The land did not belong to the farmers, but they had the usage of it, paying for this usage in different fees, taxes and services. However, the right to work and live there was inherited. New contracts were drawn up with each new landholder. Officials were not elected, but appointed, with little or no payment for their services.

All property was owned by either the Duke/Prince or the church and leased by the farmer. (More on this later) The amount and type of taxes paid depended on the size of the property and the terms of the lease. Generally, the tax for a surface size of 1 Fuder, (about 5 ½ acres) that are 48 Schefelsaat, cost 1 Reichsthaler and 48 groschens. In addition, the terms of the lease may require, a portion of the produce, a designated number of days work for the Duke, and/or, a member of the family serving time in his army. Also the church made sure they got their share by collecting a tithe (tax) on each male. In return they were required by law to keep all the records, assuring that everyone paid their correct taxes and were registered for their duty in the army. This required everyone to belong to a church, which must be the denomination of the Duke’s choice. Any violation of these, or any other rules, resulted in a fine, jail, or forced emigration. The first mention of a Catholic church was 777. The country remained Catholic until the Reformation in 1517 when the first significant non-Catholic religion began in Germany. The Catholic Church had been the only religion allowed, but since 1538, Lippe has been almost exclusively Lutheran. Lippe joined the Reformation of Martin Luther. In some villages, the priests had started to preach Lutheran even before that time. After Earl Simon VI. took over regency, Lippe became Calvinistic in 1602/1605.

The early religion for all of Lippe was Catholic until 1519 when Simon V (1511 -1536) developed adherence to Reformed Evangelisch. This took some time to occur and in 1538 a new Lutheran Evangelish Order was decided upon. In 1533 the Catholic Abby in Bloomberg was discontinued.

The last Catholic clergyman, Hermann Lesemann, was mentioned in 1491 for the St. Johann Church in Wöbbel. The first Lutheran pastor of St. Johann, Bartold Riekehof, was selected from the local citizens in 1541 and served until 1559.  He was not well educated, but known as a ‘nice’ man. The first Evangelish pastor, Hieronymus Stephanus, served 1589-1636. It appears that there was no salary, or very little, for the pastors at that time. Still, the church had continual finance difficulties and in 1537 introduced a tithe to be paid annually by all males. It’s not clear how this was applied, but I interpret it to have been one toller per head.

The subsequent pastors were farmers and residents of Wöbbel, a few were replaced for dubious behavior. Herman Beker was forced to leave for immoral acts. Rudolph Koch (1568 - 1597) was removed by Simon VI in1598 because his children were leading a ‘wild’ life. The records kept by the pastors during this period indicate that they had very little education. However, this did improve in the early 1700's.

In the year 1587 Wöbbel still had no school. The küster (church sextant) took care of the youth. Around 1570 apparently a Küsterhaus was available, in which instruction was held at the same time. The house suffered heavy damage during the 30 Year War. Compulsory education was introduced in 1773. Some schools taught in two separate groups until about 1870: Those under the age of 10, between 7 and 10am, and the older ones from noon until 3pm. The curriculum included religious education, reading and writing, mathematics, geography, and history. Although compulsory, attendance was not always regular to begin with. Despite the fact that fines could be imposed for non-attendance; the tending of cattle and bad weather kept many children away.

Any male citizen of Wöbbel was required to furnish proof that he had an income sufficient to support himself and family before being allowed to marry. This rule resulted in an abnormal amount of births out of wedlock. In my research I’ve not found any evidence of medical facilities, nor mention of doctors or midwives. Death at birth for the mother or child was a common occurrence.

In the mid 1800's Wöbbel consisted of about 60 houses (farms). In 1911 - 102 houses, 152 Households, and 548 residents. In 1939 - 681 inhabitants. Four of the farms were Richters, and by my calculation, that’s 5% of the population of Wöbbel. I have identified 7 of our Richter relatives that came to America. The closest ancestor to me among them was my Great-Great Grandfather, Anton Joseph (Anthony) Richter. He, and his forebears, were Kolons, (Colon, owner of a large farm). Kolon or Colon originates from the 18th century draining of low lying land and opening it up to new farming, hence the word related to colonist. At that time all land was owned by church or nobility, so the ones who farmed it paid a tithe to the real owners and were called the Kolons. The Kolons had a hereditary right to pass that status on to their heirs even though none of them actually owned the land in the modern sense. Even after 1808 when real ownership passed to the Kolons there was a catch. The former owners were owed extremely large "compensations", typically in the form of farm output. So one bad crop or catastrophe and the Kolons had to give up their ownership, by selling or reversion to the former owners. That is why we see so many Kolons emigrating in the 1830-1850 time period. The economy was very bad and there were periodic droughts.

One custom in Lippe that makes genealogy research difficult and sometimes frustrating is when the hereditary of a farm passes to a daughter or widow. The name of the farm is retained, so if the woman marries, her spouse must assume the name of the farm, as do any children produced by them. I’m presently working on resolving one such occurrence in the Richter clan, tho is not yet proven to be part of our heritage. Gertrud Richter of farm #4 in Billerbeck married Johann Wilbodessen, becoming Johann Richter. They had a daughter Lucia Richter born 1565, who married Johann Schlepper in 1585, and he became a Richter. They had several children, all with the name of Richter. If this turns out to be our heritage, then according to our naming standards, we’re not Richters, we’re "Wilbodessens"!

I have no information on the size of the property or any of the buildings, though I do have a current picture of one of the houses built in 1783 by Simon Heinrich Richter and his wife Anna Maria Louisa Kruels, my 4^th great grandparents, which is still standing . I can however, describe the typical farm house for that era and area. Constructed of wood, a four post beam structure with aisles. That is, one end of the house would have contained the living quarters with the other end containing the threshing floor between the horse stalls on one side and the cows and dairy chamber on the other. At the end of this would be a lavatory for animal as well as human wastes. Heat would come from wood, both cooking and heating. The water table is rather deep, 25 meters, and too deep for wells to have been hand driven. I have a note that a waterway was constructed to carry surface water to the town of Wöbbel. I’m not sure if this was used as a source for consumption.  From the little information available, it appears that the houses in Wöbbel were bunched in a community and the gardens and farms were separate properties. The size of the Richter farms, though unknown, was probably very small. One indication of this is Simon Heinrich Richter had only some animals.( 3- 5 pigs and some (she-)goats).  Barns were used for storing straw and hay, not animals, which were kept in a separate part of the house, as heat and water were as necessary for the animals and any dairy operation as for the humans.

There was an established system for retiring at old age or disability. When a Kolon became too old he turned the farm over to his heir, often (but not always) his oldest son. In return he got a contract that the new Kolon would allow him to live on the estate and in some manner provide him sustenance. This could be in the form of a little house, a garden spot, payment of money, etc. He then became the Leibzuchter. He could receive Leibzuchts-garden as far as available, otherwise: (1) 1/3 of the farm's garden if greater than 1 Scheffelsaat or bigger, 1/4 of the farm's garden if between 1/2 up to 1 Scheffelsaat. (2) 1/3 of the fruits. (3) The Leibzucht's meadow. Scheffelsaat = in 1716, about 588 m², literally means ‘seed measure of land’, they were applied only to land on which grain was grown, and not for land used for vegetables or other crops. The land area covered varies by location in Germany and by the quality of the land. It was meant to define the amount of land required to plant a homer of barley seed.

In the first half of the 18th century, the country Lippe was, in all financial and economic regards, in a complete desolate status. I’ve found that many of our Richter farmers had several occupations to cope with droughts and other economic problems. Most of them were brick/stone masons, several were linen weavers or shoemakers, and a few combined those skills with butchering. A master bricklayer earned about 250 fl. p.a., which was just the money he needed to feed a family of four, a day laborer earned about 190 fl. p.a., which obviously was not enough for four people. For an adult traveling expenses to America at the time (1857) were about 80 fl. My GGgrandfather, Anton Joseph Richter, was Kolon of a farm, yet was recorded as a weaver. Several other members of the family were also listed as linen weavers, including his nephew Freidrich Wilhelm, who later became the Kolon of the farm when Anton emigrated to America. I have no details on the transfer of ownership, however it was normal for property in such cases to pass to the eldest son, and I imagine there was some type of sale.

Before ending this segment it is only fitting to comment on the economics of Germany during the 1700 and 1800's. It’s impossible to relate or compare with monetary values of today, but perhaps we can get a sense of a man’s worth from records during that period. The official coinage was the Taler/Thaler (dollar) for most of Europe at that time, and I have used it any reference to value. The accuracy of any value placed on German coinage in relation to U.S. dollars are questionable, and those I have included certainly confirm this.

The large silver coin, Taler, was coined starting from 1500 first in Joachimsthal in the ore mountains. From the late 15th century into the early 16th century, silver production in Europe increased dramatically, as a number of significant new mines were discovered in the mineral-rich regions of Saxony and Bohemia. The most productive of these was discovered in 1512, at St. Joachimsthal, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). The tremendous output from these new mines sparked an increase in the use of silver coinage, and a new type of heavy silver coin began to appear in Europe. The most lasting and influential of these new coins was the Joachimsthaler, or thaler, first minted at Joachimsthal in 1519. After introduction of the goldmark Taler remained until 1907 in the value of three Marks, or 30 groschen per taler. A pound sterling equaled 4.2 Taler.

1. An average farm would have cost about 2000 Gulden.

2. 1836 - One barrel of meat costs up to 34 Taler, one barrel of flour 12 Taler.

3. To purchase the same amount of foodstuffs that a Gulden could buy in 1800, would require $5.00 US currency in 1970, and $32.80 in US currency in 2002.

4. Steerage fare to America was between 30 and 40 Thalers for adults and children 10 and older. Younger children paid half and babies under one year old traveled free.

5. The average wage for a Heuerling ("hired man") would be two to three Thalers a month, including his meals.

6. 1849, daily wage with food is $1 or 1 Thaler and 30 cents.

7. 1843--One "Thaler" was equal in value to 17.5 grams of silver. By comparison, a U.S. silver dollar at that time was equal to 24.06 grams of silver, making a "Thaler" worth about 75 cents.

8. German day's work in 1840's--only 7 1/2 to 10 silver groschen--which is 20 cents in American money. The highest income per week was 1 Thaler--62 cents in American money. Children were hired out to be "in service" to work for an entire year for 6 to 16 Thaler, plus room and board.

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The Thirty Years War

Hundreds of volumes have been written on The Thirty Years War, covering the history, cause, battles, political and religious disputes. The history of the war is so impossibly complicated and as a genealogist my interest lies not in the war itself, but rather the effects of the war on the German populace as a whole, and my forebears in particular. In that context this is a broad overview of the war and it’s participants, with emphasis on the hardships forced upon the masses.

It has been suggested that ‘The Thirty Years War’ should really be called the ‘German Religious War’, but this is highly misleading. It is not easy, and probably impossible, to judge the religious issue with an unbiased mind. It was a period of natural and bitter prejudice, and a period of intense unrest, heart-sickening exile, poverty, changes and recrimination. Lutherans began taking over Catholic Church properties before 1552, and prior to the war, of the approximately 20 million population of Germany almost exactly half were Catholic, the rest were Lutheran or Calvinist, with a spattering of non Christians.

On May 23^rd, 1618, in Prague an unpopular Catholic government was overthown by a well timed Protestant rising, the date traditionally assigned to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War. Although the peace of Westphalia brought the fighting to an end in Oct 1648, it took almost two more years before a formula for demobilizing the armies was agreed by all the parties. And, just a decade later; The German Holy Roman Empire plunged into a new round of expensive wars: beginning in the mid 1660's engaging in a long series of wars against the Turks and the French.

Most of Europe was involved in the war, Bavaria, Saxony, Palatinate, Hesse-Kassel, Brandenburg, Russia, Dutch, Denmark, Sweden, France, England, Savoy, Transylvania, Spain, Papery, and Poland, all provided either money, armies, or both, to protect their interest. Bavaria and France were the main Catholic element, and Sweden, invited to Germany by the Germans themselves, the champions of the Protestant Church.

But war makes strange bedfellows, and we find that alliances often found Catholics backing and supporting Protestant military operations, what mattered was their advantage and prestige, not religious belief. Additionally, the Lutherans would not accept the Calvinists existence anywhere in Germany. The struggle ceased to be the conflict of two religions and became the struggle for a balance of power. By 1639 the war had degenerated into a contest between the kings of France and Spain, fought on German soil. The German people bowed under the scourge of a war they did not start and could not stop.

The war began in 1618 with the Defenestration of Prague. The longest war in German history became, through the intervention of external powers, a European war. The cause was mainly the conflict of religious denominations as a result of the Reformation. Thus Catholic and Protestant princes faced one another as enemies, the Catholics (Emperor, Bavaria) united in the "League," the Protestants (Electorate Palatine, Baden-Durlach, Württemberg) in the "Union." What was different about this war that caused it to last for 30 years, when most major wars last 4 - 5 years? Several attempts were made for an armistice and treaties signed, but in each instance the terms of the peace were broken by those who felt they were not being compensated for their contribution to the war and by those seeking to limit the power of others or to increase their own. In the end, lack of funds to continue the war played a large part in all parties accepting the peace accord. By this time all of Germany was destitute, with starvation and disease, villages and crops destroyed, and complete economic disaster.

The area in Germany of interest, Lippe, the area of our Richter forbears, is located in the mid-western region and I can find nothing written of battles fought there. The only mention I have of troops in the area is: "in June 1625 some 11,000 troops from the South Netherlands were sent into garrisons along the Rhine, Ems, and Lippe Rivers to enforce a strict economic blockade of the Dutch Republic, by land and sea. The measures were not popular in Germany whose subjects were deprived of valuable trading contracts as well as being required to quarter and placate the ill-paid troops of Spain."

The village of our ancestors, Wöbbel, with only a couple hundred residents, mostly farmers, would not have been large enough, nor have the resources to support the needs of an imposing army. Still they suffered, as did all of Germany, the raids and looting, and disease. The Kuesterhaus (church sextant house), in which school instruction was held, suffered heavy damage during the war. The army that was raised by Christian, Duke of Brunswick, and operating in that area was more intent on raising money to pay the troops than fighting battles, and I quote: "Christian, Duke of Brunswick,  administrator of Halberstadt, seemed to have learnt from Count Mansfeld the secret of keeping in the field an army of 20,000 men without money."

"His army marched to Westphalin where he extracted immense sums from the wealthy bishopries of Münster and Paderborn. He had issued startling letters, suggestively burnt at the four corners and bearing the words "Fire! Fire! Blood!", to every sizeable village he passed. This seldom failed to extract a ransom in hard cash from the people. He had also systematically stripped Catholic churches of their gold and silver ornaments. Impelled by youthful presumption, and influenced partly by the wish of establishing his reputation at the expense of the Roman Catholic priesthood, whom he cordially detested, and partly by a thirst for plunder, he assembled a considerable army under the pretext of espousing the defense of Frederick, and of the liberties of Germany. "God's Friend, Priest's Foe", was the motto he chose for his coinage, which was struck out of church plate."

Christian became the model for collecting funds: marching his troops to villages and towns and demanding ransom for not sacking them, kidnaping and holding women and children for ransom, and taking of livestock and grains. For the villages that could not, or would not, pay the ransom, his troops sacked and burned them, allowing his troops to ravish the women and steal anything they found of value, particularly in the Catholic Churches. "The progress of these banditti was, as usual, marked by the most frightful devastation. Enriched by the spoils of the chapters of Lower Saxony and Westphalia, they gathered strength to plunder the bishoprics upon the Upper Rhine." Eventually, both Mansfeld and Duke Christian had, from want of money, disbanded their armies.

Armies did not consist of just soldiers: " In Tilly’s army then counted five servants for each lieutenant and up to 18 for a colonel. The gunmen were hired mechanics, who with their master gunners, grooms for their huge horse teams, wives and servants, formed a compact unit, separate from, yet essential to, the army. Peasant girls dragged from plundered farms, children kidnaped for ransom and forgotten, hawkers, tricksters, quacks, and vagabonds swelled their ranks. In the army six or seven children were born in a week. The Lords had a responsibility to all of these, which he must fulfill or let loose a disorder as dangerous to him as to the country in which they are quartered. All that they have, whether it be arms or apparel, weareth, wasteth, and breaketh. If they must buy more they must have money, and if men have it not to give, they take it where they find it. They spare no person of what quality so ever to be, respect no place how holy so ever, neither churches, altar, tombs, sepulchers nor the dead bodies that lie in them." There was a favorite saying among the troops, "... each soldier needs three peasants; one to furnish food and shelter; one to furnish a wife; and, one to take his place in Hell."

In the beginning soldiers were permitted to wear what they wished. There were some attempts to create uniforms, however clothes soon wore out and require replacement by items plundered or stripped from the dead. Regiments were identified by their "colours", a six foot regimental standard. Some units were identified by wearing a colored band, or a green twig on their hats. In many battles, ‘colours’ won or lost were the only tangible measure of success or failure.

Few Commanders seem to have had much time for their wounded. There seldom was any provision of medical care for the sick, nor any military hospitals or pensions for the wounded. The troops of the League were normally attended by Jesuit field chaplains, and a full ecclesiastical hierarchy of Lutheran pastors was attached to the Swedish army.

Control of the rivers and waterways was necessary as they presented the easiest and fastest method of transporting troops and supplies. Fortresses and walls were built on the Elbe and Rhine rivers to protect the towns from invasion. Many battles were fought along the Rhine with devastation everywhere. The entire territory between Mainz and Frankfurt was desolate, with the people from Mainz so weak from hunger they could not crawl to receive the alms from travelers wishing to help them. All of these reports of misery and cruelty, generalized and impersonal as they may seem, in fact concerned countless individuals, whose personal suffering was not reduced because it was shared.

Nearly all parts of Germany experienced troop movements and battles. They suffered losses due to direct military action or to disease. The real losers in the war were the German people. Over 300,000 had been killed in battle. Millions of civilians had died of malnutrition and disease, and wandering, undisciplined troops had robbed, burned, and looted almost at will. Most authorities believe that the population of the Empire dropped from about 21,000,000 to 13,500,000 between 1618 and 1648. Even if they exaggerate, the Thirty Years War remains one of the most terrible in history. The loss of people was proportionally greater then in World War II; the displacement of people and the material devastation caused were about as great, and economic dislocation persisted substantially longer.

The Münster Peace accord in 1648: France was to receive Alsace, Benfeld, Zabern Philippsburg and Brusach. Pomerania to Sweden and payment for her army of five million talers. The Catholic/Lutheran religious settlement confirmed the predominance of Catholicism in southern Germany and of Protestantism in northern Germany with a return to the position of 1624, and the right of the Princes to alter his religion and that of his subjects at will was confirmed. An important outcome of the peace was that now, along with Catholics and Lutherans, the Reformed were also tolerated.

As the bells of peace rang out, many villages and cities in Germany were impoverished from quartering troops, were partly destroyed or burned out completely.

     House number
    OLD              NEW
   before             after
    1830               1830                   FAMILY NAME

21		Atolin -?
47	43	Bahmann
55	49	Bauers/Bruns
50	26	Bicker
2	5	Bröder
17	4	Brüggenmeier
27	55	Brinkmann
54	48	Brinkmann
61		Brinkmann
30	30	Bruns
29	14	Bruns/Brunsmeier
60	51	Crome
51	57	Dreves (Sigges)
	37	Duvel
46	46	Duvel/Lange
52	58	Duvel/Lange
13	7	Eichmann/Watermeier
49	56	Eikermann/Kortens
8	23	Eikmeier
	16	Fritzmeier
5		Frome
3	12	Führing
19	38	Fultz/Puls
16	24	Göder
24	52	Höllscher
25	36	Hölscher
12	11	Hötger
38	22	Hötger
	34	Hötger
26		Haussmann
18	3	Haussmann/Hansman(n)
4		Hoffmeister
22	8	Köstering
28	34	Koch
36	44	Koch
33		Kortens
15	53	Kortensmeier/Hötger
10	17	Lange
32	42	Lange
34	28	Lange
41	29	Lange
	19	Lesemann
	54	Meier
35		Mönish -?
42	35	Matthäus
31	41	Pieper
1		Richter
45	59	Richter
53	47	Richter
56	44	Richter
59	45	Richter
58	50	Richter/Brinkman
23		Richtersmeier
20	27	Ridder
48		Ridder
7	13	Schöning
39		Schmidt
40	32	Sigges
9	9	Stumpenmeier
14	6	Theilenmeier
	21	Wedeking
57		Wesmeier
43	39	Witte
6	10	Wortmann

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            Wöbbel Applications for Emigration