Ludwig Steurenthaler (1886 - 1964)

Born 9 Aug 1886 in Hinterzarten, Neustadt, Freiburg, Baden, Deutschland

Ancestors

Husband of Maria (Hercher) Steurenthaler — married 15 Apr 1926 in Hinterzarten, Neustadt, Freiburg, Baden, Deutsches Reich

Descendants

Died 3 Dec 1964 at age 78 in Hinterzarten, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Florian Straub [send private message]

This profile is part of the Steurenthaler Name Study.

Biography

Ludwig was born and grew up on Zipfelhof as son of Joseph Steurenthaler and Maria Wunderle. He got baptised in Hinterzarten eight days after his birth. His godparents were Andreas Andris, from neighboring Raimartihof and Karolina Wunderle, a sister of his mother.^[1][2]

Miltary career

Ludwig in uniform, probably during his service, from 1908 until 1911

From 2 October 1908 until 24. September 1911 he served in the 1st Squadron of the 20th Dragoon Regiment (1. Eskadron Dragoner-Regiment 20), where he was promoted to the rank of Gefreiter on 23 September 1910.

On 5 August 1914, four days after German Empire entering World War I, Ludwig entered 2nd Landwehr Squadron of 14th Army Corps (2. Landwehr-Eskadron XIV. AK), probably as a consequency of general mobilization.^[3] 2nd Landwehr Squadron was involved in the following tasks/operations:^[4]

• 19 August 1914: second battle at Mühlhausen (Lümschweiler)
• 19 September 1914–27 February 1915: trench battle at Upper Alsace (Armee-Abteilung Gaede)
• 6, 7 and 13 October: encounters at Bisel-Moos
• 27 December 1914–27 February 1915: fights at Hartmannswillerkopf
• 28 February 1915–15 August 1916: protection of the border between Upper Alsace and Switzerland

During his service at the border, at Landskron, as he later told, he looked towards the Swiss monastery of Mariastein heard a bell ringing. Then he told to himself and promised, that he would go there for a visit, in case he survived the war.

On 15 August 1916 the 2nd Landwehr Squadron was disolved and Ludwig was moved to the Replacement Department of the 14th Army Corps (Ersatz-Abteilung des 14. Armee-Korps) in Rastatt, before being moved to Replacement Battalion of Replacement Infantery Regiment 40 (Ersatz-Bataillon Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 40). After becoming part of 1st Company of Replacement Infantery Regiment 40 (1. Kompanie Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 40) on 9 November 1916, he entered the field again on 3 January 1917 – this time on the Eastern Front, not on the Western Front anymore.^[3]

On 8 January 1917, five days later, he was injured at his left hand near Olăneasca in Romania. On 17 February 1917 he returned from the Imperial and Royal field hospital 611 (K.u.K. Feldspital 611) to his company.^[3] The Prussian casualty list of 7 March 1917 reported his as slightly wounded, but misspelled his name as Stewental.^[5] This mistake was corrected in a list of 4 June 1917.^[6]

From 11 October until 21 November 1917 he was educated in usage of short range mortars (Minenwerfer) with shock troops in a place called Pădureni.^[3]

On 16 December he was moved to Medical Company 115 ("Sanitätskompagnie 115") because he was suffering from a Dysentery infection ("Ruhr"), then on 21 December to a field hospital (Reserve-Feldlazarett 110 D[deutsches?] F[eldlazarett?] 100).^[3] Two or three nights during this time in December he spent in the sacristy of a church, to which dying soldiers were brought to. He survived and was brought back to the nave of the church.^[7] Afterwards, starting 17 February 1918, he came to a military recovery hospital in Călimănești (Kriegslazarett 58 E - Erholungsheim), from which he returned to his normal company on 18 April 1918.^[3]

Founding a family

According to one of his daughters he was sentenced to imprisonment of some months in Freiburg for beating somebody with a garden fence pole from which that one lost one eye. Unfortunately the Staatsarchiv in Freiburg, which maintains the penal files of the Freiburg area from 19th and 20th century, doesn't have any documents on this topic.^[8] His brother Josef from Zipfelhof reportedly was present as well and had contributed to the escalation of the conflict, but took off when it looked to dangerous to him.^[9]

After the civil wedding in Hinterzarten on the day before,^[2] Ludwig married Marie Hercher from Ramselehof, a 3rd cousin, on 15 April 1926. Witnesses were his brother Joseph Steurenthaler and Friedrich Späth.^[10] Some months after the wedding their first child was born, a daughter. Maria, the second one, followed in autumn 1931. Together with his brother-in-law Wilhelm Hercher he did a lot of renovation to Ramselehof shortly after moving there, e.g. building a chimney and setting up a laundry room.^[11]

Ludwig, his first son, was born in 1935. They lived on Ramselehof until February 1938, when they moved to Hanselehof in Alpersbach, a part of Hinterzarten, because Marie's brother Wilhelm Hercher was about to get married and the families living on Ramselehof didn't get along that well anymore. In December 1938 Paul, their second son and youngest child was born.

In autumn 1944 there were tobacco leaves hung in the hallway of Hanselehof for drying. They were given to the family by a woman from Falkensteig, which came for begging (hamstern) to Ludwig and his family, claiming that she was related to them. She had received something and in return she had given them a few tobacco plants. Ludwig usually took one leaf with him in the morning, when he went to work in the forest, in order to smoke it. The family assumes that this consumption of unfermented tobacco caused him severe heart problems. He might even have been close to a heart attack or might even have had one.

From 1930 until at least 1945 he worked as lumberjack for the forestry office (Forstamt) of Neustadt. After World War II Ludwig, like all people employed by the state, was judged about his relationship to the nazi regime. The questionaire reports that he had been a member in Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF) from 1935 until 1945, as well as in Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (NSV) from 1934 until 1945, but didn't hold any offices there. It also contains his salaries during the time:

Ludwig was declared flawless in terms of political views and character and kept his occupation.^[12]

Being a grandfather

Around 1950 the family returned to Ramselehof. In 1957 when they were doing construction work at Ramselehof, he had a heart attack, after one of the construction workers fell and got injured. Initially being a client of Dr. Zitsch, Ludwig's brother Joseph recommended the private clinic of Dr. Wagner in Hinterzarten, where Ludwig stood for some time.

He quit smoking after the heart attack. The tablets for his heart he took without water, for which he felt strong, but what ruined his stomach in return. He got better again with his heart, but never returned to full energy and condition. So he shifted his focus towards house work like sweeping, making salad, boiling potatoes and cleaning strawberries (or their butt, as he used to put it).

His wife Marie had to take over a lot of his duties, so she asked her daughter and Josef Zähringer, that one's husband, if they would not like to return to Ramselehof, which they did in April 1962.

When Josef died in September 1963, Ludwig pitied him and said that he would have preferred to "leave" instead of him. One year later he died in Dr. Wagner's clinic in Hinterzarten.^[2]

Memories

When the family was living at Hanselehof, Ludwig cut the family's (and other people's) hair in the living room.

He liked reading, what was disapproved to his wife. So he spent a lot of time in his workshop, sitting below the window and reading. His grandchildren always wondered what he was doing for that much time in his workshop.

Apart from that, he was very talented in terms of craftsmanship, since he apparently renovated a lot at Ramselehof and had a lot of knowledge. Family lore has it, that he had worked at a carpenter as a young man - maybe in Bärental - and learned a lot from him. He was able to build cabinets, sleighs, oxen harnesses, flower boxes and wagons (among others) and was able to repair almost anything. When he was living at Hanselehof, neighbors also brought him things to repair. He barely charged money for it.^[13]

He used to smoke pipes, which he sometimes put in the pockets of his trousers. Every once in a while smoke went out from there and he received burnt holes in them. He also smoked while working in his workshop at Ramselehof – which consisted mainly of wood – and used a carbide lamp with open fire.

Research notes

Family lore tells, that Ludwig also was the father of Maria Herrmann (1924-1924) and Paulina Bruder (1929-1944).^[14] Paulina's sister had told Ludwig's daughter Maria Steurenthaler, that her mother had a child from her father ("Mi Muedder hät ä Kind vo diem Vader").^[7]

According to a 1970 newspaper article about the 75th birthday of his wife, he was also referred to as Zipfel-Ludwig.^[15]

• Which Padureni was he educated in?^[16]

• Transcribe "Kriegsstammrolle" entirely.^[3]

Transcripts

Friedensstammrolle

^[17]

Medal of Merit

Ludwig was on a list of 30 members of his regiment that were granted a military award called "Silberne Verdienstmedaille am Bande der Militärischen Karl-Friedrich-Verdienstmedaille":^[18]

He received the medal on 21 December 1917.^[3]

115. Infanterie-Division
229. Infanterie-Brigade
Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 40.


Vorschlagsliste zur Verleihung Badischer Orden und Ehrenzeichen

Sources

1. ↑ "Deutschland, Baden, Erzbistum Freiburg, katholische Kirchenbücher, 1678-1930," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QYBT-HBZM : 16 January 2019), Ludwig Steurerthaler, 17 Aug 1886; citing Baptism, Hinterzarten, Neustadt, Baden, Deutschland, , Erzbischöfliches Archiv Freiburg (Archbishop's Archives), Germany:

   Nr. 17

   Im Jahr 1886 den siebenzehnten August wurde in hiesiger

   Pfarrkirche durch den Unterzeichneten getauft: Ludwig

   geboren den     August, ehelicher Sohn des Zipfelbauern

   Joseph Steurenthaler u. der Maria Wunderle.

   Pathen sind: Andreas Andris, Rhaimartiebauer dahier

   Maria Karolina Steurenthaler geb. Wunderle dahier.

   Hinterzarten 17. August 1886

   Albert Landolt Pfarrer

   August

   Ludwig

   Steuren=

   thaler

   getraut hier mit

   Marie Hercher

   am 15. April 1926

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Civil marriage record, Hinterzarten 3/1926 (includes birthday and note about death)
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7} Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, 456 C Kriegsstammrollen 1914-1918 Freiwilligenverbände und Übergangsheer / 1869-1921, Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 40, I. Bataillon, 1. Kompanie, #949 (Scan, partial transcription at forum.ahnenforschung.net)
4. ↑ Battle calendar at Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg
5. ↑ Deutsche Verlustlisten (Preußen 777), 7 March 1917, p. 17803 (Scan):

   Stewental, Ludwig Gefr. – 9. 8. 86 Hintergarten, Neustadt

   in Baden – leicht verwundet.

6. ↑ Deutsche Verlustlisten (Preußen 849), 4 June 1917, p. 18850 (Scan):

   Steurenthaler [nicht Stewental], Gefr. – 9. 8. 86

   Hinterzarten – leicht verwundet.

7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Told by Zähringer-61 on 10 May 2022
8. ↑ reply of 26 May 2021 to inquiry by Florian Straub
9. ↑ Told by Zähringer-89 to Zähringer-61, who wrote it to Straub-620 on 10 May 2022
10. ↑ Hinterzarten, Marriage book, 1926, p. 29, #3
11. ↑ Told by Zähringer-59 to Zähringer-61, who told it to Florian Straub on 22 May 2022
12. ↑ Steurenthaler, Ludwig, Spruchkammer Südbaden: DNZ-Akten, Staatsarchiv Freiburg D 180/2 Nr. 13668, ID 5-646309
13. ↑ Told by the parents of Zähringer-61, who told it to Florian Straub on 2 May and 12 June 2022
14. ↑ Steurenthaler-1, Zähringer-61 and Zähringer-41
15. ↑ Geburtstagsgrüße. Maria Steurenthaler 75 Jahre, Badische Zeitung, 11 April 1975
16. ↑ see also discussion at forum.ahnenforschung.net
17. ↑ 1. Bad. Leib=Dragoner=Regt. Nr. 20. Stammrolle des Jahrgangs 1909, ehemals Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe, Abt. 456, XIV. Armeekorps Nr A11.21
18. ↑ Verleihung der silbernen Verdienstmedaille am Bande der militärischen Karl-Friedrich-Verdienstmedaille, Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe, 233 Nr. 51696
19. ↑ Silberne Verdienstmedaille am Bande der Militärischen Karl=Friedrich=Verdienstmedaille

• Memories of Steurenthaler-1