Martin T.C. Jenter This Is My Land Dedication To My Tree Sons Carl, Bill, Martin. Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. Jeremiah 21:8 To Carl, Bill, Marty: As actual, existing names are used throughout my narrative, please make sure about the persons to whom you loan it. One or the other might be hurt and that is not the object, as I have no ax to grind. Martin Jenter February 1944 Table of Contents Looking for the promised land ......................................................................................................................4 Preface ...........................................................................................................................................................5 About ancestors ............................................................................................................................................6 Der Deutsche Stammbaum (drawing) ...........................................................................................................7 The German Stammbaum (10¢ per name) ....................................................................................................8 Some more ancestors ....................................................................................................................................8 Relatives (The Family) .................................................................................................................................10 About the greatest guy in the world ...........................................................................................................12 Der strenge Grossvater (the strict grandfather) ..........................................................................................13 The other Grandma and laughing about sour grapes .................................................................................16 My Birthplace—about its past ......................................................................................................................17 Castrum Optimum—The most important castle in the land .........................................................................18 1885 to 1904 in Schleswig .........................................................................................................................20 The Dom—the church of my boyhood .........................................................................................................21 4 Looking for the promised land I have not told you of 24 years of romance, drama and the joy of working in this haven, nor the proving of real friendships and otherwise. I promise you that story someday. 5 Preface Funny enough, when I wrote the printed line on the first page, 6 weeks ago I did not dream I would start so soon to tell my story. But then, I was with Mr Rosenberg1 who wants to know my whole history before he goes into our big trials. I can't blame him, in fact that's the way I work, when I paint or write. Know your subject. The more you know the better the result. Incidentally, in spite of the fact that we Jenters are usually loquacious, I never told you much about your immediate ancestors or myself. I “pictured” the story for I always greatly regret to read a book without illustrations, and see how “Life” [magazine] grew because it believed in pictures. Not that mine could compare with Luce's brainchild and splendid action pictures and great variety of attractions, based on millions of busy people's lives. After all, it's only the story of one little man you know and who happens to be your dad, but use your imagination and memory of many places you have seen, and my story may have enough sunshine and shadows to pay you for reading it to the end. You probably remember the sculptor Vincent Miserendino2, who among other works, gave America the finest Teddy Roosevelt busts. You remember his great bronze monument in front of your high school3 (pictured below). Well, at a party in our studio he made a bust of Willy Pogany4 while he told us about lights and shadows. There were only two light sources. One above the subject, one above a hunk of clay. Half an hour later they were alike in shape and form. Close by or far away the likeness was perfect. With front light – without shadows in the face – he could not have done it in 12 hours, he said. A face-like life should have light and shadows. All sunshine only was flat – in the Arts, the building of character and in life. 1Lawyer hired to sue former business partners 2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Miserendino 3https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profle=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!323537~!0#focus 4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Pogany 6 About ancestors Well, talking about ancestry – let's start at the beginning. When I came home from the “sexta” [6th grade] with marks that showed I was doing poorly as a lad of nearly nine years in my French lessons, dad said “That's laziness!! You have Huguenot ancestors, it ought to be easy for you, your sisters are doing fine in French.” Somewhere around 1580 or 1590 they fled during the huguenots wars. Some fled early, some only after the massacres of the Saint Bartholomew's night. Some went as far as America, some to England and some to Lorraine and some kept going to Germany. Ours went to Wurttenbourg, there in a small village called Balingen, a village within sight of the old Hohenzollern castle5, they remained. They kept on speaking French for a hundred or more years and it became known as the Franzosene Dorf (French Village Hessel Wangen). Some of them went further into Bavaria, some became Judges, and Mayors of towns. 10 Generations from Laux Jenter (born around 1580) have been kept track of in the Church Registries of Hesselwangen. He had four sons. Hannsz was the oldest – your forefather – Laux, the next, who became a judge. Endres (the 3rd son) family died without further issue in 1663, but Eberhard his last son, had a boy by name of Gallus, who also became a Judge and who was followed by three more generations dying out in 1774. Laux’s family offsprings are still alive and so are we Hannsz successors. His son Johannes married an aristocratic lady with two coats of arms and Johannes son Hans [married] one with only one. Among the next five generations three more ladies appear with a coat of arms, topped by a helmet (meaning some of their ancestors were Knights). As Huguenots never had a coat of arms I am sorry I can't leave you one, but I am sure our lady ancestors have done well by now, my sons, as far as “non – Mayflowery” ancestors go. After all – today it's not the coat of arms but the code of honor a man has. Hohenzollern Castle 5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohenzollern_Castle 7 Der Deutsche Stammbaum (drawing) Art TK Family tree 8 The German Stammbaum (10¢ per name) But as this is a book of facts without fiction, to be authenticated by exhibits A. B. C. etc., as my lawyers insist on calling proofs, I shall point out a few details that can be checked. When Hitler came to power, a third cousin of yours, Helmet Backe, who was then an attorney in Berlin, was “prompted” to look up his ancestry and have it “certified”. As it was too expensive for him – he wrote me would I share in the cost of the research and transaction. I must say for the $50 [~$1000 in 2019] I got a bargain – for I have somewhere in the “morgue” the names of over 500 Jenters through 10 generations. [actual tree from Backe pictured on right] Now, who could have given you that many authentic names with birth, marriage, baptism and death dates included, for $0.10 [~$1.90] a piece. By going to the N. Y. Public Library I was able to check on the aforementioned 6 coats of arms and copy them, enabling me to make a fairly accurate family tree. If we were Chinese, who revere their ancestors, I probably would not speak slightingly of the fact – these ladies of our ancestry might have the distinction of having brought some nightly holdup men into the family tree. Let's hope they did not kill the innocent merchant men and wayfarers – they so often held up according to history – particularly during the Hundred Year and the 30-year Wars. One peculiarity can be seen on the accompanying picture. [Martin’s hand drawn Family Tree, previous page] 10 Generations ago Laux fled to a peaceful country – married and had four sons. For 10 generations there never were four sons again in his oldest son's offsprings. I did not flee Germany but I ran away from it, as you will see in later pages. I also married in a new and peaceful land and had four sons. Backe was unable to find out any dates about Laux’s wife but I hope he was not left alone as early as I was, when your mother died with your baby brother as an aftermath of the flu in the first World War. Some more ancestors I told you about getting 500 names for the family tree yet I used only 64. Well, on sketching up the names, (just writing space) by A. D. 1774 they filled a paper 6 foot wide, without using some of the ancestral ladies Family trees. I had to omit and simplify. 9 It would have been a forest otherwise. What I regret is, that I will probably never be able to verify or even get any more information about that two splendid women closest to you – your mother and grandmother. The monument to their memory is in my heart–that they did not live to see you grow up and give you a chance to love them as I did is your hardest loss. So, there is no line of ancestors to look up to, but you can take it from your dad, those two were worth all the rest of the Jenters, including myself, put together. Their kindness, not their family tree, is your inheritance. You can be proud of two glorious women, your mother Milly Lohse and your grandmother Margarethe Schlüter. Around 1910 uncle Theodore Schlüter was in Auberurea where a massive stone before the entrance of a very old house had been worn hollow by centuries of busy feet. They were going to turn it over to give the other flat side a chance to take a shuffling and beating. But nobody walked on that side or on that stone. For engraved or chiseled into it was the burial dates of several Schlüter’s – the last date 1463.