The Palatinate is divided into an Upper and a Lower Palatinate.  The latter because its borders extend along both sides of the Rhine river is called the Rhenish Palatinate.  Its western border is adjacent to the eastern borders of France, Luxembourg and Belgium.  Powerful German Princes once controlled the Palatinate.  The Upper Palatinate belonged to the Duke of Bavaria and the Lower Palatine belonged to Count Palatine of the Rhine. The name Palatine is derived form the name of a castle once belonging to the German Emperor.  The Germans along the Rhine were of Teutonic origin and spoke Platt Deutch, a low German tongue used by the lower class.

The village of Gerhardsbrunn, where Adam and Jacob Schneider were born  is located in the Rhineland Palatinate (Rheinland Pflaz) in southwestern, West Germany. This farming village of about 150 inhabitants is situated on a high plateau approximately 19 miles northeast of Zweibrucher and about 19 miles southwest of Kaiserlauten and some 30 miles form the French border. David R. Hay, who with his wife Virginia visited Gerhardsbrunn in 1984, wrote a description of the village, its people and customs, which was published in the November 1984 issue of the LAUREL MESSENGER, page 141.  Hay’s splendid article is herein reproduced with permission of the Editor of the Laurel Messenger.

“Gerhardsbrunn is a quaint, little farming village of approximately 150 inhabitants, located in the Rhineland Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) in southwestern West Germany, less than 30 miles from France.  It is within short driving distances of Landstuhl, Kaiserslautern and Zweibrucken.

“Although interiors of Gerhardsbrunn’s homes are quite modern (in 1984), the village has retained many of its quaint old customs and its quietness...Most of the homes are three-story, stone structures built in the 1700s.  Like the typical small German villages, they have their red-tile roofs, beautiful flower boxes outside on the deep windowsills, the lace curtains at the windows and the barns adjoining the house.  Manure pits are often found in front of the buildings as are cobblestone ways that take the place of green lawns.  Available soil around the houses is used for flower and vegetable gardens.

“There are about 12 farm families within Gerhardsbrunn and they go outside the village to their farm fields...Holstein dairy herds (18-25 cows) walk along Gerhardsbrunn’s only street — “Adam Muller Strasse” -- to and from pasture.  After milking there is a procession of the unique milk carts to the community milk house, where milk enters one bulk tank.  It is processed and sold in Kaiserslautern.

“Villagers talk German...Gerhardsbrunn is located on a high plateau.  It’s a “dorf” or village in the highlands of Sickinger.  The House of Sickinger in Landstuhl formerly had ownership of Gerhardsbrunn, part of a region about 60 kilometers long from east to west and 45 kilometers from north to south.  In former days Gerhardsbrunn was under the rule of the Prince of Sickinger.

“Until 1400-1600 Gerhardsbrunn and most other villages of the Sickinger regionwere located in valleys.  After the Thirty Years War, the villages were rebuilt on hillsides.  In 1635 (during the Thirty Years War) Gerhardsbrunn was burned by the Austrian Army.  Many residents fled.  After 1670 people began to settle again in Gerhardsbrunn, rebuilding with stone homes on the plateau, along what was previously an old Roman road.

“Gerhardsbrunn farmers were once very wealthy.  Many were called ‘manschette’ farmers.  They operated their farms with peasants, mostly from the adjoining village of Labach, where the earliest church for this region was located.  Gerhardsbrunn residents worshipped at this Labach Protestant church and buried their dead in its adjoining graveyard.  In 1825 Gerhardsbrunn built its own Protestant church.

“For its size Gerhardsbrunn has one of the best recorded histories in the Rheinland-Pfalz.  Otto Muller, the 89-year-old school master and historian still [lived] in Gerhardsbrunn.  In 1977 he wrote a 445-page book on Gerhardsbrunn (German).

“The post office is the only business.  Residents travel outside the village for shopping and business purposes.  School children travel to various towns and villages for thier schooling.

“Following an old custom to inform farmers working in the fields the time of day, church bells ring daily for two-to-four minutes duration at both 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

“Virginia creeper and climbing ivory still wind over some of the 1700s stables and buildings.  Each home has an individual name given in honor of an old family who once lived there.  Many homes have dates and unique designs over their front doors.

“In World War II planes returning from bombings along the Rhine River dropped a bomb over Gerhardsbrunn.  It destroyed the church and several homes.  Nearly ten years later the church was rebuilt.

“Sharrhof, a nearby village of five houses, barns and stables, share the same mayor and government system with Gerhardsbrunn...”
 (by David R. Hay, “Gerhardsbrunn, West Germany” Laurel Messenger, November 1984, page 141)

 The journey down the Rhine was time consuming, exasperating and filled with hardship. The sail down the Rhine might last as long as six weeks and be at considerable cost to the passengers.  The boat might be stopped as many as 25 times at custom houses where the ship, its contents, and passengers were examined at the leisure of the custom officials.

It was not unusual for the passengers to be detained another six weeks in Holland and several more weeks in England while waiting for customs inspection and a favorable wind.  The trip usually began in May so that arrival in America would be before winter set in.

On the voyage across the Atlantic the ship’s passengers were crowded into a small space and the food and water were such that dysentery, typhoid and scurvy commonly developed.  Severe storms occasionally occurred causing extreme fright, injury and at time the passengers drowned if the ship capsized.

Upon arrival in America another delay occurred while the passengers were held for inspection for the presence of a communicable disease and took the oath of allegiance and the oath of adjuration to the English Crown.

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