Monday, August 8, 2011

The Peace of Augsburg ~

Today, on August 8th, in Augsburg, Germany, the city that my mom and I were born in . . . annually celebrates the Peace of Augsburg.

The Augsburg Peace Festival is a public holiday in Augsburg. Post Offices, Banks, stores, and most businesses are closed.  This public holiday is celebrated only in Augsburg and not throughout the rest of Germany.

The celebration is held in the Rathaus Platz, a shopping mall, next to City Hall. If you like, you can watch the festivities on this live web cam, keep in mind, Augsburg is nine hours ahead. As I prepared this post, I watched as workers were busy setting up for the festivities.

The Peace of Augsburg, was a treaty established in September 25, 1555, between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League at the imperial city of Augsburg, Germany, present day, Bavaria, Germany. This treaty officially ended the struggle between two religious groups.

The Peace allowed the German princes to choose between the Lutheran or Catholic faith within the domains they controlled.  Subjects, citizens, or residents that did not conform to the prince's choice, were given a period to migrate freely to different regions where their chosen religion was accepted. On August 8th, 1629, Protestants were banned from practicing their faith in the city. The Peace of Westphalia reinstated the Augsburg Declaration of Religious Freedom in 1648. The first Augsburg Peace Festival was held on August 8th, in 1650.  


As I gleaned the information about this wonderful German city I was born in, it is my hopes that one day I can muster the courage to fly back to Augsburg (I do not like to fly!). I have deep roots in Augsburg with living family members there, it would also be an incredible experience to research my ancestry in this beautiful historic city. Augsburg was founded in 15 BC, making Augsburg, Germany's third oldest city.  I do recall mom telling me that you can still see the remains of the moat that surrounded the city centuries ago.

When I was thirteen years old, mom and I visited Augsburg and celebrated Christmas with my Oma, Opa, great-grandmother, cousins, aunts and uncles . . . it was an experience of a lifetime. I visited the Perlachtrum, a bell tower that was built in 989, originally a watchtower. Today, you can see the Perlachtrum on the live web cam and the city getting ready for the Peace of Augsburg Festival and feel as if you are there.

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The print of old Augsburg, was given to me, the keeper of our family memories and records, by my Oma in Germany, when I was in my early twenties . . . this print, proudly hangs in my home today. The print is quite large so I used my Flip Pal Mobile Scanner and then used the "stitching" tool to resize it for posting here.




Saturday, August 6, 2011

SNGF and Past and Present Photo Challenge ~


I decided to join in on Randy's SNGF and Denise's Past and Present Photo Challenge today. Since I had already submitted my, Past and Present photo for the challenge on my Our Life in Photos by Ginisology blog in Dear Photograph style, I also wanted to join in on the "genea-heirheads" Saturday fun here . . . . so, if you are up for a fun challenge (and it was a challenge), your mission, if you decided to accept is to:

1)  Review Denise Levenick's (The Family Curator) three blog posts on the Present Photo Challenge. World Photography Day is coming up Aug 19, and this seemed like a fun thing to do something genealogy-wise.



*  The Family Curator: Dear Photograph: 35th Wedding Anniversary post. 


2)  Identify one or more photographs from your own photograph collection that you could use for the Present Photo Challenge. 
3)  Show us the photographs that you could use on your blog, a Facebook status or a Google Plus Stream. 
4)  Please post a link on Denise's blog about your blog post, and/or on this blog post linking to your blog post.

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My daughter on her first day of school at our front door then, and now, she will be teaching children in 2011. 



My daughter on her first day of school in 1987, at our front door. On the first day of school every year, we would take a photo at our front door. We now do the same with our grandchildren. 


Our front door today in 2011

This was not an easy project to do, the photo used, was the best out of many photos I took in every way I could muster . . .  and with two different Canon cameras. This will take a bit more practice but for now, I am using this one for the photo challenge  The Past is Present: Genealogy Photo Challenge For World Photography Day that, Denise Levenick issued to us geneabloggers, genealogists, and family historians on her blog, The Family Curator. 

Here's how you can participate ~

The Family Curator is issuing a challenge to geneabloggers, genealogists, and family historians! Celebrate genealogy and family history for World Photography Day August 19 by combining the past and present in a photograph. You might want to recreate an old photo or bring the past to the present day in DearPhotograph style.
Post your photograph with descriptive caption on your blog and send the link to The Family Curator no later than 6am PST 15 Aug 2011. I will post a round-up article of contributions on or before August 19, World Photography Day.
Get creative and have fun!