The reasons that caused many people to move their home and possessions (from Austria)  were laid out in detail by Georg Kuhr and Kilian Butz (Reference in text).  Likewise from Herr Pfarrer Kuhr comes the following information about the old Hasselbacher homeland as well about the derivation of the family name.

The eponymous property from which the family Hasselbacher moved to neighboring properties is the House Haselbach on the Haselgraben, which is today in the community of Gresten-Land Austria.  At that time is was Obergut house number 4 on the road from Gresten to Ybbsitz.  The various properties of which the Hasselbachers were inhabitants between 1600 and 1650 were situated very near the pass at the highest elevation of the Haselgraben.  In the vicinity were the houses [farms] Sonleiten, Grössing, and Kobatslehen.  The property Holzapfel lay in a depression just to the east (of the crest) in the direction of Gresten.

Herr Kuhr then goes on to speculate about the meaning of the name Holzapfel which might indicate crab-apple, or refer to "wood waste."  By comparing the name to that of surrounding farms, he concludes that the name most likely means crab apple tree. [I did not follow the argument closely!]

The Exulanten who's pronounced religiosity led them to readily gave up their home and possessiones for their beliefs, interacted not infrequently with Pietist circles (religious reformers) in their new home.  Paulus Hasselbacher, who was born in Mittlefranken about 11701, joined such a prosperous group in Guttenstetten and interacted with August Hermann Franke in Halle.  Hasselbacher was labeled from there as a separatist when two of his children were born in 1709 and 1710, and also at his burial in 1750.  It is possible that the influence of Zinzendorf and the religious situation in Stübach led Paul's son Johann Paul to move and construct a mill on the Rehweiler.

Herr Martin goes on to say that the mill is no more, replaced by an agricultural estate.  Only the foundations of the old castle remain.  There remains a magnificent view from the nearby hunting lodge in the place where the godson of Count Zinzendorf lived and whose well-intentioned plans for Rehweiler only partially came into fruition.

The remaining pages abstract information about Her Martin's (and my) Hasselbacher family line

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