Transcript from the newsletter no. 19 of December 1936
Post Woldisch Tychow, Bad Polzin-Land, Belgard district
Under “Family Property,” as listed on pages 146-167 of the 1930 family book, there is no information about the Bergen manor, which had been owned by cousin Kurt (N129) since 1920.
Located in the scenic but unfortunately little-known region of East Pomerania, Bergen is probably the only agricultural family property in the eastern provinces of the Reich; for this very reason, cousins from the west should not shy away from the four-hour train ride from Berlin to Schivelbein (or Belgard) to get to know this property associated with our family name.
Visitors approaching the Bergen plateau, located halfway between Belgard and Polzin, from the north or south will immediately notice the old avenue of the “Poetensteig” (Poet’s Path), which rises from the manor house in an easterly direction towards Buchberg and is visible from afar. At its highest point stand two tall towers, a wooden tower used for surveying and a slender iron structure with a rotating beacon for the Berlin–Königsberg night flight route.
From the Woldisch–Tychow–Groß-Rambin road, a branch road climbs up to Bergen’s heights, passing older and younger forests; through the trees of the park, the white manor house shines on the right, while the farm buildings appear straight ahead and a view of the large, varied landscape opens up on the left.
The first impression of the area’s rich forestry is confirmed by views of the large forests beyond the Persante River. More than half of Bergen’s land area (approximately 364 of 690 hectares) is covered by forest; The “bread tree of the East,” the pine, predominates, while deciduous forests can be found in scenic locations in the Buch and Eichberg mountains on the Persante and Buckowbach rivers.
More than 180 hectares of pine plantations stand on former clear-cut areas, which were transferred to forestry use by the current owner due to their lack of productivity. These forest cultures now harbor more red deer and wild boar than is comfortable for farmers; the damage that a large herd of red deer or a pack of wild boars can cause on a field outweighs the hunter’s joy at the sight of strong deer or good Pomeranian bucks!
While the forest, both old growth and new plantations, now stretches along the borders of Bergen mostly as a belt, the arable land, covering around 245 hectares, largely forms the gently sloping southwestern slope of the Bergen plateau; to the north and east, it drops steeply in several steps to the Persante river.
The arable soils, mostly loamy sand 4. – 5th yield class, are well suited for growing rye, oats, and potatoes, but not for wheat or sugar beets, for example, and do not yield the returns that a Westphalian farmer might expect. The Pomeranian climate is too harsh (night frosts in June) and the growing season too short for this.
The meadows and pastures, which are poor in both quantity and quality, suffer particularly from the effects of the climate and the usual drought period from May to June. Since, despite the unfavorable feeding conditions, a large herd of cattle must be kept to produce the manure needed for root crop cultivation, only silo facilities with their acidified, nutrient-rich feed mixtures can help overcome the summer feed shortage, and the distillery with its stillage can help overcome the winter shortage.
Like the potato drying facility, the distillery is one of the indispensable industrial ancillary businesses of an East German estate; other ancillary businesses managed by the estate owner include the estate nursery and the poultry farm.
On a site covering around 3½ hectares, which borders the village of Bergen to the north, there are three modern poultry houses, a really pretty farmhouse with two rooms, a kitchen, etc., as well as fruit tree plantations, copses, and ponds stocked with fish. In short, the Bergen poultry farm is a little kingdom in its own right!
Between the farmyard and the farm, in a hollow on the plateau, mostly grouped around the village pond, lies the actual village with the homes of the farm workers. In addition to three civil servant families, around 24 working-class families live here in 11 houses; groups of trees, such as those in the cemetery and at the distillery, create a pleasant landscape.
Built in the 1860s, the mansion is set apart from the farmyard, surrounded by mature trees in the park and garden; its clean lines blend in well with the gradually sloping surroundings. The interior layout of the house is also clear and uncluttered: the living rooms are arranged in a long row at the front of the main floor, with the large hall in the middle and the dining room and veranda at the rear; upstairs are the living rooms and bedrooms for the children, guests, and other members of the household. The windows on the upper floor offer a sweeping view of the beautiful Pomeranian countryside.
As its name suggests, Bergen is an old German settlement in the early Slavic East; among the changing owners of the manor, the well-known Pomeranian noble names appear first; then, during the agricultural crisis towards the end of the 19th century, there was a frequent change of owners.
In the spring of 1920, cousin Kurt (N129) acquired the Bergen manor; its value before World War I was 450,000 marks, and its current (1936) tax “unit value” was 223,000 Reichsmarks. With the help of his father-in-law, the now deceased general director Fahle-Reval, the new owner had to repair the extensive damage and deficiencies caused by the war and revolution, mostly in 1920/21. In particular, numerous farm buildings and workers’ houses had to be thoroughly repaired, and in some cases rebuilt.
All these repairs and new buildings, as well as the constant maintenance of all existing operating facilities, created the outward appearance of a profitable estate, which can easily deceive visitors about the difficulties of farming caused by the soil and climate.
Hopefully, the current owner and his successors will succeed in keeping this property in the family for a long time to come!
According to records by cousin Kurt N129
The Bergen manor is the family’s only property east of the Elbe. Even on the smallest-scale maps, its location was easy to find: the most important river in Hinterpommern, the Persante, which flows into the Baltic Sea near Kolberg, flows in an east-west direction in its upper reaches; the Bergen plateau caused it to bend sharply to the north, and this bend in the river marks Bergen’s location.
As its name suggests, Bergen is located on a northern foothill of the Baltic ridge that runs through Pomerania, in a richly structured, densely wooded landscape not far from “Pomeranian Switzerland,” which is known for its scenic beauty and whose mountains and forests are also home to the Polzin iron and moor baths. The hilly terminal moraine landscape has considerable differences in altitude and some steep slopes at the valley incisions of the Persante and its tributaries. Bergen’s highest elevation is 114.6 meters, a few hundred meters east of Herrenhaus, at the end of the old avenue of the “Poetensteig” leading to Buchberg. Here, on the highest of the three valley terraces above the Persante, a wonderful view opens up over the fields and forests, mountains and valleys of the varied landscape.
The estate and village of Bergen lay nestled in a hollow on the plateau: furthest to the south, on the slope, was the white manor house in its large old park, then to the north were several groups of buildings scattered around the farmstead, with the distillery by the village pond and the potato drying facility at the end. The workers’ dwellings of the estate, which had no farmland scattered among them, were clustered around the pretty pond surrounded by groups of trees. This beautiful village scene was bordered to the north by the buildings and tree plantations of the poultry farm.
The farmland spread out from the farm and village as its center, with beautiful forests, some of them deciduous, forming the transition to the woodlands that were mostly located on the periphery of the estate. Despite the high altitude, there was no shortage of water; there were ponds near the village, for example on the poultry farm, and productive fish ponds were created in the valley bottoms. On the banks, watering places, and boundary strips, plantations, copses, and hedges provided the necessary cover for the abundant game: red deer and wild boar almost outnumbered the good deer population. A few hundred meters from the farm, the hunter saw the deer standing.Von Hof und Dorf als Mittelpunkt gingen die Ackerschläge aus, schöne Waldbestände, zum Teil Laubholz, bildeten den Übergang zu den meist an der Peripherie des Gutes liegenden Forstflächen. Trotz der Höhenlage fehlte auch Wasser nicht; in der Nähe des Dorfes befanden sich teiche z.B. in der Geflügelfarm; ertragreiche Fischteiche wurden in den Talgründen angelegt. An Ufern, Wasserstellen, Grenzrainen schafften Anpflanzungen, Remisen, Hecken, die nötige Deckung für das viele Wild: Rot- und Schwarzwild überwogen fast den guten Rehbestand. Wenige hundert Meter vom Hofe entfernt sah der Jäger die Hirsche stehen.
The Bergen estate covered a total of 697.36 hectares, of which around 364 hectares were forest. The fields, most of which sloped towards the southwest, yielded satisfactory harvests on loamy sand, as far as this was possible in the harsh climate of Hinterpommern. They were suitable for growing rye, oats, potatoes, but also alfalfa and winter fodder mixtures, which served as compensation, as the small meadow areas did not yield sufficient quantities of hay. The very difficult question of fodder procurement for the large livestock herd, given the poor grassland conditions, was solved with the help of silage silos.
The history of the Bergen manor reflects the eventful history of Pomerania, its leading landowning families, and the development of East German agriculture. After the Slavic Pomeranians came under Polish rule in around the 10th century, German landlords arrived in the region in the 13th century, including the “Ritter von dem Wolde” family. This family owned Bergen with only a thirty-year interruption until 1796. Until 1836, it was owned by the intermarried families von Borcke and von Kleist, and until 1865 by the old Pomeranian landowning family Fick. After that, unfortunately, the hard times for East German agriculture led to frequent changes of ownership, to the detriment of the business. Cavalry Captain Wilke acquired it in 1907 and sold it to his cousin Kurt N129 in 1920. Kurt’s wife, Gertrud, née Fahle, acquired the Biallen-Wilhelmshöh forest estate near Wurchow, Neustettin district, on June 1, 1937. This also became part of the family’s land holdings. Of the total area of 562 hectares, about 72 hectares were accounted for by Lake Biallen, which touches the Bublitz-Neustettin road at its western tip, and the large Lake Schnaunz, which flows eastward from the Küddow, two fish-rich bodies of water surrounded by high, wooded banks and of great scenic appeal.
Today, the area has fallen to the Poles and, as long as the Oder-Neisse line cannot be erased, has been lost to its rightful owners.
According to a report by cousin Klaus P55
It is now 2022—decades have passed between today and the reports written in the family book and the newsletter.
Personally, I only heard about the Bergen manor in connection with the lost Borries Archive during my youth, and I can’t even say whether that’s true. After the first Allied bombing raids on western German cities, it seems that the decision was made to store the Borries Archive at the Bergen manor for safekeeping.
In the turmoil of war, people were probably more concerned with their own survival than with an archive of papers and pictures, so that after the collapse of the Eastern Front, not only was the Bergen manor destroyed by the Russians, but all the documents in the archive were also destroyed. Since 1994, my return to Germany and, above all, my wife Evelyn (Evi) have made me more active in the Borries family life, and I have been serving as treasurer of the family association for many years.
Through Evi, who was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, I have learned even more about the lost Central and East Germany and have often visited the Polish and Russian parts of East Prussia with her.
Evi is now the district chairwoman of the Preußisch-Eylau district and meets several times with Polish and Russian representatives in the twin town of Verden/Aller, together with representatives of the district and the town of Verden.
In connection with Evi’s honorary position, a trip to East Prussia was planned again this year.
And so the decision was finally made to search for and find the Bergen manor on the trip to East Prussia and to discover any traces of Borries.
Although we did not speak Polish, the internet, Wikipedia, translation aids, Google Maps, and, above all, the two reports mentioned above from our cousins helped us to locate the manor in Bergen in former Vorpommern.
In retrospect, it was very easy to find the town of Bergen and the remains of the estate. All we had to do was follow the descriptions in the reports, translate the names into Polish, and with a good navigation system in the car, we found ourselves on the road to Bergen after a short 2-hour drive from Świnoujście.
Not much has changed in this part of Vorpommern since 1945. One could use the descriptions of the town from our cousins’ reports word for word to find Bergen.
Coming from the south, one reaches the village and, right at the town sign, the old gate entrance to the estate on the right-hand side, which unfortunately no longer exists. Even the foundation walls are no longer visible, but with a little imagination, one can still easily picture the former location of the manor house.
The village and the houses are all unchanged; the workers’ houses are still there, some of them dilapidated, others still inhabited.
We didn’t see any residents, perhaps they were too surprised to see a car from Germany in a place whose village road leads to nowhere. Bergen is located at a dead end surrounded by forests and fields of the former manor. Instead of people, we discovered a “tiger-speckled” cat sneaking around the corner of a new storage shed. Curious as we were about this place, we followed the cat and, to our amazement, discovered a huge picture of the manor house with a map and a description on the front of the tin shed, in which our cousin Kurt N129 is referred to as a count.
We had never seen anything like this in Poland before. They showed the history of a former German estate – Kurt and the estate must have left a positive impression. We continued to explore the village, found the village pond described, the remains of the grain distillery, and were thus able to imagine what life in Bergen was like.
Of course, there was nothing left of our archive, although I was itching to dig here and there or go into dilapidated houses to perhaps find some remnants of Borries.
In any case, it was a great day and an experience for me to discover Kurt’s traces.
Saying goodbye to Bergen was harder than I expected.
I can now understand Evi and my in-laws much better, who lost their home and possessions after the war and still long to talk about it and visit as often as possible.
