Occurrences in the Baar

Location of Fürstenberg and the Baar within the area of suebian/alemannian dialects.

The Baar is a region in southwest Germany around the start of the river Danube, northwest of Lake Constance. The Fürstenberg is a hill in the Baar close to Donaueschingen. From the 13th^th century until 1806 Fürstenberg and Donaueschingen were the centres of one of the many small counties in southwestern Germany. However, for the historical sciences it has gained a certain importance since 1877 when the Lords of Fürstenberg started to publish summaries of the many documents in their archives. This resulted in the so called "Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch".

Some of those documents from the 14^th and early 15^th century mention family names which are some variant of Guggenbühl. In most cases, they concern acts within the close vicinity of Fürstenberg, in the villages Neudingen (formerly: "Nidingen"), Gutmadingen (formerly: "Gůtmatingen"), Pfohren (formerly: "Pforren") and Blumberg-Hondingen (formerly: "Haindingen"). The graphic on this page shows the location of the Baar within the area where suebian/alemannian dialects were spoken, and the location of Fürstenberg and those villages within the Baar. The small distance between these villages makes it very likely that they concern - perhaps different generations of - the same family. According to [Schell 2008], p. 127 the family belonged to the vassals of Fürstenberg, and six women of the family became nuns in Neidingen abbey. Her names were Adelheid, Anna, Elisabeth, Elli, Else and Elsi. We will meet Elli and Elsi below.

One record deals with something that happened in 1413 in Schaffhausen. It is less clear if it also concerns members of that family; however, should there really have been two families with the name Guggenbühl in the then rather small population of Fürstenberg?

It is also interesting, that no later than 1365 some members of the family settled down in Tengen. According to [Lambrecht 1991], the lords of Tengen had land in Uetikon at lake Zurich. Hence there may be a connection to the Guggenbühl family that lived in that area.

We do not have any clues as to which hill the family originally took its name from. Some candidate for this is the Guckenbühl near the Obereschach district of Villingen-Schwenningen, today location of the radio tower "Villingen, Nordstetten". According to [Schütz 2021], pp. 118-120, there must have been a homestead on this hill before 1608, and it seems that is was not a fief, but "free". In particular, according to [Reinartz 1986]this homestead was not owned by the Order of St. John, which in the Middle Ages owned most of the homesteads in Obereschach as well as the right to determine the priest ("Kirchensatz").

But the hill from which the family took its name does not need to be located in the area governed by Fürstenberg at that time, and it does not even need to have the same name today. For instance, in the Mühlhausen district of Villingen-Schwenningen there is a road named "Am Guckenbühl", but the hill above is named Türnleberg. In the middle ages it also had a castle on top, but not much is left of that.

In some places the Urkundenbuch calls a person "Guggenmúller"^[1] or "Gugkenmúllin"^[2]. This has nothing to do with the family name, but refers to the miller of the Gauchenmüle at Gauchach creek between Bräunlingen-Waldhausen and Löffingen-Dittishausen.^[3]

More than 500 year later, the name occurs again in the Baar: On March 25^th 1859 Maria Guggenbühl was born, as daughter of Josef Guggenbühl, servant in the palace of the lord of Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen, und Katharina, née Weber. Maria died on June 12^th 1933 in Hüfingen (cf [Köbele 1962], pp. 408, 467). However, it is still unclear if she was a descendant of the family referenced by the medieval documents.

The following table lists all the records from the "Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch" that mention names similar to Guggenbühl. Unfortunately, those document summaries cannot be reproduced letter for letter, since the Urkundenbuch uses some letters that are not available for webpages, e. g. for the pound sign (as a weight) or to denote certain dialect specific diphtongs. I will therefore give facsimiles of the records and use the simple acute "´" instead of a "i" above other vocals.

April 18.^th, 1312	Hainrich Gungenbúhel acts as a witness when the "Wilden múli" is sold to the abbey of "Nidingen". "Nidingen" is an old name of Neudingen. Wilden múli" was the name of a mill that lay upstream of Neudingen towards Pfohren.	[Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Vol. 2], p. 46
October 24^th, 1343	To finance the livelong subsistence and after their death annual commemoration days of Hans Guggenbúhel, his son Ülin and and his daughters Ellinun und Elsinun Nidingen abbey sells estate in Haindingen. The prize is 100 pound of "Freiburg pence" ("Brisger") und annual deliveries of wine and fish valueing one "malter" of spelt. "Nidingen" is an old name of Neudingen, "Haindingen" an old name of Blumberg-Hondingen. "Ülin" is a dialect variant of "Ulrich". As the record below shows, he died before 1364. The postfix "-nun" in the names of the daughters means that Elli and Elsi were nuns. According to further sources analyzed by Rüdiger Schell it is very likely that Hans Guggenbúhel was a "Conversus", meaning lay brother, who had management or economic duties in the abbey ([Schell 2008], p. 146). One malter corresponded to the maximum weight of a sack that may be carried by a man. ([Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch]). As specified by the carolingian monetary system one pound of pence corresponded to 240 pence.	[Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Vol. 5], p. 364
March 12^th, 1347	Ůlrich Guggenbúhel, citizen of Fürstenberg, buys some estate at Gůtmatingen. "Gůtmatingen" is an old name of Gutmadingen. It is not clear if this Ůlrich Guggenbúhel is identical with the son Ülin mentioned in the record of 1343. Perhaps after four years in the abbey he had grown up or grown tired of abbey life and bought the estate at Gůtmatingen to live on his own.	[Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Vol. 2], p. 164
July 13^th, 1364	Oldest list of estates ("Güterrodel") of Neidingen abbey: This is the oldest list of estates that have to pay fees to Neidingen abbey and to which ends these fees will be used. It shows that the abbey still complies with the duties mentioned in the record of October 1343 above: subsistence of Elli and Elsi Guggenbúhel as well as annual commemoration days of their father and their brother. It also seems that there is another estate in Haindingen connected to the Gugenbúhel family and is farmed by Eberli and Öti Etschwen. Schell explains and extends this record ([Schell 2008], p. 146). Annual commemoration days for the sisters Elli ans Elsi will be financed from the fees payed by Heini Reinhart for the Meierhof in Haindingen. Reinhart has to pay five scheffel of kernen, five scheffel of oats and 2 ½ Scheffel of pence, which amounts to ¼ of the fees from the Meierhof. Of these 18 pence will be used for the commemoration days of the Guggenbúhel sisters. However, the sisters are still alive! Their subsistence as well as the commemoration days for their late father and brother are financed by fees from Henni Giger for his (single) lot and from Rüdiger Etschwenn for "Bechingers Gut". Giger pays 7 ½ scheffel kernen, Etschwenn also pays 7 ½ scheffel kernen and additional 7 ½ scheffel oats. The fees of Eberli and Öti Etschwenn for "Guckenbúhels Gut" for the benefit of Grete Funk are 4 scheffel kernen and 4 scheffel oats. Unfortunately the size of a "scheffel" greatly varies with times and regions. The particular size at Fürstenberg in those days is still not clear to me. "Haindingen" is an old name of Blumberg-Hondingen.	[Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Vol. 6], pp. 60f
August 22^nd, 1365	With consent of his brothers Hainrich and Henni Jaekli Guggenbúhel of Tengen, a citizen of Fürstenberg sells some estate close to Pforren to Nidingen abbey. "Nidingen" is an old name of Neudingen, "Pforren" an old name of Pfohren, today a quarter of Donaueschingen.	[Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Vol. 2], p. 265
after January 6^th, 1398	List of estates ("Güterrodel") of Amtenhausen abbey: The revenues of some estate in Gůttmatingen go to women referenced as "Guggenbúhlinen". Amtenhausen abbey was in a small valley, some ten kilometers downstream of Neidingen. "Gůttmatingen" was an old name of Gutmadingen.	[Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Vol. 6], p. 164
June 27^th, 1413	Hans Guggenbúhel and his sister Verena, living at Schaufhusen, are released from serfdom by Hainrich, Lord of Fürstenberg, as long as they annually deliver 1 ½ pound of pepper to Fürstenberg castle. If they fail, serfdom will be renewed. "Schaufhusen" was an old name of Schaffhausen. This is the only record in the Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch that mentions serfdom of members of the Guggenbúhel family. People could get into serfdom if they or their parents had financial problems or if they moved to areas populated by servants. It is not clear, how Hans and Verena Guggenbúhel became servants. In the section about Schaffhausen we try to shed some light on the background of this record.	[Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Vol. 3], p. 77

↑ Z. B. in [Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Bd. 6], pp. 46f.
↑ E. g. in [Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Bd. 7], p. 227.
↑ This root is given in the entry of "Gugkenmúlli" in the register of [Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, Bd. 7], p. 494. It is an example how the part "Gugken" in the name of a place derives from "cuckoo".