Our Geuder Lineages

A lineage for our purpose is a continuously documented line of ancestors that reaches from the past into the present to a living descendant.

0. Historical beginnings
0. Geuder lineages from Middle Franconia

1. Geuder from the Beginning

The oldest known record with the name Geuder is a document from 1253, contained in the Book of Records in Nuremberg. Heinrico Geuder acted as a witness for the endowment made by Heinrich von Hohenlohe to a knightly order, the Johanniter in Reichardsroth. Until we find other early documents, we have to place the Geuder beginnings right into the middle of Franconia. The following short outline is an adaptation from Kurt Geuther’s writings about the Nuremberger Geuder on our German website. www.geuther-ahnen.de. Sources are at the end.

The second oldest Geuder record pertains to a different Heinrich Geuder mentioned in the book “Die Annalen der Reichsstadt Nuernberg von 1623”, Teil I, by Johannes Muellner, on page 171, as part of the genealogy of the Waldstromer family. Heinrich Geuder zu Cammerstein married the only daughter of Cunradt Waldstromer and his wife, a born Gross. Cunradt Waldstromer died in 1309. We assume that Heinrich married the daughter probably around 1280. This would put Heinrich’s birth to about 1260. Kammerstein lies about 20 miles west of Nuremberg.

The early history of the known Geuder is closely entwined with the city of Nuremberg. According to writer Mummenhof, the Geuder family was one of the eleven oldest, ruling dynasties in Nuernberg, with origins in 1236, and later gave rise to the better known aristocratic families of the Geuder von Heroldsberg and the Geuder Rabensteiner.
Biedermann begins the genealogy of the noble Geuder families with Sigmund I. Sigmund married 1245 into the "von Kammerstein" family and died in 1278. As annotation to his son, Sigmund II, Biedermann wrote, “Siegemund II left the castle of Cammerstein to the Count of Nassau, who sold it in 1296 to the Count of Castle Nuremberg.” Quite possibly, the Heinrich von Kammerstein who married a Waldstromer was also a son of Sigmund I.

The history of Kammerstein differs somewhat from the above. The imperial castle fortress in Kammerstein was built around 1235, and Ramung I from Schwabach was appointed to the position of imperial minister by King Friedrich II. From then on, Ramung carried the name ‘von Kammerstein’. The son and grandson of Ramung I continued the management of the imperial property until 1313, when the last Ramung died, most likely on the battlefield. At times, the Ramunge served their lord in other parts of the empire. Then, the castle in Kammerstein was presumably run by their administrators or relatives. In 1299, the Kammerstein property and other villages were pawned by German king Albrecht I, for 500 silver mark to Count Enicho of Nassau, who was married to Anna von Hohenzollern, the daughter of Count Friedrich III of Castle Nuremberg. Later, the Counts of Nassau sold the Kammerstein property in 1364 to the Count of Castle Nuremberg, according to the text in Reicke’s history book “Geschichte der Reichstadt Nuernberg”.

Sigmund II, son of Sigmund I, married Apollonia von Ehenheim, and they had four
Children, Georg, Sebastian, Siegesmund and Hermann. Hermann was born 1281, so we assume that his brothers were born around the same time. Georg married Margareta von Seckendorf, a woman from another well-to-do family dynasty. The couple had three children, Rudolph, Heinrich and Hanss. In his later years, Georg served as imperial court master and judge to emperor Karl IV and was his ambassador to pope Innocence VI. (1356, 1358).

Sebastian was a knight, became imperial administrator in Elsass and served as officer in Schwaben. Siegesmund married Juliana Grundherr. And Hermann married a Schmotzer. Hermann is still mentioned in documents from 1330 and 1335. It is not known if any of these Geuder had children.
The children of Georg continued the Geuder lineage. Rudolph married Margareta von Absperg; they had one son, Hainrich who, in 1390, became a knight in Prussia. Hanss was a knight as well. Heinrich, the other son of Georg Geuder, stayed in the neighborhood and he might have been the first generation of this Geuder family to move into the city of Nuremberg. He attained the coveted citizenship in 1349 and only sixteen years later, in 1366, he was appointed to Imperial Sheriff (Reichsschultheiss) by the Count of Castle Nuremberg, a position he held until 1385. He was married to Anna Gros in first marriage, and Traudel Seiboth in second. He died in 1389. Three children from his first marriage are known, Conrad, Heinrich, and Elisabeth.

There are several other Geuder in Nuremberg around the same time that don’t seem to be connected to the wealthier Geuder family von Kammerstein.
Already in 1303, a Geuder citizen without first name, is mentioned in the citizen book of Nuremberg. Same for the year of 1325 and 1326. It is not discernable if these Geuder were descendants of Sigmund Geuder. In the city’s book of outlaws appears a Chunrad Geuder in 1335, and a young Geuderlein in 1348. Marquart Geuder is in the book of outlaws in 1353, and also mentioned as a master craftsman 1370 in the list of craftsmen. A Fritz Geuder is listed as tradesman in 1363. Craftsmen and tradespeople were not part of the elite and they might not have been part of the Geuder family that rose to the highest political position in Nuremberg.

Sigmund Geuder’s descendants were members of the governing council in Nuremberg at least from 1349 to 1806, with short interruptions, and at times, held the highest position, like Imperial Sheriff, ‘Reichsschultheiss” and the high office of the first tax collector. They fought infidels in the Holy Land, in the middle ages, and marched as captains against the Hussites. In later centuries, they fought as officers against the Turks, were in Dutch military services, as well as the Swedish king Gustav Adolf’s and Friedrich the Great’s. In 1797, the Geuder family still belonged to the twenty three council-eligible families named in Nuremberg.

In the index of Muellner’s book, following Geuder are listed (in chronological succession with date of activity).
Sigmund (1278); Heinrich zu Cammerstein (around 1300); Friedrich (1303); Heinrich (1335/1349/1366) imperial sheriff; Hermann (first half of 14th century); Heinz (1359); Heinrich (1383/1381) imperial sheriff; Konrad (1384/1391,1410) imperial sheriff and judge; Martin (1408); Margaretha (1444); Seitz (died 1444); Sebald (around 1450); Georg (1452) custodian; Martin (1468); Heinz (1482); Heinrich (1489) imperial sheriff and judge; Endres (1489) custodian; Georg (1528) judge; Martin (1523) custodian; Philipp von Heroldsberg (1572); Julius (1590) church custodian; Anton (1598).

To understand the position of Imperial Sheriff (Reichsschultheiss) in Nuremberg, we need to delve a little more into the medieval history of the city.
Nuremberg had a relatively late start, documented for the first time in 1050. The lonely stone outcropping surrounded by a great forest, lent itself for a fortified castle. Settlement was slow, due to marginal soil. The castle and the market town was destroyed in the conflict between the emperor Heinrich IV and his son in 1105. To protect the town better, the emperor appointed Count Gottfried von Raab, a baron from Austria as his administrator to the castle of Nuremberg. Within a century, Nuremberg began to grow and its wealth and influence soon outdid all other cities in the country. A key location on important trade routes and the favorite place of the emperor made it to the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire.
Friedrich I, Count of Zollern inherited the position of castle guardian in 1190/91 and it stayed in the hands of the Counts of Zollern until Friedrich VI, by then named the ‘Hohenzollern‘. Eventually, the Counts of Hohenzollern amassed a large territory, an area spanning much of modern Middle and Upper Franconia, called the Countship of Castle Nuremberg.

Nuremberg had a special status as imperial city, built on imperial land, and under the direct command of the reigning German king or emperor. The emperor’s immediate representative was the appointed governor, the Count sitting in castle Nuremberg. The city itself was managed by an imperial official, the "Reichsschultheiss", a sheriff with jurisdiction over the citizens. In the beginning, the Imperial Sheriff was a deputy, appointed by the Count of Castle Nuremberg to serve as judge, administrator, police, financial and military official. Later on, the position was determined by the city council. A small group of citizens, chosen from the upper class assisted the Imperial Sheriff in his work. This group of citizen assistants became the strong city council that eventually, reached equal political status to the Imperial Sheriff. In a document from 1256, a letter from Nuremberger citizens to Regensburg, the city council appears for the first time as communal authority next to the "Reichsschultheiss".

The duties of the Imperial Sheriff were described by King Heinrich VII, when he issued the following regulation on June 11, 1313. “The Reichsschultheiss to Nuremberg has to protect and guard the open public and imperial, military roads, commonly called king’s roads, and has the right to provide escort services. The Sheriff and the city council have the right to accept into the city any person they want to become a citizen. Once a year, the Sheriff is obligated to hold just and impartial court over rich and poor, assisted by the city council with judging and sentencing. The castle should never be separated from the city, and every castle governor has to guarantee to the city council that from the death of the emperor or king to the election of his successor the responsibility for the castle would stay with the city.”

Until the middle of the 14th century (1350) the Nuremberg city council consisted of 26 eligible citizens that formed the small, inner governing council and a larger council that included the inner council in addition to a number of lower class citizens, but that was completely under the control of the inner council. Members of the small inner council were chosen exclusively from the wealthy class, the privileged families of the imperial city, who called themselves ‘Patricians’ modeled after the senatorial aristocracy of Roman antiquity. The group of council-worthy citizens also included a few wealthy business people, property owners, academics, doctors, and apothecaries, but never crafts people or simple traders.
Many of the ruling families originated from the former class of Imperial Ministers that had lost their positions during the period from 1220 to 1313 when the Holy Roman Empire had no emperor but a weak king, and the princes and dukes were fighting for domination. By the end of the Stauffer kings in 1254, families like the Pfinzing, Stromer, Haller, Muffel and Gross had moved into Nuremberg. Reicke refers in his book “Geschichte der Reichsstadt Nuernberg” to Hegel when he writes, “We can assume that the core of the Nuremberger Patricians originally came from a knightly class and was joined by other government officials and landowning nobility from the vicinity.” A paper by Ulmann Stromer, written in 1390, recorded eleven honorable dynasties in Nuremberg, of which the Geuder were one of them.

The city council of Nuremberg controlled the city and their own leadership positions closely. The eligible families married only between each other, and restricted citizenship. The organization of trade, craftsmen’s guilds and upper society followed strict rules and moral codes that controlled even the private lives of the citizens. Transgressions brought public punishment or banning from the city. Though, often only for a short time. Martin Geuder was banished from the city in 1411; the text in the document reads “One year banished over the Rhine or the Danube, without mercy, requested by his brother and his in-laws, because he talked badly about the in-laws.” On June 11, 1348, a rebellion broke out against the city council. Craftsmen and ordinary citizens stormed the civic center and destroyed important documents. But the old order was restored within a year. The guilty and their families were banned from the city. A small concession was made by allowing a few craftsmen into the city council, but they had essentially mere technical consultant status. The Patricians, a group of about 23 wealthy families, governed Nuremberg for 500 years.

Like other Nuremberger Patricians, the Geuder family steadily increased their economic status through skilful business and marriage politics. In the 14th century they traded spices and fabrics in Cologne, later they had financial businesses in Venice, Frankfurt and Paris and invested in mining.
In 1391, Heinrich and Conrad I Geuder, the two sons of Heinrich I, acquired the imperial fiefdom of Heroldsberg, a town in the forest north of Nuremberg. The property also included the villages of Bruck, Kalchreuth, Grossgeschaidt, Kleingeschaidt, Eckenhaid, Neunhof, Beerbach and Behringerdorf. They still kept their citizenship in Nuremberg. Conrad I married Agnes Waldstromer, together they had three sons, Georg (1400-1456), Conrad II, and Heinrich. Conrad I also served the city as Imperial Sheriff.
Heinrich, the brother of Conrad I, married Brigitta Pfinzing, with whom he had three children, Seitz, Martin, and Clara. His second marriage was to Anna Ortlieb. Elisabeth, the sister of Heinrich and Conrad I, married Craft Behaim.

In 1417, Kunz Geuder petitioned king Sigismund for a coat of arms for the Geuder family and the town of Heroldsberg to display on market days and festivities.
The wealthy Patricians of Nuremberg desired nothing more than the title of nobility so they could participate in tournaments, a right the old, but poor country aristocracy refused to give them. Even though, they were now landlords, owning several village and receiving a steady income, the Geuder of Heroldsberg received the title "born of high nobility" only by 1689.

In 1415, the Count of Castle Nuremberg, Friedrich VI of Hohenzollern, due to his large land acquisitions was chosen as prince elector of Brandenburg, and became Friedrich I, margrave of Brandenburg which prompted him to move his administration to his castle in Cadolzburg. Consequently, he sold the castle in Nuremberg, which had been destroyed, and the position of castle governor to the city in 1429.
This meant greater independence for the city but also opened the door for a powerful rivalry that led to many small wars against the increasingly rich city. With the death of the margrave, the duchy of Brandenburg was split between Friedrich’s three sons. His infamous 3rd son, Albrecht inherited first the principality Brandenburg-Ansbach, but later, due to the death of one brother and the resignation of the other, all possessions of the house Hohenzollern fell into his hands. Albrecht caused a lot of havoc in the surrounding counties that supplied the city with neccessities.  

Georg Geuder was serving the Nuremberg city council as officer, when he was captured near Windsheim in 1450 with 52 of his troops. This was the Georg Geuder von Heroldsberg (b. 1400-1456), son of Conrad I von Heroldsberg and his wife, Agnes Waldstromer. Biedermann writes about him, “Georg Geuder von Heroldsberg continued the Conrad lineage, served initially Lord Elector Friederich von Brandenburg, later the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismundo with several horses, became member of the council in Nuremberg in 1430, was 25 years in it, during which he was asked to serve the city council as ambassador for Imperial Diets and other important tasks. He fought as officer during the Margrave War on the side of Nuremberg against Lord Margrave of Brandenburg.”
During the first Margrave War in 1449/50, Georg Geuder was sent with several marksmen to Weissenburg to restore order. Georg Geuder also volunteered to finance the damage resulting from a feud in 1443. In 1450 the city council send their ambassadors, Georg Geuder, Niclas Muffel and Paulus Haller to announce a victory.
In 1457, Georg Geuder and Hans Tucher ordered on behalf of the city council that all wealthy citizens must keep a salt reserve.
Other Geuder mentioned in the “Annalen der Reichsstadt Nuernberg, Teil II” include a Geuder, who claimed his right in 1440 to a rock quarry in the forest near the monastery of Wildenreut, together with Joerg and Hiltpolt von Seckendorff.

White Castle built by Andreas Geuder, 1478

In 1471, Endres Geuder built a grand house on the hill next to the church in Heroldsberg, called the green castle, named after the color of the storm windows. Endres, a city council member and imperial official, was also known as a chronicler.
Kunz Geuder could not withstand the temptation of leaving the Geuder coat of arms in the Holy Land, a barely tolerated habit of knights and common pilgrims alike who intended to immortalize themselves on every shrine with graffiti and engravings.
Andreas Geuder built his castle, the white castle, right next to his brother’s, in 1478. Shortly after, in 1487, Martin III. Geuder added to the skyline of early Heroldsberg with his red castle. Martin was a friend of famous German Renaissance artist Albrecht Duerer, who made many drawings from the window of this castle. Pictures of the four Geuder castles can be seen on this website. http://www.heroldsberg.de/index.php?art=page&art_id=20&lang=de

In 1502, Martin III Geuder von Heroldsberg, married to the oldest daughter of Wilibald Pirckhamer, according to page 100 in the “Annalen der Reichsstadt Nuernberg, Teil II”, was sent by the city of Nuremberg, with two other officials, to Saxony to participate in mediation talks between Nuremberg and the margrave of Brandenburg. To no avail, the warfare between Nuremberg and its neighbor continued.

At the height of Nuremberg’s development, there was a saying, “Nuernberger Tand geht durch Stadt und Land“ (Nuremberger trinkets are sold through the whole world). Nuremberg became the center of middle European commerce and was the biggest weapons producer of the time, engaging 45 different types of blacksmiths. The Patricians sold arms to almost all northern cities and duchies, even to Scandinavian countries. Arquebuses, the forerunner rifle of the century, had a big impact in the conquering of the New World, the Americas, as well. The Geuder Patricians were, most likely, also indirectly involved in the unsuccessful German attempt to conquer Venezuela in 1530, since the financing bankers, the Welser family of Nuremberg and Augsburg was related through marriage to the Geuder family. A wistful Philipp von Hutten writes from Venezuela to his friend Geuder in Nuremberg, just days before his demise, “I imagine that you spend this moment with merry companions, ready to drink and have a good time. Think of me and drink a cup of wine to my health, for I have tasted none in 4 ½ years.”

Hieronymus Geuder built the last of the four Heroldsberger castles, the yellow castle, around 1580.

After the Lutheran Reformation in 1525, Nuremberg became Protestant, changing all Roman Catholic churches into Lutheran and slowly closing all monasteries. It is interesting to note that Martin III Geuder’s sister in law, Caritas Pirkheimer was abess of the St.Clare's convent. A highly intelligent and educated woman, she became quite famous for refusing to leave her convent in spite of the city council's effort to make life very difficult for the nuns. Her struggles have been published under "Caritas Pirckheimer: A Journal of the Reformation Years 1524-1528."

Jakob Geuder von Heroldsberg (1575-1616) gave up his Nuremberger citizenship in order to be free to introduce Calvinism, a different Protestant denomination to the Heroldsberger area. This turned into an argument with the city and almost ended in a military confrontation.
Johann Phillip Geuder (1597-1650) became director of the entire Imperial Knighthood of Franconia, Swabia and the Rhine. He was cavalry captain in Swedish service, and Councillor in Anhalt and Brandenburg. He founded the so-called Geuder-Rabensteiner Lineage by marrying a Rabensteiner.

The 30-year war (1618-1648) effectively ended the flourishing period of Nuremberg and much of Europe. Two thirds of the population died as a result of this international war, that involved all 236 mini states of the Holy Roman Empire as well as all other European countries. Nobody won, everybody lost. Nuremberg never recovered to its former glory and it took almost 100 years for the German population to come back to pre-war numbers.

Johann Adam Georg Christoph Geuder von Heroldsberg (1641-1718) was Imperial Sheriff in Nuremberg and Councillor to the emperor.
Carl Benedikt Geuder von Heroldsberg (1670-1744), was member of the Nuremberg city council, first financial officer and Imperial Sheriff. He also was a knight of “de l’ordre generosite”, and keeper of the imperial crown jewels.
Johann Adam Rudolph Carl Geuder von Heroldsberg (1718-1789) was actual Imperial Councillor, guardian of the crown and keeper of the crown jewels, councillor of the free Franconian knighthood, next to other positions.
The Heroldsberger Geuder spread out from here on and their treatment goes beyond the scope of our short introduction.
Though, Adolph, Baron of Heroldsberg should be mentioned. As a student of law and philosophy in Heidelberg, he was involved in the unsuccessful German rebellion of 1848, and immigrated to the United States in May 1850. He married in Cleveland, Ohio and had several children. Their descendants continue the von Geuder lineage into the present.

Sources: "Die Annalen der Reichsstadt Nuernberg von 1623", by Johann Muellner; "Geschichte der Reichsstadt Nuernberg" by Emil Reicke; "Geschlechtsregister des Hochadeligen Patriciats zu Nuernberg", Joh.Gottfried Biedermann; "Germans in the Conquest of America, a Sixteenth Century Venture" by German Arciniegas, NY 1943; "Die Magie des Wallfahrtortes und der Zwang der Verewigung", online dissertation.

2. GEUDER FAMILY TREES FROM MIDDLE FRANCONIA

Of course, not all Geuder were noble knights and wealthy merchants, instead they were farmers and tradespeople. As such, they are harder to find in the historical books. Recently, I have begun to sort through the Brenner Archiv, a collection of church records from 1600 - 1900, from the county of Ansbach. It contains a wealth of information about the farming Geuder families from Moerlbach, Ohrenbach, Langensteinach, Ergersheim, Windsbach, Neustadt/Aisch, Uffenheim, Gollachostheim, Herrneuses, Buchheim and others in the vicinity. Once finished with my research, I hope to establish a usable Geuder family tree.

The following lineages, which I received from descendants here in the US, originate from the same area, west of Nuremberg, from small, neighboring villages. I named these lineages after the place, the immigrating Geuder chose to settle in the US and Canada.

The Milwaukee Lineage begins with Hans Geuder, born 1662 in Ergersheim and married to Sara Rueckart. His greatgrandson Johann Paulus moved to Fuerth, near Nuernberg and several generations later, Georg William Geuder, immigrated 1847 to Milwaukee. He started a tinsmith business that his descendants enlarged into a successful and well-known enterprise.

Geuder, William 1852 - 1903
Definition: manufacturer, b. Milwaukee. He attended the German-English academy and Spencerian Business College. He was associated with his father, George Geuder, in the tinware business until the father's death in 1879; in 1880 William Geuder and Charles A. Paeschke (q.v.) reorganized the business under the name Geuder, Paeschke and Co. In 1882 the firm name was changed to Geuder and Paeschke Manufacturing Co. (later Geuder, Paeschke and Frey Co.). Geuder was president of the firm (1882-1903). He maintained numerous other business interests, and was active in local political and civic affairs. Geuder, Paeschke and Frey Co., As We See It (Milwaukee, 1955); F. L. Holmes, et al., eds., Wis. (5 vols., Chicago, 1946); Milwaukee Journal, Apr. 27, 1903.

[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]

The Iowa Lineage begins with Georg Michael Geuder, who died in 1748 in Moerlbach. His grandson, Johann Sebastian Geuder, born 1820 and married to Helena Barbara Werlein, immigrated to Guttenberg, Iowa, in March 1852. His first son Leonhard was born at sea, on March 22nd 1852.

The Pennsylvania Lineage begins with Leonhard Geuder from Langensteinach. He was born about 1665 and married to Walpurgis Scherer. One of his descendants moved to Pruehl. Johann Michael Geuder, born 1825 in Pruehl, immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1847. Many US Geuder come from this prolific lineage.

The Canada and Illinois Geuder Lineage begins with Martin Geuder, born around 1580 in Gailshofen. His grandson Leonhard moved to Ohrenbach. And one of his descendants, Johann Georg Geuder, born 1862, immigrated in 1889 to Chicago, Illinois. Kurt Geuder, Johann Georg's brother's grandson immigrated from Germany to Canada in 1957, and started a Geuder family there.

Where do the Geuder families live today?

A map of the Geuder name distribution in the United States can be seen at, http://name.whitepages.com/last/geuder, as well as http://gens-us.net/map, just add the surname Geuder and click search.

To look up the distribution of Geuder in Germany today go to: http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/en/Default.aspx, and add Geuder in the search function.