Bruckner, family

The name Bruckner is widespread in Upper Austria and, together with vague traditions, led some bearers of this family name to refer to a relationship with the composer. To date, no positive research results have been reported on this. In contrast, an elementary school teacher from the 19th century was able to prove a genealogical connection - although not clear. Genealogy research was mired in errors for a long time and it was only Ernst Schwanzara (from 1932/33) who took effective paths with reliable results. Starting from around 1955, the authors Othmar Wessely , Gerhard Hartmann (1913–1983) and Heinz Schöny (1912–2005) provided contributions to a conscientiously created family tree. The line of the Bruckner tribe leads from his grandfather to the Lower Austrian foothills of the Alps and exists there up to the limit of traceability. The paternal ancestors soon exchanged the farming profession for the commercial and civil one. The mother's line of ancestors consists almost entirely of middle-class people and tradespeople. Bruckner's pedigree shows entries up to the ninth generation. The following comments begin with Bruckner's grandparents.

Bruckner's paternal grandparents

Josef Bruckner : November 23, 1749 Oed, Lower Austria/A, †April 21, 1831 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A. Son of the master binder and innkeeper Joseph Pruckhner and his wife Theresia, née Berger; the twin sister was christened Catharina. Josef B. switched from being a cooper to teaching. After a few years as a school assistant, he received the “teaching qualification confirmation” (dated Linz June 4, 1777) and became Ansfelden schoolmaster (probably around 1776) as the successor to his later father-in-law Sebastian Kletzer ( 1716 [location?], †September 18, 1776). He carried out the church and school services, which had always been closely linked, until his voluntary resignation in both functions (dated July 25, 1822) in favor of his son Anton the Elder. Ä. There was also the function of a stately official.

Franziska (née Kletzer) : * February 28, 1752 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A, †September 6, 1809 Ansfelden. Daughter of the teacher Sebastian Kletzer and his wife Anna Maria, née Fellner. Married Josef B. on August 4, 1777 in Ansfelden.

The family lived in lower-middle-class but cramped conditions and was freed from the material hardships of everyday life, because despite the difficult times in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath, there was a modest level of prosperity. Of the twelve children, Anna Maria ( November 24th, 1784 Ansfelden, †August 8th, 1855 Ebelsberg, Upper Austria/A), who was undoubtedly deaf and perhaps later blinded, survived, who lived unmarried in Ansfelden with her father Josef and brother Anton the Elder. Ä. lived, it was not until 1852 that she was found in the center of Ebelsberg at number 7o - in the same house as the widow and sister-in-law Theresia Bruckner; Josepha ( December 27, 1785 Ansfelden, †September 17, 1826 Hörsching, Upper Austria/A), who married the schoolmaster Joseph Weiß (* September 27, 1772 Hörsching, †September 8, 1850 Hörsching; Johann Baptist Weiß ) on May 10, 1802; as well as Anton d. Ä.

Bruckner's maternal grandparents

Johann Ferdinand Helm : * May 29, 1769 Sierninghofen, Upper Austria/A, †July 17, 1816 Neuzeug, Upper Austria/A. Son of the knife master Ferdinand Helm and his wife (Maria Anna) Barbara Glinssner.

Anna Maria (née Mayrhofer) : May 6, 1773 Neuzeug, Upper Austria/A, †April 26, 1811 Neuzeug. Daughter of the innkeeper Gotthard Heinrich Mayrhofer and his wife (Eva Maria) Theresia, née Löschnkoll, exp. Kroyss. Married Johann Ferdinand Helm on May 13, 1793 in Sierning . The marriage had the children Franz Seraph ( January 21, 1794), Anna Maria ( February 13, 1797), Ferdinand ( June 17, 1798), Josef ( March 28, 1800), Theresia ( April 6, 1801), Anna Rosalia ( September 2, 1802), Ferdinand de Paula ( January 25, 1804), Aloisius ( February 20, 1805), Johann Tobias ( March 25, 1806), John the Baptist ( May 17, 1807) and Maria Barbara ( November 20, 1808 ), four of whom died in infancy; During another birth in 1811, mother and child died (see the research by Franz Zamazal in: Bruckner and Steyr, p. 188).

The Helm couple had rich property in fields, meadows and forests, as well as knife makers and publishers and an inn. Ferdinand was also the administrator of the Gschwendt estate in Neuzeug . When Anna Maria died (1811), a high level of debt became apparent, so that only a modest amount was left as net assets. With the father's remarriage on September 16, 1811, the stepmother Rosalia Höller ( approx. 1789) came into the house for the children, who after Helm's death on January 8, 1821, Franz Kröswang ( approx. 1795), son of a master brewer from Stadlkirchen, married, so that the Helm House fell into foreign hands. The Helm children looked abroad for their escape and advancement.

Bruckner's parents

Anton d. Ä. : * June 11, 1791 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A, †June 7, 1837 Ansfelden.

After attending three classes of high school and preparatory school in Linz , he became his father's school assistant in 1808, was officially employed in this position in 1814 and became schoolmaster in the fall of 1822 as his father's immediate successor. After an unsuccessful marriage proposal to Julie Hartung (1802–1860, daughter of the Ansfelden surgeon and surgeon Johann Michael Hartung [1765–1811]) with a letter dated June 20, 1823 (cf. Zamazal 1982/83, p. 119f.), the marriage took place Theresia Helm laid the foundation for her own household on September 30, 1823 in Ansfelden. The economic prerequisites were provided by working as a teacher, church musician, sacristan and bailiff. During the inspection by the Bishop of Linz he received words of appreciation. He only had a school assistant to help him at times. His life followed the usual course for his profession, but was overshadowed in later years by illness and the associated financial worries. The family in Ansfelden also included the retired father, the sister Anna Maria and their own children.

Theresia (née Helm) : * April 6, 1801 Neuzeug, Upper Austria/A, †November 11, 1860 Ebelsberg, Upper Austria/A.

The following positions could be identified: 1817 in the parsonage in Wolfern , in 1820 as a housekeeper in the house of her widowed uncle Josef Helm, in 1822 again in the parsonage in Wolfern, where her aunt Rosalia Mayrhofer (* October 24th, 1770 Neuzeug, †January 25th, 1847 Sierning) worked as a housekeeper was active. Here she met - according to tradition - the Ansfelden teacher's son Anton Bruckner the Elder. Ä. know. The wedding took place on September 30, 1823, the marriage contract is dated October 18, 1823. The marriage produced eleven children in Ansfelden, of which only five survived.

Mother Theresia Bruckner moved to Ebelsberg with the children soon after her husband's funeral (June 9, 1837). She found an apartment in house number 70 (today KremsmÃ1⁄4nsterer Straße 2), later she can also be found at numbers 91, 78 and 23. From 1849 she lived again at No. 70 until her death. Her name is immortalized in Neuzeug by the name of the street that leads to the house where she was born (Theresia Helm-Straße 28) and by the new organ in the Sierninghofen parish church, consecrated in 1984 -New stuff (Theresia Bruckner organ). Her grave is in the local cemetery in Ebelsberg.

Her children

(Joseph) Anton : * September 4, 1824 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A, †October 11, 1896 Vienna/A. Composer.

Rosalia (“Sali”) : * February 17, 1829 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A, †May 5, 1898 Vöcklabruck, Upper Austria/A.

She married the “bourgeois master gardener” (city gardener) Johann Nepomuk Hueber on January 16, 1855 in Vöcklabruck . She was occasionally supported financially by her brother Anton and was co-heir after him. The composer often visited her family, whose descendants continue to run the gardening business to this day (2020).

Josefa : * March 13, 1830 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A, †July 3, 1874 St. Florian, Upper Austria/A.

She lived with her mother until 1856/57. From 1852 she was employed in Johann Grillmayr's “mechanical cotton fine spinning mill” in KleinmÃ1⁄4nchen (today a district of Linz). On March 7, 1859 in Ebelsberg she married the widower Georg Wagenbrenner (* May 24, 1825 [location?], †January 14, 1873 Ebelsberg), who probably worked as a factory worker in a textile company in the KleinmÃ1⁄4nchen-Ebelsberg area. The marriage had three children, all of whom died shortly after birth. As a widow, she moved to St. Florian , Markt No. 27 (Wiener Straße 23), where she died of tuberculosis.

Ignaz : * July 28, 1833 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A, †January 4, 1913 St. Florian, Upper Austria/A.

According to surviving letters , he achieved little success at school. He died in 1913 in St. Florian Abbey, where he found a home early on as a gardener, then as a calant (bellows kicker at the organ) and finally lived as a pensioner. He was co-heir after his brother Anton. In 1901 he had an organ built by the Mauracher company for the Lady Chapel of the St. Florian Collegiate Church and in the same year arranged for his sister Josefa and Maria Anna, who died in Vienna , to have a shared resting place at the St. Florian Cemetery. He was also buried in this grave.

Maria Anna (“Nani”) : * June 27, 1836 Ansfelden, Upper Austria/A, †January 16, 1870 Vienna/A.

She was sickly and lived with her mother at various addresses from 1837 to 1854. From 1866 onwards she ran the household for her brother Anton, first in Linz and then in Vienna until her death.

Bruckner's relationships with his many relatives and his interest in their fate were undoubtedly broader and closer than is reported. The death of his cousin and confirmation sponsor J. B. Weiß in Hörsching affected him very much. He was also affected by the sudden death of his cousin Franz supported in the school service, completed the Linz preparandy in 1837 and was a teacher in Kirchdorf and Windischgarsten. Zachhuber died, as Bruckner August Göllerich reported, “without having received the final sacraments” (Göll.-A. 1, p. 79f.) of tuberculosis.

Represented by the Steyr Regens choir Franz became.

A link to the relatives in Oed was Mathias Bruckner (* February 11, 1801 Oed near Amstetten, †August 6, 1837 Steyr), son of the master binder Stephan Bruckner and thus cousin of Anton Bruckner the Elder. Ä. He completed teacher training in 1817, became a school assistant in Ansfelden (1817/18), Hörsching (1818–1824), Linz (1824–1828) - he also worked here at the Linz Music Association - and Steyr at the k. k. District secondary school (1828–1831), permanent teacher there from 1831–1837. At the age of just 36, he drowned unmarried in the Ramingbach near Steyr.