CHRISTMAS ON AN ISLAND

By: E. Bügge-Wood

     In the Baltic Sea, between Germany and Denmark, lies a small island called FEHMARN. This was my home, being born there I remember Christmas and want to share it with you. Most of the islanders spoke Low-German since it was the oldest language we learned from our forefathers, but in school we had to learn High-German. As good as I can remember it was in the Winter of 1934 - 1935, we had enough snow piled up to make a slope, we children took turns in sliding down from it with our sleigh.  We didn't have a school in our village "WULFEN" so we had to walk every day to the neighboring village of "AVENDORF", it took us about 30 minutes to get there on foot.  The older children had already started a fire in the old-fashioned, pot-bellied stove by time I got there. Our Teacher was Miss Hansen, she was a wonderful, kind person and she tried to have a treat for us when we were good; like reading to us out of a large fairy-tale book called "Peter's trip to the moon". Even my big brother "Harry" and my cousin "Heinz" liked it.  

    Although in the month of December the temperature would drop below freezing, we were dressed warm and knew how to keep warm by playing many interesting games on the ice and in the snow. My grandparents lived in the same village, on the old "Bügge" place. We called grandmother "Oma" and grandfather "Opa", their home was very old and the walls were made out of clay, the roof covered with reed; this type of building was called a 'Saxon Farm House' as the animals were kept on one side of the building and in the middle was a large hall called the 'Döns' where all the activities took place and on the other side were the living quarters.  

    Oma had knitted a cape for me in many colors, it covered ears and neck. All of us had hand-knitted woolen stockings and mittens to keep us warm. Mama had a knitting machine and had knitted me a brightly-colored shawl, it was always made from wool, for most of the farmers had sheep and cattle. Mama could sew and often would sew for the whole village, but that year she had made me a winter coat out of yellow, plaid wool material, with flannel lining, big golden buttons and brown fur trimming, I was so proud to wear it. We had two hours of bible study every day. We were preparing for the Christmas celebration, this also meant a whole weeks' vacation. Every Christmas I had to tell the story of the birth of the savior "Jesus" as it is written in the New Testament, Saint Luke, chapter 2, verses 1 - 14. I was afraid to do the reading and thought somebody else should do it, but Mama encouraged me and told me to be proud for I was an unusual good reader. In our music class we sang all the old German Christmas songs, this was my favorite time and I always loved to sing, I knew all of the songs by heart, because we always sang songs at home, Mama and Papa knew all the words, while we were singing Papa would play the concertina and we all had our own mouth-harp. ***  

    We had only Lutheran churches on the island "Fehmarn", our family belonged to the 700-year old church in Landkirchen. When you walked into the church there stood a life-size cross, with Jesus hanging on it, the blood dripping from his wounds. It shocked me every time I saw it. The church was beautifully decorated, the old ships hanging on the ceilings to remind us of our seafaring forefathers. But we had old traditional habits that were not really biblical. Even believing, that the earth was flat and the North Pole was the icy edge, where Saint Nicholas dwelled and worked hard with the Elves (we called them: "Heinzelmännchen"), who made all the toys for girls and boys.  I always remembered the words from the New Testament: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, for their's is the kingdom of heaven".  It gave me so much hope and as always, I was convinced, that Jesus was my great example and all the things he stood for were so genuinely perfect for the whole wide world, no matter what continent we were from.  

    We would put our wooden shoes "Pantüffeln" in the window, next day we found a small treat in it, as a sign that Santa Claus "Knecht Ruprecht" was proud of us, for he was the person from the North, who liked all the little children in the world, but he did want us to behave. So we believed and celebrated all pretty much in the same tradition.  

    At home we celebrated Advent, Mama had made our two-layered wreath out of hemlock branches with four red candles and red ribbons tied together.  Bronze-colored paint was used to brighten the pine cones and walnuts tied with red ribbons into a cluster unto the lower wreath, hanging down in four bunches immediately under the red candles. It looked very festive in the long hallway, where the family gathered every Advent-Sunday before Christmas around the wreath and sang the old hymn: "Wie soll ich dich empfangen und wie begeg'n' ich dir?"

O how shall I receive Thee,
How greet Thee, Lord, aright?
All nations long to see thee,
My hope, my heart's delight!
O kindle, Lord most holy,
Thy lamp within my breast,
To do in spirit lowly
All that may please Thee best.

The only way anybody could ever get off the Island was by ferry-boat, at that time I had never been off the island but grown-up relatives talked about the long trip that Saint Nicholas "DER WEIHNACHTSMANN" had to make with the ferry-boat.  We hoped that the Sound wouldn't freeze over or that we would have such a snow storm that Saint Nicholas would not be able to find us. 

The windows would freeze shut, leaving frosty sceneries on each panel, we children often stood by the window guessing what each panel might mean; my brother Harry came up with the answer and contributed all those pictures to the very steam from Mama's good cooking and even our very own breath. Mama would help us prepare our poems for Christmas Eve, she remembered many poems in Low-German, Oma would also try to teach us in Low German about the past. I always thought that Santa would like those Low-German poems better, for I only heard Santa speak Low German and to me they were the only poems that had a ring to it, or even ever made sense to me, at my age!  

Oma always tried to tell us in poetry as well as stories about "long ago" and how different things were when they were young, at times it would even touch on mysticism, now when I think back, I can believe that she was psychic, and very superstitious. Of course, some poems were just plain silly and full of nonsense, like this one:

"Winachen Aven,
Denn gaat wi na baven,
Denn lüüd de Glocken,
Denn danz de Poppen,
Denn piep de Müüs
In Grot-Fadder sin Hüüs."

The translation goes like this:

Christmas Eve,
We go in the loft,
Then chime the church bells,
Then dance the puppets,
Then peep the mice,
In Grandfather's house.

My Grandparents played a very important role in our lives. I remember the gigantic entrance hall called "Döns" where you saw the large hand-made chests, filled with linen and bedding, the hand-made wardrobes, my forefathers were not only farmers but also knew the trade of cabinet making. They owned lots of land that Opa had to sell to the railroad company and a lot of their land was used when the dikes were built.  Grandfather, "Opa" knew how to make shoes, finishing animal skins, making fishing-boats and nets.  They had their own fruit trees and every night Opa laid some apples in the new stove to bake very slowly.  

I was always learning something when I went over to my grandparents. In that old farm house they used to have only one large fireplace with a big oven. The baking was done once a week, we children had to help with kneading the dough. I can still remember the wonderful aroma from baking that fresh bread. In the loft all the sausages and hams were being smoked with the smoke coming from the fireplace. I never learned the art of how that was done, because it was soon after, that I remember electricity came to the island and into everybody's home.

We took arts and crafts in school, all the girls had little projects and if it were only a pair of potholders for Mama.  We learned early in life that it was more important to give than to receive.  We were reminded of the little children that had no parents and we wanted to help them. We were making gauze diapers and little shirts for newly-born babies who were born without a daddy.    In school we got ready for the "Yule Fest", every student brought a small gift and then wrapped it in a large box, very mysteriously. We were all sent home with a plate of goodies and our Christmas vacation started.  

In the evenings when it got dark and it was too early to turn on the petroleum (kerosene) lamp, we sat in the dark while an older sister would tell us stories or we would sing songs.  Finally the petroleum lamp was lit and we had to set the table and carry the food into the sitting room from the kitchen.

The small town of "BURG", the only town on the island, was the center for the Christmas displays.  We could go to town by train, called "Theresa", named after the Austrian Empress  "Kaiserin Theresa", but we called the little electric passenger train Aunt Reesa "Tante Reese". In town I saw electric candles decorating the "Bugislaus-store" windows, at "Priesmeyer's" you could see a mechanical Santa Claus, who kept nodding and waving as if he wanted you to come in. In the "Thams and Carf's store" we would buy all the tropical fruit imported from southern Italy, some even from Africa.  At home we had a catalog from "Quelle" where we could order all kinds of things, like a fountain-pen with a 14-karat golden pen for fifty  "Pfennige". Mama had so much work to do, we had to help her make the cookies, black and white "Peppernöt (Pfeffernüsse)" they were rather spicy. But she also made other cookies that were taken to the bakery "Nagler's" then they were stored in large tins.

My home village "Wulfen" is situated on the southern coast, there was more protection from the arctic wind, coming from the East, we called it "the wind of death". All the ponds in the meadows were frozen over and in the freezing weather we went ice skating.  The bigger boys played ice hockey.  We really got carried away, Papa had to whistle for us, because we had completely lost all touch with time. But he warned us: if this happens again and I have to whistle for you like I would whistle for a dog, then I must reprimand you and we knew he meant it. When we got home we had to help, each child had their own chores to do and after a week they were switched.  After supper we children cleaned the kitchen up, even my brother had to help.  We were mostly singing songs when doing dishes, to avoid getting into any arguments as to who was responsible for what job.  

The weather played a very important role in the every-day life on the island Fehmarn.  I remember how strong the wind would howl and make an awesome noise but still we carried on with our daily chores. The Driver of the milk wagon picked up the milk on each farm and then transported it to the dairy "Meierei", if you wanted to go to town, you could always get a free (very cold) ride on that milk wagon. The farmers had big barns, where the horses and cattle were kept. We bought our milk directly from the farmer.  Papa was a mason bricklayer and only when it got very cold would there be unemployment.  We had butchered two hogs and made our own sausages, which were smoked in the smokehouse. But for Christmas we always ate roasted goose, brussels sprouts, potatoes and gravy. For a treat Mama had made rice pudding with whipped cream and home-made black currant jelly.  

The whole house was filled with the aroma of good cooking mixed with the odor of the hemlock tree. The eve before Christmas "Winachen Aven", we children had to take a nap in the afternoon,  no matter how anxious we all were.  Finally we were allowed to get up, clean up and put on our festive clothing.  Mamma had been working with Papa in the parlor helping Santa Claus with the preparations for gift-giving  "De Bescheerung", the door was kept locked.  When we gathered around the table in the warm kitchen there was so much talk about the mystery of that very evening and how we would perform for Santa Claus.  

That night we children worked hard, for the food was delicious and in appreciation we worked with great cooperation to clean away the food and the dirty dishes.  Our kitchen was sparkling clean.  Mama and Papa would start the gift giving with the oldest child, only one child at a time was allowed into the parlor, one by one; since I was the youngest one I also was the last one to stay in the kitchen, that place began to look rather spooky and it got bigger and bigger, I could hear the large Angora cat "Lia" purring in the wooden box under the kitchen coal-stove.  Then it was my turn, Papa came to fetch me, holding my hand he said: "Kumm min lütt ELSCHEN," come on my little Elskin it's your turn now.-  

I saw the tree in all it's splendor, filled with glass-blown bulbs, tinsel, hand-wrapped chocolates and Marzipan, real candles flickering and at the very top an angle. The smell of balsam and spices filled the room.  Then I spotted my old doll in a brand new dress, a brand new body, - the head, legs and hands were made out of paper-mosque.  My mother was very talented, she did all the sewing in the village as well as teaching the young girls how to sew.  My doll really looked like brand new.

Then came Santa Claus "De Winachsmann", I had learned my poem very well, I also knew that I was very accomplished in rehearsing poetry that was one of my greatest joys, although I was very apprehensive  about confronting Santa Claus in person. We had learned how to pray and sing in High German but since we spoke only in Low German at home we also could still pray in Low German and we felt that Santa was one of our kind, and since I had only heard him speak in Low German I took it for granted that Santa was one, who would only speak Low German.  The first thing he asked my father was: "Have the children been good or bad?"  For the bad children he carried a switch "eine Rute", [by the way, I never ever saw him using it on anybody not even my brother]; then he wanted to know if we had learned our prayers, then we really got scared; we were all guilty of neglecting our religious upbringing and thought that it was very unnecessary, this changed later in my life. I had worked very hard on my prayer for I really wanted a doll that could talk; I can remember it going something like this: 

"Winachsmann, Winachsmann,
bring mi een Pop de schnacken kann.

"Translated it sounds like this:

Santa Claus, Santa Claus
bring me a doll that talking doth.

To my regret I never got such a doll that could talk.  I also thought that Santa had a voice just like Mama's.

After the gift-giving Santa Claus departed, warning us all that we better be good.  I am sure we all had a warm spot for Santa Claus in our heart, although we knew very well, that we were far from perfect.

We enjoyed our gifts and were allowed to play till midnight. Then we gathered around the lit Christmas tree singing the old Christmas carols "Oh, Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas tree, "Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum" - we thanked and praised our God, I felt like I had a lump in my throat and felt very thankful toward my parents, my family and our God. Then the church bells were ringing all over the island, we left our warm parlor, dressed warm to go outside and wishing our neighbors a "Merry Christmas" all were singing to the sound of the chiming bells:

“Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom his world rejoices;
Who, from our mother's arms,
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today. Amen.”
In my heart I felt so secure, I didn't feel the cold snow.

After we went back into the house, we sang the beautiful hymn: Silent Night, Holy Night. "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht". With a strong emotion, I couldn't hold back the tears, now we were ready to celebrate Christmas for two more days.

On Christmas Sunday we had to go to all the relatives in the village and wish them Merry Christmas, our Grandparents were first on the list. The Christmas Monday was spent by playing with our toys. And enjoy our new clothing, we were also allowed to have a snow-ball fight outside. Then of course, we had to prepare for New Year. On New-Years-Eve we were going from house to house with a rummelpot singing songs and wishing our neighbor good luck, in return they would give us a treat to take home. I remember the song:

"Rummel, rummel ruuten,

Translation:

"Rooten, Rooten, Tooties,
give me a bit of goodies
leave me not stand here all alone
I must go to our neighbor's home
Rooten, Rooten, Tooties!”

My brother had made himself a devil's fidel (noisemaker made out of old tin cans tied to a heavy broom stick, topped with two lids as cymbals). He always brought home the biggest sack full of goodies. Mama cooked a fine traditional fish dinner. Afterwards we got to take down the tree. We called it "Dannboom plünnern" (cleaning up the tree). The chocolate and fancy sugar candy was equally divided, all the ornaments returned and put back in storage for next year.

This is how I remember Christmas 1934 - 1935 from my childhood, on the small island Fehmarn in the Baltic See, in Germany.

  E. Bügge-Wood, 3609-1A Maryland Ave., Columbus, OH 43209
Phone: (614) 237-4972 **Merry Christmas!**

Please Let Else know how much you enjoyed her article

A Christmas recipe Futtjen (or Ferden)

Soak 1 yeast cake in 1/2 cup lukewarm water until dissolved.  (A yeast cake is hard to find, usually in refrigerated case)  Otherwise, use a package of granulated yeast.
Scald 1 and 1/2 cups milk.  Set aside after adding 2 tablespoons butter or oleo, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon (or less) cinnamon or cardamon.  Beat 6 eggs together, add yeast and milk mixture and stir well.  Add enough flour (about 3 and 3/4 cups) to make a soft sponging dough, easily dropped from a tablespoon, and about 3/4 cup raisins.  Cover and set in a warm place for a couple of hours to let rise.
Put  a small teaspoon of shortening in Ferden pan.  (A cast iron skillet with seven round wells)  Then drop batter in wells and fry, turning with a fork when ready and bake on other side until done.  Roll in granulated sugar as soon as you remove them from the pan.
We serve them with rice prepared as follows. 1 and 1/4 cups raw rice.  Start the rice slowly, on stovetop in a pan or double boiler, with small amount milk.  Stir occasionally and heat and add milk as absorbed.   Start the rice as the ferden starts to raise.  You will need about 1 and 1/2 quarts of  milk to cook the rice.
Serve the rice with a pitcher of milk and a side dish of a mixture of about a teaspoon of cinnamon and about a half cup of  granulated sugar (as you like it) and  serve as topping
for the rice.

We have always wondered if this a Fehmarn Island or country wide recipe in Germany. The Danish people call them Abelskiver or Ebelskiver. We have the ferden pan that belonged to Cal's parents.  There is one just like it in the Putnam Museum, Davenport, Iowa.
Happy Holidays, Cal and Ruth Mildt

Edgar Buegge on Fehmarn
from the book "Mindful of my Descent" by Val Rowley

En route from Denmark to Germany in 1985, Edgar Buegge (great grandson of Ernst Christian Buegge) and his wife, Keri, visited Fehmarn Island, the home of the Bügge/Buegge families' ancestry. This little island just off the north coast of mainland Germany is where Georg and Ernst were born and raised on the Bügge farm in the village of Vitzdorf.

The property is now occupied by Herr and Frau Bügge-Mau while the farm is managed by their eldest son who specializes in raising pigs for market.

Edgar tells more about The Bügge-Mau family in the text which follows.

During his visit to the island he kept a diary of daily events that I am sure will be of interest to all concerned:

Diary Entry, 16th November 1985: We caught the 9.20am (Frankfurt) train from Copenhagen station.   In the two hour trip to Rödby the range of weather conditions seen out of the window were amazing - rain, fog, snow, sun- shine - sunshine at Rödby the ferry terminal.

It was fine but very windy on the ferry to Puttgarden (Fehmarn Island), particularly on the upper (open) deck where I was trying to get photographs as we approached.

We arrived at 12.45pm and discovered that the only available transport was by bus to Burg auf Fehmarn (City of Fehmarn). From the road we could see a few scattered villages were visible in the distance. Flat farmland everywhere else.

The Burg was cold and weekend quiet. Although a popular tourist resort in the summer months few people come during winter. The many beach front holiday apartments (about four kilometres from Burg) on the coast were empty.

We had arrived in rural Germany. No English spoken anywhere but a country feel about the place; and the associated friendliness. A lady on the street helped give directions (we were trying to find a Youth Hostel), and a taxi driver refined them to us. We located the hostel and left our packs before setting off to locate Herr Georg Laage who had helped research family history. En route we searched the graveyard of the Burg Church and located the family grave of Heinrich (1868 - 1932), his spouse Emilie Bügge (1869 - 1950), and Peter (1839 - 1904) and Catharina (nee Kunz: 1842 – 1922).

We learned later that all the plants on the grave were from the Bügge farm at Vitzdorf. The current residents Mr. and Mrs. Bügge-Mau had planted and cared for them. When we located Herr Laage's home he welcomed us, discussed family information he had already forwarded to Neta and pointed out villages on the island where family members lived.

The family had lived in Vitzdorf for 200 years this year, having moved from Klausdorf (a few kilometres to the north.) in 1785. The family had lived in Klausdorf since 1703 as far as he could determine. No surviving relatives speak, English, with the main family Herr Laage had contacted being the Bügge-Mau family.

Herr and Frau Bügge-Mau live on the original Vitzdorf property. Heinrich Bügge had adopted a son.(nee Mau), hence the hyphenated surname. They have quite a   large family (eight children - one deceased). Two other surviving, members of the Bügge family live on the island. Frau Alma Bügge (Meisterstrasse 3, Landkirchen, Fehmarn Island); and Herr Adolf Bügge (Wulfen Village, Fehmarn Island).

Contact would need to be made in German.(*See note at end of chapter.) Later we looked for somewhere to dine. We found a small hotel crowded with locals: young men drinking at the bar, a group of older men and women engaged in a game of cards, and family groups eating on a raised dining area around the card players.

It was a warm friendly atmosphere. German, again was essential for all communication - our German, Complete with Australian accent was greeted cheerfully.

After dinner, back to the Youth Hostel for a warm shower that somehow managed to be cold (the heating system could not keep up with the weather) and then to sleep.

Diary Entry, 17th November 1985: Following telephone contact by Herr Laage, Frau Bügge-Mau collected us at 10.00am and drove us with Herr Laage to Vitzdorf to meet her husband Wilhelm. The couple have retired and live in one of two houses built on one side of the original Bügge property. The farm is now run by their son. We were given a complete tour and a wonderful lunch. The original house is still there although it has been refurnished. The rake of the roof is lower than in the older photograph, although it is still obviously the same house. What used to be a kitchen/bakehouse still stands adjacent to the farmhouse. The sheds are still those which originally stood on the property, currently housing many noisy (and smelly) pigs at various stages of growth - all inside for the winter. 

We were told that the main crop for the farm was corn (in season), for stock food and brewing. It was amazing that such a small property could return a living. The boundary was some 250 metres back from the road, and the property was approximately the same width.

Wilhelm told us that he was the adopted son of Heinrich Bügge (hence Bügge- Mau). Heinrich was the son of Peter Nicholas Bügge. The couple standing on the left, near the old house (see photograph previous page) is Heinrich and Emilie   Bügge). The family is buried together at Burg auf Fehmarn.

The church at Fehmarn is the main one on the island and was the place the couples were married also. Our visit to the church was frustrated by locked doors although a couple of shots were taken through a small window. The whole island had slowed down for the winter. Wilhelm told us that the family had lived at Klausdorf from 1703 to 1785 before moving to Vitzdorf. From the map it was evident that there is a church at Klausdorf (but the main registers may be at the large church in Burg due to the size of the island). Worth investigating!

Herr Laage was returned to his home after dinner and we stayed on. The family' "ninth" daughter (English speaking) came to take over the role of interpreter. A neighbour's daughter (now married and living in Burg) she had grown up with children of Wilhelm and his wife, hence her title of "ninth" daughter. An anecdote emerged concerning Peter Nicholas Bügge. Apparentlv his wife would tell him to pick nettles from along the stone wall behind the house" (property boundary) when he was being disagreeable. Wilhelm told us that this was not too frequent - about once a month. We learned that Wilhelm had moved to Mecklenburg when he was four years old, and had returned on 13th February 1946 at the end of the war. The Russians had taken the farm (now located in E. Germany) and there was no future there. He then took over the original Bügge farm from his adopted father.  In later years the property had become the responsibility of his son and he and his wife lived in a house built on the opposite boundary. Wilhelm and his wife are strong, confident people. His mannerisms, style of speech and the way he carried himself reminded me very strongly of my grandfather to a point where it moved me very deeply. I am sure my father would have been completely stunned by the similarities.

We left friends, regretting the brevity of our stay but unable to do anything about it.

Addenda: Wilhelm was very interested in our background and the area in which we live; especially in the farming aspects.

*Contact has been established with Adolf Bügge in Wulfen.  His sister, Alma Bügge passed away 22.10.84.  Through Adolf (now aged 85 yrs.) we have been able to write to his niece Else Bügge-Wood in the U.S.A. who has supplied us with a great deal of information.  She also was born on the island of Fehmarn.