The city of Homberg

The city of Homberg lies in the middle of Germany in today's federal state Hesse south of the known city of Kassel.

The city of Homberg at the Efze was first documentary mentioned in the year 1231.
The foundation of the town occurred probable already 1190 through the Thuringian earl Ludwig III.

The town was an economic and military center and also served the protection of the "Langen Hessen” (Long Hesse). The “Langen Hessen” is a trade streed between Leipzig and Frankfurt at the Main which is again a section of a significant trade streed in the Middle Ages from Antwerp via Gdansk and Königsberg to Nowgorod.

The city was build below the already existing "Hohe Burg” (high castle) on the “Hohen Berg” (high mountain).
Most of the citizen Homberg were farmers.The population founded their prosperity from the agriculture as well as from the trade and processing of wool.
The period of bloom reached the town in the 16th century. Still at beginning of the 17th century Homberg stood measured in the tax amount at the head more comparably of Hessian city.

After the 30-year-old war not only the city and castle was destroyed, but also the economic basis of the city.

It last more than hundred years until Homberg reached its old population of the city in the 16th century. The former economic position in Hessen achieved Homberg never again.

Homberg is a beautiful city for this one today one should go to himself. One can this one got well medieval look at church as well as the half-timbered houses restored on the marks square there.

The spreading of the family name Stolzenbach

The family name Stolzenbach was already mentioned in 1348 in the city Homberg on the Efze.

One of the first indication of the bearer according to the family name is Reinhard Stolzenbach in the Year 1416 who lived in Homberg.

Wide in the 18th century the name was found only in the middle of germany. Later on, the name was spread by emigrants out of Hessen.

In the year 1782 the name Stolzenbach was brought to America. At the same time it was evident that Mr. Baltasar Stolzenbach emigranted to Charles Town North Carolina. In the year 1834 sailed Henry Stolzenbach and his wife Anna with their kids Jacob and Mary to Maryland.

Economic crises forced also 6 out of 14 brother and sisters named Stolzenbach to leave Germany. Three of them emigranted to the northern part of America, the other three emigranted to Chile.

The descendants of the brothers Johann Wilhelm Leonhard and Simon Stolzenbach are settled mast in the northern part of Germany and also in different States of the USA.

In Europe the name Stolzenbach was found in Ungarn in 1732 and in Denmark in the year 1754 as well in Nederland in 1756.

Could be proved by the draft of the Svend Tingleff, that one of the Philip Stolzenbach emigrated from Kassel, the progenitor is all ancestors of the name Stolzenbach in Denmark.

The background of one also interesting group of family out of Adelsheim and Düsseldorf will be researched later.

contact | home | meaning of the name | ancestors | list of name | index | files | links | germany version