Burckhardt

This article is about the patrician family from Basel. For other uses, see Burckhardt (disambiguation).

Burckhardt is the name of a family of the Basel patriciate, established by Christoph (Stoffel) Burckhardt (1490–1578), a merchant in cloth and silk originally from Münstertal, Black Forest, who received Basel citizenship in 1523, and became member of the city council in 1553. From 1553, the family was present in the city council without interruption until the 20th century.

The surname is derived from the dithematic Germanic given name Burkhard, from burg "protection" and hard "brave, hardy".

The Burckhardt coat-of-arms: Shield: yellow background with a black S intertwined with a cross (the “S” is perhaps for Seidenkrämer - silk-merchant); surmounted by a crowned helmet with a fluttering black & yellow flag. The original crest was simpler and consisted only of a shield with the S intertwined with the cross. It was modified between 1558 and 1578.^[1]

Christoph Burckhardt married Ottilie Mechler in 1518 and in 1539 Gertrud Brand, daughter of Basel mayor Theodor Brand. There are six lines of the Burckhardt family, from the six sons born of Christoph's second marriage:

1. Bernhard: line extinct in the 17th century
2. Hieronymus:
3. Theodor:
4. Johann Rudolf
5. Samuel:
6. Daniel

Of the six sons, five became merchants in cloth and silk, while Hieronymus entered the Teutonic Order In the 17th and 18th century, the Burckhardts intermarried with the other leading families of the Basel patriciate (Iselin, Merian, Sarasin, Staehelin, Vischer, Wettstein). Bernhard was elected to the great chamber of the city council in 1603, where the family remained present until 1878. The family reaches the peak of its political influence in the 18th century, but continues to be influential in the 19th century with several Burckhardt mayors and professors at the University of Basel.

See also

• Jacob Burckhardt, 1818–1897, Swiss historian of art and culture
• Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, 1784–1817, Swiss traveler and orientalist
• Gottlieb Burckhardt, 1836-1907, Swiss psychiatrist and founder of modern psychosurgery

References

• Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz

1. ^ Basler Wappenkalender of 1917 (Basel Crests Calendar)

External links

• The Burckhardt Family Book 1490-1890 Released shortly after the 400th anniversary of Christoph Burckhardt’s birth in 1890, The Burckhardt Family Book includes 34 plates of portraits of family members from Christoph and Gertrud Burckhardt to a photograph of the 1890 family reunion that took place in Basel on 14 September that year.