Wedding - Castle Kastellaun

[arnes]

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My grandfather Anton Kathke spent a short time living in Kastellaun, district Simmern. He resided there from 5. 6. 1937 - 11. 2. 1938. I am trying to identify the old Castle ruins in the photo shown in the attached web page link - please click on photos.

http://genealogy4040.webeden.co.uk/#/photos/4538411841

Can anyone identify it as Castle Kastellaun ? or recognise anyone on the photo ? It seems he attended a marriage there. It is a mystery to me. Maybe someone reading this post may know ?

A German researcher has checked marriage records for these dates, there were no Kathke's recorded. Perhaps he was a guest at someone elses wedding. I would be grateful for any help or ideas.

Thanks Arnes Attenborough ( nee Kathke )

[mifaber]

greets from kastellaun

hi,
I found your post with google alert.
If you want send me the pic in better quality.
I'll send it to my father, maybe he can question some people or know somebody.
greets,
michael

[Baerbel]

Hi Arnes,

is there only one photo or is the side cracked down?
If it is only this one photo of some men standing in front of an old castle wall, it seems to me to be too little to identify a certain castle.
You wrote that your grandpa only spent a little time at Kastellaun. Why do you think he married there?

Other imaginations/guesses:
Was he German and forced to spend some month at the "Reichsarbeitsdienst" in the late 1930s? - During the late 1930s (especially from 1937 to 1939) near Kastellaun a highway had been built by the "Reichsarbeitsdienst" (not a proper "Autobahn") connecting Koblenz and Trier. And some other constructions took place in the area, e. g. a flying field very close to Kastellaun (no ... not Hahn (today Frankfurt-Hahn), but a flying field on the grounds of the communities of Kastellaun, Bell and other villages in the surroundings - after WWII the ground was changed into a base of the "Bundeswehr" and parts of it formed the later "Pydna" - American Base where in the 1980s cruise missiles were based).
All these newly built "infrastructures" were part of Hitlers plans of war against France. And they were mostly built and constructed by young men which had to join the "Reichsarbeitsdienst".)
If your grandpa stayed only ab. 6 month in the region, it seems to me like he had to work for the "Reichsarbeitsdienst" there. If he had married there you surely have the name of his wife, your grandma, do you? I think with the name of his wife we might get a little further. Would you please tell us.

Greeting from Germany
Bärbel

[arnes]

Hello Barbel

Thank you for your reply. My grandfather married in Duisburg. He was estranged from my grand mother from early in 1916. I had presumed that he had been a guest at someones wedding, because of the flower in the lapel buttonhole of the jackets, although I have been told that the group in the photo could be wearing Sunday best clothes.

Someone who lives in Kastellaun has confirmed that the photo was taken at the castle ruins, it is a single photo - the only one I have. My father is second from the left, but I do not know who else is pictured there (I assume my grandfather who was about 50 years old at the time is one of the others).

I would be interested in finding out more about the "Reich Labor Service" in that area - my grandfather was a rolling mill worker in Duisburg where he lived from 1905 until his death in 1965, other than the 8 months he lived in Kastellaun, Simmern district during 1937.

Best Regards,
Arnes.