FWIW, here is a link to a December 1900 report providing some historical background on serving without purse or scrip in Germany (see the bottom of column 2 and all of column 3).

Steve C, the number of catholics you state is right, abt. 30%. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the population is lutheran protestant: They are on par with the catholics, also at 30%. 4% are muslim, 2% orthodox or other denominations, but the greatest part of the population in Germany is now with 34% undenominational. (See wikipedia.de, “Religionen in Deutschland”) Of course that number for whole Germany is skewed by east German figures of 70-80% being undenominational. (See same article.) 40 years of communism leave their mark.
The Church is at abt. 0,05%, with 40,000 members and 180 wards in Germany. No ward between Rönsahl and Gleidorf yet.

Just for accuracy’s sake:
Could it be that the name of the village where they stayed the first night was not Bonsahl but instead Rönsahl, the R being similar to the B in handwriting? There isn’t a Bonsahl in Germany, but if you check on google maps you’ll find Rönsahl exactly on their way.

And now I have to be sober and think somber thoughts about the Thirty Years’ War. It seems like the two religions got on well enough in the late 20th century — the groups that weren’t getting along particularly well were the Germans and the Turks. Solingen was the site of some pretty bad race difficulties and some of that spilled over into Köln where I was working at the time.

Ardis: It did strike a cord. Thanks.

Many places in the area have both a Catholic and Protestant population. Unna had both. We taught a lay Lutheran minister, Hans Wobser, in Unna. Researcher, how’s that for playing the “do you know” without a major thread jack?

Thanks, too, for the additional information, especially the context of the geography, the Church in Germany at this point, and the correction to the city name. I’m going to add the correct name of Rönsahl in brackets to the original post.