Lovely family: Forker – Forkert, Furker – Furkert !
The 9th Gathering is behind us, a reunion organized by a new hand. Marion Hollitzer née Forker deserves our thanks for the extensive preparation of this meeting,
which once again had a lot to offer and will be remembered by many of us. The number of visitors shows that there is interest in further family reunions.
Take a look at our souvenir photo and see who was there.
Next time we hope to welcome you too.
The protocol is now complete. My special thanks to our minute taker Klaus Forker, who, despite his serious illness and successful recovery, managed to create his detailed report for us as always. This log will certainly remind you of something and show those at home what you have missed.
MINUTES of the 9th GATHERING in the Restaurant “Erbgericht” to Langenwolmsdorf on September, 13th 2014
| Participant | ||
| Director | Joachim Forker (Düsseldorf) | |
| Organisation | Marion Forker-Hollitzer (Großkrotzenburg) | |
| Speakers | Joachim Forker (Düsseldorf) Wolfgang Furkert (Monschau-Höfgen Prof.habil Dr.Armin Forker (Leipzig) | |
| Church representative | Pfarrer Christian Heurich Kirchnerin Frau Siegrid Bürger Kantorin Christine Seipold Ortskirchenvorstand Frau Siegrid Grützner | |
| Guests of honor | Herr Uwe Steglich, Bürgermeister der Stadt Stolpen Frau Erika Dürr Ortschaftsrat, in Vertretung des Orts-Vorstehers OT Lwd. Herr Jan Barowsky | |
| Guests | Ehepaar Uwe und Edeltraut Rosendahl (Braunschweig) Ehepaar Ralph und Edith Jatzke (Langenwolmsdorf) | |
| Press | Daniel Spittel (Sächsische Zeitung) Heiko Roch (Sächsische Zeitung, Lokalteil Sebnitz) | |
| Entertainment | Helmar Nestroy (Chef des Quartetts “ Die Basteifüchse“) Langenwolmsdorfer Karnevalsklub (Langenwolmsdorf) | |
| Protocol | Klaus Forker (Lohmar) | |
| Family members | invited with date 20.01.2014: 110 Invitation registered to 31.07.14: 68 Participant Sorry missed: 3 absent without notice: 14 appeared unannounced: 9 total present: 60 (representing 40 families) Total (plus 2 guests) |
Preliminary note by the clerk: Pastors Heurich, Joachim and Armin were kind enough to make their manuscripts available. This offers the opportunity to reproduce the contributions of the named speakers verbatim in the interests of documentation. The texts are printed in italics.
A. Church visit 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m
Devotional
The organist, Mrs. Seipold, introduces the devotional with variations of the song “Lobe den Herr”.
Here is Pastor Heurich’s speech verbatim:
The news over the last few days, I can imagine, is keeping a forker busy who knows where he’s coming from. It’s often about Scotland. And about whether it becomes independent or not. Opinions are divided. But the desire for a more exclusive cohesion occupies many people. We will not and do not want to clarify here today which is better. And as far as I know none of you who are here today live in Scotland either. But what you know today when you see each other: foresight is good – how nice it is not only to see people from your own region. And togetherness is also good – especially when you are a family. In this respect, today is a good opportunity to live what seems incompatible in Scotland at the moment – here on a small scale, or should I almost say on a large scale.
Dear Forker family, dear community, dear guests, it is nice that you are here in Langenwolmsdorf from all over Germany. Welcome. And it is good that we start and make sure: God is there. We want to hear from him and pray to him, as well as sing together.
I’m Christian Heurich, pastor of the parish of Stolpener Land for three years. We are a parish from five locations and it has become increasingly important to us to live this unity. It’s always exciting and challenging. I’m glad you’re here. God bless us, this time and this service.
Song Ev. Hymn Book 327 “Wonderful King”
Psalm 8 “What is man, Lord, that you care for him?”
Dear community, dear guests,
who am I, and if so how many – I don’t know if these words sound familiar to you. Who am I, and if so, how many – in 2007, the philosopher Richard David Precht presented a philosophical journey to the background of this world under this title, so that the reader, as he says, “set out on the path to a fulfilled life can make.”
The title is probably not the richest thing the world has ever seen, and the author himself admits it wasn’t written sober. However, the book takes you along in an entertaining way into questions about the connections in this world.
And once we gut the title: Who are we – and how many: Many of you have often asked yourself these questions! That’s why you’re meeting here at the end of the day, so you can see who you all are, the Forker family, and at least get an idea – how many of them there are. So who are we? And if so, how many. Almost 80 of them are here, 350 live in Germany, 600 worldwide and over 7500 descendants have been identified. Knowing that does something to you. My identity then includes not only my house, my garden, my hobby, etc., but that I belong to a family, and a fairly large one at that. And that in this I am connected to many. I know about it. It may make you proud, grateful and joyful knowing how many you are connected to through generations.
Who am I ?
Your family affiliation is part of your identity, and of course it’s a little more evident than in your name, at least in the common root. When we ask: Who are we – then our name is always of crucial importance. That’s our name – and if you look at your genealogy today, you’ll notice: This name is part of a long history. And in the past, names in family traditions had a much higher symbolic power.
It’s important that we know who we are, where we belong, what gives value to our lives. If we don’t have this certainty, then we become swaying people who are blown about by every wind and never got there. There are different ways to define your identity. We often look for it in what we have and what we achieve. In what we create. In how healthy we are. In what we have earned in terms of recognition. In what other people think and think of us.
But anyone who thinks ahead for a moment knows: it will all be gone from one moment to the next. “The main thing is healthy” for example – that’s what we say, maybe today when you see each other – and what if we’re not healthy. Who are we? Then suddenly someone completely different when our circumstances change? Who are you. Today we say: family members. But look, that’s not something we’ve worked out for ourselves. Didn’t choose either, and that’s perhaps comforting when it comes to a family, even if things don’t go well with someone.
But even that only makes one thing clear: that you can be thankful for what you were put into, because we cannot give ourselves what is decisive in our lives, even our name and what is connected with it. The fact that your family survives to this day is a gift from God.
Who are you? It has a lot to do with him. In the Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah said:
Chapter 3:22 It is the goodness of the Lord that we are not exhausted; his mercy has not yet ended,
Chapter 3:23 But it is new every morning, and your faithfulness is great. It is thanks to him that you have been able to walk this far together. His goodness, or however we can translate the word, his grace. Everything important in life is related to it – and if we ask what that is – Grace: Then we end up with something undeserved. A gift. I didn’t deserve a gift – otherwise it’s a reward. Given for no reason that would make the gift imperative. A gift perhaps even in spite of everything that might stand in the way of the fact that God is good to us. He blesses with grace. Without him and this mercy, his protection, we could not live, we could not gather today. God is good – thank him for that.
Dear community, we can let many things become the basis of our identity. We can say who we want to be. But we will only be home with certainty, arrived, when we have become what God made us to be: His family members. Because only that lasts in time and eternity.
The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians what characterizes the family of God: 1 Cor 15:10 “By the grace of God I am what I am. Paul had a fundamental experience for his life, from which he lived every day. He met the crucified and risen Jesus. For in him, the Bible tells us, God’s grace came upon us.”
Has a gulf been overcome between us, who build our lives on so many things, including good, and God in overcoming the sin and death that separate us from God.
Every religion and ideology seeks a way to come to God – everything is different with the God of the Bible.
He comes into our identity crises, shares them and gives us His eternity and His forgiveness. God is so good – thank him for it and unwrap the gift rely on him. Even if the circumstances in life go crazy – he doesn’t.
Who am I ?
For many people, such a life of grace does not sound interesting because they say: I want to rely on myself, other people and my life’s work. It’s in my hands. But that’s short-sighted: You personally and your family have the greatest assurance when they are under God’s grace, His dominion, and their home in His extended family. If you take hold of this or live from it, God bless you for that.
Amen” ( end of quote )
The sung song 347 “Ah, stay with us with your grace, Lord Jesus Christ, that we shall not be harmed from now on by the evil enemy’s cunning” confirms the wish for hoped-for grace. With a composition by Friedemann Bach, Frau Seipold gives the signal for a change of location.
At the ringing of bells, participants gather in front of the Forker memorial plaque to offer visible homage to the ancestors. As a greeting, a bundle of sunflowers is placed at the memorial. The churchwoman, Ms. Bürger, had previously decorated the tombstone resting under the plaque with a bouquet of autumn flowers. Pastor Heurich gives the church blessing.
A. Obligatory family photo in front of the entrance to the church grounds between 2:45 and 2:55 p.m
A. Drinking coffee together 3:05 – 4:15 p.m
Joachim addresses those present with the words: “Dear relatives, acquaintances and guests, I would like to welcome you here in Langenwolmsdorf, the ancestral seat of our earliest ancestors. We are particularly pleased that so many of you have accepted our invitation from all over Saxony, but also from the edge of the North and Baltic Seas and even from the foot of the Alps. 38 families with 68 people had announced their coming and there were even a few more.
Most of you have attended several times, and if someone is here today who is joining us for the first time, that would be an additional sign of the continuing interest in our meetings.
Our meeting is the 9th 9×3 years, 27 years, there will also be a 10th meeting, because Marion, who is our special thanks for organizing this meeting, has agreed to organize the 10th meeting as well . That deserves our applause. Marion receives a bouquet of flowers.
I would particularly like to welcome the mayor of the city of Stolpen, Mr. Uwe Steglich, who, despite his many commitments, has again made it possible to offer us a greeting from his city, Mr. Mayor Steglich, you have the floor.”
Mayor Steglich warmly welcomes those present from the “only family”. The considerable achievements in family research that have already been achieved find his full recognition. He had just come from Stolpen from a traditional event. There the basalt queen was chosen for the 10th time. It is a compliment not only to deal with the ancestors but also to look into the future. For him, the high number of “foreign license plates” is proof that the family reunion is still well received. He himself occasionally looks at the website of the family association. The infrastructure in town can be described as satisfactory, the fire station is particularly worth mentioning. An increase in population has been observed since the middle of the year. He’s happy that younger people in particular are becoming increasingly at home. He wishes the meeting every success and, if there is time, encourages a visit to the nature market. Joachim continues his explanation: “After Mayor Steglich’s words of welcome, I would like to tell you more about the past 3 years. First of all, there was the situation of the Forkers – Forkert in Berlin to be examined, since Forkers have been in Berlin, where did they come from, are there descendants. The historical address books of Dresden from 1702 – 1944 are now online, who lived when and where. In addition, there are the registry office registers of the communities around Grünberg in Silesia with their Forkert and Furkert occurrences, the dead and missing of World War I, as well as the data of the German War Graves Commission. All sources for family research with supplementary data to our family research that have been worked through. Particular attention was also paid to Friedrich Wilhelm Forkert, a soldier who married in Plauen/Voigtland in 1818, that was almost all that was known. But we now know more, after looking through the files of the Saxon military in the Hst. Archive in Dresden, he took part in the Russian campaign and fought in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig. But shortly afterwards he deserted for love. All of this is one reason that I have now collected data from 7622 people with 2291 marriages. Comment on this: If one of you has changed address or extended your family, I would be grateful if you would let me know.
As you have probably already noticed, the printouts of the descendants’ tables were created with a professional printer (note: one roll equals 30x3m equals 90 m of paper), we accepted the costs incurred for this, since the whole thing has now solidified, while the manual effort has now become too extensive.
You are certainly familiar with how you can find yourself on these printouts or would you like an explanation? However, one thing has happened to me, these printouts are almost frightening, look for yourself how few children can be found on these printouts. We are present today with about 40 families, even if there are twice as many, in just a few generations later our family will perhaps meet in a telephone booth, but they are already, already extinct.
As announced at the last meeting, special attention was paid to expanding our knowledge and confirming our long-term assumptions that we are descendants of immigrant Scots. In the meantime, I have undergone a genetic test and was then able to inspire 4 other test subjects to do the same. But I’ll take Wolfgang, who will explain more about this to you in a moment, not the icing on the cake here, which we want to enjoy right away. But before that I would like to ask you to support our activities for you with a generous contribution, so that we can see each other again in 2017, here for our 10th anniversary meeting.
Thank you for your attention.” (end of quote)
Joachim also thanks Ms. Nestroy for letting us use the room free of charge. Ralph Jatzke, known locally as Holzmichel or Waldbauer, presents Joachim with a footstool made in his local workshop – “Eene Hitsche” for resting and developing new creative power. The Nestroy couple and their nimble employees quickly serve coffee and cake a la carte. In front of the printed genealogical tables, numerous interested people come together to talk. Jürgen from Seevetal took the initiative and thanked Joachim on behalf of all participants for his tireless work. Not everything can be done through selfless work, because the organizational preparations required financial effort that should be borne jointly. He announces that he will use his collecting skills to supplement the budget for the purpose mentioned. His request was generously granted. The collection result: 645 euros
B. Farquhar > Forker, not only names but also biology 4:15 – 4:40om
Wolfgang uses a Microsoft Office Power Point program to report on previous DNA geneology results. 5 subjects from the Forker family made themselves available for a test, which could be assigned to 3 haplogroups, the highest frequency of which can be found in Ireland and Poland. He first shows a pedigree on his father’s side, which includes 10 generations and about 1000 people. Y chromosome analysis is used to research paternal lineage. The DNA contains the genetic information of every human being and is arranged in chromosomes. Every human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes. The 23rd pair determines a person’s gender. Women have two X chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome. Each child inherits one chromosome from the mother and one from the father. Mothers always pass on an X chromosome. If a father inherits his X, there will be a girl, if the father inherits his Y, there will be a boy. Therefore, all sons of a man have the same Y chromosome as all men of the same paternal line. The audience gets a better understanding of the matter through corresponding images on the screen (cells, cell nucleus and chromosomes). When asked what is a Y-DNA test based on, Wolfgang answers: – all men of the same paternal line share the same Y-chromosome,
– small changes (mutations) increase the genetic difference between two lines over the generations,
– the more similar the Y chromosomes of two men, the more closely related they are.
A Y-DNA test will be tested
– a specific number of STR (Short tandem repeat) markers, a short section on which a specific pattern occurs with a specific number of repeats, e.g. GATGATGAT (value 3), mutation: GATGATGATGAT (value 4),
– DYS (DNA Y- chromosome STR): designation of the position, uniform worldwide,
– Alleles: value of the respective position,
– SNP – single nucleotide polymorphism or point mutation,
– all males who are equal in their SNP and STR are assigned certain halo groups,
A through T, assigned; Forker > I2a-L 161.
The Y-DNA Human Migration (Haplogroups) diagram shows the migration movements thousands of years ago, another the distribution of group I2a-L 161 in pre-colonial times in Europe – Ireland 10%, Poland 0.5% and Saxony 0.05% . In an overview of surnames (L 161 – Isles A to D -) under B (approx. 5000 years) there is also the name Forker in addition to English-sounding names.
Joachim still points to sporadic haplogroups in Scotland.
B. Schiller – Körner – Forker, is there a connection? 4:45 – 5:25 pm
Armin takes his place at the lectern and speaks:
“Dear families Forker, Forkert, Furker and Furkert! Dear guests!
In the invitation you will also find “Information” and lined up: “Schiller-Körner-Forker”! We don’t want to claim “Forker” presumptuously in this group of names of such celebrities. That was only due to the brevity of the invitation. Then the invitation below says the question: Is there a connection?
In fact, there are Forkers in our family history who had a (more or less coincidental) connection to these two famous celebrities Friedrich Schiller and Christian Gottfried Körner and made efforts to commemorate them. This includes Maximilian Arthur Forker, who was born on August 12, 1844, i.e. 170 years ago, in Neustadt in Saxony as the son of the magistrate Gottlieb Forker. Maximilian Arthur grew up in the Stolpen area and, at the age of 10 (1854), received a scholarship from the St. Augustin School of Princes in Grimma. Incidentally, there he wrote a very revealing diary-like collection with partly colored drawings, which is now kept in the Leipzig State Archives as a true-to-life writing that was created directly in everyday school life and shows that our Max also went over the rails several times and had to pay for prison sentences for it . Like his father, he studied law at the University of Leipzig on a scholarship and received his doctorate there. He shows his extraordinary professional skills in Saxon administrative authorities. He rose from government assessor in Borna to district captain in Flöha. Where he employed his cousin Georg Julius Paul (1855 – 1943), who was 11 years his junior and later founded our family association, as a young copyist (clerk in the administration). Their fathers were brothers. Max had already worked as a trainee lawyer at the court in Borna and from 1884 – 95 (11) was a district captain in Borna, then for 5 years in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior head of the medical and veterinary department and from 1900 to 1907 district captain of Zwickau (corresponds to the district president of a government district ). As a young government assessor in Borna, Max met Johanna Maria Schubauer (February 4, 1851 to May 7, 1925), who later became the heir to the Kahnsdorf manor in Borna. Her father, the Saxon lieutenant colonel and painter Friedrich Leopold Schubauer (1795 – April 28, 1852 in Kahnsdorf) acquired this manor through his marriage to the 22-year-old Rosalie Nordmann (September 20, 1827 – June 30, 1904) in 1849. But he died three years later. So the young widow Rosalie (caring for her small child Maria) had to manage this manor, which she managed to do with great difficulty for more than two decades.
It certainly suited her that Dr. legal Maximilian Forker finally married her daughter Maria in 1876. Both added the name Schubauer to the family name Forker. As a result, this Forker – Schubauer – line continued to be related by name to the military history painter Friedrich Leopold Schubauer. However, this only lasted for one generation, because Max and Maria had no male descendants, but four daughters.
Military artist Friedrich Leopold Schubauer painted portraits of the Saxon princes and battle scenes of predominantly Saxon troops from the first quarter of the 19th century, including the Battle of the Nations. His paintings can still be found in some museums and collections.
Kahnsdorf is a small town in a beautiful landscape and the manor house, built in 1686, has housed famous people in the past. These included Friedrich Schiller (November 10, 1759 – May 9, 1805) and his friend and patron Gottfried Körner (July 2, 1756 – May 13, 1831), as well as his son Theodor, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and scholars from the University of Leipzig. But Kahnsdorf does not line up with the many places of which one says: Schiller was here, he stayed here for one night – rather, Schiller’s life fate turned here. Therein lies the importance of Kahnsdorf, this turning point for our important poet.
Let’s take a quick look at Schiller’s life story:
After the great success of the “Räuber” the Württemberg Duke Carl Eugen forbade him any “non-medical writing”. He then fled on 22/23 Sep. 1782 from the military medical service. They searched for the deserter and wanted to arrest him. Schiller thought he could make a living as a freelance playwright at the National Theater in Mannheim in der Pfalz. However, that was an illusion, although his play “Kabale und Liebe” inspired people. The 25-year-old Schiller, who was deeply in debt, received an invitation to Leipzig in 1784 from two Leipzig admirers, the sisters Dora and Minna Stock and their fiancés Ludwig Ferdinand Huber and Christian Gottfried Körner. What happened to these young people was what Schiller denounced. Schiller wrote back to them in thanks: “Your letters … met me in one of the saddest moods of my heart.”
But it was not until 9 months later in April 1785 that Schiller left Mannheim in a hurry due to economic and professional misery. He arrived exhausted in Leipzig and was very hospitably received by his admirers. However, in the absence of Dr.jur. habil. Christian Gottfried Körner, because he worked as a consitorial councilor in the church administration in Dresden. Only three months later, on July 1, 1785, did Friedrich Schiller meet his best friend and patron, Gottfried Körner, in the Kahnsdorf manor. They were immediately attached, got along very well and Schiller had a firm trust in Körner. That was the turning point in Schiller’s life. From now on he was able to work as the first free German poet. He expressed his feelings in the “Lied an die Freude”, which he had begun to write in Kahnsdorf. In the second verse, Schiller wrote: “Whoever has succeeded in becoming a friend of a friend, Whoever has won a lovely woman, mix in his joy.”
When Schiller, after this first meeting, confidingly described the precarious financial situation he had gotten into in Mannheim to his friend Körner in Dresden, Körner immediately helped and added: “Why didn’t you tell me a word about it in Kahnsdorf?” Kahnsdorf about the preserved correspondence between the two in the literature. The question arises as to why the first meeting between Körner and Schiller did not take place in Leipzig, but in this rural idyll on the Kahnsdorf manor? On the one hand, Körner’s friend since childhood was Prof.Dr.theol. Johann Gottlieb Ernesti owner of the manor and the inviter. The manor offered board and lodging for larger groups. On the other hand, Körner did not want to and could not celebrate his 29th birthday in Leipzig because his father had recently died there. In addition, the engaged couple were brought together, which Schiller expressed in the song of joy. And finally, Körner was met on his way from Dresden.
Two personalities must be mentioned for whom this historical building in Kahnsdorf, built in 1686, was of particular value: The poet of the wars of liberation Theodor Körner, who had joined the Lützower Freikorps against Napoleon, was arrested after his serious wound (saber cut over the head on 17 .June 1813 near Kitzen) maintained in strict secrecy at the Kahnsdorf manor. After all, the Saxon king was on Napoleon’s side. Theodor was carefully cared for by the widow Rahel Henriette-Ernesti for a few weeks, after which he secretly went on to Karlsbad via Giebichenstein. (A few weeks later, he died again with his black hunters on August 26, 1813 in the Rosenow forest near Gadebusch.) The famous composer and Gewandhaus conductor Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy found rest in this old building several times between 1835 and 1841 and 1843 and 1847 and relaxation. He was in churches, castles and mansions in search of sheet music by Johann Sebastian Bach. This in many respects cultural-historical site was already preserved by the manor owners Ernesti, Wendler, Nordmann and Schubauer, but the Forker – Schubauer have been the longest and last private landowners had to invest more in the building, which was 200 years old at the time. Also in order to preserve this old commemorative building, Max and Maria Forker-Schubauer had a new manor house built in Neo-Renaissance style in 1902-1904 on the remains of a medieval moated castle in this four-sided manor. With this new manor house, the old building could be relieved and thus preserved in the original sense as the “Schillerhaus”. Max and Maria also had the surrounding facilities redesigned, so that today, in addition to the listed buildings, we also have a listed park there. (After thorough restoration, these buildings now serve as the headquarters of the Leipzig lake administration “Blauwasser”.) One must be grateful to the Forker-Schubauer for honoring this site in reverence for our poet Schiller and his friend Körner as well as other personalities . Incidentally, our Max liked to remember that he, like Gottfried Körner, had been both a student at the St. Augustin School of Princes in Grimma and a graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Leipzig. However, more than 80 years lay between them.
Max left the Saxon civil service in 1907 at the age of 63 and retired to his manor in Kahnsdorf, which he ran in an exemplary manner with Maria. His Maria was 74 years old, she died on March 7, 1925 and Max died on May 11, 1932 at the age of 87, still mentally active in Kahnsdorf. In the Kahnsdorf cemetery are next to the Nordmann-Schubauer crypt in which Rosalie nee Nordmann is kept. Schubauer found her last resting place in 1904, buried Maria and Max Forker-Schubauer.
Her youngest daughter Margaretha Johanna Elisabeth (born June 19, 1888), called “Sipsi” in the family, continued to manage the manor until the land reform in 1945. (The area owned covered 146 ha and was limited to 100 ha. The manor was expropriated and distributed to resettlers.) Elisabeth, the last Forker-Schubauer died on April 2nd, 1967 at the age of 78 as a pensioner in Markkleeberg and also in the cemetery Kahnsdorf, next to the Nordmann-Schubauer crypt.
– – – – –
But now back to our topic:
Friedrich Schiller had moved to Dresden with the Körners from Leipzig in September 1785 and had taken up residence in the then spa town of Loschwitz in the Körner summer residence on the Körner vineyard. He stayed in Dresden for a year and a half. There are many testimonies, street and square names, monuments and commemorative plaques with which another forker came into close contact, which we want to remind you of today.
Our Joachim Forker (born November 8, 1934) grew up as a child and teenager in Dresden-Loschwitz on the Körnerweg. He could let off steam in the Körner vineyard and follow the tracks of Körner and Schiller there, as well as in the Weinbergshaus, the Schillerhäuschen. He attended the Schiller School and was also at home on Körnerplatz and Schillerstrasse. There was a white Schiller statue opposite the Schiller house on Schillerstrasse. It had been donated by private individuals and depicted Schiller seated with a book in his left hand. However, this Schiller statue was only a plaster replica of the well-known Schiller statue at the Semperoper, which the famous sculptor Ernst Rietschel (1804 – 1861) had created. The Loschwitz piece of plaster had to be painted with white oil paint every year, but this did not prevent it from deteriorating. Around 1912, traces of this plaster monument were lost because the Schiller-Körner monument was inaugurated at this point on May 18, 1912. (Design of this so-called Schiller-Körner fountain by architect Martin Pietzch (1866 – 1961)). Oscar Rassau (1843 – 1912) carried out this last sculpting work. It is designed as a high relief with two figurative scenes that commemorate Schiller’s last visit in August / September 1801 to his friend Gottfried Körner in Dresden and his farewell to him and to Schiller’s godchild, 10-year-old Theodor Körner. As a schoolboy, our Joachim probably had to struggle with this meaningful monument, which is the only one in the world that shows Schiller and Körner together in an essay. That must have pissed him off. Today he sees the monument very differently.
Incidentally, the bon mot at the inauguration of the monument has been handed down from the last King of Saxony, Friedrich August III, who later said goodbye when he abdicated with the words “Nu da machdma eiern Dregg alleene”: “It’s nice that the white Schiller is finally gone , my gray horse always thought about it that way.” Joachim also knows the Schiller Garden in Dresden-Blasewitz on the left side of the Elbe at the well-known Elbe Bridge, the Blue Wonder.
Schiller, who frequented the former Fleischer’schen tavern from 1785 to 1787, was friends with the innkeeper’s daughter Johanna Justine Segedin (January 5, 1763 – February 28, 1856). In the first part of his Wallenstein trilogy, “Wallenstein’s Camp,” Schiller erected a literary monument to her by having a hunter call out: “What the flash! That’s the Gustel from Blasewitz!” Incidentally, the married woman Senator Renner never forgave Schiller for the hype that ensued around her. But despite this (or perhaps because of it) she turned 93 in Dresden and her descendants ran the Renner department store on the Altmarkt until it was bombed out in 1945. Joachim’s parents dragged him there to go shopping.
Honor for Joachim Forker
We regard these references from Forker-Schubauer to Friedrich Schiller and Gottfried Körner, about which I hope I have informed you convincingly, as an opportunity to focus on Joachim’s merits as chairman of our family association and to surprise him (therefore no announcement in the Invitation!) and to honor it duly. His achievements for our cause lie in his absolute personal devotion to Forker family research since 1985. He took over the material collected and organized by our honorary president Hans-Georg from his grandfather Georg Julius Paul (1855-died 1943 before the devastating air raid on Dresden).
The much-written paper in boxes survived the inferno like a miracle. It was later taken over by Paul’s son, the Director of Studies, Dr.phil. Georg Forker (1880 – 1960)) in packages to Munich and finally put together by his son Hans-Georg again and carefully transported to Cologne with his wife Renate. Hans-Georg then put his grandfather’s handwritten material into typescript at considerable expense and looked for a keeper of the family tradition. He finally found him in Joachim and gave him all the material. For almost 30 years, Joachim has built up the center of our family association in Düsseldorf-Unterbach. Despite the job that filled him, he continued to archive the entire database, researched in archives and not only had to struggle with the many repeated first names. He continued the genealogical family research and helped identify over 7,500 descendants. He digitized the archival inventory and painstakingly compiled genealogical tables and assigned them to us today’s forkers. He did the extensive office work, above all the entire correspondence with the many inquiries about genealogical research and contributed many other things in the sense of family tradition in a selfless way for our cause. We must particularly emphasize the corresponding design and constant updating of our “homepage” on the Internet by Joachim and the establishment of our Internet guest book since our 5th family reunion in 2002.
Without Joachim’s tireless commitment, there would be no continued family research on Forker’s origins in Scotland. And Wolfgang Furkert’s approach led him via the Farquhar-Forker name development to the expansion of our family association to include Forkert, Furker and Furkert, as well as through the DNA connection to the Scottish Farquhar.
His wife Ingrid always showed great understanding for this and for the time he spent and helped out, for which we would like to thank you, dear Inge.
Without Joachim’s ideas and without his urging, there would not have been the previous eight family reunions. Our current 9th Family Day also came about on his suggestions, but with the support of the organization by our Marion Forker-Hollitzer, whom we all thank for this and for her willingness to organize the 10th meeting in 2017. On March 22, 2007, our Honorary President Hans-Georg, who preserved the legacy of his grandfather Georg Julius Paul, passed away at the age of 91. Since then – that is, for seven years – this honorary presidency of our family association has been vacant.
We, the oldest members of our family association, believe that we are in agreement with everyone gathered here if we take the opportunity today to duly honor our Joachim for reasons of surprise.
From the hands of Hans-Georg’s wife Renate, Joachim Forker is to receive the honorary president’s chain, now also engraved with his insignia, and henceforth be honorary president of our family association. Renate decorates Joachim with the visible silver sign of his new dignity.
We wish you, dear Joachim, the best of health and continued happiness as Honorary President in and for our family association. “(Quote end)”
D. Entertainment 5.25pm – 6.55pm
They had waited patiently for their performance in a quiet corner of the hall. The youngest of the Langenwolmsdorfer Karnevalsklub (homepage: Lawodo-ZinZin) finally want to show the rehearsed dance performance in red and white carnival costumes. The 6 children of the Kinder-Funken-Guard line up in two rows according to size and dance the trained program very safely to snappy music. The spectators give a lot of applause.
Then four young adults show their skills. The spectators reward the successful performance with applause. The 1st chairman of the association, Mr. Udo Michel, is also satisfied with the performance and looks forward to 11.11. in contrast to.
Without a break, Herr Helmar Nestroy, without the remaining trio of Basteiichten, takes over the parquet, armed with a guitar, backpack and walking stick. He describes himself as a local singer and greets the Forkers people in a happy mood.
From his repertoire he offers:
– Green / green is Saxon Switzerland,
– Hochburkersdorf, beautiful view,
– Hockstein waltz,
– the polenta rustles and up young wanderer,
– impressions of the painter’s path,
– Hohnstein and Brant area,
– Yikes > bastion.
He dedicated texts he had written himself to special events, partly for reflection,
e.g.
- mass tourism with a sheet metal avalanche, lack of parking spaces, NP parking fees and dead zones,
– the 2013 flood in his “Berna” (Pirna) and in Dresden, - live in peace after the change,
– Stanislaus from the Czech Republic, who packs up everything that’s lying around,
– retirement life is funny, soon the 1st will be, - the Lausitz and the wolf from the perspective of the people (Ralph is allowed to accompany with wolf howls) and the guests are invited to sing along well-known refrains. Into a Scottish tune, Helmar bids the Forkersfolk farewell and wishes them health and goodbye. An encore has to be “Let Grandpa do it – the grandchildren are calling imploringly”, then the solo entertainer disappears through the open hall door.
This officially ends the 9th Forker meeting at 7:00 p.m.
To the end:
Joachim answers the concerns of a number of questioners. Meanwhile, helping hands bring the exhibit materials into transport-ready condition so the work doesn’t have to be done on a Sunday morning. The dining room in the hereditary court is almost completely occupied by the Forkers. The range of food and drinks allows everyone to find something to their liking. The lively exchange of information and ideas only comes to an end when the sandman warns us to leave.
Correspondent: Klaus Forker
