Spittal an der Drau - Austria

We didn’t spend a whole lot of time in this area, mostly a quick visit to look for and take pictures at the Waldner-, Hofer-, Wurtz- and Kleinsasserhof.

This area has four places that have a Hutterite surname: Kleinsasserhof, up in the mountains, and Waldnerhof, Wurtzhof (although this one has a different name now) and Hoferhof in the valley.

All of these places were at one point owned by these families who later joined the Hutterites.  Kleinsasserhof is actually still in the same family. This place was at one point owned by Hans Kleinsasser family, who were Lutherans, along with some other families: Hofers, Waldners, Glanzers, Wurtz' were exiled from Austria and fled to Transylvania (Romania) where they  met up with a group of Hutterites.

 Today Kleinsasserhof is a tourist resort and is owned by Waltraud and Josef Gasser, descendants of Hans Kleinsasser. So this is where the families mentioned above can trace their roots back to, including myself, because there are Glanzers and Waldners in my family tree, but unfortunately we were not able to find Waldnerhof...so we'll have to come back again sometime. (:

Kleinsasserhof

 

 

 

used to be Wurtzhof

 

 

Hoferhof

 

 

 

I have to thank everybody back home for all the birthday wishes today. I was deeply touched! After Jack, Sam and Elma left for Frankfurt (yes, we shed a few tears, but we're fine now, totally fine and very excited about starting our course tomorrow:) Kathy and I went back to Ernest August Galerie, a huge shopping centre in the area. As soon as we got home, my phone started to jingle, almost non-stop for about 10 - 15 minutes. So sweet!

 

This is the second time that I've celebrated my birthday in Germany - ten years ago I was in Berlin and celebrated my birthday with cake and pizza and had a 12 hour train ride to Austria with my traveling companions Tirzah and Alyson - remember that time, you two??