My interest in the family history and genealogy of the ‘Gabain’ and ‘von Gabain’ families started in the spring of 2010. While clearing the attic, I found ‘the old box’ of my aunt Willy (Wilhelmina von Gabain). She had passed away in January 1991. Wim Beij (my husband) and I cleared out her home in The Hague and kept her personal belongings, including photos, letters and documents, in a box. During many of the following years we had not paid any attention to this box, but in early 2010 I finally found time for this.
During my perusal of the box, I discovered, among other things, letters from my father that he had sent to his father from a Japanese internment camp during World War II. I also found yellowed ‘Stammtafeln’ (genealogy) of the family ‘Gabain’ and ‘von Gabain’, published in 1899 by Franz Gabain. Then I found on the internet a photo of the street sign in Berlin of the ‘Gabainstrasse’, with above it the caption: ‘Constantin von Gabain, Schill’scher Offizier.’ My grandfather Walther and his brothers Arthur and Georg had apparently been Prussian officers! However, I did not yet know what a ‘Schill’scher Offizier’ was. After some online searches, I ended up in the German town of Wesel, which not only contained a further Gabainstrasse, but also a museum, and – to my surprise – even a monument to ‘the eleven Schill’schen Offiziere’. My interest in my family history grew over time, and it also spread to husband Wim. He therefore proposed to visit the city of Wesel during the summer holidays. During the summer of 2010, we booked a Ferienwohnung for three nights with the Nenez family in the Büderich district. We left our home on a Sunday, to visit the Roman museum in nearby Xanten on Monday, and to explore the city of Wesel the following day.
After arriving at the vacation home, my hostess Frau Nenez asked me if I was related to the Schill’scher-Offizier Constantin von Gabain. She had marked the name ‘von Gabain’ in one of her leaflets about Wesel and its surroundings. I told her that he was the brother of my grandfather’s grandfather, and that I was therefore a distant cousin of his. Wim added that we would visit the monument and museum in Wesel on Tuesday, and then leave Büderich on Wednesday for France. When we returned to our holiday address on Monday evening, after having spent the whole day in Xanten, there was a note on the stairs. It contained the request to contact Mr Jürgen Becks, the Kulturbeauftragter of the city of Wesel urgently. Frau Nenez had gone to the town hall to proclaim that she had a ‘von Gabain’ as a guest. Mayor Ulrike Westkamp had been told this, after which she had instructed Mr Becks to contact me. That same evening I contacted Mr Becks, and we agreed to meet at the Prussian Museum the next day (Tuesday). We were warmly welcomed and Mr Jürgen Becks told us that a year ago (on September 16, 2009) the city of Wesel had commemorated the execution of the eleven Schill’schen Offiziere from 200 years ago. At the time, they were already looking for the descendants of the officers, but could only trace the descendants of the ‘von Wedell’ brothers. Becks was thus pleasantly surprised to meet a ‘von Gabain’. Wim promised to send him a copy of the Stammtafeln, and to organize a ‘von Gabain Treffen’ in the following year (on September 17, 2011). Finally, Jürgen Becks gave us a tour of the Schillkazematte, opposite the Prussian Museum, where Major Schill’s eleven officers were imprisoned awaiting sentencing.
The meeting point for the von Gabain reunion the following year once again became the Prussian Museum in Wesel. After being welcomed by the mayor and the Kulturbeauftragter, and a following tour of the museum and the Schillkazematte in the Zitadelle, the eleven ‘von Gabain’ family members present left for the monument of the eleven Schill’s Offiziere. We ended the day in restaurant ‘Wacht am Rhein’ in Büderich, where Wim handed over a copy of the Stammtafeln (on CD and paper) to everyone. Wim also received a CD from his cousin George from the Deutsche Geslechterbuch, which describes the history of the ‘Gabain’ and ‘von Gabain’ families. That history is therefore the common thread on this website.
Charlotte von Gabain
