The 1999 Ostien Family Reunion was held in Germany from 1 August 1999 through 6 August 1999. Twenty-one Americans made the trip to celebrate our common heritage with our Ostien relatives there.
Group photo of many of the American and German 1999 Ostien Family Reunion attendees in Lauschied, Germany, birthplace of many of the Ostiens
The 1999 reunion followed the enormously successful 1997 Ostien Family Reunion held in Monroeville, PA. That one was the first Ostien reunion to unite all the Ostiens families in over 50 years!
Michael Ostien (Michael.Ostien@t-online.de) coordinated the efforts in Germany on the 1999 reunion. It was held at the Hotel Linslerhof in Uberherrn, a town just south of Saarlouis in the Saarland region of Germany.
Many Ostiens living in Germany today live in or around the Saarland area. The original Ostien immigrants to America, Henry and Frederick Ostien, came from that region and settled in the borough of Turtle Creek just outside Pittsburgh.
A brief summary of the reunion is as follows:
Saturday, 31 July 1999
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Arrival of the main contingent at the airport in Frankfurt
Transfer to hotels in Saarland
Sunday, 1 August 1999-
Met with Germany families; evening reception
Monday, 2 August 1999-
Trip to Trier, an ancient city that dates to the 1st century Roman Empire
Visit Bernkastel-Kues
Bescheider Muehle
Tuesday, 3 August 1999-
Visit Villeroy-Boch glass factory for a tour.
Stop at Mettlach for shopping.
Losheim and Saarlouis
Wednesday, 4 August 1999-
Heidelberg, including the University of Heidelberg.
Visited a castle in the area.
Thursday, 5 August 1999-
Traveled to one of the ancestral villages of the family, Lauschied
Took an afternoon cruise on the Rhine river.
Friday, 6 August 1999-
Closing banquet at the Hotel Linslerhof in the evening
Return to the Roolf and Ostien Page