Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen

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Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen (* before 1655, † after 1705) was a teacher and sacristan in Aremberg ( Ahrweiler district ) and Marmagen ( Euskirchen district ) in the Eifel at the end of the 17th century and is considered to be in the most important biographies and the previous genealogical knowledge The progenitor of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel , the French engineer and Eiffel Tower builder.

Life

Baptism entry of Wilhelm Heinrich Bönickhausen in the Marmagen church register 1680
Baptism entry of Johann Anton Bönickhausen in the church register Aremberg 1673

Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen can be verified as a teacher and sacristan in the Eifel from 1673 to 1705. He was married to Gudula Schnorrenberg. The origin of the couple has not yet been clarified. The name Bönickhausen or Bönninghausen appears in Westphalia in the 17th century , where there is also a place and an aristocratic seat of the same name. Six children are known of the couple:

In Aremberg, where Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen was according to the church book entry "pro tempore ludimagister in valle Arenbergica" (= currently teacher in the village of Arenberg), a son Johannes Antonius was baptized on July 31, 1673. The church book names high-ranking sponsors , as well as an aunt of the child's mother from the city of Cologne .

By 1680 at the latest, the progenitor Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen took up the post of teacher and sacristan in Marmagen. His employer was the Steinfelder Konventuale and Cellerar , Johannes Liessem , who became pastor of Marmagen in 1679 . The official church bill of this time, which the Marmagen priest had to present to the Steinfeld abbot , shows a regular salary , expenses for school lessons and church music activities for the “ludimagister” (= schoolmaster) .

On January 10, 1680, the son Wilhelm Heinrich Bönickhausen was baptized in Marmagen. Here, too, the parish register lists high-ranking godparents: Johann Wilhelm Freiherr von Nesselrode , lord of the castle and capitular in Münster and Anna Catharina Freifrau von Nesselrode, the long-time abbess of the Schwarzrheindorf monastery near Bonn .

Then four more children who did not survive early childhood are baptized in Marmagen.

In 1683 the mother of the schoolmaster died in Marmagen , noted in the church register as "Elisabeth, ludimagistri nostri Henrici Bönickhausen mater" (= Elisabeth, mother of our schoolmaster Henricus Bönickhausen).

Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen can be traced back to Marmagen church documents until around 1695. After the death of pastor Johannes Ließem and the arrival of a new pastor, his trace is lost in Marmagen.

progeny

The son of Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen, Johannes Antonius, who was born in Aremberg, married Cunigundis Schönen on July 12, 1704 in Großbüllesheim . The couple subsequently have seven children baptized.

  • Leo Heinrich, b. on April 8, 1705. The church register in Großbüllesheim names "Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen ex Marmagen", the child's grandfather, as the godfather.
  • Wilhelm Heinrich Bönickhausen, b. on September 1, 1707. According to the church book, the godfather is u. a. "Wilhelmi Henner Bönickhausen", the brother of the child's father, Wilhelm Heinrich, who was born in Marmagen.
  • Joannes Reinerus, b. on December 31, 1710, with godparents from the Großbüllesheim area and four other children, - Joannes Conradus, ~ 4. February 1714; - Anna Maria, ~ 26. August 1715; - Anna Sophia, ~ 21. December 1718; - Michael, ~ 24. February 1721.

Wilhelm Heinrich Bönickhausen can therefore be traced in two church book entries: the already mentioned baptism entry from 1680 in the Marmagen church book and the godparent entry on September 1, 1707 in the church book of Großbüllesheim.

Relationship to the Gustave Eiffel family

According to a claim widespread but unproven by the Gustave Eiffel biographers, Wilhelm Heinrich Bönickhausen is said to have emigrated to France around 1710. There he put the baptismal names Wilhelm and Heinrich, adopted the name Jean René and added the addition “Eiffel” to his last name Bönickhausen.

This declaration is aimed at the Eiffel ancestor Jean René Bönickhausen named in the Eiffel biography of the French writer François Poncetton, who lived on April 30, 1711 in the house of the Duke of Gramont on rue Neuve Saint-Augustin in the parish of St-Roch , Paris , Marie Lideriz married and died as an employee of the Ferme générale on January 7, 1734 at the age of 75 in Saint-Valery-sur-Somme in Picardy . In his death entry there is the suffix "dit Eiffel" (called Eiffel). Recalculated from the age given in the death entry, he could have been born around 1658/59 in an unknown location.

Evidence of the identity of Wilhelm Heinrich Bönickhausen from Marmagen and Jean René Bönickhausen-Eiffel is still pending. On the other hand, Leo Heinrich Bönickhausen and his descendants are the only proven bearers of this name in the Eifel so that a relationship with the French Bönickhausen line cannot be ruled out. In particular, given the incomplete baptismal register, the teacher could have had another son, Johann Reiner.

For four generations, the ancestors of the Eiffel Tower builder carried the double name Bönickhausen dit Eiffel . The lineage leads through Jean Pierre Henry Bönickhausen dit Eiffel (1715–1765), whose only son Alexandre Bönickhausen dit Eiffel (1757–1806) had a son named François Alexandre Bönickhausen dit Eiffel (born January 29, 1795 in Paris, † September 15, 1879 Paris), who was the father of Alexandre Gustave Bönickhausen dit Eiffel. In the birth certificate of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (* December 15, 1832 in Dijon, † December 27, 1923 in Paris) "Bonickhausen dit Eiffel" is entered. On the edge of the document, however, there is a note that the first instance court of Dijon decreed on December 15, 1880, to replace the name “Eiffel” with “Bonickhausen dit Eiffel”. He applied for the abbreviation of the name to the Ministry of Justice on October 30, 1878, and gave detailed reasons.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ François Poncetton, Eiffel: Le Magicien du fer , Paris 1939; Charles Braibant, Histoire de la Tour Eiffel , Paris 1964; Henry Loyrette, Gustave Eiffel , Stuttgart 1985
  2. ↑ Church book Aremberg, baptisms 1673, p. 22
  3. ^ Church book Marmagen, baptisms 1680, p. 126
  4. ↑ Church register Marmagen, death entry p. 216
  5. ^ Church book Großbüllesheim, St. Michael
  6. ↑ a b c Charles Braibant, Histoire de la Tour Eiffel , Paris 1964, p. 35
  7. ↑ Archives nationales: BB / 11/1473 dossier 3121x78. Online , accessed October 23, 2015 (French)

Unprinted sources

  • Catholic parish St. Nikolaus Aremberg, church records, in the Trier diocese archive
  • Catholic parish St. Laurentius Marmagen, baptisms, marriages, deaths 1635–1698 , in the parish archive of Marmagen
  • Catholic parish St. Michael Großbüllesheim, baptisms, marriages, deaths 1681–1798 , in the civil status archive in Brühl

literature

  • François Poncetton: Eiffel: Le Magicien du fer , Paris 1939.
  • Charles Braibant: Histoire de la Tour Eiffel , Paris 1964.
  • Henry Loyrette: Gustave Eiffel , Stuttgart 1985.
  • Bertrand Lemoine : Gustave Eiffel , Basel 1988.
  • Erich Froitzheim: Marmagen, Bönickhausen and the Eiffel Tower. In: Schleiden district, 1971 yearbook.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bönickhausen, Leo Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher, alleged ancestor of Gustave Eiffel
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century
DATE OF DEATH 18th century