In the year 800 three castles were built in the Hassgau region: Schadeck Castle in Baunach, a second castle near Daschendorf and castle Stufenburg, 45 minutes (walk?) west of Baunach. This is reported by Charlemagne himself in the document of foundation (foundation deed) of the monastery of Milz nearby Roemhild. This document was signed by the emperor himself. Schadeck Castle was the family residence of the knights of Baunach. Their shield showed a golden belt on blue backgmund. The belt goes from the middle of the top downward to its left and right corner, thus separating it in three fields with a shell in each of them. Their helmet had two wings and showed an imitation of the shield-theme. Presumably the knights of Baunach had first been servants of the bishopric of Wuerzburg, then from 1248-1356 vassals of the count of Truhendingen on the Stufenberg. Their family tree is very old. There are mentioned:

Hi,

my name is Matthias Baunach from Berlin Germany, but I was born in Würzburg. I want to give you more information about the roots of our name.

I have a Grandma, called Anna Baunach, who has relatives in Canada since the 1960's. Anna still lives in Neubrunn. Maybe that will help.

Best Regards

Matthias Baunach

For information you can contact me MatthiasB@powwowwater.de

Hello, my name is Claus Mueller from Wuerzburg, Germany. I enjoyed your website very much. Quite different from your experience, the family name Baunach seemed to be one of the most common names to me when I grew up. There are more than fifty Baunach-families living in our neighboring villages of Helmstadt and Holzkirchhausen, about 10km from your origins in Karbach. In my own ancestry, there are ten different, but more or less intertwined, Baunach-lines, nine of them from either Helmstadt or Holzkirchhausen, and dating back to the early 1600s. The first Baunach mentioned in Helmstadt, as far as we know, was Heintz Bunach in 1433. The name certainly derives from the town of Baunach northwest of Bamberg; in the 12th century the monastery Holzkirchen, which was the main overlord in Helmstadt, also had possessions in Baunach, so that may be a possible connection. The most prominent Baunach from Helmstadt was Jakob Baunach, who moved to Würzburg in 1593 as a merchant, became mayor of the city and was burned for wizardry in 1627.

My address is Woelffelstr. 10, D-97072 Wuerzburg.

Merry Christmas and best wishes !

(Thank you Clause Mueller for this wonderful contribution  D.B.)

Dear Dennis Baunach,

Here is another contribution to your Baunach.com website - it (on the left-hand-side of the page) is the crest of arms that Jakob Baunach used when he was mayor of Wuerzburg in 1624/25, three years before he was burnt. Apparently it gives an indication of his profession as a merchant (and as the richest citizen of the city): three bags of money (even though they look more like shells in this drawing). It seems that he was the one who created this crest of arms.

The Stadtarchiv Wuerzburg has given permission to publish it on Baunach.com, under condition that the source is cited. The source is: Stadtarchiv Wuerzburg, Ratsbuch 228.

If you want to use it for any other publications, please ask the Stadtarchiv for permission beforehand (which should be no problem and free of charge unless it is used for commercial purposes).

After Jakob Baunachs execution, a certain Friedrich Koenig (possibly the guardian of his children, as his wife had also been executed some time before him), kurfuerstlicher Hofrat in Munich, took his fortune to Munich. It was the biggest estate taken out of of the Hochstift Wuerzburg between 1573 and 1700 (records begin in 1573 and only that time-span has been published), amounting to 64000 guilders.

In 1661, a certificate of legitimate birth was sealed by the mayor of Wuerzburg for a certain Johann Jakob Baunach, who lived in Prague at that time, son of the deceased Jakob Baunach, merchant in Wuerzburg. This has been the only trace I have been able to locate of Jaob Baunach´s children, so far.

Best wishes from Wuerzburg, and merry Christmas to you and your family,

This image was provided by Stadtarchiv Wuerzburg, Ratsbuch 228

I can translate the words on top of the crest.

It says (in original spelling)

"Nach volgende Brieff haben Herr Jacob Baunach Elterer und Herr Michael Wedell Jüngerer Bürgermeister gesigelt anno 1625".

"The following letters have been sealed by Herr Jacob Baunach, elder, and Herr Michael Wedel, younger mayor in 1625."

The red and yellow flag on top of the drawing was and still is the flag of the city of Wuerzburg. On the left-hand side is the crest of the elder mayor, on the right-hand side the one of the younger mayor. Usually they show some connection to the bearer´s name; Wedel for example means some sort of twig from a bush or a spruce and that´s what shows in the right-hand crest. As Baunach is just the name of a town, Jacob Baunach chose some symbol of his profession and his wealth instead, and, no sign of modesty, he chose three bags of money.

Maybe - just a wild guess - this attitude was part of the framework that led to his demise and execution three years later when the witchhunt reached its peak and, in the city of Wuerzburg, turned into some sort of stalinist cleansing. Within two years, almost 250 people were burned in the city alone, among them over 40 clerics and six out of 24 senators (a seventh one indicted but escaped). The two mayors were chosen each year out of the 24 senators, who were appointed for lifetime by the bishop and the Domkapitel; Jacob Baunach served from 1607 to his death.

Best wishes,

Claus Mueller