Ruswil - July 1988 No. 14
Contents
Preface 1
New Members 2
Our board of directors 2
The progenitors of the Stirnimann from Ruswil and Neuenkirch 3
Magic characters in the farmhouse Lower Roth 6
Our condolences 7
Preface
Dear relatives and cousins
Dear members and friends of our family association
At the beginning of this century, most of the population of our homeland, and indeed Western Europe in general, was still living in the country. Our grandparents, in some cases the parents of our older members, experienced the dawn and rise of the industrial age with its rural exodus, the growth of cities and the development of new standards of value in all areas of life. For years, we have been increasingly reflecting - one speaks of nostalgia - on the rural world and time in which our ancestors and their families lived. In addition to the researchers, it is the writers and poets who awaken this sunken world with its light and dark sides and bring it closer to us. The poet and Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll understands this particularly masterfully. While reading this recently, I came across the following text in his stories:
In my grandfather's homeland, most of the people lived from work in the flax breakers. For five generations they had been inhaling the dust that rises from the broken stalks, slowly killing themselves, patient and happy families who ate goat cheese, potatoes, and sometimes slaughtered a rabbit; in the evenings they spun and knitted in their rooms, sang, drank mint tea and were happy. During the day they broke the flax in ancient machines, defenselessly exposed to the dust and the heat that escaped from the drying ovens. In their room there was a single, cupboard-like bed reserved for their parents, and the children slept on benches all around. In the mornings their rooms were filled with the smell of the stinging soups: on Sundays there was Sterz, and the children's faces turned red
Joy when, on particularly festive days, the black acorn coffee turned bright, always lighter from the milk that mother smiled and poured into her coffee pots. The parents went to work early, the children were left with the house: they swept the room, tidied up. washed the dishes and peeled potatoes, precious yellowish fruits.
Heinrich Böll, Die Waage der Baleks, in: Welt im Wort, reading work for secondary and lower middle schools, Kant Lehrmittelverlag Luzern 1968. Vol. I, p. 367
What made me bring this section here? I was fascinated by words like: home, work, patient, happy, knitting, parlor, happy, children, reddened with joy, festive, smile, Sunday. In these words feelings, security, comfort, love, happiness are expressed or are awakened. Ultimately, these terms shape the word home. A home that gives our existence meaning and enables our self-development. It would be interesting, however, to apply this text to the year 1988. Would we be able to use all of these words without reservation? Wouldn't there be ifs and buts here and there?
I very much hope that this newsletter addresses you precisely in this sense, as today's continuation by Prof. Stimimann about the ancestors of Ruswil and Neuenkirch with the rural world that has remained largely intact in its original beauty where the earliest known ancestors of the great majority of our members lived. The attached two images of the recently uncovered late Gothic block building in the Lower-Roth are greatly reduced reproductions of the plan recordings made by Mr. Jonas Baltensweiler on behalf of the Lucerne Cantonal Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology, which are published with the report on the building inspection. We are bringing these two images with the kind permission of the Lucerne Cantonal Monument Preservation. Many thanks to Mr. Klaus Niederberger for this. In another article, Mr. Kurt Lussi, Ruswil, describes and interprets the magical symbols that were discovered during the renovation of the main building in Lower-Roth. I would like to thank Mr Lussi for allowing us to print his informative statements, which he published in the Luzerner Tagblatt on November 9, 1987, here.
As announced in the last newsletter, a family conference will take place this year. Since every now and then the board of directors has been proposed to hold a conference in Neuenkirch, the board of directors has responded to this request. So we meet on September 11th in Neuenkirch. The board hopes that as many as possible will be able to memorize this date and attend this meeting. Such a meeting always gives the opportunity to make contacts, to recognize common origins, to discover the home of our ancestors. The program will be announced at the end of this newsletter. The invitations with the registration form will be sent out in good time.
In view of the fact that a conference is taking place, I would like to keep this brief. There is of course the opportunity to obtain further information at this conference. But I would like to thank everyone who always pays our contribution on time and even rounds it up.
I remain with best wishes and best regards to everyone, especially to the new members, and in the hope of a happy reunion at the family meeting.
Your President
Josef Stirnimann
New Members
Helene Schmidlin-Stirnimann, Gotenstrasse 30, 4125 Riehen
Dr. Phil. Zeno Stirnimann-Hess, high school teacher, Schützefeld 9, 6215 Beromünster
Josef Stirnimann-Lang, Operations Manager, Allmend, 6204 Sempach
Our Board of Directors
President: Josef Stirnimann-Haas, Realteacher, Unter-Sonnenbergli, 6017 Ruswil
Vice President: Prof. Dr. Joseph Stirnimann, Adligenswilerstrasse 11, 6006 Lucerne
Actuary: Hans Stirnimann-Helfenstein, community clerk, Alpenblick 5, 6206 Neuenkirch
Treasurer: Alois Stirnimann-Zihlmann, managing director, Im Latten 6, 6110 Wolhusen
Material Administrator: Maria Stirnimann-Schenkermayr, Murgasse 1, 6017 Ruswil
Members: Othmar Stirnemann, manufacturer, Hubelstrasse, 6204 Sempach
Hans Stirnimann, vocational school teacher, Zugerstrasse 24, 6415 Arth
Heidi Stirnimann, on Reistweg I / Kniri, 6370 Stans
Honorary President: Hans Stirnimann-Haupt, teacher i. R., Rüediswilerstrasse 42, 6017 Ruswil
Auditor: Richard Stimimann-Krieger, authorized signatory, Hubelstrasse 1, 6048 Horw
The President asked for contributions, communications and suggestions for the newsletter.
Enclosed: Payment slip for the 1988 membership fee of CHF 10.-
The progenitors of the Stirnimann v an Ruswil and Neuenkirch
(Continuation)
As explained in the last circulars, Peter Stirnimann, the progenitor of the Ruswil and Neuenkirch family with its various branches (Nottwil, Ohmstal, Ballwil, Buchrain, etc.), moved with his wife Adelheid Bircher, his five children and his mother Kunigunde Sinner in 1610 or 1611 from Luthern to the Roth in Ruswil.
The late Gothic house in the Lower-Roth
Thanks to a lucky coincidence, the original house, which the family of the ancestor and the next three generations lived in, has been preserved in its essential parts to this day. It has always been known that the stately home of the Muff family in Lower-Roth, which, according to an inscription on the north facade, was built by Leonz Stirnimann in 1705, was the centuries-old ancestral home of our family. Last year the long overdue renovation of the house began. In order to prevent the destruction of early building elements and the blurring of historical traces, the Lucerne Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archeology carried out a systematic building survey. The most important result of this was the uncovering of the block building erected around the middle of the 16th century in the late Gothic style. The drawings of the south façade and the spatial structure made by Jonas Baltensweiler and shown here give a good idea of the generously designed house that Peter Stirnimann moved into with his family in 1610/11.
Ruswil, Unter-Roth, late Gothic block construction (reconstruction)
Hans Jakob Stirnimann
Of the children of the married couple Peter Stirnimann and Adelheid Bircher, the three sons Hans, Peter and Hans Jakob and the two daughters Maria and Barbara grew up. Hans, the eldest who married Anna Bächler, took over his father's farm in the Roth after he had probably managed the neighboring property in Grissenegg for some time. Of his children, only their daughter Katharina survived. The son Peter, married to Maria Stiess, was a farmer in nearby Etzenerlen. In the Twing Ruswil he held the offices of a jury and later a judge, i.e. chairman of the court. With a capital of 1000 guilders, Peter donated an eternal tithe to the Ruswil parish church for himself, his wife, his parents and “everyone who is of the same family”. He gave a further 1000 guilders to the donation, i.e. to the welfare of the parish '. Peter's marriage was childless.
Only Hans Jakob, the youngest of the three brothers, had male descendants and thus ensured the continued existence of the family. This second progenitor is discussed below. Hans Jakob first owned the Meienberg farm located one and a half kilometers north of the Lower-Roth in the valley between Mittelarig and Nottwil-Berg, which belonged to the Twing and the Buttisholz parish '. At that time, the Meienberg farm comprised 79 Jucharten land and pasture and was valued at 6,000 guilders. We do not know when Hans Jakob acquired the farm and sold it again, because the purchase records of the twing Buttisholz only begin in 1660. The death of his brother Hans (January 30, 1647) was probably the reason and time for Hans Jakob that Meienberg was sold to change living to the paternal farm. He and his family have certainly lived in Roth again beginning February 1654, because the twins Peter and Elisabeth were born there on February 25 of that year, as Peter, the later Benedictine monk, of whom we will speak later, reports in his diary .
Hans Jakob Stirnimann was married twice. He got his first marriage on August 18, 1630 in the Parish church Sursee with Barbara Bucher, the second on October 17, 1661 also in Sursee with Margarethe Estermann (this marriage remained childless). Barbara Bucher was most likely a daughter of Batt Bucher in the Roth, who at about the same time as Peter Stirnimann and his mother had set up a similar tithe at the Parish Church of Sursee. Barbara Bucher gave her husband the following 6 children, 2 of whom died early:
Sebastian b. approx. 1631/33, m. I Sursee, May 11, 1655, Maria Helfenstein approx. 1673,
d. Roth, 1.1.1679 m. II 1673, Rosina Wüest
Hans b. approx. 1633/35 m. Sursee, October 17, 1661, Elisabeth Zimmermann
d. Roth, April 23, 1675
Anna b. 3.3.1636
Maria b. 7.11.1643
Peter Father Jost (Jodok), monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Muri d. 28.12.1706
Twins, b. 25.2.1654
Elisabeth Sursee, October 1, 1668, Walter Meyer
Willisau, 1688, Bernh. Dobmann
d. Huprächtigen (Nottwil), October 6, 1692
Undoubtedly, children were born in 1644/53 as well, they probably died in childbirth. Emergency baptisms were mostly not registered at that time.
Barbara Bucher seems to have died soon after 1654. Like so many others, her name is not found in any of the death books in question.
Even then, the Meienberg farm belonged to the Buttisholz parish. The children were therefore baptized in the parish church of St. Verena, only 2 kilometers away. The baptismal register there only lists the children Anna, Maria, Peter and Elisabeth. The pastor failed to register the baptisms of the sons Sebastian and Hans. The fact that Hans Jakob and Barbara Bucher had two sons of this name is clear from the purchase letter that Sebastian and Hans issued to their brother Peter, the later Benedictine Jost, on March 20, 1673 on his monastic profession, as well as the latter's diary.
Our knowledge about the people of this early period is mostly limited, especially in rural areas, to the dates of their baptism, later also of confirmation, marriage, death and changes of hands and bonds. Hans Jakob Stirnimann makes a rare exception. Events from his life are reported that lift his figure out of the darkness of the past and identify him as an independent and courageous personality. What is meant are his refusal to honor the Etzenerlen farm, his testamentary disposition regarding his burial and the high praise of the pastor of Ruswil for the dead.
The Etzenerlen inheritance and the refusal of honor
On January 8, 1668, brother Peter died in Etzenerlen without any descendants. Hans Jakob was the only heir to the 170 Jucharten farm. This was an old inheritance of the canons of St. Michael in Münster, today's Beromünster, which meant that the monastery received a fee, called Ehrschatz, from the new owner of the farm when it changed hands. Hans Jakob refused - and supports it was taken over by the office man and church man of Ruswil - the foundation's taxed was refused on the grounds that it was never confiscated from them before in the event of death or inheritance, the requirement of the foundation was an innovation for the Ruswil office, which concerns not only him, but also his fellow officials. The refusal of the farmer in the Roth is evidence of independent judgment and courage. It was anything but self-evident when you consider that the majority of the Münster canons were Lucerne patricians and the monastery was one of the richest and most powerful landlords in the canton. The monastery submitted the dispute to the mayor and council of the city of Lucerne, who, with their detailed judgment of April 17, 1670, made a decision that was conducive to both parties: the honor is to be paid in principle in the event of death and inheritance, but to a reduced extent.
Dispute over wills
Hans Jakob Stimimann made a name for himself for the last time in public when he died (April 30, 1670). With reference to the right granted by the church to its believers to freely choose the church or the cemetery for their burial, Hans Jakob had decreed that he would not be buried in Sursee, where he was parish, but in Ruswil. This led to a violent argument between the four gentlemen, who were in charge of the Sursee parish at the time, and pastor and dean Fridolin Lindacher in Ruswil. The reason for the protest of the four gentlemen was probably the loss of fees for the funeral service and the funeral of the wealthy farmer. Pastor Lindacher reports in detail about the incident in the Ruswil death register, he gives the deceased high praise and defends his last will, citing canon law. Let us at least reproduce the introduction to the Latin report in German translation:
1670. On May 1st, the pious, merciful (benevolent) and highly respected man (Pius, misericors ac honestissimus vir) Jakob Stirnimann in the Roodt was buried in our cemetery Knowledge of his heirs, left a fairly large inheritance and treasure.
Because of this burial, a rather large storm (eddy) has arisen for the following reasons:
This man asked for and chosen this funeral with the utmost ardor while he was still alive; No one will be able to refuse this request and choice, since the church grants this itself, and everybody is obliged to grant it, as is stated in canon law.
The heirs
As the owner of the large Roth and Etzenerlen farms, Hans Jakob Stirnimann was one of the richest men of the Twing, Office of Ruswil. Not only his children, several generations of his descendants benefited from his extensive estates and unusual wealth. Although we are not informed about the division of his estate - the Ruswil division protocols do not begin until 1673 - we are fairly well informed about the inheritance shares of the three sons and the only daughter. Sebastian, the eldest, took over the Etzenerlen farm, Hans, the second eldest, stayed in the Roth. With the two brothers, the family divided into the tribes Roth (later divided into the branches Lower-Roth and Upper Roth) and Etzenerlen (later divided into the branches Front-, Middle- and Rear-Etzenerlen). Hans became the progenitor of the Stirnimannn of the Roth, Sebastian the progenitor of that of Etzenerlen.
The son Peter became a monk under the name Jost (Jodokus) of the Benedictine abbey Muri in Freiamt in Aargau (repealed in the Kulturkampf in 1841, since 1843 in Gries near Bozen in South Tyrol). The fact that Peter opted for the abbey in Muri is not surprising when you know that the paternal farm in the Roth, as the monastery 's fiefdom, had to pay the monastery annual taxes, which certainly brought personal contacts between the family and the monks. On the day before his monastic profession, the brothers Sebastian and Hans "zu Etzenerlen and in the Roth in the Lucerne rule" guaranteed the novice a paternal and maternal share of inheritance in the amount of 5000 guilders, with the monastery "in good, similar, secure letters of credit" These 5000 guilders were only the dowry intended for the monastery, but not the entire inheritance that Peter received, as we will soon find out. Father Jost held the office of corn master in the monastery, and as such he administered the interest and fruits which the monastery drew from his fiefdoms. The lasting merit of Father Jost is his Latin diary. It is considered the main source of the architectural history of the magnificent monastery church Muri, built in 1695/97, one of the most important of the central church buildings in Switzerland. In addition to the events in the monastery Father Jost records many interesting incidents from the life of his siblings and relatives in his notes We will take a closer look at Father Jost in the next newsletter.
On January 4, 1668, Hans Jakob Stirnimannn had acquired the Huprächtigen farm northeast of Nottwil, in the Ruswil district, as a dowry for his daughter Elisabeth. The farm comprised 212 Jucharten land and 28 Jucharten forest, including two houses and two barns. In the same year Elisabeth married Walter Meyer, who would later become a tax expert, who ran Huprächtigen. The parental inheritance of the daughter Elisabeth consisted not only of that farm Huprächtigen, after all, not long before his death, he lent her husband 7,815 guilders, probably in financial embarrassment, for which he granted her a validity on April 10, 1687 on his farm. As a result, Elisabeth received a inheritance sum from her parents in addition to the Huprächtigen farm, and her twin brother Peter, as we will see in a moment, gave her part of his parental inheritance. On the basis of the official inventory recorded in Huprächtigen on June 10, 1687 after the death of Walter Meyer, his widow owned a fortune of 10,076 guilders. Father Jost, who was present at the inventory in Huprächtigen, mentions the same amount in his diary (p. 54), noting that his sister Elisabeth inherited this fortune "from her father and mother and from me". As a result, Peter received, in addition to the dowry of 5000 guilders intended for the monastery, another sum, how big it was, unfortunately we do not find out - which he gave to his twin sister, probably for the wedding.
Elisabeth got a second marriage in 1688 with Bernhard Dobmann, to whom she had two children. She died on October 6, 1692 in Huprächtigen. The official inventory and division took place there on November 5th. The son Joseph (from his marriage to Walter Meyer) and the daughters Anna Maria and Elisabeth are named as heirs. The same sum is given as the property of the deceased as in the case of the death of the first husband. The Huprächtigen farm was now valued at 19500 guilders. Since leasing was probably not an option, sold it to Peter Stirnimann
of Etzenerlen (the son of Sebastian) and his cousin Peter Stirnimann of the Roth (the son of Hans) as guardians of the heirs of the Huprächtigen court on December 12, 1692 for a price of 26,000 guilders and a tip of 150 guilders to the brothers Hans Jakob, Jakob and Klaus Hüsler of Rickenbach in the Michelsamt, whose descendants still own the lower part of the original farm to this day ‘.
J. St.
(To be continued in the next newsletter)
Remarks
1 In order to be able to get a realistic idea of the amount of these grants and the value of the properties and inheritance shares mentioned below, it should be pointed out that in the period in question in the Ruswil office for a property in the range of 10-12 Jucharten approx. 1000 guilders were paid. The purchase and share protocols provide numerous examples of this. According to a conversion model by the former Zurich historian Werner Schnyder, I guilders corresponded to today's value of around 200 francs as early as the 15th century.
2 State Arch. Lucerne, Cod. 4130: valid and purchase protocols of the Ruswil office. fol. 8 f.
3 city arch. Sursee. Purchases of pleasure. Buttisholz (1660-1700) p. 495.
4 State Arch. Lucerne. PA 18293/885.
5 The purchase letter is in the monastery arch. Muri grits. Kollegium Samen, the register of the letters of validity handed out to the monastery in the State Arch. Aarau: Muri Monastery, No. 6084. Folder Q 111: Old receipts from the monastery 1518-1673. Sebastian and Hans Stimimann, assignment of validity 1673.
6 Gern.-Arch. Ruswil, Teilungs-Protocols, vol. 1, p. 177 ff.
7 City Arch. Sursee. Purchases of pleasure. Ruswil, vol. 1, p. 148 ff.
Magic characters in the Lower-Roth farmhouse
Reconstruction of the old incantation mark that was discovered during the renovation
During the renovation of the farmhouse in Ruswil Lower-Roth, the construction management came across a strange geometric figure, which was formerly painted in black, in the former servants' chamber, which was also gloomy during the day. The still legible drawing actually consists of three symbols with magical meaning that were once important in medieval superstition: the five-pointed star, popularly known as the Schrätteli or Drudenfuss, surrounded by a circular line, which in turn is surrounded by nine semicircles like a wreath. While each of the three symbols in itself has to do with the defense and banishment of ghosts, the combination of these three symbols into a single figure has not yet been conclusively clarified.
Drudenfuss or Pentagram
The five-pointed star found its way into the thinking of the Western Middle Ages from the Jewish teaching tradition. As evil forces captivating and it has been used up to the most recent times as a protective symbol to ward off demons. As a sign of defense against witches, it appears on our stable doors and house walls. In Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust I, the devil (Mephistopheles) only succeeds in entering the house of the doctor (Faust) thanks to an incompletely drawn drudene.
The Magic Circle
The necromancers who were once active in our area, such as Hans Ris, who was executed by fire in Lucerne on July 15, 1577, used a circle to banish ghosts, as can be seen from the records of the Lucerne town clerk Rennward Cysat (1545 - 1614) . The circular line drawn with a bare saber or simply by a circular movement divides the space in two. Through the ritual inclusion in a circle, one gets what is included in his power.
The division of the room by the circle can also be used to exclude everything evil and hostile by setting the circle line as a magical border line. In this case, the circle is no longer a spell for magical acts, but a protective circle, into which the conjurer goes as a precaution.
Nine Semicircles
The five-pointed star enclosed in the circle is surrounded by nine semicircles and nine points, with nine crescent moons and nine stars. For fear of ghosts, for example, it was customary in certain areas of the Tyrol to attach nine crescent moons as defense and protection symbols on the particularly endangered door. Even on magical, ghost-repelling knives, as they were also used by us, especially in the 18th century, the blades had engraved nine crescent moons and nine stars as additional defense.
An Incantation?
In popular belief, each of the magical signs discussed has a protective force against demons and evil spirits. The union of all three signs into a single figure does not, however, result in a tripling of the immune system. The five-pointed star enclosed in the circle loses its effect in any case, regardless of whether it is a ban or a protective circle. The circle makes the pentagram superfluous as a protective symbol. A possible interpretation opens up through the position of the drudenfoot. Turned upside down so that two points point upwards, it becomes a negative sign in the art of romanticism. In this case, the other signs automatically get their own function: evil (star) banned in a circle, which in turn is protected by nine crescent moons. What is certain, however, is that this over 300-year-old symbol once had its meaning, be it to banish a demon or to ward off the omnipresent ghosts who were up to mischief especially at night and on certain days.
Kurt Lussi
We Give Our Condolences
On December 10, 1987, Fräulein Josy Stirnimann, daughter of Adolf Stirnimann von Ruswil and Sursee and Elisabeth Winiger, died in Sursee, Storchengasse 5, at the age of 76.
On February 14, 1988, Mrs. Anna Stirnimann-Helfenstein, who used to live in Ruswil im Vorderstrick (the mother of our President), died in the Sursee nursing home after long suffering at the age of 77.
On June 7, 1988, in the hall of Ruswil, Hans Stirnimann-Brun, farmer, long-time member of the church council, died at the age of 88 (the father of our treasurer).
Next family conference:
September 11, 1988 in Neuenkirch, Country inn Liiven
Divine service in the lower church general assembly
Aperitif
Having lunch