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Astrid
Ester Hilweg, born 1935
at Riga.
The
name Hellweg, connoting
the wide "bright" clear
way (heller Weg),
derives from Low German
helwech. Another meaning
connotes a "Way of the
Dead." In Grimm's
Worterbuch, Helvegr is
the route to Hel. In the
Middle Ages, Hellweg was
the official and common
name given to main
travelling routes in
Germany. Their breadth
was decreed as an
unimpeded passageway a
lance's width, about
three meters, which the
landholders on either
side were required to
maintain. In German
literature when Helweg
is used without an
adjective, it usually
refers to the
well-researched
Westphalian Hellweg, the
main road from the
region of the lower
Rhine east to the
mountains of the
Teutoburg Forest,
linking the Imperial
cities of Duisburg, at
the confluence of the
Rhine and Ruhr rivers,
and Paderborn.
Klaus
Oswald Arved Hilweg was
born 18 October 1894 at
Dorpat, Estonia. He
attended the city
mid-level high school at
Riga. On 22 November
1914 he was deployed
with the Riga flying
ambulance convoy of the
Red Cross under Prince
Kropotkin in the East
Prussian war theatre
(Goldap now in NE
Poland). He joined the
retreat to Grodno (now
in western Belarus) in
January and February
1915. He attended the
3rd Petrograd Ensign
School in St. Petersburg
from 15 May until 15
August 1915 and left as
an Ensign. He joined the
war in the 14th Army
Corps 18th Infantry
Division, in the 69th
Ryazan Infantry
Regiment, in 1915. He
commanded the 16th Squad
in the vicinity of
Dünaburg (modern
Daugavpils in SE Latvia)
and was at the beginning
of 1917 temporary
instructor for machine
gun characteristics at
the Division Ensign
School in Murimuschki
village in the area of
Driswaty and Demmen (now
Drysviaty, Belarus and
Demene, Latvia). He was
junior and senior
lieutenant and received
the Order of St.
Stanislaus 4th class
(for distinction in
battle) and 3rd class
(with ribbon and
swords), as well as the
Order of St. Anna 4th
and 3rd class. At the
time of the German
occupation 1917/1918 he
was head of a police
precinct in Riga, at the
withdrawal of the German
troops he entered the
Baltic territorial army,
to whose combat troop he
belonged from 1918 until
January 1920. After the
war’s end he was next
engaged in the American
Consulate in Riga, and
was in 1921 head of the
publicity house “Glocke”
and thereafter employed
in the advertising
bureau of Ed. Petzolz in
Riga. Since January 1923
he trained in Friedenau
by Burg (administrative
region Magdeburg) as an
Adventist minister and
was engaged as such in
Riga and Mitau (modern
Jelgava). He died 4 July
1949 at Husum,
Schleswig-Holstein.
Married December 1919 at
Riga to Irmgard Caroline
Alexandra Spengel, born
9 March 1896 at Riga as
daughter of the
honourable citizen
Friedrich Spengel (died
1918 at St. Petersburg)
and Anette née Stoltz
(died 1939 Riga,
Latvia).
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