A Military Service Report – or What Remains of a Life

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” the American statesman Benjamin Franklin once wrote. In the case of Johann Wieland, the saying could be extended to include official documents. Born in Schiers in 1812 and deceased in the Russian Empire in 1866, Johann Wieland left behind, among other things, a military service report.

In beautiful Kurrent handwriting, Major Hitzmann of the military commission records in this report that Johann Wieland performed militia service for the village of Schiers from 1831 onward. In an addendum, the same major attests to the conscript’s “physical fitness,” “good conduct,” and “diligence.” From today’s perspective, it is hard to imagine that one could once serve as a substitute for another man’s military duty – yet that was precisely the case with Johann Wieland.

Further information about Johann Wieland’s life is provided by letters, which, like the military report, are held at the Kulturhaus Rosengarten in Grüsch. Around 1834, Johann Wieland emigrated and sent one of his letters from Warsaw to his “beloved parents and siblings.” He died in 1866 in what is now Poland. Remarkably, the letters did indeed reach Schiers: on one envelope, the destination is written as “Schiersch.”