival in Frankfurt on Wednesday morning, we started our Zeisset Family History tour by visiting Semd (2a) to see the church where Margaretha Müller, the wife of Jakob Zeisset, was baptized in 1842, and the hof where the Müller family may have lived. We visited Lengfeld, where Margaretha's great-grandmother was born, and drove through Überau (2b), where Margaretha's father was born. After lunch, we continued to the Weierhof (2e) and the Pfrimmerhof (2d) to learn about the Mennonite story in these areas of the Palatinate.

Alzey, Best Western
(2z)

Thursday
August 3

We went first to Steinsfurt, near Sinsheim (3a), and visited a house where Mennonites held secret worship services. At the Rauhof, near Ehrstädt (3b), we talked to the owner, Michel Baron von Gemmingen. Rauhof is the place to which the Zeissets came when they left Switzerland in the early 1700s. We drove through Hasselbach, where Abraham Zeisset was a minister. We drove past the Dammhof (3d), where the Baers lived since the mid-1700s. After lunch, we drove to Menzingen (3c), where the Zeissets lived from 1825-1851. We sang and heard the organ at the church, then visited the family home at the Menzingen hof and the ruins of the moated castle behind it.

Bad Friedrichshall, Gasthof Bauer
(3z)

Friday
August 4

We began the day on Friday by driving to the Willenbach hof and Lautenbach (4a); the Zeissets were here with other Mennonite families from 1786-1825. Because we did so well at those sites, we didn't have time to include Sindolsheim (4b) where the Zeisset family settled in 1850. We were welcomed in the church at Adelsheim (4c), where Jakob and Margaretha were married in 1864. We had a guided tour of the Hohenlohe Freilandmuseum in Wackershofen. We visited the church at Bibersfeld, and walked to the home of the Hoerman family.

Schwäbisch Hall, Die Krone
(4-5z)

Saturday
August 5

This morning we drove to Orlach (5a) and Niedersteinach (5b) where Henry and Betty Zeisset lived after their father, Jakob Friedrich's, death in 1884. Jakob Friedrich's brother and aunt also lived here. We visited the church at Altenberg, where Jakob Friedrich's grandmother Christina was buried. In Kreuzfeld (5d), where the six brothers and sisters were born, we saw the farm and then walked the "traurigweg" to the ancient church at Krailshausen where their mother was buried. We enjoyed free time in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (5e), an old, picturesque and unspoiled town on the Romantic Road. On the way back to Schwäbisch Hall, a quick stop at Eichenau showed us the community where Jake and Lizzie lived before emigrating.

Schwäbisch Hall, Die Krone

(4-5z)

Sunday
August 6

At Schwäbisch Hall (4-5z) we visited the prison where Jakob Friedrich died. Most of us worshiped at St. Michael's Church. Then, on the drive toward the Black Forest, we stopped in Rottenburg (6c) to see the memorial stone to Michael and Margaretha Sattler who died for their faith. At Freudenstadt, we wandered through a pottery fair. Ten of us returned for an organ concert that night.

Freudenstadt, Hotel Lauderbad, Hotel Zollernblick
(6z)

Monday
August 7

We enjoyed a drive through the Black Forest region as we made our way to Freiburg (7a), where we wandered on our own. We then traveled to Weiseil (7b) to meet with the Zeisset family still living in Germany. We had a sumptuous dinner at the Hofladen Zeisset. We even had the chance to walk across the French border to an island in the Rhine River.

Offenburg, Hotel Rammersweierhof
(7z)

Tuesday
August 8

In the rain this morning, we visited Heidelberg (8a) on the banks of the Neckar River to see the castle from which we got a wonderful view of the town, the Neckar valley and the Rhineland plain. We had a guided tour of the castle. Then we traveled on to Worms (8b) to hear the Martin Luther story in this place.

Alzey, Best Western
(8-9z)

Wednesday
August 9

Our first stop was the picturesque village of Bad Kreuznach (2c), where Kurt Jaeger showed us around. Before enjoying a cruise on the Rhine River, we stopped at the Deutsches Eck (9a) at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel rivers for a scenic view. We relaxed and enjoy the beautiful scenery, vineyards, castles and towns as we cruised from Boppard (9b) to Bacharach (9c), the most scenic part of the river. We had some extra free time in Bacharach to explore the town. We made an impromptu stop at Wolfsheim for a winery tour. We had our farewell dinner at the hotel in Alzey.

Alzey, Best Western
(8-9z)

Thursday
August 10

All too soon we took our United flight from Frankfurt back to Washington-Dulles or Kansas City. We returned with new understandings of the life of our ancestors, beautiful pictures, memories and new friendships formed while on tour.

Home!