A few months ago I wrote an article approximating the location of a house that Joachim Meyer’s parents Jacob and Anna bought in 1558 from Hans Thüring, located in St. Alban-Vorstadt. Two property sale documents contained clues towards where the house may have been located, resulting in a general handful of houses that were viable options. Joachim likely never lived in this house, as he was 21 years old in 1558 at the time of the sale and would have been on the cusp of his professional career as a cutler, either on “walz” or already working in Strasbourg.
However, last month I stumbled across a large collection of documents within the Basel archives filed under Historisches Grundbuch der Stadt Basel as HGB 1 and 2: Regesten für das Gebiet innerhalb der Stadtmauern and Register und Quellenverzeichnis. These are large-scale property analyses conducted by the Basel archives in the early 20th century combining dozens of sources, from neighborhood rent books, deeds, tax documents, disputes about housing, and more, that combine to map out specific property ownership as far back as the 14th century in some cases.
Using these resources we can take that approximate location above and tie it to a specific, definite address:
47 St. Alban-Vorstadt
This property checks all the boxes. It was owned by Hans Thüring, as noted in a 1557 sale record that mimics the exact description used in the 1558 sale to Jacob and Anna:
The hospital sells to Hans Thüring the papermaker and his wife Magdalena Weck the house and homestead including the garden behind it, in the Saint Alban suburb next to the linden, situated between Peter Gutman the winemaker and Michael Stocker the cooper. The garden out back borders the Rhine, for 55 pounds.
Pays a yearly rent of 2 shillings for possession to the monastery Saint Alban, otherwise free.
It is abutted by both neighbors accurately: Peter Gutman at 1 Mühlenberg and Michael Stocker at 45 St. Alban-Vorstadt, it also matches all of the physical descriptions given in the two sale documents (out back bordering the Rhine, across from a linden tree, across from a fountain), and contains extensive additional records of them paying yearly rent for over a decade at this site:
1559
Jacob Meiger, 1560: the papermaker journeyman, 1563: heirs
gives for a small house on St. Albanberg [= St. Alban hill]
give from their house on St. Alban hill 2 shillings.
Likewise: 1571.
As above: 1572 (1574 missing).
As above: 1575, 1576.
1576
Jacob Meiger the papermaker’s heirs.
1577
Steffan Delffin the papermaker pays from his house on St. Alban hill 2 shillings.
These rental records also indicate that Jacob Meyer, Joachim’s Father, died in 1563 when his heirs began taking over payment for the house until it changed ownership in 1577. This is a hypothesis I have had for months, as the early 1560s saw a plague outbreak in Basel that killed more famous neighbors such as the publisher Hieronymus Curio, also dead that same year. Whether it was Joachim paying the rent from afar, or his younger brother Hans Jacob taking over the finances, that remains to be seen by investigating the primary source Rent Books from the St. Alban neighborhood.
So close, yet so far
47 St. Alban-Vorstadt no longer exists. It was torn down along with Stocker’s house at number 45 in the mid-to-late 19th century and replaced with a single property. Gutmann’s house, and the house of a family godparent, Gladi Thalliocher, at 43 St. Alban-Vorstadt, are still there, but the Meyer Family Home is unfortunately demolished.
Additionally, I have been unable to locate any records of where the Meyer family lived before these 1558 property records, and thus cannot say for certain where Joachim would have been raised exactly. It is possible that they would have rented from a friend or employer, resulting in the records not being compiled in the larger neighborhood book, but it remains a mystery.
However, you can now go wander the streets of Basel with an increased sense of place, seeing the same sights and some of the still-standing original houses that Joachim and his family would have brushed up against all those years ago.
Thank you to Miriam for her help in translating and transcribing note associated with the property records and proof-reading this article. It’s been so cool getting closer and closer to the actual locations his family lived through our work together — thank you!!
Question(s): if the house had still been there, do you think that the city would have placed a plaque or something? Or in the end, this is only important for us, and the authorities would have only wondered what you are on about?
Question(s): if the house had still been there, do you think that the city would have placed a plaque or something? Or in the end, this is only important for us, and the authorities would have only wondered what you are on about?