Person:Hans Faust (1)

Hans Faust was born in the village of Wolferborn, but later moved to Langenselbold where he married Elizabeth Fischer in 1640. Her parents and both sets of grandparents, who were born in the 1560's, were lifelong residents of the town; her paternal grandfather Balthazer Fischer was the Burgomeister. Hans and Elizabeth produced six children before her death about 1653, including twins Johan and Werner.

    About a year later he married Kunigunda Gaul of Ravolzhausen, a village located three miles west of Langenselbold. By her, he fathered six more children. Providing for a family of twelve children must have been especially challenging for Hans Faust, as they were born during the latter stages and immediately after the Thirty Years War, which had crushed the life out of the country. The condition of Germany after the war was tragic. More than a third of the population had been killed, some estimates place it as high as half. Those who survived saw nothing but desolation wherever they looked. Whole towns, villages and farms had disappeared, and two thirds of the property had been destroyed. Trade and industry were in ruin. Agriculture was almost at a standstill; numerous farmers had been killed or their stock confiscated by the foraging armies and their houses burned. It would require more than a hundred years for the country to recover. The Thirty Years War was really a series of conflicts that began as a civil war between the Protestant and Roman Catholic princes in the German states. But before it was over, most of the nations of Europe were involved, and the war had become a general struggle for territory and political power. Ironically, what was left was hardly worth fighting over.
    How Hans eked out a living or found respite during this period is not known. But the fact that his large family made it through such horrendous times, says a lot about them. Several of his extended family even survived to be quite old during a time when the average life was about thirty-seven years. Both birth and death dates are not known for many of the family members, so their age cannot be determined. Of those for whom dates are known and who had a relatively long life: Hans lived to 69, a brother to 102, two children to 82, two other children to their 50's, and he had grandchildren who lived to 75, 63, 79, 83, 82, and 91.

From A Family History, Don Faust, 1997

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).