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DUCHY OF HOLSTEIN
In 1111 Holstein was created from territory formerly in the Duchy of
Saxony as a County in the Holy Roman Empire and granted to Adolf of Schauenberg.
The Counts of Holstein received the Duchy of Schleswig in 1386. It was in 1459
that the last of the Schauenbergs, Adolf VIII, died and the County of Holstein
and Duchy of Schleswig passed to the King of Denmark, the son of Adolf's
sister. Holstein and Schleswig were associated with the Danish crown from
that time forward but were not integral parts of Denmark. Emperor Frederick
III raised Holstein to the status of a Duchy in the Empire in 1474. At the
dissolution of the Empire in 1806 the King of Denmark tightened his hold on
the Duchies but in 1815 the Congress of Vienna put Holstein into the German
Confederation. The King was able to reassert his rights as Duke of Schleswig
and Holstein in 1848 with a constitution which for the first time formally
united, politically, the two Duchies and they became an autonomous territory
within the Kingdom of Denmark.
North to south their length was about one hundred miles, the width varied
from fifty miles in the north to seventy-five miles in the south. The population
was mainly German, in the very northern part of Schleswig was it Danish. In
1864 the King of Denmark renounced his rights to the Duchies in favor of the
Emperor of Austria (who was to administer Schleswig) and the King of Prussia
(who was to administer Holstein). Austria ceded Schleswig to Prussia in 1866;
thus the two Duchies became a part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1920 the
northern part of Schleswig was given to Denmark, the rest of the territory
of the two former Duchies is now in Germany.
THE PROBSTEI
In 1226 Count Adolph IV of Holstein donated to the Monastery at Preetz
the area of land that later came to be called the "Probstei" (so called because
the Monastery appointed a Provost to administer it), an area of approximately
58 square miles. At that time the land was almost empty of inhabitants; in
order to encourage settlement and the development of the land the Monastery
followed policies which gave greater freedom and rights to the settlers than
were available to the common man in the surrounding territories. Many of the
new inhabitants were settled in the area in the middle of the thirteenth
century and came from the south and west from along the Weser river midway
between Hanover and Osnabruck, about 150 miles from the Probstei. While the
lands of northern Europe in general belonged to the nobles and the church with
the peasantry tied down in serfdom, hardly better than slaves; in the Probstei
the Monastery's policies led to the hereditary right of ownership of property
and land for non-nobles. However the law of inheritance forbade the breakup
of farms; so an increasing population led to an ever growing group of landless
men dependent upon the farmers for livelihood. The vast majority of the
inhabitants, the non-nobles, were divided into five groups:
"Hufner" -- The Farmer, he owned a farm of approximately 125 acres which
was inherited by his youngest son. Besides Full-Farmers there were Half-Farmers
and Quarter-Farmers depending on the size of the farm owned.
"Baürngevogt" -- The village's Farm-Administrator, sometimes translated
as "Mayor", he was given a Farm and served as the liaison between the village's
Farmers and the Monastery's Provost.
"Kätner" -- The Cottager, he was given a cottage to live in and
approximately 10 acres of a Farmer's land to use as his own plus a few cows
and/or sheep. Frequently an older son of the Farmer was in this class. Often
the Cottagers were the craftsworkers on the Farm and later with the development
of town life early in the nineteenth century became independent craftsmen.
Anna(Steffen)Kuhl's grandfather Hinrich Steffen(see Steffen #4.) was a
Cottager at Passade and the village's shoemaker. Peter Kuhl(#14) was a Cottager
and the foreman of the agricultural workers on a large farm belonging to a
nobleman.
"Einwohner" -- The Resident, he was given a cottage to live in and a little
land on the Farm to use as his own plus possibly an animal or two to use. If
a Farmer had many sons who lived to maturity several of them would be in this
class.
"Inste" or "Tagelöhner" -- The Daylaborer, he lived in rented lodgings
and worked for strangers for a daily wage. Frequently he would seek work
outside of the Probstei for the summer months and return home for the winter.
The Probstei had a population of around 6000 in the early 1800s. It was
essentially economically and politically self-sufficient from its foundation
until 1864 when Holstein fell under the administration of Prussia. A number
of customs were indigenous to the area, one of the most unusual was mentioned
above, the youngest son not the eldest inherited his father's land. Increasing
population and political changes encouraged migration in the nineteenth century.
People from Schleswig-Holstein began pouring into Iowa as early as 1850. The
first large group from the Probstei arrived in Davenport(Scott)IA on 21 Jan
1847. Most of them purchased government land about three and a half miles
northwest of Davenport and called the area, "Probstei". In this group was
Henry Kuehl(#12) and his cousin Joachim Kuhl(#16).
Of Peter and Anna(Steffen)Kuhl's(#14) nine children, eight immigrated
to the U.S., beginning in 1864. The first seven settled initially in Scott Co.
IA with its large population of Holstein immigrants, as had their uncle
Joachim Kuehl(#16), their father's cousins Peter Martin Kuhl(#11), Henry
Kuehl(#12), and James Kuehl(#13), and as did their cousins Katherine, Maria,
and Henry Goettsch(#8.iii.2., 5., and 6.). In 1876 and 1877 two of them
moved on to Douglas Co. NE. After the Western Improvement Company of Iowa
established Mineola(Mills)IA on the new rail line in 1880 three of those
remaining in Scott Co. settled there.
Three maps follow, each at a larger scale. Map 1 shows a large extent
of Schleswig and Holstein with Kiel and Schoenberg visible, Map 2 is a closer
view of the Duchy of Holstein with the place names mentioned in the text
visible, Map 3 shows the villages within the Probstei region of the Duchy
(adapted from Whipple). Local Lutheran churches were located at Prosteierhagen,
Schoenberg (the main Probstei church), and Giekau. These were the center of
their area's social activity.
rev. 24 Jun 2006