Hildegard Schneiker Obituary
Hildegard Schneiker (née Stumpfhauser) was born on February 13, 1925, in Beschka, Yugoslavia. She was third in an ethnic-German family of nine children. Her extended family owned two mills and sold flour across Eastern Europe, Germany and England. Hilde's mother Katharina was the only daughter of the Mill owner Philip Kniesel, and her father Anton Stumpfhauser was a pharmacist who later managed the Kniesel Mill in Beschka. Hilde loved singing, piano, guitar, reading, linguistics (she was fluent in four languages), sewing, baking, taking the train to Novi Sad with her mother to eat and shop, and playing on their hundreds of acres of vineyards, farmland and mill yards. She went to boarding school in Novi Sad, spent summers on the Danube, the Fruška Gora, Dubrovnik and all along the Adriatic. Her parents died of TB when she was only 12, after which she lived with her dear grandmother, and later with relatives in whose household she was quickly trained to be a contributing member. WWII made her and her entire extended family into war refugees. They fled to Austria where she lived from age 19-26 in a refugee camp, then in a bombed-out building, then as an au pair for American occupation families.
In 1951 she immigrated to Milwaukee into an active ethnic-German American community. In 1952 she met, and soon married Adam Schneiker, an ethnic-German immigrant from Hungary. They were married for 54 years and raised four children in Glendale, Wisconsin. Despite the many hardships and losses Hilde experienced, she remained kind and loving, with a personal relationship with her Heavenly Father, her greatest source of joy and strength. Family was the center of her world. Those around her felt her devotion and strong faith through her peaceful, gentle, and giving nature. She was a sweet, loving mother, a good and faithful wife and a hard and competent worker in everything she did. Though we will surely miss her, we are comforted knowing that she is in the company of her beloved Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and has been reunited with her husband, parents, siblings, and many other loved ones and friends that she lost over the course of her amazing 100 years on this earth.
Hilde leaves behind children Christine (Dr. Peter) Messer, Robert Schneiker, Ruth (James) Melcher, and Michele (Daniel) Brielmaier; grandchildren James (Mandy) Schneiker, Heidi Messer, August Melcher, Esq., and Greta (Zach) Waldon; and great-grandchildren Judah, Hailey, Brady, Desmond, and baby Orson. Preceded in death by all siblings including Phillip (Liesl) Stumpfhauser, Rosalie (Otto) Henneman, Helena (John) Walter, Julianna (Herman) Mueckl, and by in-laws Christine (Alexander) Kubasiak, John (Mari Lou) Schneiker, Elizabeth (Joseph) Lazar, Annemarie Lamp and survived by Craig Lamp. Special thank you to the staff and residents at Grace Commons Assisted Living, where Hilde spent her final years.
Visitation Tuesday July 29 from 10:00am until time of funeral service at 11:00am at Schmidt & Bartelt Funeral Home, 10280 N. Pt. Washington Rd., Mequon, WI 53092 262-241-8085. Private family interment Resurrection Cemetery.
Family would appreciate memorials to: Benediction Lutheran Church, 8475 W. Fond du Lac Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53225 (414) 463-9158.
