Stories and anecdotes

The “eternal grave“

Friedrich Peter Herstatt (1775-1851) provided the city of Cologne with a large plot of land so that Melaten could be developed into the city’s central cemetery.  In return, the family received “eternal” and thus free graves on Melaten. At the death of Clara Herstatt (1981), mother of Iwan David Herstatt (1913-1995), the city demanded fees for the grave for the first time. The family was told that this would be waived once again, but that fees would be charged in the future because the term “eternal” was not understood in the official German language as endless, as it might be in the case of the church, but as limited in time at some point.

Iwan a Russian?

Throughout his life, Iwan D. Herstatt (1913-1995) had to explain the origin of his name because everyone suspected something “Russian” behind it. As a child he was already tired of it and hung a painted sign around his neck at a party of his parents with the inscription: “My name is Iwan, but I’m not Russian!”. Later he said that actually the name only gave him an advantage when he travelled, as he so often did, by sleeping car from Cologne to Berlin through the territory of the GDR. While other passengers to the left and right stood in their pyjamas in the corridor of the carriage and their luggage was ransacked by Police officers, he was left unmolested because they suspected a high-ranking Russian personality in the compartment because of his name.

The tombs in Valenciennes

In the 1960s, Iwan D. Herstatt visited Valenciennes, the city of his forefathers, for business reasons. He asked the hotelier about the oldest Protestant cemetery in the city. The hotelier said, “Dear Herstatt, why are you looking for old graves of your family in cemeteries when it is raining? We just got fresh lobster in, that would be much more suitable for you. So there was never any further research into the past. Today, the weathering of the graves is so far advanced that it is even less worthwhile. Moreover, the Thirty Years’ War mostly destroyed all church records.

Herstattallee

There is also a Herstatt alley in Cologne. In 1973, the Cologne administration decided to name a main street in the Seeberg development area in northern Cologne “Herstattallee”.

Clara Herstatt (1883-1981), the mother of Iwan D. Herstatt, thought this decision was more than overdue. She liked Allee, but the location and the rather puny trees at the time less so. After the bank bankruptcy in 1974, there were calls to rename the street again. But because of strong protests from the residents, the street name remained. Whether it was out of solidarity with the Herstatt family or the residents did not want to change their identity cards, business papers and visiting cards remains a mystery. In the meantime, the trees have grown nicely and a stately avenue has emerged.