Newsletter No. 49 Lucern - January 2023

www.stirnimann-stirnemann.ch verband.stirnimann.stirnemann@gmail.com

Table of Contents

Greeting

Reactions newsletter

Portrait: Georges Stirnemann, Colmar

Jean-Jacques Stirnemann

Obituary / contact

Dear relatives and friends,

Dear members and friends of our family association

How time flies! Yet we succumb: the lived time becomes only a deception more and more, the pool of what has been lived is always bigger, and what we have yet to expect will be fewer, the time will be shorter, and that then feels as if everything is going faster. We wish you, dear reader, that time stands still a moment while reading this for your pleasure. From the heart all a good and happy new year, joy to you and your loved ones

Moritz Stirnimann, President

Reactions to the 2022 newsletter

It's not that the newsletter is entirely unheard and faded away unnoticed in the world. So we have three reactions over the course of the year received, which we would like to take up here: 

A young woman reached us via e-mail, who asked if you had family history content could one bring it to the public in a more contemporary way. You think of push messages, directly to the members or to the <social-media> or at least to the Newsletter dispatch in digital form via e-mail. Yes, the latter is fine, good idea, but we are in possession of around 200 postal addresses for our members. These postal addresses stand 32 email addresses opposite. I have you counted. Yes it is true, we have some catching up to do.

Email address

We will be going digital for the first time in 2023 and send it by post. That's how they recognize each other Members who are already registered.

I ask the other members, if you have one If you have an email address, you can share it with us. It's very simple: write to us an e-mail with name, first name, address to: verband.stirnimann.stirnemann@gmail.com

We'll still be happy to ship by post if you don't react.

But: The electronic "mail" makes things much easier for us; that also became apparent at the meeting.

Rusmeler Geschichte

The second reaction came by post from Alsace. George Stirnemann sent us some of the Stirnemann coats of arms and this photo and a report on Jean-Jacques Stirnemann, instrument maker in France in the 18th century. His line comes from Gränichen. We make Georges Stirnemann's research report the cover story of this newsletter. It is printed in French, to the delight of all members in French-speaking countries. The text has been translated and shortened for members who read German.

The third reaction came to us from the USA, from our relative Walt Sterneman. He had noticed that a coat of arms was printed without comment:

He asked why this magnificent coat of arms was not discussed further?

I answered him as follows:

The coat of arms of the Stirnimann from Neuenkirch and Rothenburg is shown. In fact, the painter of coats of arms made an effort, but he did also exaggerated. Even if our coat of arms cult originates from the time of the knights, not all coats of arms go back to real knights, but are the product of the emancipation of the subjects in the 17th and 18th centuries. Stirnimen in this period were peasants, occasionally very wealthy peasants who also held public office (how many mercenaries of our name there were remains to be investigated).

In the center of the depiction is the coat of arms of the Stirnimann of Neuenkirch and Rothenburg, which is inclined slightly to the left and dates to 1692, i.e. to a time when there were no more knights for a long time. The version of the coat of arms is now completely historicizing and refers to a knight's armor with the helmet and the red plume. The artfully interwoven plant network is reminiscent of wrought iron work on the portals of French baroque palaces and underscores the nobility. The depiction is imaginatively anachronistic, but effective. A great invention of the coat of arms painter! (must)

Speaking of the family crest

Source Georges Stirnemann

During my visit to Colmar, which will be mentioned again here, we came to speak of the diverse coats of arms of the Stirnemanns. This coat of arms is worth mentioning here: It is the "old house brand", so named on a family tree of the Zurich branch, which is believed to belong to Hans Stirnemann, citizen and sub-vogt of Gränichen, born around 1545 -writing is. Thus, this coat of arms would probably be one of the oldest family crests of the Stirnemanns. It was first documented around 1661.

Portrait: Georges Stirnemann, Colmar

On November 2, 2022, I traveled to Colmar to clarify a few more questions with the author of the cover story, Georges Stirnemann. In my estimation he is the chronicler of the Stirnemann branch. While our professor Joseph Stirnimann paid particular attention to the Stirnimann, Georges did so in the Stirnemann branch. He describes the emigration history of the Stirnemanns from Gränichen to Alsace and France, similar to how Heinz Stirnemann did for the Storbeck branch. His research drove Georges to Switzerland, to Germany, to Berlin, and he traveled all over France to follow traces of family members. The result of this work was two publications in circulars 21 (1995) and 22 (1996), a publication in circular 40 (2014) and an almost unmanageable archive of folders and boxes, packed with "Stirne- and Stirnimannia". from around the world. - So if there is an archive in which there are still treasures to be found, then you will find it in Colmar in the Arlesheimer-Hof. (There is probably another part in the Lucerne State Archives, in the estate of Prof. J. Stirnimann).

Georges, who is now 74, is waiting for me at the train station. You can walk to the house that used to be the domicile of the Bishop of Basel when he was in Colmar on business. His father, who owned a bakery nearby, was able to purchase this stately home after the war. Born in 1948, Georges was involved in the scout movement at a young age, first as a child and later as a leader. As a young adult he makes his first experiences in the socio-cultural area. In 1971 he was a teacher and married Geneviève Bohn. She was a nurse, then a theologian, responsible for liturgy at the diocese, then for the coordination of the parishes in the Kaysersberg- and Munster-Thal area. With her, he takes care of socially disadvantaged people, the sick and the elderly. During this time three children are born who have to be taken care of. In 1984 he became deputy and then social director himself in Colmar.

Georges says that he is following the tradition of his ancestors in Gränichen, because there was a poor bailiff of his name there.

However, he had carted the dying beggars across the community boundary in a wheelbarrow so that no funeral expenses were incurred in Gränichen. He tells this story with a smile on his face.

Georges also researched and wrote: historical and art-historical information about Alsace and Colmar, genealogical information on many family names, everything that interested him. The archives in Gränichen were open to him, the people generous and friendly. He often corresponds with the professor in Lucerne.

2012-2015 he was President of the Center international d'Initiation aux Droits de l'Homme (CIDH) in Sélèstat (F). To this day, he is involved in projects at schools that make young people aware of human rights.

Now that he has gotten older, things have calmed down a bit. He enjoys the little things, like explaining one or two details about the city's history or architecture to the tourists in the city. Those are beautiful moments: And he explains to me the Celtic symbols on the half-timbered houses or the strange figures that adorn the cathedral facade. Everything has a meaning! The paintings of the Pfisterhaus, which we are standing in front of, also depict very emancipated women: Judith and Jahel. George's knowledge is rich, his spirit lively, open, interested. We see that Georges is still full of ideas that want to be realised.

Georges Stirnemann in his empire

Jean Jacques STIRNEMANN, known as Jacob STI(E)RNEMANN (1724 - 1790), luthier, maker of instruments, organs, harpsichords and pianos.

From Switzerland to Alsace

The professional life of J.J. STIRNEMANN begins in the North of Alsace. In 1770, Jacob STIRNEMANN carried out the repair work on the Pierre DELORME organ, in the church of Bouquenom (today Sarre Union). A doubt hangs over the origins of our instrument maker.

The first traces of the STIRNEMANNs appear in 1352 on the shores of Lake Lucerne, on a property called “Stirnerütti” belonging to the Alsatian abbey of Murbach. Most of them, Catholics, remained around Lucerne. The Reformers regrouped further north in Aargau. The revolt of the peasants, the war of religion, and the call for immigrants to repopulate Alsace, which had become French, prompted many Swiss to settle there to benefit from the land and tax advantages offered. Several then emigrated to the Catholic regions of southern Alsace, two or three of them to the more Protestant parts of the North: from 1668 to Diemeringen, then from 1706 to Neu Saarwerden, Bouquenom, Dunzen-heim, Wolfsheim and Altwiller from 1749 and finally in Bouquenom in 1754.

J J STIRNEMANN in Wolfsheim, Gränichen, Bouquenom and Metz

Among them we find Jean STIRNEMANN (1706-1750), descended from the line of sub-bailiff of Gränichen (1565) and son of Luc STIRNEMANN (from the STIRNEMANN-WEIBEL branch). Jean was born in Gränichen, husband of RÖTHISBERGER Barbe and settled in Wolsheim. Jean's four children were born in this village.

The eldest, Jean Jacques was born there on October 8, 1724 and was baptized there. It is probably he who was the instrument maker who worked in Bouquenom. In March 1749, Jean Jacques married Barbe GING (GENG) in Gränichen in Aargau. It was in this Swiss village that her children were born. After two daughters, Barbe (1749) and Elisabeth (1752), her third child, Jean Jacques, born in 1756, died the following year. Another boy, born in 1758, will bear the same first name. In a family tree drawn by a secretary of the town hall, he appears as "Organist" The latter died in 1826. Barbe gave him three more children, Anne Marie (1760) future wife of HÄGGI Jean-Jacques, Jean (1763 ), and the last, Véronique, born in 1769.

After this birth, Jean Jacques, probably left his family in Switzerland, and began a professional journey to respond to requests or to look for work? He first went to Wolsheim, where his father Jean died in 1750, and where his sister Barbe married a carpenter, Jean Jacques HÜMING (HÄMIG) in 1751. It was probably through the latter that "Jacob STIRNMANN" was entrusted in 1769 with the repair work on a snake in the parish and in 1770 the restoration of the organ in the church of Saint Georges de Bouquenom, (today Sarre-Union). The work was carried out in 1770 and 1771.

At that time he was installed in Metz since this City entrusted him on August 16, 1771, for 9 louis d'or with the lifting, and on August 25, 1772 the maintenance of the organ of the parish church of Saint Avold. The receipt of 1771 established in this city specifies that "Jacob STIRNMAN" resides in Metz and that of 1772 that he lodges with the organ builder GILBERT, rue Fou-nier, (Fournirue?) in this city.

Another version presents Jean Jacques STIRNEMANN, organ builder in Metz, born April 8, 1744 in Sarre Union, son of the winegrower Jean STIRNEMANN, born October 26 (or 31) 1706 in Gränichen died on 28 June 1771 in Sarre Union, and Anne Sophie EICHERT (1713-1769). His grandfather would then be STIRNEMANN Jean Jacques born in 1656 in Switzerland in Gränichen and married to LÄUPPI Vérena in 1705. The great grandfather was then STIRNEMANN Jacques born in 1626 in Gränichen where he married RIEDMANN Verena in 1654.

From Metz to Lyon

We do not know if Jean Jacques STIRNEMANN had links with the Alsatian, Vosges and Lorraine family of organ builders, TOUSSAINT. However in 1784, a Jean Frédéric Guillaume, surgeon and physicist at the royal court of Berlin, son of another Jean STIRNEMANN from the region of Gränichen and halberdier in the Swiss guard of Brandenburg, married Marie Dauphine Elisabeth Sophie TOUSSAINT there. (1764 -1823), at the reformed temple of the French Church in Berlin. She was the daughter of Pierre TOUSSAINT from a family of Huguenots from Metz.

In any case, as early as 1771, Jacques STIRNEMANN built a first harpsichord, the "St.1721". Under the barrier of the table, we notice the same signature as those of receipts found in Lyon, dated from the years 1781 to 1786: "Stirnemann A". some will rather recognize an H, an HJ or an N. If it is an A, it would be a reminder of the sign that adorns the coat of arms of the STIRNEMANN-WEIBEL branch of Gränichen from before 1661. If on the other hand, it should read H or HJ, this would then correspond to the initials of Hans or Hans Jacob. The resemblance to an N made believe for a time that Jean Jacques had a brother, Nicolas: the existence of the latter could not be attested, moreover the receipts from Lyon, bearing the same monogram, are indeed signed by Jacques and not by a Nicolas. The inscription around the edge of a rose of the instrument “Jacot et Lion 1721” (Jacob de Lyon?) does not allow us to date it to 1721. In the opinion of most specialists, it may have been produced on the occasion of a fiftieth anniversary (of marriage?) rather around 1771. It is not certain that STIRNEMANN lived in Lyon from 1771 since he was still resident in Metz on the 16 August 1771 and in 1772.

Jacques STIRNEMANN built another harpsichord, the “St. 1777”, larger than a usual French harpsichord: The signature “Jacob Stirnemann fecit 1777”, is found around the rose painted on the resonance board as well as on the throat, above the upper keyboard. It is part of the Ménestrandie collection and is exhibited at the Museum of Art and History in Geneva.

Image 1: Harpsichord from 1777. Postcard from the Museum of Art and History in Geneva (see p. 2 on the left)

By its decoration, it seems to have been made on the occasion of a wedding: garlands of flowers and musical instruments adorn the outside of its box The inside of the lid shows a young girl and her servants getting ready for their wedding. Two Cupids prepare their arrows in the lid's flap. The resonance board is decorated with flowers, fruits and a bird perched on a dead branch: "The wood of the instrument is dead, but it still sings" (cf: André Exter-mann "La restauration du Jacob Stirnemann harpsichord” in Revue musicale de Suisse Romande December 1996). The instrument has two keyboards of 61 keys (5 octaves, fa-fa) without coupling, but with a so-called "dogleg" device allowing to operate both the upper keyboard and the lower one.

The following year he again built the “St. 1778”, sometimes attributed to COLESSE. It was in a private collection in Toronto and may still be there. In 1779 he was still on the list of Lyon luthiers.

In Torino

In 1780 STI(E)RNEMAN settled in Turin as the "organist" of the King of Savoy, VICTOR AMEDEE III, a follower of enlightened despotism who had organized his army on the model of that of the Berlin court. Always at his service, Jean Jacques was sent to the cathedral of Chambéry in Savoie, to carry out a report on the subject of the repair to be carried out on the organs built in 1514, "the most beautiful of that the mountains", for the church of the Franciscans which in 1779 was erected as a cathedral. The expertise, the complete lifting, the restoration and the augmentation were carried out by STIERNEMANN and CONCINI, organ builders at the court of Turin, who took the opportunity to complete the instrument. They adopted the classic French style while retaining the Savoyard aesthetic. The keyboard of the great organ was increased to 54 notes (a rare increase at the time) and 13 stops, the pedal to 18 notes and 4 stops. Later dismantled, sold in 1845 to the cathedral of Bellay, finally bought by the church of Notre Dame de Salins in the Jura and transferred to this city, this contemporary instrument of François I has since 1981 embellished the visual and auditory setting of the rehabilitated abbey of "La Lucerne", in Normandy, and has been listed by the Commission des Monuments Historiques since 1975.

Image 2: The Lucerne organ

Rhone and Parisian period

As early as 1781 or even earlier, STIRNEMANN seems to have moved to Lyon, where he built a square piano "Stirnemann made in Lyon 1781". This instrument, the “St. 1781", was in Austria at the end of the 20th century and may still be there. The same year, he repaired the second organ of the Hôpital de la Charité in Lyon, an instrument built in 1732. Until 1786, he ensured the routine maintenance and repairs of the organs in this hospital which was also used at that time as a center for abandoned children.

Image 3: Receipt established in Lyon 1782

Was the organized piano, signed "Stirnemann à Lyon 1783" made for the wedding of Jean Frédéric STIRNEMANN and Marie Dauphine TOUSSAINT, planned for the following year? St. 783”, will be presented at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889. However, his name is also mentioned the same year 1783 in Paris among piano and harpsichord makers. In 1786, he built, still in Lyon, a pianoforte, the “St. 1786” marked “Jacobus-Stirnemann-fecit-Lugd-1786”. It is now presented at the Moutier museum in Savoie.

Discrete end of life

The French Revolution led to the disappearance of most of the organs in Lyon, including that of the Charité hospital. In 1789 STIRNEMANN still appears as a luthier on the “Lyon indicator”. The same in 1790. From then on we lose track of Jacob STIRNEMANN, except for the mention of the death on August 5, 1790 of Jean Jacques STIRNEMANN in the archives of Gränichen. The research field concerning this still too little known instrument maker remains open.

For their participation, thanks to Mrs. JACCOTTET and Mrs. PUSSIAU, DEFERNE, EXTERMANN and WILBERT.

Text completed in Colmar on April 23, 1998, modified on August 1, 2021 then November 17, 2021.

Georges Stirneman

Intermediate check of the club treasury

In November 2021, the board decided to commission an interim audit of the association's treasury. The auditors Thomas and Josef Stirnimann carried out the audit in February 2022 and prepared an interim report. This will be presented to the members for discharge at the general meeting on September 8, 2024.

Death of our archivist, Philomena Bartholdi-Stirnimann

In August, we received the news that Philomena passed away on August 1, 2022 after a long illness. In disbelief, I sat in silence for a moment, knowing that this is a moment in life that erases any plans I had yet made, leaves unsaid any words I had not yet said to Philomena. I only had to say goodbye at the funeral service, which was attended by former and current board members.

Philomena was born on March 30, 1943 in Nottwil on the Studen farm as the fourth of 11 children and spent her childhood and adolescence in a strictly religious family. As a young woman, she moved to the canton of Zug, where she worked as a domestic help/seamstress. Here she married; and two daughters (Gabriela and Angela) were born. The fact that Philomena also had an artistic streak remained hidden to us for a long time. She was not a loud person and carried what fate loaded her. She lived in Steinhausen and Zug until her death.

Philomena was elected to the board in March 1991, serving first as chronicler, then as archivist, which she remained until her death. On behalf of the association, I would like to thank her sincerely for this work and her work on the board for more than 31 years.

In her thanksgiving, her daughters write: “The most important people are those who come into your life and let the sun shine where there are sometimes clouds”. Philomena was such a woman, she knew the colors of light, in life and also in painting. So we want to show a picture from her painterly work here. - We commemorate you in silent mourning, on behalf of the association Moritz Stirnimann

Painting by Philomena Bartholdi-Stirnimann

Contact

Postal address: Association of the Stirnimann/Stirnemann families, Moritz Stirnimann, Lindenhausstrasse 4, 6005 Lucerne

Email: Verband.stirnimann.stirnemann@gmail.com

Enclosed: Payment slip with QR code for the 2023 membership fee

CHF 15.00 IBAN CH62 0900 0000 6002 3600 0

Edition: 210 copies