Gerber (Langnau)

Coat of arms of the Hapbach tanners from Langnau in the Emmental.

Gerber is a family name of the municipality of Langnau in the Emmental .

history

The name Gerber is widespread in Langnau and appears in the sources by the end of the 16th century at the latest . Particularly popular in the early modern times in the Gohlgraben, with the farms Baumgarten, Giebel, Hapbach, Lohngrat and Bluttenried. The tanners are in Gohlgraben with the families Blaser, Bürki, Grimm, Röthlisberger u. a. related by marriage. An exact filiation or a comprehensive family tree is impossible due to the accumulation of names and sources.

Some of the tanners from Langnau were Anabaptists in the early modern period , some of whom were expelled from the country. Mennonites from the Langnau tanners have also settled in the Bernese Jura (e.g. in Mont-Tramelan ).

Hapbach-Gerber

Niklaus Gerber (1767–1830) acquired the Hapbach farm from Christian Jakob in 1801. His sons founded today's three Hapbach branches in Thun , Bern and Grosshöchstetten .

Thun branch

The brothers Christian (1786–1842) and Johann Gerber founded the cheese, fur and leather trade Gerber & Co. in Langnau in 1836 , from which in 1911 Gerberkäse AG emerged in Thun .

Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler found a way to preserve hard cheese under warm, humid climatic conditions. The processed cheese process also enabled Emmental cheese to be used effectively. From 1911 onwards, processed cheese in box portions ( Gerberkäsli ) and the double cream cheese ( Gala ) developed in 1936, after some delay, first in tropical regions, later also in Europe and Switzerland, as a snack for leisure activities and provisions in the armies. Gerberkäse developed the ready-made fondue ( Gerber fondue ) from 1960 and opened up a new sales area. The success of the ready-made fondue also enabled better utilization of the hard cheese production, which rose rapidly from the 1950s onwards. In 2002/2003, Emmi AG bought Gerberkäse AG, and in 2009 the Thun production site was closed.

Bern branch

The Langnau hospital administrator Niklaus Gerber (January 20, 1788 - February 5, 1850) moved to Bern as administrator of the Outer Sulgenbach Estate of Carl Friedrich von Tscharner (1772–1844). From 1834 he also traded in cheese. His son Samuel Gerber (23 August 1813 - 13 December 1878) bought the Stadtbachgut in Bern and in 1865 acquired the Bernese civil rights . He and his descendants belong to the merchant society .

Grosshöchstetten branch

Michael Gerber (1793–1862) was the youngest to stay on the Hapbach. Niklaus Gerber (1819–1887), one of his sons, became a butcher and settled in Thun. Christian Gerber (1862–1925) was the owner of the business in the second generation. His sons Rudolf Gerber (1889–1959) and Hans Gerber (1893–1966) ran the butcher's shop, which had grown into a large company , Chr. Gerber Söhne AG (later also under the name GEGRO ), and the brothers Oswald Gerber (1912–1957), Ulrich Gerber (1914–1995) and Niklaus Gerber (* 1915) as the fourth generation. Markus Gerber (* 1946) was the fifth generation to head the large butcher's shop, which ceased operations and continues to exist today as Gerber Immobilien AG .

people

Rudolf Gerber (1928–2019), lawyer, federal prosecutor

Thun branch

Niklaus Gerber (1820–1850), innkeeper at the Falken in Thun
Niklaus Gerber (1850–1914), chemist, founder of Gerber Instruments
Max Gerber (1887–1949), theologian and social democrat
Walter Gerber (1879–1942), cheese merchant, inventor of processed cheese and manufacturer, founder of Gerber AG.
Walo Niklaus Gerber (1881–1949), racing rider, sports pilot
Viktor Gerber (1891–1949), chemist, married to Traute Carlsen

Grosshöchstetten branch

Niklaus Gerber (1819–1887), founder of the Gerber butcher's shop

coat of arms

The Langnau tanners carried various coats of arms in modern times. Since the middle of the 19th century, the Hapbach tanners have consistently led a striding ibex in alternating colors, divided diagonally to the left in silver and black. The Hapbach line thus took over the coat of arms of the Glockengiesser family Gerber, who came from Zurich and was accepted as permanent residents in Bern in 1643, which died out in 1833. Variants of this coat of arms are also known for tanners from St. Gallen and in Graubünden .

literature

Alex Capus : Patriarchs. Ten portraits. Knaus, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-8135-0273-2 ; btb, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-73757-4 , pp. 153-168 (via Walter Gerber).
125 years as a butcher in the Gerber family 1836–1961, 75 years from small country butcher to large business 1886-1961, 40 years of Chr. Gerber Sons Grosshöchstetten - 1921–1961. Published by Chr. Gerber Sons AG, Grosshöchstetten 1961, OCLC 600440370
Hans Gerber: Zähjs wood. Sunny and warm, joy and sorrow. Chly öppis vo üsne ancestors. Tough wood from the Ämmetal . Self-published, Gümligen 1962, OCLC 603778512 .
Gerber yesterday - Gerber today. Published by Gerberkäse AG, Thun 1985 OCLC 600535932 .
Berend Strahlmann: Gerber, Niklaus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 253 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Distribution of the name Gerber in Switzerland on www.verwandt.ch

Individual evidence

↑ Stadtbachstrasse 58 in the online building inventory of the city of Bern.

↑ Gallery ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.gerber-fleisch.ch@1@ 2

^ Therese Steffen Gerber: Rudolf Gerber. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 26, 2005 , accessed June 30, 2019 .

^ Company history of Gerber Instruments and Funke-Gerber (Berlin).

↑ Peter Aerne: Max Gerber. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 26, 2005 , accessed June 30, 2019 .

↑ Walo Niklaus Gerber on the website of the Zurich balloon group.

[1] Stadtbachstrasse 58 in the online building inventory of the city of Bern.