German couple researches family history in Cape

A couple from Germany spent Saturday in Cape Girardeau searching for family ties.

Johannes and Gail Bruening Kraemer began at Hanover Lutheran Church's parking lot, then went to visit the graves of their ancestors and concluded at the Cape Girardeau Public Library for an exchange of information with Bruening family members.

The Kraemers traveled from the Hanover region in Lower Saxony, Germany, to spend a week in Cape Girardeau and another three weeks in Florida and Texas to visit Gail's brother and sister. Gail Kramer, who has been living in Germany for 36 years, contacted the Southeast Missourian in August, announcing the trip to Cape Girardeau to find Bruening family members.

"It was to celebrate Gail's 60th birthday," Johannes Kraemer said. The couple met in 1970 when Johannes was in California on a business trip. Gail moved to Germany when they married.

Gail knew her German ancestry included Frederic Bruening and Sophia Hartmann, her great-great-grandparents. They settled in Cape Girardeau in 1857. "They immigrated because the standard of living was so low. There were no jobs," Johannes said.

Gail's father, William G. Bruening, was born in Cape Girardeau but moved to Detroit in the 1930s, where Gail was born in 1946. Ties ended there until Saturday, when more than a dozen relatives showed up outside the Perryville Road church at noon.

Bosh Bruening of Kansas City received a phone call around Labor Day from Johannes Kraemer asking if he were related to Frederick Bruening of Higginsville, Mo. "I knew of my great-grandfather, but that was all," he said. The seven-hour trip united him with family members previously unknown to him.

The group moved on to visit the graves of Frederick and Sophie Brienkopf Bruening, Rosanna Bruening and Minnie Bruening.

A family photo that Patricia Bruening of St. Louis acquired a few years ago was a formal shot of William H. and Sophie Brienkopf Bruening and their family. "You could tell he was a tailor," she said. "Just look at the clothes."

The tailor shop he did business at now houses Perfumes on Broadway.

Trinity Lutheran Church historian Ruth Kasten helped the Kraemers discover the birthplaces of Frederic Bruening and Sophia Hartmann's in Brokeloh and Husum, where they visited while in Germany.

"We drove to the little village, and the people at the hotel restaurant where we stopped knew of the Bruenings," Gail Kraemer said.

cpagano@semissourian.com

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