History of the Aldinger Family from Fellbach, Germany
One of the oldest families in Fellbach are the Aldingers. As
much as presently known, they originate from the village
Aldingen at the Neckar river. Already in the year 1347 there
appeared a judge in Schmiden with the name Bentz the Aldinger.
From the year 1354 it is known that Wertz the Aldinger in
Uhlbach possessed house, yard, fields and vineyards, and from
1378 there is a Kunz Aldinger as judge in Schmiden recorded.
In Fellbach, according to the 1939 records of a pastor from
Kleinbottwar, Dr. Paul Aldinger -who wrote his own family book
about the Aldingers - is the family name from 1492 on very often
mentioned in documents and stock records of the Uff-Church in
Cannstatt, to which also the citizens of Fellbach had to submit
their tenth. Mentioned here is Bentz Aldinger from the year
1492, who had part of the former Schaeffhauer-Hof, which was
held by Ulrich Schaeff and was located 'besides highway' toward
the Cannstatter Weg and was allocated to the farmers in
Fellbach. As a person mentioned responsible for the so-called
Mackenlehen was, besides Caspar Schmid, also Hans Aldinger, who
had to pay interest in 1522 and gave parts of the farm to
various citizens of Fellbach. This Aldinger also farmed half of
a farm at Erbach.
Later appeared as responsible bodies for the Mackenlehen Michael
Aldinger and Lorentz Aldinger who lived from 1510 to 1569 and
had six children from his two marriages. The names of the
oldest parts of the family of Lorentz Aldinger also appear in
the oldest church books in Fellbach; they belonged since the
Reformation to the evangelical church. How this family further
branched out is apparent from the family book belonging to the
vinegrower Gerhard Aldinger, who has now, together with some
others with the same name in Fellbach, taken on the task to
continue writing the family history of the last 50 years.
The oldest child of Lorenz was Hans Aldinger, who was born
around 1539 and was farmer as well as mayor of Fellbach. One of
his brothers was Friedrich Aldinger, who has been recorded in
Stuttgart since 1606 and from whom the Stuttgart family (of the
Aldingers) originated. Hans, who had a house near the parsonage
and fields in Dieppachweg, was married twice. His oldest son
Hans died in Fellbach at the age of 55 from plague. The
marriage book from that time contains only very few entries.
Whereas previously the women often died of puerperal fever and
the widowers then frequently married a second or third time, so
were after the epidemic only few people left in Fellbach and in
post Waiblingen.
In the Fellbach stock book of 1658 a son of Hans appears, the
mayor Johannes Aldinger, who was born in 1611 and also married
four times. He had 17 children and died in 1676. His brother
Michael was mayor of Fellbach after him. He donated for the May
Fest from his rich cellar for each schoolchild a small drink of
wine, as is reported 1681 in the Fellbach church book. And the
single sons and daughters were granted a special honor dance on
the 'painted open plaza'.
From the second marriage of his older brother Johannes with the
widow Agathe Friz originated Hans-Joerg Aldinger, who was born
1640 and was also mayor of Fellbach. Also his brother David,
who was born in 1646, was mayor and surgeon in Fellbach.
The seventh generation is headed in the Aldinger family book by
Johann Bernhard, the oldest son of Hans-Joerg, who was born 1663
and, among other things, was two years a prisoner of war in
France. He was with 30 others from Fellbach, who were recruited
for defense by the ruler of the state, taken by surprise by the
French in the town of Bretten and then sent to the fortresses of
Philppsburg, to Strassburg, and even to Spain from where he was
able to escape. In the Fellbach church book it says: 'From
these here recorded 31 Fellbach prisoners has the faithful God
and merciful Father finally brought back here again the Johann
Bernhard Aldinger, after wonderful direction and guidance, fresh
and healthy to his dear wife, children and parents on 23
December 1690.' And this Johann or Hans-Bernhard Aldinger also
took on the winegrowing again in Fellbach. He had six children
and one nephew, Adam, the son of Friedrich David Aldinger, born
on 17 January 1733 in Stetten. He became school principal in
Gerlingen and recited a poem at the funeral of Friedrich
Schiller's sister Caroline Christiane on the Gerlingen cemetery
in which it says: 'Melancholic tear-sorrow at the early grave of
the well blessed virgin Caroline Christiane Schillerin, sung by
Adam Aldinger, school principal in Gerlingen.' In the Fellbach
family register unfortunately nothing is said about Simon
Aldinger, born on 31 January 1694 in Fellbach as son of Hans
Bernhard Aldinger. Also about his son Bernhard, born on 9
November 1723 in Fellbach, it is only reported that he was a
winegrower and was married to Katharine Pfeiffer from
Wendlingen. His son Bernhard in the tenth generation, born on
11 October 1770, married Anna Barbara Tochtermann from Beinstein
and had seven children. His oldest son Christian Friedrich, who
was born on 6 January 1804 in Fellbach, emigrated in 1831 to
Russia and settled there in Hoffnungsthal in the Gouvernement
Cherson, where he married Katherine Of from Beinstein.
According to the findings of pastor Paul Aldinger, since 1804
emigrated from the Aldinger family in Fellbach 71 persons to
America and 20 persons to Russia.
Among them was another son of Bernhard, namely Johann Daniel.
The other son Bernhard, who was born in 1807, stayed at home and
continued the winegrowing trade which ownership was transferred
in the twelfth generation to son Johann Christian. In the
family register nothing is said about this family and about the
family of his cousin Gottlieb Friedrich Aldinger, who was born
on 14 June 1851 in Fellbach and died in Untertuerkheim as
carpenter.
From the twelfth generation on unfortunately the recordings in
the family register become much more sparse because the author
limits himself to only the order of names of the individual
Aldinger branches up to the 21. Generation.
By Erich Ruckgaber, former editor in chief of Fellbacher Zeitung, originally published probably in mid 1980s
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