Gmelin
The Gmelin are a family from Swabia , whose origins are documented up to the beginning of the 16th century. Since the 16th century a. a. eminent humanities scholars, theologians , naturalists and scientists . Spiritual liveliness has been preserved in the Gmelin family to this day.
An ancestor or progenitor of the Gmelin family, through whom the family saga could be verified, has not yet been found.
A branch of the still living Gmelin family was raised to the hereditary nobility .
Family saga and origins
A family saga reports that around 1350 an Urbanus Lentulus was expelled from Rome because of his faith and settled in Kirchheim unter Teck as a simple shepherd. Michael Gmelin is his great-grandson. There are several versions of this saga, it is claimed that he was originally a knight or bishop. The saga is controversial in science, among other things, an Urbanus Lentulus does not appear in any document.
The background of the saga is that a connection to the well-known Roman family Lentulus should be established. Moriz Gmelin interpreted the change from bishop to shepherd in such a way that the reason for the saga was to be found in the strict religious consciousness of the family and also testified to conflicts with the papacy. Urbanus Lentulus is said to have Germanized its name - translated too leisurely . This term then evolved over gemächlin , gemächlin , gemählin and Gmehlin to Gmelin . In fact, however, the name of the Roman family was derived from lens (Latin: lens), which alluded to the family's successful lens cultivation.
Otto Brauss, on the other hand, suspects the exact opposite process: Lentulus is said to have developed from the name Gmelin . As proof of this, he cites that Wilhelm Gmelin - Michael's son - was registered as Wilhelm Gmelin at the University of Tübingen on May 22, 1559 , in other documentary mentions from May 19, 1559, August 26, 1560 and February 17 In 1563, however, he calls himself Lentulus . This is a diminutive of lentus , which means something like calm or leisurely . Brauss also found documents from the 13th to 15th centuries in which bearers of a similar name appear, which shows that bearers of the name Gmelin existed before Urbanus Lentulus. JK Brechenmacher and Moriz Gmelin were also of the opinion that Gmelin developed into lentulus and not the other way around.
Moriz Gmelin does not know what to say about the origin of the saga in his family tree. He noted, however, that the saga was known to all family lineages, including those who had cut themselves off from the actual Gmelin family. As for the authenticity of the existence of Urbanus Lentulus, he came to the conclusion that there was no bishop of this name around the middle of the 13th century, at least he is not listed in any church register. He sees Lentulus as a clergyman, but of a lower rank than that of a bishop, and is probably a layman . In the 14th century, Roman noble families were actually banned, but Moriz Gmelin did not know whether the Lentulus family still existed in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, there is evidence of a Württemberg family named Lentilius and in addition Gmelin saw connections with the Gmelin family and a Lentulus family in some entries in church registers.
For Gmelin, it was clear that the family's origin was actually outside of Germany, as the saga tries to convey. As proof of this, he sees, among other things, that the face, especially the nose shape of some family members was considered characteristic of the family. Other historians have also dealt with this question. An origin from the Czech Republic is particularly likely , as the term chmel , which translates as hops , was also used as a family name in Austria and the diminutive form is Gmelin . In contrast, however, he states that at the time of the 14th century, he cannot prove any immigration of foreign families in Kirchheim unter Teck through the church records. The next question for Gmelin was how a Czech came to Germany. At first he suspected that the family might have come to Germany through a German duke, as there was trade between several German dukes and Austria.
While researching the family coat of arms, Gmelin came across the coat of arms of Vitalis Gmelich, who appeared around 1562 and allegedly lived in Rome. His coat of arms is very similar to that of Gmelin. In terms of time, this could have been a brother of Michael Gmelin, but a connection with the Gmelin family cannot be proven with certainty. That this should come from Rome is parallel to the saga about the origin of the Gmelin family. On the other hand, he suspects that the entry in Rome in Siebmacher's book of arms with the coat of arms of Vitalis Gmelich could be traced back to a misunderstanding that this Vitalis was only supposed to come from Rome, which means that his legend of origin would agree with that of Gmelin. Further research into Vitalis Gmelich could have advanced research into the true origin of Gmelin, said Gmelin, but he only noticed Vitalis Gmelich when the section on the origin of Gmelin was already printed in his work.
branch
According to Moriz Gmelin, among others, the Gmelin are among the most widely branched southern German families. The origin of the individual branches from the progenitor Michael Gmelin can be proven except for two cases. According to older family trees, Wilhelm Gmelin was the only son Michael who had children. The Heidelsheim-Sinsheimer Linie, the Oberbadische, the Stuttgarter, the Heilbronn and the Tübingen line are documentedly descended from Wilhelm Gmelin. There are also the Neckargartacher and the Göppingen lines, whose descent from Wilhelm is very likely, but can no longer be proven. The larger lines are divided into smaller lines or sub-branches.
coat of arms
According to Siebmacher's coat of arms, the first bearer of Gmelin's coat of arms was the pharmacist Johann Georg Gmelin (1674–1728). The coat of arms is described as a split shield, on the left with an anchor around which a dolphin winds. On the right is a monogram with a sloping bar, next to it two stars. It is also noted that the original colors are unknown.
The motif of the anchor and dolphin illustrates the derivation of the name "leisurely" as a Redendes Wappen . It corresponds to the emblematic implementation of the winged word "hurry with a while" (Σπεῦδε βραδέως).
In Moriz Gmelin's family tree of the Gmelin family from 1877 there is a variant of the coat of arms on the title page and in the cover. He is not sure about the origin, the age and the original shape. The form in which he printed the coat of arms may come from the 17th century according to his assumptions. He also judges that Siebmacher's coat of arms was not a good success, as the dolphin, among other things, looked more like a Latin s. Gmelin also describes the coat of arms as a divided shield with an anchor and a dolphin as well as a sloping beam with a house brand, similar to a z, accompanied by two stars. The treasure again depicts a dolphin winding around an anchor and an open plow. As a result of the repetition, according to Gmelin, the image objects anchor and dolphin are brought to the fore again. This main coat of arms also seems to be older than the rest of the coat of arms such as the sloping beam; a coat of arms consisting of an anchor and a dolphin can be found on a Vitalis Gmelich in Rome in 1562.
The colors are also not known exactly, there is no match. In Gmelin's view, the following coloring is the correct one: iron anchor with a silver or gold dolphin on a blue background, black house brand on a silver sloping bar, also gold stars and red background in the right part, and the plow on the right red and left blue.
literature
- Moriz Gmelin : The family tree of the Gmelin family. Braun, Karlsruhe 1877 ( digitized version )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin; Introduction, page 8
- ↑ The name Gmelin on gmelin.com ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin; Introduction, pages 8/9
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin; Introduction, page 10
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin, page 39/40
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin; Introduction, page 4
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin; Introduction, page 13
- ↑ J. Siebmacher's large and general book of arms: two thousand historically founded family coats of arms (Bauer & Raspe, 1857; fourth edition; volume one, section five; page nine)
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin, page 39/40
- ↑ Moriz Gmelin, page 40
Remarks
- ↑ The line names come from older family trees handed down traditions.