Another January Wedding

As the man and the girl walk slowly across the village square, the snow squeaks under their feet, and a weak winter sun glints on the long icicles hanging from the eaves of the houses.

St. Antonius Kirche, Bad Grund

It is very quiet, and very cold. There a few people in the square; the miners are hard at work in the comparative warmth of the tunnels, and most others are indoors, in snug stove-heated houses. No such comfort in the church ahead, for it is a weekday, and their business will not take long enough to warrant heating the church.

The silent couple are Dorothea Echert and her father, Andreas. Dorothea is perhaps glad of the thick clothing and cloak dictated by the weather, for they at least cover her shame. Dorothea is eight months pregnant, and a disgrace to her family. The village is Bad Grund, in the Harz Mountains of Hanover, and the date is the 5^th of January, in the year 1745.

Their footsteps echo in the quiet church, as they approach the altar where the pastor awaits them. Beside him are the bridegroom, Johann Christoph Niewandt, and his father Hennig. The two fathers nod to each other - as fellow miners in a small village they know each other well, but their children’s folly has strained the friendship.

View of Bad Grund, Harz

Above their heads, the bells of St. Antonius Kirche are silent too. No bells will ring for Dorothea and Johann, and no wedding party will follow their marriage. 

Such celebrations are for couples who marry with the blessing of their families, in the warmer months, when there is food aplenty, and sunshine, and family and friends can join in the festivities.

During the ceremony, the young couple keep their eyes prudently on the floor. Such a fuss there has been! For Johann, at only 21, is still a Bergesell (apprentice miner) and under the strict rules of the mining guild, he is not supposed to marry until he has completed his apprenticeship.

The pastor having protested that such a scandalous state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue, permission for the marriage has finally been given, but Johann will be fined, and his apprenticeship may be extended.

The newlyweds will make their home with Johann’s family, and Dorothea is not too sure how she will like sharing a kitchen with Johann’s mother, Gesa Maria. Everyone knows there is something strange about her, for she never attends the church, not even for baptisms or weddings. Some say she has offended the pastor, but no one will talk about it. Still, Johann obviously loves his mother, and says she is a wonderful cook. So perhaps it will be all right.

Outside the church, Dorothea's father touches her shoulder awkwardly and leaves them. As the young couple follow Hennig Niewandt down the snowy street, Dorothea steals a look at her new husband and meets a pair of merry dark eyes. Yes, this is still her sweetheart, this cheeky young man who has been teasing her for years, and finally won her heart at the church picnic last spring. It will be all right!

And presumably it was, for Dorothea and Johann went on to have seven children. Their first child, Maria Sophia, arrived just a month after the wedding, on February 10^th.  (One hopes that the grandparents were soon won over by baby smiles and chuckles.)

Dorothea and Johann’s third child, Zacharias Christian Niewandt, was my great-great-great grandfather.

My account of that first wedding is of course fiction, but is based on my visit to the Harz in October 1991, and what I have been able to discover of the customs and beliefs of the time. Plus a personal conviction that human nature and emotions don’t change very much. There are plenty of parallels for Dorothea and Johann in later generations!