This week’s writing prompt for 52 Ancestors, Week 11: A Turning Point. The murder of Johannes Schönlaub was very much a turning point within the family.
Genealogical Research Update: When I originally researched and wrote this article, I believed that the Schönlaub and Gammel individuals discussed here were my direct ancestors. Subsequent research has shown that this was incorrect. Although my ancestry connects me to some of the same exact communities in the German Palatinate, and I have identified certain family connections to them through marriage, the individuals at the center of this account are not my direct ancestors. I have retained the article because the events, historical records, and family relationships remain of genealogical and local historical interest. The correction concerns my own relationship to the people involved, not necessarily the events described below.
The Night of the Dagger
On November 11, 1603, Johannes “Hans” Schönlaub was murdered in Minfeld, in the German Palatinate. Johannes, a tax collector and the son of a former mayor, had been drinking wine with his brother-in-law, Hannß Gammel, when Gammel stabbed him in the chest.
According to the church record, Johannes died without speaking another word. Gammel fled, leaving his hat behind.
The murder was particularly devastating for Johannes’s family. He and his wife, Anna Apollonia Gammel, had five children, and her own half-brother was responsible for her husband’s death.
The circumstances raise an obvious question: What could have driven a man to kill his own brother-in-law? Unfortunately, the surviving account does not establish a motive.
The Murder Weapon: The Bauernwehr
The word translates literally to “peasant’s defense” or “household defense.” It was a massive, single-edged knife that functioned like a precursor to the modern Bowie knife.
- Design for Lethality: Unlike a simple kitchen knife, a Bauernwehr featured a Nagel (nail)—a small steel protrusion on the side of the hilt designed to protect the hand and facilitate parrying during a fight.
- The Blade: It typically had a thick, stiff blade between 6 and 14 inches long with a reinforced point specifically designed for powerful thrusting. This matches the church book’s description of a “fatal thrust” to the chest.
- Social Context: In many Germanic regions, commoners were forbidden from carrying swords. The Bauernwehr was the clever workaround—it was legally a “knife” because its handle scales were riveted to a flat tang, yet its size made it nearly as effective as a short sword.
A Family Divided by Blood
The family relationships make this murder particularly disturbing. Johannes Schönlaub was married to Anna Apollonia Gammel, daughter of the prosperous landowners Hannß Gammel and Margaretha Matthes. The murderer, Hanß Gammel, was Anna Apollonia’s own half-brother.
What prompted Hanß to kill his brother-in-law remains unknown. Was there a family disagreement, a dispute over property, or an argument that escalated while the men were drinking wine? Without further evidence, we can only speculate.
The consequences for the children were especially tragic. Their father was murdered in November 1603, and their mother died in 1605, leaving them orphaned. Among them was Ruprecht Schönlaub, who was born approximately four months after his father’s death. He would never have known his father.
Within less than two years, the Schönlaub children had lost both parents, and the man responsible for their father’s death was a member of their own family.
St. Martin’s Eve
November 11 was the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, the fourth-century Roman soldier who became Bishop of Tours. He is particularly remembered for sharing his cloak with a poor man, an act of charity that became one of the best-known stories of his life.
In German-speaking regions, St. Martin’s Day, also known as Martinstag or Martini, was an important occasion in the agricultural calendar. With the harvest season drawing to a close and winter approaching, it was traditionally associated with feasting, new wine, and foods such as Martinmas goose.
The day also held financial significance. In many communities, Martinmas was a customary date for paying rents, settling agricultural obligations, and making other payments. The historical German term Martinsabend could refer to either November 11 itself or the preceding evening.
These customs provide an interesting historical setting for the murder of Johannes Schönlaub on November 11, 1603.
The Motive: An Unanswered Question
Why did Hanß Gammel murder his own brother-in-law?
The surviving church account describes the killing but does not establish a motive. Nevertheless, several documented circumstances raise questions worth considering.
The Martinmas Connection
Johannes Schönlaub was an Einnehmer (collector), an occupation documented in the church records and recorded in the Ortsfamilienbuch (OFB).
Because Martinmas was traditionally associated with rents and other financial obligations, the date of his murder is particularly interesting. Could a disagreement over money, taxes, or an outstanding obligation have played a role?
It is possible, but we have no evidence that Hanß Gammel owed Johannes money or that the two men were involved in a financial dispute. Nor can we establish that the murder’s occurrence on Martinmas was anything more than coincidence.
The Gammel Family and Inheritance
The family relationships present another possibility.
The elder Hannß Gammel died in 1598, five years before the murder. He had married multiple times, and his children belonged to different maternal lines.
Hanß Gammel, the murderer, was a son of his father’s first marriage to Christina. His half-sister, Anna Apollonia Gammel, was a daughter of the second marriage to Margaretha Matthes. She married Johannes Schönlaub.
The elder Gammel’s death may have required the division of property among children from different marriages and the interests of his surviving third wife. Such arrangements could become complicated, particularly when land and inheritance rights were involved.
However, the family’s structure alone does not establish that a dispute occurred. Without an estate inventory, inheritance agreement, or court record, we cannot determine whether property played any part in the murder.
Relationships Among the Half-Siblings
The family records also identify another half-brother, Martzolff, who served as godfather to children of Johannes and Anna Apollonia.
His participation in their children’s baptisms documents an ongoing family and religious connection. It does not, however, tell us whether disagreements existed among the siblings or whether Hanß Gammel was estranged from the family.
The fact that the murderer and his victim were brothers-in-law makes the crime especially troubling, but their relationship alone cannot explain what happened.
What Can We Conclude?
The surviving evidence establishes that Johannes Schönlaub, an Einnehmer, was murdered by his brother-in-law, Hanß Gammel, on November 11, 1603. The date coincided with an important period for agricultural and financial obligations, and the Gammel family had a complex history of marriages and potential inheritance interests.
A financial disagreement, property dispute, or personal quarrel might explain the killing, but none has been demonstrated.
For now, the motive remains one of the unanswered questions in this remarkable family tragedy.
Wine, a Knife, and an Unanswered Question
The church record provides one particularly interesting detail about the circumstances of the murder: Johannes Schönlaub and Hannß Gammel were drinking wine together, described as beim Wein.
Given the date, November 11, it is tempting to imagine the men sharing wine during the Martinmas festivities. However, the record does not establish whether they were celebrating the feast or simply drinking together.
Nor do we know whether alcohol contributed to the violence. The men may have argued, but the surviving account does not tell us what was said or what prompted Hannß to attack his brother-in-law.
Whatever the circumstances, the encounter ended with Johannes dead and Hannß fleeing the scene.
The church record gives us the essential facts of the crime, but the motive remains a mystery.
The Schönlaub Orphans: The Mystery of the Older Brothers
The deaths of Johannes Schönlaub in 1603 and his wife, Anna Apollonia Gammel, in 1605 left their children without either parent.
Two of their sons were Erhard Schönlaub, born about 1592, and Hanß Schönlaub, born about 1594. They would have been approximately thirteen and eleven years old, respectively, when their mother died.
Yet neither appears in the surviving formal guardianship records examined for this family.
Their absence raises several questions. Were they placed in the care of relatives under arrangements that were not recorded in the same proceedings? Were they living elsewhere? Or might additional records exist that have not yet been located?
At present, we cannot say.
What makes their absence particularly interesting is that both boys were still minors when their mother died. Their circumstances deserve further investigation, especially when compared with the guardianship arrangements documented for their younger siblings.
The Missing Brothers
The absence of Erhard and Hanß from the guardianship records leaves an unanswered question: What happened to the two older boys?
Both were still minors when their mother died in 1605. They may have been living with relatives, apprenticed to tradesmen, or placed under separate arrangements that have not survived in the records examined so far.
It is also possible that one or both died young, although no evidence has yet been identified to establish that.
For now, their whereabouts and subsequent lives remain unknown. Additional church, apprenticeship, guardianship, or property records may eventually provide an answer.
The Matthes Family: Guardians of the Younger Children
While the fate of the two older brothers remains uncertain, the surviving guardianship records provide information about their younger siblings.
Following the deaths of Johannes Schönlaub and Anna Apollonia Gammel, members of the children’s maternal family became involved in their care.
The records identify Hans and Valentin Matthes of Nußdorf, brothers of the children’s maternal grandmother, Margaretha Matthes. They were therefore great-uncles of the orphaned Schönlaub children.
The three younger children were Hanß Conrad, Valentin, and Ruprecht Schönlaub. Ruprecht had been born approximately four months after his father’s murder and would have been only about two years old when his mother died.
The involvement of Hans and Valentin Matthes demonstrates the important role that extended family could play when children lost their parents. Their appointment as guardians provided the younger children with relatives responsible for their welfare and interests.
However, the guardianship records alone do not necessarily establish whether all three children moved to Nußdorf or lived in the same household.
The connection with Nußdorf becomes particularly interesting in the later life of Hanß Conrad Schönlaub, who married Anna Apollonia Mattes in 1623. She was his second cousin and, as we shall see, shared more than a name with his mother.
That marriage brings us to one of the most remarkable family connections in this story: the two Anna Apollonias.
The Full Circle: The Two Anna Apollonias
The most beautiful thread in this dark tapestry began three years before the murder. On Christmas Day, 1600, the elder Anna Apollonia Gammel Schönlaub stood at the baptismal font in Nußdorf as godmother for her young cousin, Anna Apollonia Mattes, the daughter of Jacob Mattes/Matthes/Matthessen the Younger. In 1623, the orphaned Hanß Conrad married that very namesake—his second cousin.
Apollonia was a familiar girl’s name in German-speaking regions, including the Palatinate, during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Its use was associated with the longstanding veneration of St. Apollonia, an early Christian martyr particularly remembered as the patron saint of those suffering from toothaches and dental problems.
To learn more about St. Apollonia:
- Centuries of Solace and the Sainthood of Apollonia. Virtual Dental Museum
- Saint Apollonia. Wikipedia
- February 9: Saint Apollonia, Martyr. Vatican City State.
- The Story of Saint Apollonia: The Patron Saint of Dentistry and Oral Health. Catholic365
Read about St. Martin of Tours, and St. Martin’s Day:
- St. Martin of Tours – Explore the Saints. FaithND (University of Notre Dame)
- St. Martin’s Day Traditions. germanfoods.org
- St. Martin’s Day: The European Thanksgiving. National Catholic Register
- St. Martin’s Day. Wikipedia
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