1 April 1906 - Sunday
Sunday 1st April Bro. [Peter] Ketterer came and visited me and we went up [to] town togeather and listened to the Military band play, and then we went to Bro. Ketterers home and held [a] meeting there. Bro. [John] Mack also came. A good spirit prevailed[.] we had good time together[.]
[p. 41]
2 April 1906 - Monday
Monday 2nd April went tracting[. The] Weather [is] very pleasant, took a walk in [the] afternoon to the south end of the city[.] there are many vinyards around Freiburg.
3 April 1906 - Tuesday
Tues. the 3rd tracted in [the] forenoon. Received photographs of the whole family from home.[N1] Had time of rejoicing over them[. I] Am anxious to receive some money from home, as I have only seven marks left in cash.
4 April 1906 - Wednesday
Wednesday 4th April Visited [the] Ketterers. Did not go tracting as I did not feel well.
5 April 1906 - Thursday
April 5th Went tracting in [the] fornoon, also in [the] afternoon. The weather is getting pleasant here now.
6 April 1906 - Friday
April 6th Went tracting[. The] weather [was] pleasant all day. I preached to the Landlord + his wife untill half past eleven at night. They were
[p. 42]
verry much astonished at hearing the Gospel. It reminded me of Croeso [Robinson Crusoe], on his Island when he imagined he was alone on the Island, and then suddenly see’s the footprints in the sand.[N2] Like the Gospel that has been taken from this earth, and then suddenly reappears.
7 April 1906 - Saturday
Sat. 7th April Studied + read.
8 April 1906 - Sunday
Sun. 8th In [the] forenoon Herre Gierend + I went up on the Schloßberg for a walk[.][N] the weather was beautifull. We[nt] spent a pleasant hour viewing the old ruin[.] There is a fine view over the city from this hill. In the afternoon I went out to Bro. [Peter] Ketterers in Zaerninger [Zähringen] and held a meeting[.] Bro. [John] Mack also came out.
9 April 1906 - Monday
Mon. April 9th Went tracting. [p. 43]
10 April 1906 - Tuesday
April 10th Visited Bro. [Peter] Ketterer [and] held [a] Bible Class in his house.
11 April 1906 - Wednesday
11th Went tracting in Gundelfingen[.] Wrote to Zürich to Pres. [Serge F.] Ballif to send me some No. 1 tracts with Friede Sein[sp?].[N4] Money is nearly all gone. I have just got 4.00 Marks left. It is pretty hard living on bread + water. My land lady is bringing me a cup of barley coffee.[N5] So the Lord is blessing me anyway.
12 April 1906 - Thursday
April 12 Thur. Went Tracting, had several good Gospel conversations. Have had a slight head ache the past day or two. Received [a] card from Pres. [Jacob] Mauss [in] Biel[,] Schweiz that there would be a Priesthood Meeting held in Biel on the 14th of April. I cannot atend as I have not got money to take
me there. The Catarre [catarrh]
[p. 44]
has not quite left me yet.[N6] I still have a slight cough.
13 April 1906 - Friday
13th April 1906 Fri. Bro. [John] Mack called for me in the morning + we visited the Soldiers quarters in company with Bro. [John] Macks Brother in law. It was very interesting. They have fine horses here in Germany, We visited the kitchen[,] sleeping apartments[,] stables[,] the grounds where they train
the young horses and they keep bloodhounds to use in war time. I went to Zaeringer [Zähringen] and had dinner with Ketterers. Bro. [John] Mack met with us there at 1 O’clock and we went up on a hill called the Rosskoph [Roßkopf] We claimbed the big Steel tower [Roßkopfturm] from which a good view can be had at Freiburg and the surrounding country.[N7] We
[p. 45]
also visited a place called St. Otilia [St. Ottilien]. The good Catholics make penance tours to this place to receive abl[s]olutions for their sins. There is quite a story connected the place, of a young princess, who once had to flee to this place for safety. a deer came and fed her, She hid in a cave in the rocks, a Chapel is built over the cave.[N8] I saw it but it looked to me as though it was artificial. after the princess died they made her a Saint.
14 April 1906 - Saturday
April 14th 1906 Visited the Cemetary, am out of No 1 Tracts. I sent to Zürich for more but they have not come yet. I sat down to rest awhile
[p. 46]
in a Park. I had not been sitting long, when a young man came along on a bicicle and came + sat
down side of me to rest. We got into conversation togeather I soon noticed that he was a foreigner by his accent. I asked him if he was an American, he said yes. I told him I was too. Then off course we spoke English togeather He told me that he was a Proffesor of languages. He was making a tour down the Rhine, on his way back to America. I told him I was a missionary of the Gospel. He asked what I believed in. Then I preached the Gospel to him and gave him one of my
[p. 47]
tracts. He was from Chicago - He thought what I preached to him was good + promised to read the tract.
15 April 1906 - Sunday
Sun. 15th Rainy, went out to Zaeringen [Zähringen] to Bro. [Peter] Ketterers[.] spent the day with them and held [a] meeting.
16 April 1906 - Monday
Mon. 16th April 1906. Visited Exposition of the young men who are learning trades. There were the works of all trades to be seen. Bro. [Peter] Ketterer + his daughter Bertha + son Peter + I went togeather. We afterwards took a walk out in the country, to look for a suitable place to baptize in. I went home with Bro. [Peter] Ketterer and had supper with them.
NOTES:
[N1] These photos have not been located.
[N2] Defoe’s Crusoe describes the experience Frederick mentions as thus: “It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I could hear nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther; I went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the print of a foot - toes, heel, and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way.”
[N3] A Schloßberg is a castle hill. It is directly to the east of Freiburg’s Old Town and belongs to the Black Forest. Fortified structures had been built on the Schlossberg since the 11th century. They were constantly destroyed over the course of battles by fires, catapults, cannons, etc. through the 1700's. Remains of some of them are still visible today, and would be among the ruins Frederick was referring to.
[N4] The first tract or “traktat nr. I” was “Der Abfall vom ursprunglichen Evangelium und dessen Wiederherstellung (The original apostasy of the Church and its restoration).” It was a sixteen-page booklet, and originally published in the German in 1900.
[N5] Barley coffee was not true coffee, but rather an imitation non-caffeinated beverage. No coffee beans are used, but rather it is just an infusion of ground roasted barley.
[N6] Catarrh is a build-up of mucus in an airway or cavity of the body. It usually affects the back of the nose, the throat or the sinuses (air-filled cavities in the bones of the face).
[N7] At the summit of the Roßkopf is the Roßkopf tower (Roßkopfturm or Friedrichsturm), a 115 ft high observation tower of steel frame structure which was built in 1889 and offers a panoramic view of Freiburg, the Kaiserstuhl mountain range and the surrounding mountains.
[N8] The information Frederick provides regarding St. Odilia is fairly unique. Although her legends tend to vary, they generally contain the following trends: Odilia is the daughter of the Frankish Lord Adalrich, and was born blind. Her disability offended her father and he wished to kill her. Her mother interceded and caused the daughter to be given to a peasant. At age 12, she converted to Christianity and was baptized. The baptism not only cleansed Odilia’s sins, but miraculously healed her blindness too. Once healed, her brother convinced her to return to her family without her father’s permission. Adalrich, upset by his son’s decision, struck and killed him. He chased Odilia away from home. However, soon he repented and admitted her back into the family. Eventually, the time came when
her father felt Odilia should be married. Yet Odilia did not wish to become married. She fled away. The German tale has Odilia’s father pursue her to Freiburg. There a cave miraculously opened, she jumped into it, and it closed behind her. Her father saw the miracle and recognized he should repent from his behavior. The cave then opened up and his father accepted her. The cave’s opening remained. Odilia was permitted to turn her father’s castle into a convent. A chapel was later built at the place where
the cave opened. Frederick’s comment about Odilia being fed by a deer I cannot substantiate. However, there are a plethora of legends about Odilia, who became the patron saint of ear, eye, and head diseases.
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