Wannemacher Family History
by
Helma Richter, née Wannemacher
Darmstadt-Arheilgen
The crest of the Arheilgen Wannemachers shows a red seed-sowing tub with two handles. On the red-gold, wreathed helmet, with like covers three golden ears in the form of a fan.
(The crest is entered in the roll of arms of Hessen.)
The seal of Henrich (Heinrich) Wannemacher Darmstadt, chancery clerk and princely cameral counselor, served as the model.
The Wannemachers of Arheilgen come from the clan of the same name which had settled in Darmstadt.
The eldest known Wannemacher in the Darmstadt area is Hengin Wanmecher, who lived from about 1450 to about 1515. He was a prosperous Darmstadt citizen and left behind numerous descendants from several marriages.
His grandson (or great-grandson) Hans Wannemacher the younger is the first Wannemacher who is mentioned by name in the Arheilgen church books. In reference to the marriages it is stated: “Hans Wannemacher citizen of Darmstadt and Margreta Bartel Stappen, daughter of Darmstadt, went to church.” Via Philipp (his first son), this line later arrives in Arheilgen. His second son, Wolf Wannemacher, barrel-maker and wall-maker in Darmstadt, is the father of Henrich Wannemacher, chancery clerk / cameral counselor in Darmstadt. Henrich lived from 1606-1672. He married three times. All that is known regarding the first wife is that she was named Maria and died in 1652. His second wife, Barbara, was the daughter of physician Dr. H. Plösser and married to Friedrich Pitsch in her first marriage (chancery clerk). As Barbara died two short months after the marriage occurred, Henrich married once again, this time wedding Jacobea, the widow of the princely war commissary Heintzenberger. Jacobea was the daughter of Dr. Johann Faber, Hessian counselor and vice chancellor. (I will report further concerning her.) In regard to Henrich’s activities and his travels, there are interesting documents in the Darmstadt state archive, some of which bear his seal. In 1635 he is mentioned in Ulrichstein as a treasurer, in 1637-38 in the same role in Nidda. On 23 April 1640, Henrich went to the Easter trade fair in Frankfurt am Main on behalf of landgrave Georg. A further notice reveals that Henrich spent time on 11 September 1643 in Butzbach and was asked to travel to Gießen again in order to prepare cameral account statements there. On 18 September 1643, the landgrave communicated to his counselor Kaldt in Butzbach that he appointed Wannemacher, who had been his cameral clerk since then, to be his treasurer of the offices in Gambach, Nieder-Weisel, Ober- and Nieder- Rosbach, and Petterweil. Kaldt received instructions to introduce Wannemacher into his new offices.
As mentioned above, Henrich married Maria Jacobea, née Faber, in his third marriage. In a document from 15 January 1675, we read: “Maria Jacobe Wannemacher sells the domicile with buildings and garden, inherited from her father, the deceased Hessian counselor and vice chancellor Dr. Johann Faber, and also partially purchased, facing the market from the front and the city wall from the rear, abutting the prince’s court on one side and the house of the Hessian privy counselor and chancellor Dr. Konrad Fabricius on the other, to landgrave Ludwig for 1400 imperial thalers, the imperial thaler equating to 45 albus, the albus to 8 pfennigs.” A document from 26 March 1675, with the signature of the chancellor Dr. Konrad Fabricius, reads: “Landgrave Ludwig tells Maria Jacobe Wannemacher, widow of the cameral counselor and chancery clerk Henrich Wannemacher, from whom he had purchased the house on the market in Darmstadt inherited from her father, the Hessian counselor and vice chancellor Dr. Johann Faber, to release this one to her, should she purchase another house, precisely so. (The property mentioned is also addressed in “History of Darmstadt” – Eduard Roether Publisher office – on pages 6 and 8, in connection with the enlarged court of the prince.)
Two of Henrich’s children died shortly after birth. His daughter, Helma Margaretha, married the preceptor and princely pedagogue Johann Henrich Seipius in 1653.
Now I come to the great-grandson of Hans the Younger: Philipp Christoph, born in 1616 in Friedberg, buried in 1668 on the cemetery at Kapellplatz in Darmstadt. He was city and chancery clerk / princely chancellery registrar / public imperial notary / ordinary procurator for the princely chancellery in Darmstadt. In this position, he worked on the disclosure of the testament of the deceased landgrave Georg II from Hessen; inspected as imperial notary the seal and the signature of the testament. In 1651, Philipp Christoph earned money as a harpsichordist. In 1653 he was employed primarily as court organist and was entrusted with the direction of the music at the palace church.
Descended from the same line is Johann Wilhelm Wannemacher, born in Darmstadt in 1657, who died in 1723 in Erbach im Odenwald. He stood in the services of the count of Erbach-Erbach, as office administrator. There is a description from him of the Erbach office from the year 1708, entries in debt registers, as well as several resident lists of the countship.
His son, Jakob Wilhelm, lived from 1695 to 1768, likewise in Erbach im Odenwald. He was regent / magistrate in Bad König, later in Biber and Lohrhaupten in the countship of Rieneck, regent in Bibergrund. His wife, Anna Elisabeth, was the daughter of the regal kitchen accountant Georg Carl Happel from Butzbach. (In Butzbach, landgravine Elisabeth Dorothea assumed her widow’s residence in the castle from 1688-1709.)
The grave plaques of the married couple Johann Wilhelm Wannemacher and Anna Martha Stöhr and their daughter Amalie Louysa Sophie, who was married to Johann Wilhelm Luck, are built into the eastern side of the cemetery chapel in Erbach im Odenwald. The first plaque shows in the upper portion the enlarged crest that was granted to his father, Philipp Christoph, and Johann Jost Wannemacher on 13 November 1647 through the imperial Palatine duke and princely counselor of Hessen-Darmstadt, Eberhard Wolff von Todenwarth. It is similar to the crest of Henrich Wannemacher, although the tub has a different form. There is a handwritten copy of the document conferring the coat-of-arms, dated in Burgberg the 26th of June, 1787, with the signature and seal of Justus Wilhelmus Wannemacher, lawful heir of the Wannemacher free hereditary seat in and by the village of Erbach.
On the second grave plaque for Johann Wilhelm Luck and Amalie Louysa née Wannemacher, two crests are shown: to the left the Luck crest, three offset stars with a flower, to the right the shield and tub from the Wannemacher crest.
Regarding the Johann Justus mentioned in the letter conferring the coat-of-arms, most likely the vice registrar at the princely treasury, actuary in criminal matters, is meant.
It would go beyond the confines of a brief description if one wanted to describe the further relatives of the Arheilgen Wannemachers in our area.
The Johann Wolff Wannemacher haling from Darmstadt, born in Darmstadt in 1616, settled in Arheilgen as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and church elder. His first wife, Mrs. Margarethe Blum, died in 1646 in Darmstadt while giving birth. His second wife, Anna Susanna Teutsch, gave birth to three sons in Arheilgen. The descendants were peasants into the eighth generation (in part church administrators and lay judges), with the exception of Johann Peter, a wagon master / mayor / lay judge. Starting with the ninth generation, there are, apart from the farmers, also handcraft masters and an inn keeper. The Wannemachers living in Arheilgen today have, apart from one master farmer, the most diverse professions: handcraft masters, teachers, editors, engineers, among others. The sons and daughters of the first generations married into the locally settled families: Benz, Völger, Wesp, Stork, Gärtner, Erzgräber, Windhaus, Schneider, Anthes, Hahn, Huck, Andres, etc. When as a Wannemacher one looks on one’s hereditary chart, one realizes that one is related extensively to all the long-established families.
At the request of Julia Wannamaker this translation was provided by
Ginny Lewis, Ph.D., Professor of German, Northern State University,
Aberdeen, South Dakota. (July 2018).
Wannamaker Genealogy 