(2022-05-31/06-01) This journey from Austria-Hungary to Prussia, from Bukovina to Pomerania, from Pojorâta to Stargard took me six years. In July 2016 I discovered along the DN17 between Câmpulung Moldovenesc and Pojorâta in Southern Bukovina "Adrian's Magnificent Chaos En Route to Suceava":
Among my "trophies" were 112 photographic plates more than one hundred years old. For eight of them, the question „Bukovina or not Bukovina? - That is the Question!" could soon be answered in the affirmative:
But what were the other 104 photographic plates about? A barely decipherable town sign on a train platform finally put me on the track to Stargard. Months passed before I finally researched the whole story.
The fascinating photographic plates show the family of Georg Heinrich Traugott Kirsten, Protestants who lived between 1884 - 1888 in Stralsund in Pomerania on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. In the year 1888 they moved to Stargard, where Georg became Royal Prussian Railways Director, subsequently Privy Council. He headed the Stargard Railways Repair Workshop, one of the dominant empolyers in Pomerania.
The Stargard Museum of Archeology and History was most enthusiastic about this find and and a team was sent to Germany especially to aquire the photographic plates from me and bring them safely back home to Stargard. At that time I wrote: "The round trip from Pomerania in Prussia to Bukovina in Austria-Hungary came to an end. Exciting!" But is that actually true? No, because it is at least as interesting to find out what is still there today. You can see the result in this post. Everything is still there, the railroad station, the railroad repair plant, today an emerging business park, the house of the Royal Prussian Railway Director, today the City Job Center, the old water tower, the workshops, then and now, and even an old steam locomotive. I never thought how far this chance discovery from Bukovina would take me and I am thrilled, about the unique photos, but also about the reconstruction of a family history.
No comments:
Post a Comment