As we prepare to move into the quite days of November, I am sharing the only “ghost story” my dad ever told me. He wrote this down for me in 1986 when I was doing an oral history project for a folklore class in college. His grandfather, Johann Schilling often told him this story about his great-grandfather, Wilhelm Schilling. Presumably it took place in Glückstal, where the Schillings lived at the time in Russia.
Protestants did not believe in ghosts the way Catholics did (or were not supposed to anyway). When Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517, he was mainly objecting to the sale of indulgences, a kind of spiritual discount on time owed in purgatory. In time, the Protestant Reformation rejected the Catholic concept of purgatory, and the souls that supposedly lingered there (and occasionally slipped out to nudge their descendants into paying up) lost their spiritual excuse to haunt anyone. No, Protestants did not believe in ghosts, but the devil…that guy you had to watch out for all the the time.
These are my dad’s words with light editing.
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| Map of Glückstal circa 1872. Note the location of the church marked with a cross above a circle in the center left of the colony. |
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I do recall a story my grandfather liked to tell. Supposed to be true and involved my great-grandfather.
At the church one night, there appeared the image of the Devil upon the front door. No one went near the church but peeked at it around corners so as not to be seen. Many people believed in ghosts and were very superstitious. My great-grandfather did not believe in any of that nonsense. My grandfather, as well as my father, also did not believe in ghosts, witches, and superstitions. So, my great-grandfather just knew that something was amiss, but, just to play it safe, he observed this thing as it happened every night. He would peek around a different corner each night, and there it was. Big as life…or as big as the church door. Fear was building, and soon no one would go near the church, day or night.
Then one night as my great-grandfather was watching for the Devil to appear, he noticed a shadow of a tree move across a wall toward the door and suddenly, there it was. At the same time, he noticed a light appeared in the window of a house just across from the churchyard. A little more checking, and he knew the answer. He called for the people to come out of hiding and witness his getting rid of the Devil. He then walked to the house, went in, picked up the lamp and moved it. And the Devil was gone!
What happened was the tree cast a shadow from the lamp upon the large engraved door, and when the lamp was set down, everything lined up just right to create this image.
When asked why he thought it was not the real Devil when just about everybody else did believe it was, he said, “Simple. Have we not been told many a times that the Devil will come after those that do not go to church?”
Yes, yes. Everyone agreed.
“We have also been told that the Devil cannot touch anyone that does go to church, right?”
Again, everyone agreed.
“So, then I ask you, what is the darn fool doing standing at the church door when he knows he can’t get anybody in there?”
The tree was removed, and the Devil never appeared there again.
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| The Evangelical Lutheran church in Glückstal circa 1903. |
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| Plat map of Glückstal as it was remembered circa 1944. |
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