By Albin Leo Dittli
The Lanz family is traced back to Hans Lanz born about 1550 in Sossau, Bern. He and his family lived in Rohrbach. The Lanz family wappen or crest has a red back ground. On this red field is a yellow lion standing upright facing left. The lion is holding a white lance or spear, gripping it with both hands, his right paw being above his left. The tail is a proud tail going upwards. The lion has his tongue out. The documentation is Siegel von 1836 auf papierurkunden.
Gottfried Lanz (1879 - 1960). Gottfried was the oldest of the nine living children in the family. Because the children had three different mothers there were sometimes problems among them. Gottfried always tried to be a peace maker in the family.
As a young man Gottfried rode all over Switzerland on a bike and worked in the printing business wherever he could. He was a Lino type setter. He also worked in Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. He belonged to the International Typographical Union and was therefor eligible for a job any where. Sometimes a job would last a few weeks or months, then he would move on. Gottfried traveled and worked with a friend, Paul Heilmann. Later after Gottfried had come to the United States he sponsored Paul to come to the States.
Gottfried had a Heimath-Schein, which was like a birth certificate-passport which he had with him when he rode from place to place in Europe. The stamps on the Heimath-Schein show that he was in the following cities and on what dates: Brien, 26 June 1900; Altdorf, 30 June, 1900; Moutier, 21 June 1901; Frenkenstein, 28 August 1901; Feldkirch, Austria, 17 September 1901; Naples, 7 March 1904; St. Gallen 19 Sept. 1904.
Gottfried came to the United States in 1906. After he came to the United States he worked for about a year in the gold mines in Cripple Creek in Colorado. Gottfried then went to San Francisco and worked in the printing business. One of his newspaper jobs was working for the Monitor, which was a catholic newspaper. Afterwards he worked for L'Unilonia, an Italian newspaper.
In the Spring of the year 1910 Gottfried met Madelaine Haesler at a Swiss picnic in the East Bay area sponsored by the Swiss singing Society. In September Gottfried married Madelaine Haesler at the German church on 16th Street.
Their first home was at 7 Central Avenue, which was half of a flat that they rented. Gottfried's brother John and his family rented the other half. They then moved to a home on Buchanan Street, then one on Hayes street, then to one on 32nd Avenue near the beach.
Gottfried was naturalized a United States citizen on 13 February 1914 in San Francisco. The certificate of naturalization describes him as age 34, height 5 feet, 8 inches, medium complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, and no distinctive marks.
In 1918 he started his own newspaper, the Swiss Journal. In 1918 they also bought their first car. After a few years they sold the newspaper.
Gottfried and Madelaine were very fine and firm parents. They were always happy and enjoyed life and appreciated things. Though they did not go to church often they were religious, believing that God was best found in the country, the forests, fields, and streams. On Sunday mornings they would enjoy listening to the weekly radio broadcasts of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Both Gottfried and Madelaine were very active in the Swiss Singing Society. For several years Gottfried sang in a Swiss double quartet.
They had two children. The oldest was Lillian, who later married Albin Dittli. Lillian was named after a heroine in a book that Madelaine especially enjoyed. The younger was Madelaine, who later married Leo Helfenberger.
They owned a cabin on the Russian River in Sonoma County North of San Francisco. It was shown to them by a friend of Medelaine's (the daughter) that she knew from the opera. They purchased it about 1932. It was on a quiet, peaceful stretch of the river and they enjoyed being there as a family.
They would, during the Summer, usually go to the cabin on Thursday after work (about noontime) and return to San Francisco on Monday. They would take the ferry from San Francisco to Sausalito, as the Golden Gate bridge had not yet been built. During the Winter the river often flooded, sometimes getting high enough to go into the cabin.
Gottfried loved to fish, so they spent many nights fishing for cat fish from the cabin's river landing. He also gave his grandson, Albin, his first fishing pole and tackle box as a Christmas present when Albin was about six years of age. He taught Albin how to fish, and they spent countless hours fishing together. Sometimes the two of them would get up very early in the morning and use the canoe to paddle up stream to fish in the fast water pools just below the rapids, trolling for bass as the went.
Whenever they went to the Russian River cabin Gottfried would always stop in San Rafael to buy whole sardines for bait. When he got to the cabin one of the first things he would do is clean the sardines and cut them up for bait. The sardine heads and other unusable parts would be used as bait in the cray fish trap, which was then put out in the river over night. In the morning it would be hauled in, with up to 30 cray fish in it. These would then be boiled till they were red like lobster, then everyone would sit around a table taking the meat out of the claws and tail. This meat then became part of a very delicious salad or meal.
Gottfried had very strong stomach muscles. Sometimes he would tighten them up and challenge one of his grand children to hit him in the stomach as hard as possible. They never could hurt him that way.
They owned a German shepherd dog named Queenie. Queenie loved to swim in the river, but had a bad habit of trying to swim onto people. In the process she would claw the unfortunate person. So whenever she jumped into the river, she started a game called "stay away from the dog".
Gottfried played the harmonica very well. Often in the evening when he was fishing or relaxing in the cabin he would bring out his harmonica and start playing.
Gottfried and Madelaine liked to play cards. Sometimes they would have a group of Swiss friends over to their house and they would play a Swiss card game. On many an evening at the Russian River they played canasta with their grand children.
Lillian Madelaine married Albin Dittli on 23 September 1939. Madelaine married Leo Helfenberger on 20 February 1937. In 1941 Madelaine and Leo moved to Los Angelos. Gottfried was so upset that he just but their baby in the car and walked away. Lillian told him not to be to upset, as there was another grandchild coming soon (that would be Regina, Lillian's first child).
Their granddaughter, Elisabeth Hellfenberger married John Ferguson on May 14, 1960. Lillian M. Dittli danced with her father Gottfried at the reception. The reception was the last time Lillian saw her father. Shortly after the wedding Gottfried and Madelaine took a ship cruise to Europe. It was the year of their 50th wedding anniversary. During a breakfast on the ship Gottfried suddenly said he wasn't feeling good, then he instantly died of a heart attack.
Leo Helfenberger was on a business trip to Asia. He arrived in Bombay about 3:00 AM and had a letter waiting for him at the hotel. On the envelope were the instructions "have a scotch and soda before opening." India was a dry country so he had a coke. Then he opened the envelope and read about Gottfried's death.
Information from my remembrances and from my mother.