62nd day - December 8th: Kleinalisch / Seleus Mic - Vibrant small community

After a quiet breakfast in the old vicarage of Schönau, I had to dress warmly. It was quite cold and dense fog hung over the land of Transylvania. I said goodbye to curator Cornell and cycled into the gloomy morning. To improve visual visibility for fast Romanian drivers, I put on my bright orange rain jacket. The destination for today was the former German village of Kleinalisch (German), Seleus mic (Romanian) in a picturesque but quite deserted side valley of the small Kokel River. I had prearranged to stay with the Krestel family there. Pastor Gottfried Vogel wrote to me in advance that I should definitely visit if I want to get to know the 'last remnants' of the former German culture of the Transylvanian Saxons and, secondly, the rural community in Malmkrog.

About 65km lay ahead of me. Along the way, I also passed through the former German village of Seiden (German), Jidvei (Romanian). There is also a typical Transylvanian fortified church there. According to the sexton, there are still about 25-30 German speakers among the approximately 1300 residents. This church also 'breathes' former Evangelical-German culture. Several banners with quotes in German hang in the church in need of renovation. There are still monthly services attended by about 10-12 people.

After the stopover, I continued cycling through the Transylvanian landscape, passed a large Roma settlement, and arrived in Kleinalisch in the afternoon. Hilde and Michael Krestel warmly welcomed me in German. They and their sister are the last Transylvanian Saxons in the village, which has about 200-300 inhabitants. The exact number cannot be determined because some are Roma and many of them are not registered. However, the Krestel family history is interesting.

When almost all Transylvanian Saxons from Kleinalisch emigrated to Germany within a few years after the Romanian Revolution of 1989/90, the family deliberately chose to stay in their native homeland. Hilde Krestel said, 'Our place from God is here, why should we leave?'. Leaving the familiar homeland, their own farm, and agriculture was out of the question for them. They still run a small-scale farm today, with calves, chickens, corn cultivation, and a total of 36 buffaloes. Both of them reported that when they were children, they only had Romanian as a foreign language in primary school. They grew up speaking the special Transylvanian Saxon dialect. Even today, they speak this German language in their everyday lives, of which I hardly understood a word. Their Saxon dialect was also the familiar language of the church when it was full of Germans before the revolution. Kleinalisch even had its own German pastor and a proper parish office. There was a church service every Sunday, and on some Sundays even three. Being Lutheran was - then as now - their religious and everyday identity. They read from the Bible and the daily devotions every day. Of course, they say a prayer before eating. When the pastor once didn't come to the service, they didn't just go home, but sang hymns, read Bible verses, and prayed on their own.

Before the evening feeding of the calves and buffaloes, we visited the small fortified church of Kleinalisch. Then Michael Krestel had to tie up the calves and bring the buffaloes from the pasture to the stable. I went along with him and on the way, Michael Krestel showed me some spots on his fields and quoted the Old Testament creation text 'And God saw that it was good'. I was impressed by the biblical knowledge of these - as we would say in Germany - simple people who are deeply devoted to God. They don't just live alongside God's creation, but with it, and their thinking, actions, and beliefs are based on the Bible. I was visibly touched by this way of life. We sat in the kitchen for a long time in the evening, talking about country life and faith. But then we said goodbye because both of them have to get up early in the morning to take care of the animals. I also went to sleep in the neighboring house and thought for a while about what I had experienced and heard from Hilde and Michael Krestel.