POW

Hans (r.) at work in the quarry

Johannes 'Hans' Schoser joined the German army in March 1944 at the age of just under 18. He was trained as radio operator. His war time duty ended six months later when he was taken prisoner by American troups at the Western Front in France in September 1944. The Americans handed him over to British troups which transferred him to Scotland as prisoner of war (POW).

For three years, Hans was detained in the German Working Camp No. 188 at Johnstone Castle near Glasgow. He worked there first on the construction of a sewer system for a new housing development, then in a quarry and later as office clerk and interpreter. Finally, Hans moved to camp No. 174 to follow studies to become catholic youth leader.

In 1948, Hans was allowed to return home to Germany.

The man of many names

No one is safe from misspellings. So probably best not to make a big fuss about the occasional deformation of one's first or family name.

Yet, there are cases which go beyond the limits of the ordinary. Especially, if the misspellings are frequent, seem arbitrary and appear in official documents. This describes the fate of Ludwig Schoser who immigrated to the United States in 1893.

Starting the century as Louis Schosser...

* The 1893 Ellis Island Passenger Record refers to him as 'Ludwig Schoesser'
* The 1900 US Federal Census as 'Louis Schosser'.
* The 1904-1906 Durango Naturalization Records as 'Ludwig Schoser'.
* The 1910 US Federal Census as 'Ludwig Sokaser'.
* The 1911 Durango Ranchers Directory as 'Ludwig Schoser'.
* The 1920 US Federal Census as 'Andwig Schoser'.
* The 1930 US Federal Census as 'Todnez Schaser'.

... having become Todnez Schaser in 1930

In total, there are four different ways Ludwig's first name and five different ways his family name have been spelt. In fact, it is not even clear which was Ludwig's 'true' name as we do not know what he was called at birth. And had Ludwig not spent all his life after US immigration in Durango (Colorado), it would be almost impossible to trace him through time.

Snappshot in time

This photo shows George Schoser and his wife Catherine with their children Pauline, Jacob and William 'Bill'. It was taken in about 1916 in Meade, South Dakota where the family lived at the time. In total, George and Catherine had eight children. Five of them however died at a young age including Pauline and Jacob on the picture. In contrast, William was almost 90 when he died. 

The inspector

Is there the perfect crime with burglars leaving no traces and the police having no chance of catching the culprits? 

Frank Schoser would certainly deny this. He works for the Criminal Investigation Department of the city of Tübingen. It is his very task to make visible and analyse any traces burglars have left on the scene of the crime whether finger or shoe prints, broken glass or traces of tools used to break open windows or doors.

Frank is member of a team of in total 16 inspectors dealing with about 4,600 incursions per year (see Südwest Presse). They use traditional detection techniques as well as special lighting methods or electrostatic charging to uncover the identity of the burglars. However, cleaning ladies are said to dread the inspectors even more as they are able to make visible every grain of dust... 

The fashion designer

Under the label 'fashion by RS', Rebecca Schoser of Owen designs her own fashion collection. The range of clothes includes for example evening gowns, T-shirts and skirts.

Designs and samples of Rebecca's collection are presented on her website. It is also there that the items can be ordered directly from her. On command, she will manufacture the clothes herself.

Magic potion

The year is 1948 AD, and all Germany lies in ruins and is occupied by foreign troops. Only one small village of indomitable Swabians holds out against the post-war depression. 

But what can the villagers do to overcome the depression and revive their village? Anything is possible, with a little cunning plus the butchers' oxblood! Its effects can be truly historic ...

This is the beginning of the tale of the remote small town of Trochtelfingen which since then has converted into a gem of the Swabian Alb not least thanks to the initiative of the three Schoser brothers Gustav, Hans and Franz. (See also under 'Gallery'.)

iChina

Qinqin Schoser works as assistant editor for the iChina Magazine, a monthly English-language magazine based in the U.S.. The magazine aims at giving an independent view on China's society, economy and culture and at building a bridge between the Chinese and Western people. Having moved to the U.S. quite recently, Qinqin is well-placed to mediate between the cultures.

iChina Magazine is available in print and as electronic version on the Internet. The most recent issue on the website, however, dates from May 2009. It therefore seems that the magazine has meanwhile ceased publication.

Bavaria's pearl

The tourist information of the Bavarian town of Donauwörth displays a remarkable creativity in branding its city:  'ancient free imperial city', 'Bavaria's pearl on the banks of the Danube' or 'North Swabia's friendly center'. It also offers no less than 35 different guided tours and excursions to discover the historic, artistic and natural treasures in and around Donauwörth. Top of the list are a visit of the cathedral tower and a boat tour on the Danube which, after all, is Europe's second longest river even if it is still pretty small in Donauwörth.
Daniela Schoser is member of the team working at Donauwörth's Tourist Information and organising guided tours and excursions. Apart from the 35 standardised tours, she can also help to adapt the programme to the individual needs and wishes of the visitors, for example separate tours for men and women or advice on the local gastronomy. Hence, visitors wanting to spend their time drinking a few pints in a typical Bavarian biergarten can at least make an educated choice.

Go the distance!

'Go the distance' is a U.S. swimming programme launched four years ago. It is a self-directed programme intended to encourage swimmers to regularly exercise and track their progress. In 2010, 2,200 swimmers participated in this programme, logging a total of over 425,000 miles.

John C. Schoser is participating in this year's edition of 'Go the distance'. On 23 July, he achieved the 200 milestone, meaning that since the beginning of the year he has swum just over one mile per day. At present, his score stands at 292.55 miles showing not only that John has sped up his efforts most recently but also rocketing him up into the top 15% of all participants. He may crack the 300 milestone before long, in fact probably even before the end of this month.

Golden Wedding

Today, Franz and Edith Schoser celebrate their golden wedding. It was 50 years ago on 14 August 1961, they married in the abbey of Beuron on the Danube.  The wedding took place only one day after the construction of the Berlin Wall started.

50 years on, the Berlin Wall is history. In contrast, Franz and Edith are alive and well and proud grand-parents of 16 grand children. On the occasion of the golden wedding, all gathered to congratulate.

About eagles and other birdies

More than any other sport, Golf seems to have developed its own particular language. Some say the challenge of playing golf is less learning how to get from the 'tee' to the 'putting green', but to know what it means.

Norbert Schoser has learnt the necessary vocabulary and has entered the miraculous world of golf courses and tournaments. In July 2009 and July 2010, Norbert took part in the annual tournament at Wendelinus Golfpark. His score cards tell us that both times he must have made it to hole 18. But while this is trivial information, we leave it to the instructed reader to identify the number of albatrosses, eagles and other birdies, Norbert came across when walking those 6,265 meters.

Make yourself at home

Regina Philipps (Schoser) owns and runs Villa Blum, a bed and breakfast, in Waldenburg (Hohenlohe). The villa was built by the Earl of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg between 1910 and 1914. It has four single and five double rooms, each with an individual design and high comfort.

The description on the website sound promising:

"Each morning, the scent of fresh coffee wafts through the entire house and invites you to the lavish breakfast buffet. In the evening, you are welcome to relax in the winter garden and enjoy a glass of wine."

And for those who nonetheless plan to leave the villa, there is also some sightseeing to be done.

A soft spot for big beasts

Susanne Hillmann (Schoser) is editor at the German public broadcaster ZDF. Her speciality are animal and nature programmes.

Recently, Susanne has edited several TV series on animal life in zoos. She has presented the whistling Orang-Utan of the Heidelberg zoo, the only European howler monkies in Cologne and the removal of ice bear Flocke from the Nuremberg zoo to the (not so arctic) French Côte d'Azur.

Apart from these zoo series, Susanne has ventured into documentaries about the culture, customs, flora and fauna of far-away places. In her documentary 'Magic of Cappadocia', she reports about life in the famous underground cities of Cappacdocia in Central Anatolia (Turkey).

In an episode of the documentary 'On the road with Starship', she presents animal life in the impenetrable rainforest of Venezuela. The full episode is available on Youtube.

The unconventional convention

ConventionCamp is an annual conference about the future of the Internet. And it is meant to be different!

The organisers do not even want to label it a 'conference', rather a 'non-conference' or 'camp'. 'Those who have left ConventionCamp will think differently about the Internet' is the declared objective. Hence, you would be forgiven to think that ConventionCamp takes place in the Amazon jungle with participants sleeping in tents and fighting for survival. However, it is not quite like that... 

ConventionCamp takes place at the exhibition centre of the - not so thrilling - city of Hanover (Germany). Participants do not seem to sleep in tents either, rather they are offered special rates at the five star Radisson Blu Hotel. And food and drinks are provided for.

Andreas Schoser went through the ConventionCamp experience in November 2010. He spoke about the topic 'Connected Life = Smart Living?!' Being Head of Marketing Planning at Deutsche Telekom, he presented his employer's view on new services in the area of 'connected communication' and 'connected entertainment' taking adavantage of the increasingly interconnected way of living. 

Whether convention(al) or not, it's pretty well connected after all.

Master of the City

Every year, Cologne's High School basketball teams compete for the title of 'City Master'. In 2010, Nicola Schoser was part of the girls' team (age group *1996-*1999) of her High School Apostelgymnasium.

On 4 November 2010, Nicola and her team indeed secured the City Master title. In the finals, they did not concede any defeat. The photo shows Nicola's team together with her school's boys' team who on the same day became 'City Masters' as well.

100 Schosers

100 Schosers on these pages so far. A reason to take stock!

First of all, gender balance is respected: There are 52 Schoser men and 48 Schoser women. In the latter case, there is a fair number of in-laws: 30 women became Schosers by birth, the remainder by marriage.

There is also quite some variation in lifetime: 71 of the Schosers mentioned are still alive today, 29 deceased. Of the latter, twelve were born as early as in the 19th century. Of those, ten lived to see the 20th century. In contrast, eight passed away as recently as during the past decade.

In terms of nationality, 38 are US American, the remainder German. This abstracts from some borderline cases where Schosers for example kept their nationality - at least for some time - after immigration.

In terms of names, there is less variation than may be expected: Five names are shared by two Schosers each: Frank, Gustav, Joachim, John and Josef. In some of these cases, the tradition of passing on the father's or grandfather's name seems to have been at play.

Allowing for some linguistic variation, it becomes even more apparent that some names are particularly popular among Schosers:  Mary/ Maria/ Marianna, John/ Johannes/ Hans, Karin/ Katrin/ Katharina, Joe/ Joseph/ Josef and Carl/ Karl/ Carol. Needless to say where many Schosers got their inspiration from when christening...

Student power

Jessica Schoser is up for election at the student elections at Mannheim University on 12 and 13 April 2011. Jessica is third year student in business administration and will finish her Bachelor degree this summer.

Jessica is member of the student organisation RCDS and runs for a seat in the university's students' committee AStA. Campaign issues are crowded lecture halls, excessive workload and waste of tuition fees. If elected Jessica will have to tackle these issues which seem as long-standing as the invention of universities themselves.

The glazier

Donald Schoser of Hatboro, Pennsylvania was glazier. He worked in particular at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral near Philadelphia, PA which belongs to the New Church congregation.

The cathedral was built in the early 20th century and is famous for its stained glass windows. To manufacture these windows the medieval technique of making stained glass had to be revived.

In his book 'Bryn Athyn Cathedral: The Building of a Church' published in 1971, Bruce Glenn describes the making of the stained glass. The book also features a photo of Donald assembling a stained glass window. While the book does not mention Donald's name, the link is made by a member of the New Church congregation. He personally knew Donald and has published some memories of Donald alongside some other 'wise and happy thoughts'.

Going green

On 5 September 2010, Donauwörth hosted the 16th edition of its 'eco-market'. The market is an annual event and offers a wide range of organic food and other green products mostly of local origin.

For a number of years, Joachim Schoser has been part of the team organising the eco-market. He represents 'City Initiative Donauwörth' (CID), an association of local businesses and the municipality supporting diverse events in the city. From 2006 to 2008, Joachim promoted the event also directly on the myheimat blog.

The eco-market concept appears to fit nicely with Joachim's own business Via del Gusto which imports food products from Italy made by small, traditional producers.

In case you missed it, the next and 17th edition of Donauwörth's eco-market is scheduled to take place on 4 September 2011 and Joachim will, once more, be in charge.

Jetsetting

Who hasn't envied travel journalists writing about distant destinations?

Michelle Schoser has made that dream come true. She occasionally writes for the online Jetsetters Magazine offering 'everything under one Internet roof you need for planning your dream vacation'.

Michelle has featured articles about stunning places such as Bali, Fiji, Nicaragua and Hawaii. Her reports give ideas on how to discover these places and their inhabitants.

Other articles cover the San Diego area where Michelle could find dream places to write about right on her doorstep.

Fridges on fire?

Can fridges catch fire? Can they even cause fire? Should politicians be worried about fridges? Does it all matter to Schosers?

To answer these questions, let's return to the year 1997. In June 1997, the Committee on Natural Resources of the Nevada Assembly held a hearing to debate Assembly Bill 612 prohibiting the sale of certain highly flammable refrigerants. The refrigerants in question were used in older car fridges where they were said to cause car fires as well as asphyxiation.

During the first hearing on 25 June 1997, Christina Schoser, President of Nevada Refrigerants Inc., testified in opposition to the Bill. She stated the Bill would prohibit the sale of refrigerants sold by her company Nevada Refrigerants. The products sold by Nevada Refrigerants were however legal and lawful to sell, and used in every province in Canada as well as most other countries in the world including the United States. 

Five days later, on 30 June 1997, a second hearing on this issue took place. That time, Christina's husband Bob Schoser, Executive Director of the Alternative Refrigerants Association, testified in opposition to the Bill. Bob presented a video to demonstrate the safety of using hydrocarbon refrigerants in automobiles. In conclusion, Bob stated there had not been any known incidents attributed to hydrocarbon refrigerants, they were absolutely safe and were the answer the industry had been seeking.

The issue surfaced again two years later. On 10 May 1999, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources of Nevada organised a hearing on Assembly Bill 179 prohibiting the sale of certain highly flammable hazardous materials, in particular automotive refrigerants. Once more, Bob Schoser took part in this hearing - this time as 'concerned citizen' - and spoke in opposition to the Bill.

While Bob's views on the issue were unchanged arguing that the refrigerants in question would be safe, we learn something new about the impact of the ban of these refrigerants on the Schoser family. When asked by the chairman how he was related to the issue, Bob replied that his wife was President of Nevada Refrigerants that had to close in 1998 because of the previous ban.

Something to write home about

Schoser?

Whether Ph.D. theses or user manuals, police reports or book scripts, Ursula Schoser will be able to give you a hand to write it right!

After more than ten years working for the Ullstein publishing house Ursula now runs her own office ABC Schützin in Berlin offering spelling checks. Next step for business expansion is the English speaking world...

Beszél magyarul?

Hungarian has the reputation of being one of the most difficult European languages. Not only does it have nearly 30 grammatical cases, it also has hardly any resemblance to any other European languages.

Ending	Sample word	Suffix variation
		Constant	Difference by vowel quality		Difference by vowel quality and ending
		-ig	-ban/-ben	-hoz/-hez/-höz	-unk/-ünk/-nk	-om/-am/-em/-öm/-m
Consonant	lakás	lakásig házig szemig körig fürdőig	lakásban házban	lakáshoz házhoz	lakásunk házunk	lakásom
	ház					házam
	szem		szemben körben fürdőben*	szemhez	szemünk körünk	szemem
	kör			körhöz fürdőhöz*		köröm
Vowel	fürdő				fürdőnk	fürdőm

Fearlessly, German born Siegmar Schoser has taken on the challenge of learning Hungarian. He has followed evening classes at the Stuttgart adult education centre and notes that he has been motived for two reasons i.e. his wife Szuszanna and because his employer operates subsidiaries in Hungary.

At present, Siegmar in fact seems to be working at one of these subsidiaries and, what is more, he has produced another patent invention there. Gratulálok!

Noodles

Michael Schoser is in the noodle business. He is member of the management board of Alb-Gold, a family-owned noodles company in Trochtelfingen on the Swabian Alb.

Alb-Gold produces more than 150 different pasta types and shapes including traditional Swabian spaetzle.

Michael is in charge inter alia of environmental issues.

In this function, he was responsible for Alb-Gold's ISO certification as environmentally sound company in December 2009.

What's in a name?

What is the meaning of Schoser? There is little doubt that Schoser is a German name. Both its spelling and its genealogical traces point to this. German family names often derive from professions. Examples are the family names 'Schlosser'/ 'Schlösser' (locksmith) and 'Schösser'.

JSB - vilifying Schosers? 

At the end of the middle ages, 'Schösser' designated a 'tax collector'. It was derived from the term 'Schoss' meaning direct tax. While the terms ' Schoss' and 'Schösser' are no longer used, the latter happens to have survived in a piece of classical music. Johann Sebastian Bach's Peasant Cantata blamed the 'Schösser' for making the lives of poor farmers even more miserable.

One hypothesis is that 'Schoser' is a variant of 'Schösser'. The latter anyway seems to exist in different variants, notably as 'Schöser', 'Schoeser' and 'Schößer'. Since the underlying term 'Schoss' does not have an umlaut the noun would not seem to require one either. (Just as 'Schloss' is the basis for both Schlosser and Schlösser.) On this assumption, Schoser would be equal to Schösser - and they would have been just as unpopular!

But all this is of course pure speculation...