Schweichler

Dear Barbara Edens,
in January and February 2003 we already had some exchange of information on
that subject. At that time I just began my resurch. I imagined it should be
easy to find common roots because the name Schweichler is rather rare today in
Germany. Step by step I learnt that in past times there were many
Schweichlers in East-Prussia. So many that I still cannot overlook all of them.

Now I´ve read your message in the OW-Preussen-list. I am afraid I cannot
contribute anything to your Schweichler branch. But as far as I know by now it
seems like all Schweichlers in East-Prussia can be traced back to a quite
famous ancistor.

Round about the year 1500 there was a Heinrich von Schwichel who came from
the Hannover area to East-Prussia. The Schwichel family is a well known noble
family in the Hannover region. They were mentioned as of nobility already in
medieaval times around the year 1200. In the 19th century the name von
Schwichel (or von Schwicheldt / Schwichelt / Schwicheld) died out in western
Germany.

At 1515 Heinrich von Schwichel got a special document, a kind of passport
for his wife Margareta (I saw the original in the archive). She then also came
to East-Prussia. Heinrich von Schwichel was a famous bell-founder and he
eventually produced canons as well. Bells made by him could be heard in many
churches in East-Prussia for centuries. So he received an estate for his service
from his sovereign Herzog (duke) Albrecht von Preussen. This estate was in
Kalkeim, a little village about 25 km further east of Koenigsberg on the
northern shore of the river Pregel. This was a kind of "nest" for all descendants
of the Schweichlers. The name von Schwichel changes from century to century:
von Schwichel - Schweichel - Schweicheler - Schweichler. At about 1700 the
name Schweichler was common. The nobel origin was forgotten. The family still
owned the same estate in Kalkeim untill about 1850. Later a relative named
Neumann got the family heir in Kalkeim.

Now imagine: since 1540 in every generation lots of children; only one got
the estate, the others got some money to build up their own "business". So
many many branches all over the region came into being. For example my
grtgrtgrtgrtgrt-grandfather was still born in Kalkeim, founded his own estate in
Damerau at about 1760 and one of his sons married (1791) the heir of a farm and
village-inn in Stombeck were much later my mother was born in 1932.

After much time of resurch for more than 3 years in the archives, after lots
of documents most of them hard to decipher I am up 99% sure that all
Schweichlers from East-Prussia can be traced back to the same ancistor: Heinrich
von Schwichel.

Maybe you like the story.

Greetings from Berlin

Viktor Haupt