Original Farmstead of our Family
Our ancestral farm "Ohlebusch" is located on the southeastern edge of the village Bookholzberg, municipality Ganderkesee, district of Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. We are grateful to the family Hanken that they continue to operate the farm, and thus maintain it's existence.
The age of the farm is not known. The settlement historian Karl Ostermann calls such single farmsteads, that are endowed with their own connected fields,
"single unit farmsteads". These are as old as the so-called Esch settlements. The latter were established in the period between 800 and 1200.
The original name of the farmstead "Oldenbusch" refers to an ancient woodland, last traces of which can be located on old maps.
In the late Middle Ages and until secularization, the Collegiate Delmenhorst was landlord of the farm.
In a list of Income of the year 1575 of this Collegiate, we find the earliest mention of our family farm.
A heavy blow hit the family and the farm Ohlebusch in 26 April 1945: After a bombardment by Canadian troops the main building with the inventory burned
completely down. Not until 1953 was the big farmhouse finally rebuilt, and then only as a stucco building. Only much later the gable was veneered with brick.