61. Flooding in Europe, June 10, 2013

Recent unusually heavy rains have caused historic flooding of rivers in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland.     Besides the extreme flooding there have been rockslides, mudslides and land subsidence, creating the need to close highways and rail traffic in some places.  

 
"The same storm that hit parts of Switzerland struck several countries in Eastern and Central Europe, leading to the evacuation of 8,000 people in Prague, and claiming the lives of 11 people across the region.  In neighbouring Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 100 million euros ($130 million) in flood aid on Tuesday while touring hard-hit southern areas of the country.  In Hungary, a state of emergency was declared along some areas of the Danube River, where water continues to rise."

from The Local, an English language newspaper in Switzerland, June 10, 2013. 

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come

Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home;

Under the shadow of Thy throne Thy saints have dwelt secure; 

Sufficient is Thine arm alone, and our defense is sure. 

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, soon bears us all away,

We fly forgotten as a dream dies as the op'ning day. 

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,

Be Thou our guard while troubles last and our eternal home!

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) 

from Lutheran Service Book, #733

7. "Father, into Thy hands"

While the image and wording of Friedrich's tombstone is still fresh in your mind, I want to point out a major feature.  You cannot easily read the small inscription at the bottom of the stone;   we took a piece of paper and penciled over the words on the stone to make sure we were reading them correctly.   Most people recognize those as Jesus' last words as he was dying on the cross, recorded in Luke 23:46 (King James Version), as follows:

"And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."
   
What is the significance of Friedrich's tombstone inscription?     I thought this was Friedrich's Christian testimony, his witness to the world that he believed in Christ.   I figured he had attended divine services all his life and that he knew the crucifixion story by heart, from his earliest childhood.  He sang Lenten hymns many times.  

For instance, he certainly knew the famous and favorite hymn, O sacred Head now wounded, by Paul Gerhardt.   Based on a Latin poem written around the 12th century, this hymn is reserved for Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday, the day of Christ's resurrection.    Specifically, this is a Good Friday hymn, sung to express the supreme sorrow of the day that Christ died on the cross bearing the sins of the whole world.   These stanzas, 8, 9 and 10 are from the "old" Lutheran Hymnal.   Friedrich may have sung the German (or even the French!) versions, but for a few years in Texas, he may have heard and sung the English version too.     

O sacred Head now wounded (excerpt)

8. What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this, Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
Oh, make me thine forever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never,
Outlive my love for Thee.

9. My Savior, be Thou near me
When death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me,
Forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish,
Oh, leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish
By virtue of Thine own!

10. Be Thou my Consolation,
My Shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy Passion
When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee.
Who dieth thus dies well!

--The Lutheran Hymnal, Hymn #172

Text: Is. 50: 6

Author: Paul Gerhardt

Based on the Latin poem "Salve caput cruentatum"

By Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153, asc.

Translated by: composite

Titled: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden

Composer: Hans L. Hassier, 1601

Tune: Herzlich tut mich

This is appropriate, marvelous Scripture for a tombstone -- short, comforting, and an entire sentence, at that, expressive of Friedrich's Christian beliefs.

Because we are in the 2013 Lenten season, I have been remembering the dates for Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.    Easter this year is early, March 31, 2013.  

Tonight as I was planning this post, all of a sudden a poignant wonder jumped out at me.    Friedrich was born on March 28, a Friday.   Consulting two Easter date tables online, I discovered that Easter of 1834 was on                                

                        30th March 1834

Our Friedrich was born on Good Friday!

2. A child's view

Growing up in a family in which all four of my grandparents were born in Germany or Switzerland, gave my earliest days a mixed German-Swiss-Texan cultural influence.   People around me spoke German, and "sayings" from German sprinkled their everyday speech.   My German-speaking grandmother stayed with us often during the 1950's and 60's.    My Krieg uncles and one aunt spoke Swiss when they all got together once a year.   Nobody else could understand them, not even the German speakers.    Most of my Swiss uncles were born at New Bern, Texas, the town named after the capital of Switzerland.   Their Swiss-born mother was quadrilingual, meaning she spoke, read and wrote four languages.    My grandmother died long before I was born.    In the Lutheran church where I grew up, German [and Wendish] accented the English language.   The hymns were European in origin.   These linguistic influences encouraged my later studies in English, Latin and French.  
 

The movie Heidi, based on the child's book by Johanna Spyri, was released in 1952 when I was 4 years old.    The star Heidi (Elsbeth Sigmund, born October 25, 1942 in Winterthur, Switzerland) was only 6 years older than me.   For the first time I "saw" Germany and Switzerland, from the point of view of another child.   The movie is still my all-time favorite.   One of my prized possessions before I was 8 years old was a soft-cover book of the movie, with photographs, a book that I read and reread and studied its pictures.   A few years ago my daughter found the movie on Amazon and gave it to me, to my total happiness!    My son bought me the German-language movie, Heidi und Peter, the second version of the Heidi movie, with the same actors a little older.    It is pure joy to watch those movies!

Here is another book I had when I was little --    

                                                 
Lutheranism, languages, hymns and Heidi, and the people around me, in church and at home, had everything to do with my early interest in family history.