Walsemann

How von Walsen Became Walsemann.

What happened back then, in what is now Lower Saxony, near Diepholz, when Gerd Albert, the first Walsemann, was born in the year 1651? A name that emerged out of nowhere because neither his father, Rolf tho (=from) Walsen, nor his mother, Catarina Walsen (formerly Bosching), bore this name.

As fate would have it, today, well over 10,000 people all over the world carry this name, Walsemann, Walsman, Walseman, or whatever adaptations were necessary to fit the regional spelling. They are all related, descendants of Rolf and Catharina Walsen, who suddenly gave both their sons, Gerd Albert and Wichert, and their daughters, Hedwig and Gesche, the name Walsemann. The birth of a unique surname, Walsemann, entirely down-to-earth and free from any aristocratic pretense.

There must have been reasons to abandon the name Walsen and henceforth only call themselves Walsemann. One does not easily give up a name associated with a farm near Barnstorf, which is still known today as a district of Barnstorf and was of considerable size until the early 20th century. Carved dates in old beams on the farm trace back to the year 1368, which is nearly 300 years of further history when the ancestors of one of our earliest known forebears, Rolf Walsen, must have come to this farm or perhaps even built it.

Time and again, in various historical records, it has been claimed that the name Walsen can be traced back to designations like Walsele, Welsile, or Walseke. However, there is no evidence for this, and it is more likely that the Walsen farm was in some way a result of the so-called "Little Migration of Peoples" in the 13th and 14th centuries when many Wallisers left their homeland of Wallis and sought new settlements. Often, this happened in the context of their mercenary work, which was regularly rewarded with newly conquered territories.

In connection with these conquests and relocations, there were some families named Walsen, who were outside of feudal servitude, in the catchment area between Münster in Westphalia and Diepholz. They acquired land and worldly power. In Münster, this is reflected in the "von-Walsen-Straße" (von Walsen Street), which goes back to Arnold von Walsen, born in 1310. Near Barnstorf, there was the Walsen farm, now a district.

And indeed, there is something to be found: "Luer von Walsen has left Henrich and Wichart von Walsen 4 pieces of land... (1562)." In the context of this document, it can be seen that it concerned lands that were located in the County of Diepholz, and the mention of the name Drebber narrows the area down further towards Barnstorf and - Walsen!

And there we have it: Von Walsen! At some point, between 1562 and the birth of Gerd Walsen (Rolf Walsen's father) around the year 1600, there is no more mention of a noble title. It was lost.

It will take further research in archives to close the gap between Gerd Walsen, the first known ancestor (and father of Rolf Walsen), and the family Luer, Henrich, and Wichart von Walsen. The fact that the first name Wichart was passed on as "Wichert" to the next generation can be seen as an indication that Wichart von Walsen was directly related to Walsemann. Apparently, there is one generation in between for which no data is currently available. And it's precisely during this period, perhaps around 40 years, that the noble title disappeared. A decline, from von Walsen to just Walsen to Walsemann! But how did it happen?

To understand this, it makes sense to look at the tumultuous events of that time. The year 1518 is considered the beginning of the Reformation. In that year, Luther posted his theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The result was a long-standing dispute over faith and, more importantly, the power of the church, in which the County of Diepholz was situated right on the border of the influence zones. While the County of Hoya, to the northeast, had already embraced the Reformation early on, Catholicism remained steadfast in the southwest of the County of Diepholz, aligned with the Diocese of Münster, and it could defend its secular power. In 1575, the Bishop of Münster, Johannes von Hoya (indeed from Hoya, although his relatives in the County of Hoya had separated from the diocese earlier), resigned from his bishopric, thus following the reformist movements in his county. Possessions and influence in the County of Diepholz, which had previously been co-governed by the diocese, were lost. In the squeeze between the Reformation and Catholicism, life in the County of Diepholz, which had previously been under Catholic influence, must have become increasingly uncomfortable. The presumed connections of the von Walsen family to the bishopric of Münster (e.g., Arnold von Walsen) could easily have seemed suspicious, and life as a von Walsen, who had likely been closely connected to the von Walsens of Münster for many decades, in an increasingly reformist environment was probably unbearable. First, the family possibly responded by relinquishing the "von," and when that wasn't enough, they finally dropped the name Walsen. This seems explainable and was probably necessary to preserve their reputation, if not their lives, during these difficult times.

Yet it appears that the Walsemanns did not have to give up all the rights from their noble past. It should be noted that land registries in Germany in their current form were only established well after the year 1800, and in the Middle Ages, ordinary farmers did not own land. Land and soil belonged to the counts and princes, and peasants—i.e., serfs—were allowed to cultivate it in exchange for payments to their lords. Not so for the Walsemanns: "The meadow sold by Friedrich Heinrich Walsemann..." an archive entry from the year 1779 reveals that it was not the ruler but the family who continued to exercise rights over their land.

And it was not a small piece of land. At the end of the 19th century, the farm was said to cover almost 300 hectares. For comparison, normal "Vollmeier" (full tenants), who were serfs entrusted by their ruler with the cultivation of their land, had farms with between 20 and 30 hectares of land.

Indeed, there is much to do to comprehensively clarify the history and secrets of the Walsemann family and, in particular, to conclusively prove the extremely troubling loss of the noble title "von Walsen" and, no less important, the loss of the land they had been farming for centuries through research in archives. Quite clear, however, already seems to be this: Walsemann is nobility."