Hans Jung

Origin, Lineage and Influence of the southwestern German Anspach Families

There are four places from which the family name ANSPACH can be traced:

  1. the city Ansbach, the former seat of the electorate in Central Franconia, once generally spelled with the letter "p";
  2. the village of Ansbach in Lower Franconia, close to the town of Lohr on the river Main;
  3. the village of Anspach on the Taunus River;
  4. the town of Anzbach, located 33 km from Vienna.

The question as to which of these places should be considered as the origin of the name

can be answered if one traces the different families back far enough. In this case, the oldest of these can be found in the vicinity of Anspach on the Taunus, which lies on the northern edge of the Great Feidberg mountain. In the year 1274 the village name was documented for the first time in writing on account of the farming out of the surrounding estates belonging to the knights of Sachsenhausen there. While the mining of iron ore was predominate during the early middle ages, around 1600 nearly all residents were well-to-do farmers. The Thirty years' War revaged the area and put an end to all prosperity, and the persecution of witches at that time made the misery of the afflicted inhabitants complete. Between the years 1651 and 1683 alone, it can be verified that 15 people from this tiny locality were burned at the stake! Immigrating Huguenots brought with them a temporary improvement in conditions with the introduction of weaving by setting up over 200 weaver's looms. Nonetheless, due to overly dense population, desperate conditions returned and continued to force inhabitants to migrate.

As soon as prospects for better economic living conditions were discovered in the nearby and outlying areas, families left to settle those regions.

In the 16th Century the following instances of this family name can actuall be verified:

Amandus Anspach from Frankfurt am Main, immigrated to Marburg in 1553.

Lenz, Peter and Velten Anszpach, all three wool weavers in 1575 in Kirdorf, which today forms

Part of the community of Bad Homburg von der Hohe.

Jacob Anspach, who from 1595 to 1608 was the village mayor in Steinbach in Taunus.

All these families derive their names from place names. As for the theory that the Anspachs could be descendents of the margrave of Anspach, there is no evidence to back up this claim.

Surnames that can be traced back to their places of origin are often from several branches. At least the connections between the old lines are difficult to prove, since the conferring of names in this particular region occurred relatively early. That is also the case with Anspach.

Two lines of Anspachs are well researched: the Schwabenheim lineage and the Monzing lineage.

Translation from German to English by Dr. Amy Kepple Strawser