Volmer - Kopenka

Gernsheim, Germany

Member of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.

This site is owned by Angela Gartner.

Gernsheim

is a little village located on the Rhine. This is where Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstien was said to have seen the Castle Frankenstein.

Gartner and Stang Families

 

We know from the 1766 Original Settlers List for Volmer that the Gartner's came from Worms and the Stangs came from Gernsheim.

 

I don’t think that Peter and Maria Elisabetha were the first Gartners and Stangs to marry.  Worms and Gernsheim are located only 20.1 km or 12.5 miles apart.  Today it would take about 20 minutes to travel between towns.

 

See map above

Regional Location

 

Gernsheim is in the Federal State of Hesse.  It was in Rheinland-Pfalz before 1945.

 

 

 

Castle Frankenstein

has a fascinating past.  The earliest record of its existence is in 1252 when the Frakenstein Clan built and occupied it until 1662.

 

In later years the castle was used as a military prison and a home for military invalids until it was deserted and forgotten after 1742.

 

The castle’s most notorious inhabitant, according to Clairmont, was Johann Conrad Dippel, a physician and theologian.  Dippel had attempted to construct a new human being out of body parts, virginal blood and esoteric, magical rites.  Dippel used the castle’s prision as a laboratory to conduct alchemistic experiments, which included attempts to create gold for the Count of Hesse.

 

It is stories like this that inspired Mary Shelley to write her book Frankenstein.

 

Source: Castle Frankenstein, by Duchan Caudill

Federal State of Hesse Flag

City of Gernsheim Coat of Arms