Chateau de Lutzelbourg

The Château de Lutzelbourg is a medieval castle ruin, above the town of Ottrott, in the Bas-Rhin department of eastern France (Alsace).^[1] 

Château de Lutzelbourg is a castle founded by Pierre de Lutzelbourg in the eleventh century on a rock high above 322 m the valley of the Zorn in France, Lutzelbourg, Moselle. It is the subject of a classification as historical monuments since February 1930.Pierre's father in Lutzelbourg Frederick Monbéliard is very noble lineage as related to the powerful House of Savoy. At his death in 1092, the magraviat Susa - as inherited by Agnes de Savoie his wife, daughter of Count Peter I, Count of Savoy - was claimed by the Emperor Henry IV, it can therefore return to Pierre. By Pierre duty must be established on ancestral lands between Philippsburg and the Zorn Valley. 1100 Pierre negotiates the exchange of Saint-Quirin Priory with Lutzelbourg castle of the Abbey of Marmoutier in Alsace. Reginald will be the only son of the union of Pierre and Ita, his death a few days after Christmas 1142 left the county without descendants. The bishop of Metz receives sovereignty in 1150 and gives custody to the first Lords of Lutzelbourg.In 1840 the ruins of the castle of Lutzelbourg were saved from demolition by Adolf Germain, notary in Phalsbourg because the owners wanted to sell the materials of the ruined companies who built the railway line.After several successive sales Eugène Koeberlé, professor of medicine in Strasbourg, bought the site. Around 1900 he decided to consolidate the ruins, to excavate and built the neo-Romanesque hall. In 1909, he published his work in Strasbourg Ruins of Castle Lutzelbourg where it reports its findings and assumption.

The castles of Ottrott were built on the plateau of Elsberg about 500 metres above the surrounding land. Two ruins, separated by barely fifty metres, now stand here: the "Rathsamhausen" on the west of the site and the "Lutzelbourg" in the east.

Recent excavations uncovered the foundations of a primitive castle between the current ruins of the castles. This primitive castle, named Old Lutzelbourg, was most certainly built before 1076 on the initiative of the counts of Eguisheim solicitors of Hohenbourg's monastery (Sainte-Odile) located some kilometres away.

This first structure was destroyed by the Hohenstaufens at the beginning of the 12th century but was immediately raised again by them to be finally enfeoffed to Conrad de Lutzelbourg in 1196. In 1198, it was destroyed by arson by the Eguisheim-Dabos.

The construction of the new castle, known in the middle of the 16th century as "Rathsamhausen", was begun by the beginning of the 13th under Otto of Burgundy who had decided to take back control of the region.

The works must have ended after 1220, the Lutzelbourg being always present on the scene, because in 1230 Elisabeth de Lutzelbourg was appointed abbess of the monastery of Hohenbourg. By the middle of the 13th century the castle presently called "Lutzelbourg" was built just below "Rathsamhausen".

Plan of Lutzelbourg

Visitors to the site notice that the defences of "Lutzelbourg" are turned towards its neighbour, always in the hands of the Hohenstaufen. Historians suppose that it was built on the initiative of the Bishop of Strasbourg, Henri de Stahleck, to gain control of the imperial possessions.

During the works, the defenders of "Rathsamhausen" were not idle and built an impressive keep facing its neighbour.

By the end of the 13th century, the Hohenstaufen had already lost all their influence on the Empire and some kind of agreement was probably found between Rudolph of Habsburgand the episcopal party. In 1392, "Lutzelbourg" was enfeoffed to the counts of Andlau who ceded their rights the following year to the Rathsamhausen-Ehenweiers already in possession of the nearby castle. They undertook to reconstruct both at the beginning of the 15th century.

"Lutzelbourg" was again destroyed between 1470 and 1570, probably in 1525 during the War of the Boorish, whereas "Rathsamhausen" was successively enfeoffed in 1424 to Henri de Hohenstein and then to his son-in-law, Daniel de Mullenheim.

Important Renaissance style renovation works were begun by the Mullenheims between 1520 and 1530. Conrad de Rathsamhausen finally bought back the castle by 1557 from Caspar de Mullenheim.

It has since been known as "Rathsamhausen", the name it has today. The castle was plundered and ruined during the Thirty Years' War.

The castles of Ottrott are nowadays private property. They have been listed as Monuments historiques since 1985.^[1

It has since been known as "Rathsamhausen", the name it has today. The castle was plundered and ruined during the Thirty Years' War.

The castles of Ottrott are nowadays private property. They have been listed as Monuments historiques since 1985.^[1]

Great Great Grandfather Quirin Choice to Work as a Farmer

Quirin is the French version of the German name Quirinus.  Quirin was born in Lutzelbourg on July 13, 1809. Lutzelbourg is a commune in the Moselle department in Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is located on the Marne-Rhine Canal as shown in the photograph. The Grosholtz family had resided in Lutzelbourg since 1680. Lutzelbourg is now part of Alsace-Lorraine since Alsace-Lorraine was the name given to the 5,067 square miles (13,123 square km) of territory that was ceded by France to Germany in 1871 after the Franco-German War.


Quirin's father, Georges Grossholtz was a farmer. He passed down his trade to his son. Quirin was the fifth child born to Marie Madeleine Cler and Georges Grossholtz. They had five daughters and two sons. The family moved from Lutzelbourg to Neuhaeusel between 1813 to 1820. Joseph worked as a Customs Officer in Neuhaeusel while Quirin worked as a farmer.

The origins of the Neuhaeusel dates back to the end of the eighteenth century. In 1720, the municipality was known under the name of Neuhof and was in possession of the lords of Fleckenstein. In 1725 it appeared under the name of Neuhaeusel. The village population was between a 181 to 280 people at the time that the Grosholtzs move to Neuhaeusel. The early inhabitants of Neuhaeusel played a decisive role in the construction of the Vauban fortress Fort -Louis, by producing bricks and tiles and delivered. The village church of St. Luke ( Église Saint- Luc ) was constructed in 1724 on the foundations of an old chapel. Until the mid- 20th century, the inhabitants of the village lived mainly on fishing and inland shipping.

By the mid 1800s they saw changes within rural France. Although agriculture was a dominant occupation, one can see the emergence of new kinds of professions. Through work with censuses of the period, one sees that as the population increased so did the number of craftsmen and merchants. The percentages of people in agriculture decreased due to these changes. One of the reasons why the agricultural community may have decreased was the straying of the youth. Often times a farm was passed down from generation to generation. The younger generations would take on the responsibilities that their parents had. 


Another question arose from the census: what specific occupations made up the broad agricultural group? Most importantly was the proprietor; this was the land owner of the group. Then came the cultivator; this person was a peasant who owned some land and may also have rented some. Third, the fermier was a tenant farmer. The manoeuvrier was a landless or land-poor farmer that had to also work for wages. Last, the wage workers were day laborers that worked on the richer farms. Quirin was listed in his children's birth certificates as both a cultivator and a plougher during his lifetime.

 According to an article entitled, "History and Statistics: Patterns of Family and community Life in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century France" written by Robert Schwartz and Harriet Pollatsek. In the past, artisans could not live on their trade alone; they also had to work as wage workers on farms. This had changed with the industrialization and the modernization of fanning. Now there were things needed on the farm that the artisans could provide. The artisans were no longer part-time wage workers on the farm.

According to the Wikipedia article on "The Economic History on France", "The French Revolution (1794 - 1799) abolished many of the constraints on the economy that had emerged during the old regime. It abolished the guild system as a worthless remnant of feudalism."^[8] It also abolished the highly inefficient system of tax farming, whereby private individuals would collect taxes for a hefty fee." It abolished tithes owed to local churches as well as feudal dues owed to local landlords. The result hurt the tenants, who paid both higher rents and higher taxes.^[11] It nationalized all church lands, as well as lands belonging to royalist enemies who went into exile. It planned to use these seized lands to finance the government by issuing assignats. With the breakup of large estates controlled by the Church and the nobility and worked by hired hands, rural France became permanently a land of small independent farms. The rural proletariat and nobility both gave way to the commercial farmer.^[12]

Of course all of this effected Georges and Quirin decisions to work as a farmer.  

The Family Business: Executioner

For over 200 years the Grossholtz or Grosholtz family worked as executioners in France and Germany. Often the children would follow in the father's footsteps. This is how the family dynasty came about. As far as I can tell the family lived in the village of Landser where the first executioner resided.

  The village of Landser is a small french village located north east of France. The town of Landser is located in the department of Haut-Rhin of the french region Alsace. The town of Landser is located in the township of Sierentz part of the district of Mulhouse. Wernhard Grosholtz or Werlin was born on April 30, 1600 in Mullhouse and died in 1651. He was an executioner between 1629 thru 1640 in Landser and in Freidburg from 1644 thru 1651 when he died at the age of 51. When Werlin moved to Freidburg, his son Martin Grosholtz, who was born in 1622 in Landser took over the executioners position from 1640 until his death in 1640.


The travel distance between Landser and Freidburg was approximately three days by horse and wagon. One might assume that an increase in salary might have been the reason for moving the family a distance from Landser. Freiburg’s location at a major crossing point of north-south and east-west trading routes made the city an important market center in the middle ages. This accounted for the broad market street, Kaiser Johann Strasse, and several smaller market squares, such as the Potato Market, “Kartoffel Markt”. Jean-Jacques was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, a vibrant university city in southwest Germany’s Black Forest, is known for its temperate climate and reconstructed medieval old town, crisscrossed with picturesque little brooks (bächle). In the surrounding highlands, hiking destination Schlossberg hill is linked to Freiburg by a funicular. Featuring a dramatic 116m spire, the Gothic cathedral Freiburg Minster towers over the central square Münsterplatz Meaning & History.

For over one hundred years the Grosholtz family held the position of executioner in Lutzelbourg. The distance between Freiburg and Lutzelbourg is approximately 150 km or 93 miles. It would take approximately 3 days to travel this distance. Halve these distances for a horse pulling a cart or for a very heavily laden horse. Approximately it would have taken Werlein Grossholtz to travel with his family to Lutzelbourg from Freiburg about six days. This was a tremendous move for the family. As far as I can tell the family lived in Freiburg till around 1680. Werlin married Maria Schaeffler on August 20, 1629 in Mullhouse. This was Werlin's second marriage. His first wife, Anna Scherrer died at a young age.  Werlin and Anna had one child a boy by the name of Martin. Werlin's second wife died also after a year of marriage. Werlin married Maria Mengis in Freiburg in 1635,Their six children were born in Freiburg, Elizabeth born 1635 and Anna Maria born on 1640.A son Jakob was born in 1644. Jean-Jacques was born on 1646. Two more daughters Elizabeth in 1649, and Katharina in 1651 were born to the couple. Jean-Jacques was born Hans Jacob in German on May 30, 1646, Hans was the shorter version of Johannes and Jacob was the German name for Jacque. He was appointed executioner for Lutzelbourg from 1680 to 1712.

Jean-Michel Grosholtz born in 1688 to Hans-Jakob Grossholz took over his father's place as executioner for Lutzelbourg in 1712 after Hans-Jakob's death. He retired from this position and transferred his reins to his son, Jean-Georges Grosholtz. Jean-George who worked as an executioner until 1787 upon his death. His name sake and son, Jean-Georges Grosholtz worked for Lutzelbourg from  1787-1793.

Strasbourg is the ultimate European city. It has flavours of both France and Germany, and sits right on the border of the two countries. Geographically strategic, it was fought over for centuries between the French and Germans and Alsace and Lorraine. Some of the Grosholtz family served dual terms as executioners in Lutzelbourg and Strasbourg. They were Jean-Michel Grosholtz 1670-1686 Jean-Melchior Grosholtz 1686-1691and Jean-Michel Grosholtz 1691-1724. Two were serving individual terms and they were Jean-Joseph Grosholtz 1756-1761 Valentin Grosholtz 1763-1785.

As a professional you were expected to commit a quick and clean execution. Often the executioner was killed because he was not professional. Executioners weren't treated well by the towns people. It was typical that the eldest son inherited the position and younger brothers waited for a position in a nearby village to open up. Daughter married sons of executioners and that is how dynasties were built. Laws would govern how an executioner would live from where they lived to which building they could enter and who they could touch. Executioners were restricted from living in the town and usually lived on the outskirts. They could only attend church in a designated pew or come in the town to perform their duties. Some of the benefits that executioners were afforded were the following; they were allowed to clean cesspools and keep what ever they found, they could keep stray animals, carcasses that were abandoned including the hide, also they were allowed to levy taxes on prostitutes, etc. Executioners would receive food and other products that vendors would bring into the city through the city gates. These gifts were meant to ease the executioner feelings of being snubbed.. Most executioners were educated and literate including knowledge of local justice system, order and rituals as well as the role that he plays within the system. Most executioners education includes human anatomy and were often used in place of a doctor when one wasn't available. Public executioners who performed their job by sword, fire or wheel had to look professional while performing their job. They would become masters of torture used to interrogation.
Before an execution they would begin practicing with gourds and pumpkins. Then graduate to small animals like goats and pigs. The final step is executing domestic animals.

Many of the villages were small surrounded by stone walls to keep the bandits out of the town. Forests and meadows surrounded these villages. With only a few people from the town to ward off these bandits the villages were at the mercy of the robbers. Occasionally soldiers were brought in to protect the villages.