Germany: Dannenfels, a town with Baabs

Dave's father was born in 1913 in Ohio and his family spoke German in the home. He didn't learn English until he went to school. We don't know when Dave's grandfather and great-grandfather came over from Germany, but we know their last village in Germany was Dannenfels, about an hour southwest of Frankfurt. Dave's cousin visited Dannenfels last year and told us how to find the Baab graves in the cemetery of the Protestant church there.

The Baabs originally came from France, where they were Hugenots (French Protestants). The name is very uncommon in Germany, so it was exciting to find a town with dead and living Baabs.

Dannenfels is nestled on the side of Donnersberg (687 meters, 2253 feet), the tallest hill in that part of Germany. One of the Baab men we met told us he remembers American soldiers coming around the side of Donnersberg at the end of WWII. Here's Dannenfels.

Dave's cousin Jerry told us to find the Protestant Church, and the graveyard, he said, is right beside it.

At the entrance to the graveyard, we got the idea that this was going to be fun. One of the first things we saw was a monument to the soldiers from Dannenfels who had fought in wars in the 1860s, 70s and 80s.

Dave's cousin thinks "Chev" means calvary, and "Inf" means infantry. There was monument to people who died in WWI (no Baabs there) and WWII (one Baab, see below).

  

In the cemetery, there was a grave of the family of Christian Baab.

The names listed on the top portion of this gravestone were:

     Christian Baab, 21 October 1837 to 4 December 1910

     Philippine Zepp (geb. Baab), 22 August 1866 to 26 September 1911

     Maria Baab (geb Zepp), 18 December 1866 to 19 January 1941

     Christian Baab, 8 May 1864 to 31 December 1945

"Geb" means "born." So it looks like the first Christian's wife is buried elsewhere, and his daughter, Philippina, married a man with the last name Zepp. Christian's son, also Christian, married Maria Zepp. So perhaps a brother and a sister married a brother and a sister.

Here are the other Baab gravestones we found.

The cemetery had a nice view across the plains to the north, where you can just see a wind farm in the distance. You can also see the challenge of being sure we had looked at every single grave stone.

After we had checked out all the graves (and had a nice picnic lunch on the bench in the cemetery), we discovered that the church building was open. Inside it was a banner celebrating 100 years of something, and on the banner many people's names were listed alphabetically, including quite a few Baabs.

The gravestones and names on the banner would have been enough, but there were more delights to come. We found the tourist information office, and told the man there Dave's name, and he said we should walk a little ways down the street, and Karl Baab might be home. And he was. Karl was born in 1935, and he showed us the papers his father had to have in the 1930s to prove he was Aryan. The papers list his father's parents' and grandparents' names.

Karl also showed Dave some papers related to his leadership role at the church, which Dave really enjoyed seeing.

Karl encouraged us to go down to the Obsthof Baab, a sort of fruit store connected to an orchard. There we met Gunter Baab, who is descended from Christian Baab who we "met" in the cemetery. Christian Baab (1864 to 1945) was the father of Friedrich, who was the father of Erwin, who was Gunter's father. Gunter told us that in two neighboring villages, Steinbach and Kirchheimbolanden, there are additional people named Baab. He said the name is so rare, you can go to just about any city in Germany and you won't find anyone with the name.

Gunter and Karl said they are not related to each other, at least not in the last three generations. Since Baab is such an uncommon name, it seems likely to us that Gunter and Karl and Dave are all related to each other if we could go back far enough.

Dave LOVED finding the graves and meeting Karl and Gunter. His only sadness was that his father couldn't be there with him. His father would have been so happy to see his German heritage and meet people who are probably distant relatives.