Ancestry

Paternal line

Nikolaus Gerber (1751, Oggersheim/Electoral Palatinate – 1821, Munich) and Jakob Anton Gerber (1784/85, Oggersheim/Electoral Palatinate – 1844, Augsburg)

Nikolaus Gerber was born in the Palatine town of Oggersheim (now the largest district of Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Palatinate), the son of the Catholic couple Johannes and Maria Apollonia Gerber (née Dumbach/Tumbach). He served as a coachman at the court of the Palatine Wittelsbachs and married the Catholic Maria Catharina Hesselschwerdt (1755–1816), who was born in Mannheim. She was the daughter of Daniel Hesselschwerdt, a court stableman and saddler who likely came from Leimersheim and appears in records from 1724 under the name Johann Daniel Heselswerth/Eselswehrt.

In 1777, Elector Max III Joseph of Bavaria died in Munich, marking the end of the Bavarian Wittelsbach line. Karl Theodor, Elector of the Palatinate, succeeded him and moved his court to Munich. While the precise timing of the Gerber family’s relocation is unclear, the Munich parish register of the Frauenkirche records the death of Catharina Gerber, wife of the court coachman, on 9 November 1816. She died at the age of 61 from “consumption” (“Auszehrung”—possibly undernourishment or tuberculosis). Her husband Nikolaus died in Munich on 12 June 1821.

Among their children was Jakob Anton Gerber, who was born on 27 July 1784 in Oggersheim, according to the local Catholic baptismal register. This indicates that the family likely remained in Oggersheim for some time after the court’s move to Munich. Jakob Anton later became a master tailor (Schneidermeister). According to the marriage register of the Munich Frauenkirche, he married Anna Sybilla Scherer (1787) on 10 January 1813. She came from Augsburg and was the daughter of Isaak Heinrich Scherer, a gate scribe (Torschreiber) and Imperial Contingent Field Bailiff (Reichskontingentsfeldwaibel). She belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Although the couple appears in the Catholic marriage register, the Royal Bavarian Police Gazette later recorded her death under the “Protestant Parish” section on 26 July 1822. The cause of death was listed as “Brand,” possibly a severe skin disease.

The couple had at least one daughter, Anna Maria Louise Gerber, born on 27 July 1818 in Munich. She was baptized as Ludovica Anna Maria Gerberin in the Catholic Church. Following Sybilla’s death in 1822, and with Jakob Anton’s parents having died in 1816 and 1821 respectively—as well as Sybilla’s father passing away in 1821 (source: Barfüßerkirche in Augsburg)—only Sybilla’s mother remained: Maria Walburga Scherer (née Hönig/Henning) from Hürth (now part of Treuchtlingen).

In 1824, Jakob Anton Gerber relocated to Augsburg and submitted the following statement to the city magistrate (My own translation and light transliteration from the original statement Jakob Anton Gerber submitted to the Augsburg magistrate in 1824.):

"After the death of my first wife, née Sybilla Scherer, which occurred in 1822, I converted to the Protestant religion two years later, in 1824—the same faith to which my deceased wife had also belonged. From that time on, I raised my son Ludwig, who was then four years old, as well as my other children born of that marriage—namely Louise (then six), Anna (seven), and August (nine)—in the Protestant faith. However, Ludwig has been living for the past two years in the local Protestant home for poor children. With regard to the religious upbringing of our children, my now-deceased wife and I made no formal arrangements."

This statement confirms that Jakob Anton Gerber converted to Protestantism in consultation with his late wife and raised their children in the Protestant faith. In Augsburg, official records refer to him simply as Jakob Gerber and list his birthdate as 26 July 1785—a one-year discrepancy. He spent several years petitioning for the Heimatrecht (right of residence or civic rights) for his children, which the Augsburg magistrate repeatedly denied. His daughter Louise also faced multiple rejections despite holding Heimatrecht in Munich. She had likely lived in Augsburg for as long as she could remember and reportedly stated that “the city [Munich] has become entirely foreign to me.” This statement confirms that Jakob Anton Gerber converted to Protestantism in consultation with his late wife and raised their children in the Protestant faith. In Augsburg, official records refer to him simply as Jakob Gerber and list his birthdate as 26 July 1785—a one-year discrepancy. He spent several years petitioning for the Heimatrecht (right of residence or civic rights) for his children, which the Augsburg magistrate repeatedly denied. His daughter Louise also faced multiple rejections despite holding Heimatrecht in Munich. She had likely lived in Augsburg for as long as she could remember and reportedly stated that “the city [Munich] has become entirely foreign to me.”

Seuz Tüllbaum/Dil(l)baum/Thillbaum (* Late 14th c. – 15th c., Augsburg)

In 1401, a man named Seuz Tüllbaum appears for the first time—albeit sporadically—in the Augsburg tax register (Steuerbuch, 1401, p. 4a). This entry marks the emergence of a surname. Prior to this, Seuz was recorded as Seuz Weber or in Latin as seuz textor (“Seuz the weaver”). Only from 1404 onward does the register consistently use the new surname, most commonly written as Tüllbaum. However, in 1404 (p. 2d), the name appears in the variant spelling Seuz Dullpam.

The surname’s development became clearer in the course of investigating its etymological origins—primarily, though not exclusively, in collaboration with Peter Kuhweide. The main hypothesis is that the surname Tüllbaum likely combines Tüll—referring to one of three types of urban fortifications at the time, more substantial than a fence (mhd. zûn, nhd. Zaun) but less so than a wall (mhd. mur, nhd. Mauer)—and Baum (“tree”), which in this context probably denotes a toll barrier (Schlag-Baum) made from a literal tree trunk. The name may fall into the category of Berufsübernamen—surnames symbolically indicating an occupation—and could reflect a secondary role held by the weaver Seuz: overseeing or operating a tollgate (Schlag-Baum).

By the 16th century, descendants in Augsburg are recorded under the spellings Dilbaum or Dillbaum, while those who emigrated to Tübingen adopted forms such as Thül(l)baum or Thül(l)paum or erroneously latinzed them to Tilius (Lime tree) – most likely focusing on the suffix compound Til-.
The last known member of the Augsburg family to reside in Augsburg according to the tax books was a man whose first name was Samuel, whose last name appears in the spelling Thillbaum. He died in 1681 in Augsburg. His final tax register entry (Steuerbuch, 1681, p. 42b) dates from that same year, accompanied by the notation: “todt ab” (“marked as deceased”).

Isaak Heinrich Scherer (1745, Augsburg – 1821, ibid.)

The father of the aforementioned Anna Sybilla Scherer entered the world on April 25, 1745, in the Free Imperial City of Augsburg (before its annexation by Bavaria). He descended from an old Protestant weaving family that had firmly established itself in Augsburg well before 1594—likely even earlier.
His father, Matthaus Scherer (1698–1758), served as an Augsburgian guard soldier (“Quarde-Soldat”), and his mother, Maria Salome Geißel (1707–1792), came from the Free Imperial City of Nördlingen, where her father had worked as a carpenter.
At age 30, on July 1, 1781, Isaak Heinrich—then serving as Reichskontigentsfeldwaibel (likely for the Swabian Circle)—married Maria Walburga Hönig (1751–1828), who came from “Hürth im Pappenheimischen” (likely referring to Hürth, now part of the city of Treuchtlingen).
They married in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit (today located next to the famous Puppenkiste), which the St. Ulrich (Protestant) congregation used for weddings.
Later, Isaak Heinrich took on the role of Torschreiber (gate clerk) for the city—likely stationed at the former Schwibbogentor or one of the Roten-, Haunstetter-, or Spitaltors. According to the records of the Barfüßerkirche, he died of a stroke on December 26, 1821, at 6 a.m.

Daniel (1584 or 1587, Augsburg – 1648, ibid.) and Anna Paulus (1630, Augsburg – n.a., ibid.)

The Scherer line also includes the Paulus family. Anna Paulus, grandmother of Matthäus (Isaak’s father), belonged to this lineage. Let us begin with her father, Daniel.

Because of gaps in the Free Imperial City’s baptismal registers, Daniel Paulus’s exact year of birth remains uncertain. Muster rolls suggest either 1584 or 1587, and record his profession solely as “weaver.”
Daniel first appears in the tax records in 1609, listed in the district “Enge/Weite Kirchgasse, St. Ulrichs Gassen,” with the entry “tax 0 (watch duty only),” which implies that he had recently married (thus receiving a tax exemption). Indeed, Daniel married a woman named Euphorsina Wörlein, who died in 1628 during the Thirty Years’ War.

In 1610, according to the muster rolls, Daniel lived in the upper quarter of Zwerchgasse (which matches the aforementioned district); from 1611 onward, he resided near the Schwibbogen.
In January 1629, Daniel appeared before the guardianship office (Pflegeamt) and placed his only surviving child from his marriage to Euphorsina—Regina—into care. Regina died in 1636.

As if that grief and the ongoing war were not enough, Daniel’s hardships deepened. In 1629, sometime before September, he married Barbara Dreher, who tragically died that same year between September and December. He soon married again, this time to Sara Negges (b. 1593), a native of Augsburg and the widow of Elias Wildmoser.

During this time, the religious dimensions of the war became starkly evident. From 1629 to 1631, Bavarian (and allied) forces shut down all Protestant churches. Because Daniel and Sara likely had a child during this period, and no baptism record appears in the Protestant registers, the only conclusion is that the child was either baptized in St. Anna—the only Protestant church still sporadically performing baptisms, which was not the case here—or baptized out of necessity in a Catholic church.

Indeed, this assumption proves correct. Anna Paulus does not appear in the Protestant records of St. Ulrich, but in the Catholic Basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra. On September 5, 1630, in the midst of the Thirty Years’ War, Anna Paulus, daughter of Daniel Paulus and Sara Negges, was born.

Amidst this birth—which borders on miraculous—another rare light emerged in such dark times: According to land records, Daniel purchased the property “Lit A 176/177 Zwerchgasse corner at Milchberg” in 1640, now known as the Alte Schmiede (“Old Forge”).
In 1649, the tax records no longer list Daniel Paulus by name, but as “Daniel Paulus Wb,” with Wb denoting Witibus—widower. Thus, Daniel died in 1648, the final year of the war.

His daughter Anna married Augsburg weaver Caspar Scherer the Younger (b. 1613) on January 17, 1649. In 1679, Anna inherited the Alte Schmiede. However, she did not pass it on to her son—also named Caspar (1654–1703), who became a city guard (Stadtgardesoldat) rather than a weaver—but in 1686 transferred it instead to the weaver Hans Braun, husband of her daughter Anna Veronica Scherer.

Maternal Line

Giulio/Julius Bertazzoni(-Hägele) (1869, Riva/Po Valley – 1954, Esslingen/Neckar)

On October 23, 1869, a boy named Giulio was born in a small village called Riva, the son of Gaetano (Kajetan) Bertazzoni and Teresa (Theres) Caramaschi. Riva lies in the Po Valley, specifically in Lombardy, right on the border with Emilia-Romagna. Although it officially belongs to the Lombard municipality of Suzzara (dialect: Süsèra), Giulio more often identified himself as being from the neighboring village of Luzzara (Lüsèra) and from Emilia-Romagna.

After completing his military service in the Italian army—where he learned the craft of ice-making—Giulio emigrated to the Kingdom of Württemberg in search of better economic prospects, settling in the former Free Imperial City of Esslingen am Neckar. There, he led a construction crew and fell in love with Friederike MATHILDE Hägele (1879–1960), a local day laborer’s daughter. On October 26, 1901, the couple married; at this point, Giulio, who now went by Julius, was trading in tropical fruits. That same year, he founded a gelateria, which still operates today and, according to research by the current family business, is the oldest continuously operating ice cream parlor in Germany.

During World War I, conditions apparently became difficult. On April 4, 1916, the married Catholic merchant “Giulio Bertazzoni-Hägele,” listed as residing in “Luzzara, R. Emilia, Italy,” relocated to the Swiss town of Schaffhausen, just across the border from the German Empire (then Württemberg). In October of that year, he moved again—this time to Zürich, where he changed residences several times. On September 27, 1924, he officially moved back to Esslingen.

Yet only a few years later, on October 24, 1931, Julius once again relocated to Zürich. By then, the Bertazzoni family—including the “German” mother—appeared in the Esslingen register of foreign nationals. Interestingly, on April 12, 1938, Julius returned to Esslingen am Neckar in Württemberg once more. There, he passed away on May 19, 1954.

Richard Haug (1907, Esslingen/Neckar – 1985, Esslingen/Neckar)

A trained shoemaker from Esslingen, Richard Haug fathered children with Eleonora Theresia “Lore” Bertazzoni, daughter of the ice cream maker and tropical fruit merchant Giulio “Julius” Bertazzoni—who had immigrated from Riva (Luzzara)—and his Esslingen-born wife, Friederike Mathilde Hägele.

For making a political remark against Hitler and his regime in public, authorities interned Richard twice in labor camps: from 1935 to 1937, he spent two years at Schloss Kaltenstein in Vaihingen an der Enz (north of Stuttgart), and in spring 1945, he was imprisoned for two months in Oberndorf am Neckar–Aistaig (near Rottweil).

After the collapse of the Nazi regime and the founding of the state of Baden-Württemberg, he sought compensation for his imprisonments. Authorities, however, denied his claim—among other reasons—because they ruled that his internment did not constitute “political persecution.”

Maria Anna Filler/Füller (1820, Leuterschach/Ostallgäu – 1868, Kaufbeuren/Ostallgäu)

Before 1852, Maria Anna worked in a factory in Augsburg (the literature does not specify which, though it was likely the Kammgarn textile factory). From 1862 onward, she earned a living as an herb seller and day laborer in Kaufbeuren.

At the time of her death, she lived in the poorhouse of Kaufbeuren and died of “consumption” (i.e. severe emaciation). Her life story reflects the tragic realities at the dawn of the market economy—or early capitalism.