Above: The Franz Gottsacker home on Dorfstrasse in Mayschoss. Our cousins Margret, Eli, Anita, and Marie all grew up in this house. Margret still lives there and worked part time at the wine cooperative.

Franz Gottsacker family, 1990. From left to right: Margret (currently living in Mayschoss), Eli (now retired and currently living in Mayschoss ), Franz (living in Mayschoss at the time of the photo), Anita (married name is Weller and currently living in Mayschoss) and Marie (currently living in Munich).

Avove: Franz’s sister Marta Gottsacker Krause (center), Benno Krause (left) and Franz Gottsacker (right). Both Franz and Benno were taken prisoner of war by the allies during World War II. In 1942, Franz was taken prisoner of war in North Africa by the British and eventually ended up at a POW camp in Wisconsin–Camp McCoy. Franz knew he had relatives in Wisconsin but did not know exactly where they were and could not contact them. Franz knew a bit of English–he learned it while a POW in Wisconsin. He was released from the POW camp in December of 1946 and returned to Germany.

Below is a photo of many/most of the current generation of vintners who are common owners of the Mayschoss wine cooperative. Cousins Eli, Marie and Anita are at the bottom right, second row. Look for white hair, then red hair, then brown hair. As pictured on the Old Mayschoss page, their Gottsacker ancestors were founders of the cooperative, the oldest wine cooperative in Germany.

Gottsacker family members and friends in the family vineyards above Mayschoss.

Heinz Weller (Anita Gottsacker Weller’s husband) hauling harvested grapes out of the vineyards above Mayschoss. Franz Gottsacker is at the right behind some grape vines. Mayschoss at the top of the photo–down a very steep hillside.

Above from a visit to Mayschoss in 1991: Standing left to right: Franz Gottsacker, Jerry Gottsacker, Leon Weller (peeking through), Judith Weller, Tom Gottsacker (Jerry’s dad), Patty Gottsacker Coburn (Tom’s daughter, Jerry’s sister). Kneeling: Joanne Gottsacker Kammer (cousin to Jerry & Patty) and Elke Riekmann, a friend of Marie Gottsacker. Marie Gottsacker took the photo. Judith Weller later spent a year as an exchange student in Irvine, CA with Jerry and Roxanna Gottsacker. Judith and Leon are children of Anita Gottsacker Weller–one of Franz’s daughters. The Weller family lives in Mayschoss not far from Franz’s house.

Other German relatives

Several additional German Gottsacker relatives live in Essen and Cologne. Most of them are on FaceBook.