Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday and On This Day ~ Peter Saule born in 1883 ~

Peter Saule, born on this day in 1883 ~


Nordfriedhof Cemetery, Augsburg, Germany


"Unvergessen"
(unforgotten)
                             My maternal great grandfather, Peter Saule will never be "forgotten".

Peter Saule, born on the 2nd day of November 1883 in Waldberg, Germany, passed away fifty three years ago today...the 20th day of May 1957 in Augsburg, Germany.

Peter Saule was actually my step great grandfather. He married my great grandmother, Margarete Kaiser (1888~1972)  when my Oma, Lieselotte Kaiser-Saule Haf (1913~2010) was just six years old.
Sadly, I do not remember anything about him but I know that I was around him for a short period of time before mom and I left for the U.S.  Mom remembers him quite well, so thru her, I plan on getting to know him much better.

My great grandfather Peter, was a mortician and a funeral director for the Nordfriedhof Cemetery and Funeral Home in Augsburg, Germany.

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When I first saw the photo of my great grandfather (here and in the above collage), I could not take my eyes off of it! The back of the photo is a post card. It's to my understanding that if the photo is smooth, it was not mass produced by the mortuary to hand out to family members. This photo is smooth and was sent to my mom from a family member, believing it to be an original photo. 

The back of the photo has the photographers stamp that reads:

Photohaus Carl Mader, Augsburg-Oberhausen-Zollernstrasse 31 (address) Telefone 31238.
In my handwriting: Peter Saule b. 02 Nov 1883 d. 20 May 1957, Gini's great grandfather.

German funeral customs were that the deceased would be placed in one of the rooms in the "viewing gallery"  with an open casket, surrounded by flowers and candles.

The viewing gallery was a hallway of rooms with glass fronts.  Family members were allowed to stay with the deceased until the burial.  To this day, viewing rooms are still customary, my Oma was placed in a viewing room. However, in the early sixties, this tradition changed in that open caskets were no longer permitted.

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The memorial card with the Cross on the front (to the right of photo), opens to a beautiful card/obituary shown below the photo of Peter.   The German word "Unvergessen" meaning, "unforgotten" is printed  below the Cross in the lower right corner.

At the top in the middle of the opened card reads:

Zum stillen Gedenken
To quiet Remembrance

In the middle of the opened card is the newspaper obituary that my great grandmother attached reads:

In Gods holy will, we lost after severe illness, my dear good Husband, our best Father, Grandfather, Great Grandfather, Step Father, Father-in-law, Brother, Brother-in-law, and Uncle. 

 Mr. Peter Saule
Prior Town Mortician
at the age of 73 1/2

Augsburg, Tunnelstreet 12, Gersthofen, Solingen, New Jersey, Kalifornien, on 20 May 1957

In deep sorrow: Margarete Saule, Wife with children and relatives.
The memorial service is taking place on Wednesday the 22nd of May 1957, at 10:00 A.M., in the Thadaus Church, the burial the same day at 14:30 P.M. in Nordfriedhof Cemetery.

I love the bouquet of flowers image that is to the left of the newspaper obituary.  This card along with a note from my great aunt Anni, came in the envelope (in the above collage) with a black border...traditional stationary used when a death occurred in the family.

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Peter's funeral service memorial card reads:

In holy memory and in prayer
to my loving Husband,
our good Father,
Grandfather and Great grandfather,
Brother and Uncle

Mr.
Peter Saule
Born on 2. Nov. 1883 in Waldberg
Died on 20. May 1957 in Augsburg
----
A dear fathers heart is resting from all earths sorrows, he is free of pain and sorrow
and is home with God.
He only hurt us once thru his death, he always loved God and us in happiness, pain and destitute and God gave him eternal rest!
------------------------------------------------------
Josef Mayer, Augsburg 3

On the other side of this funeral card and below the depiction of Jesus reads:

Father, not our will, but yours shall be!

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Sources: My dear and wonderful mom who translated each and every word! She is the owner of all the documents used in this post, I now get to be the keeper of them, thank you mom.

November 2nd, 2010 ~ This is a repost...the information in this post is all I currently have of my great grandfather Peter, at this time. 

                                                                   


 


7 comments:

my Heritage Happens said...

Another absolutely beautiful, thoughtful and wonderful tribute! I still have a difficult time sometimes with pictures of the deceased in their casket. Enjoyed your post.

A rootdigger said...

How nice that those there cared to send the post card to them, knowing how much the relatives would have wanted to go. I imagine such occasions were very tough for our american immigrants, to hear of this often many months afterwards. Jo Meyer

Gini said...

Thank you Cheryl and Rootdigger...when I first saw this photo, I felt the same and was surprised about the glass viewing rooms! I learned quite a bit about German funeral and burial customs just from this one photo.

I also learned that my great grandfather was the Mortician at that funeral home!

Thanks for stopping by.

TK said...

I wonder why no more open caskets?

Kathleen Brandt, Professional Genealogist said...

You are giving me courage. I have a coffin pic of a gg-grandfather. What to do with the only pic of GG-Grandpa Monroe Martin?

Gini said...

T.K...not sure why but it's a good reason to investigate! When my Oma passed recently...she was in the glass viewing room just as my great grandfather had been, but it was mandatory the casket stayed closed...interesting.

Betsy Brock said...

How very interesting to read about the viewing rooms!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Now I got to meet you, too! :)