Family members HER YOUNGER BROTHER HERMANN
"THE GOOD BROTHER"
Hermann, "the good brother," as Mother Frances often called him, was born in Mellrichstadt on February 1, 1851. Like Adam, he attended grammar school at the Augustinian convent in Münnerstadt and then in Würzburg.
Like his older brother, he pursued a military career, became a 'major' in the army. At the age of 19, like Adam, he took part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, which was the most important conflict fought in Europe between the time of the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War.
We can only imagine the Streitel family's anxiety for both sons away at the front. Just the thought that they might be missing in combat, be wounded, or worse, die under enemy fire was terrible. We think of the parents and sisters always with bated breath, anxious at every knock on the front door that could announce the dreaded telegram with the news of the death of their beloved Adam or Hermann. This is part of the family history, which risks passing by in silence, but which marked the life of the Streitel family in those years of uncertainty and turmoil.
After returning from the front, Hermann married Carolina Wieserner, born on July 7, 1862, in Nuremberg. Two sons were born of their marriage: Oskar, on November 2, 1883, and Hermann, on February 6, 1885. It was he, who enlisted like his father and uncle, and was promoted to captain. He died in the war on the French front on July 15, 1918.
That dreaded telegram had only been delayed, but it had finally arrived, destined to mark the Streitels in mourning. The grief-stricken family will be denied even the consolation of the proximity of a grave, in fact, the young captain was buried in the German military cemetery of St. Etienne in Arnes, Ardennes.
Providentially, if one can say so in the hope that a father will never have to mourn the death of his son, Major Hermann had died two years earlier on March 6, 1916, in the military lazaret (hospital) in Munich. This was on the very same day as Mother Frances' heavenly birth five years earlier.
Mother Frances had great affection for Hermann, as for Adam: “I will pray a great deal,” she wrote to Hedwig on July 21, 1897, “that nothing bad will happen to my dear brother (Hermann). The good of my brothers is a holy thing for me, and for this I offer prayers and sacrifices on my knees before God".
FRATERNALLY CLOSE AND NOBLE OF HEART
The affection was combined with a singular esteem for the care and attention Hermann had for Hedwig: "It comforts me greatly," she wrote to her sister, "that Hermann is close to you fraternally, may the Lord bless him and his family; I greet him dearly.” On the other hand, Hermann expressed with frankness his closeness to his family, as Mother Frances reminded Hedwig: “Hermann shared his joy with me, that you were with him, and in a few weeks I shall express my gratitude
for all the good he has done. In the meantime, grateful greetings to him and his family.”
Mother Frances between Eternity and Time
The thought of the passing of earthly things is a ray of grace!
In a letter dated September 4, 1898, written to her sister Hedwig...
“Dearest sister!... Hermann will rejoice himself by having visited in childlike piety the home of our blessed father, and his noble child-heart will have experienced many feelings of sadness thinking of the past. Such a thought on the frailty of all earthly things is often a ray of grace for our poor souls. That Hermann so nobly thinks of others is very consoling to me; please greet him and his family.”
Mother Frances Streitel
In light of these simple and deep family relationships, Mother Frances, as with Hedwig, expressed her benevolence through small gestures of attention: "...the stamps for Hermann", a letter to thank him from the heart, a note of admiration for his sensitivity, for his goodness and nobility of soul: “That Hermann so nobly thinks of others is very consoling to me. Please greet him and his family.”
However, what is once again striking about Mother Frances is that in loving her family tenderly, manifesting the liveliest of feelings, she does not linger or retreat into sentimentality in search of fleeting satisfaction, but always points towards heaven, aware that only eternity can give the fullness of lasting joy: “His noble brother's heart,” she says of Hermann, “deserves recognition from above, and he will certainly get it for himself and his family. If we pray with perseverance, he will also receive a good place in the afterlife.”