Konrad Schwenk, 1805-81, the younger brother of our Johannes.  We know much more about his life than
that of our own Johannes. That is because Konrad stayed in Mundingen his entire life.  Johannes learned the
brewing trade from his father there in Mundingen, but left in 1828 when he married our Maria Barbara Lieb in
Dettingen on the Erms river.  And then he moved a couple more times, but never back to Mundingen.

Some of the facts of Konrad's life, I have dug up from the microfilms of the church records.  But much has
been found in Dr. Kiess' 1983 book on the history of this small village.  For example, dates where the Hirsch Inn property and land was given over to Konrad by the father Conrad. And dates when the property was sold by Konrad.  But there are still a number of unanswered questions yet to be learned about this man and his family.

In August of 1996, Dr. Kiess did some digging around in the town hall records in Mundingen.  He found
several documents pertaining to Konrad. And also of his son Elias in 1868. And of Friedrich Schwenk who in
1863 applied for village citizenship upon his up-coming marriage to the Mayer girl.  The several documents
pertaining to Konrad are most interesting and sad.  That story will follow shortly.  First an outline of the
approx. dates of the Hirsch Inn property acquisition and sale.

1797 Conrad buys the Inn, brewery and some 10 acres of farm land.
1832 Conrad gives the property over to son Konrad who married that same year. Apparently, Conrad
Sr. built   a   new home that year.  That house stands today, some 100 yds. west of the inn, the western-most
home in Mundingen. Konrad and wife move into the res. part of the inn.

1844. Konrad sells the inn. According to the Kiess book, the brewery was retained by Konrad until 1862
when it and the inn all passed  into the ownership of the Rupp family which still owns this property today.

1864/65.  Konrad builds a new home in the upper east part of village,  across the street from Friedrich
Schwenk, his nephew.  Friedrich had just built his home a year or two earlier.

And now to the documents sent me by Dr. Kiess:

23 Oct. 1843, Konrad Schwenk and a Mayer, a local mason, were called before the local Schultheiss
(mayor/judge/constable) so that they would be told of their specific obligations under the jobs given these men
by the community.  That job of Konrad's was a Feldschütz.  To the best of my knowledge, this was a task of
watching the fields (Feld) to shoo away any wild game causing damage (deer and wild pigs mostly). The
Mayor man's job was that of Feuerschauer. I believe this was one to inspect for possible fire hazards in the
village. (Feuer = fire;  Schauer = inspector.)

15 Nov. 1852.  Konrad applies to the town council to request that he be allowed to use the local Armenhaus
for his residence.  He states he now has no home of his own.  (This is a puzzle, for this does not jive with the
dates of property sale above).  This Armenhouse (old structure owned by the village and since 1840 available
for the very needy and indigent) had become vacant that year when the Gottlieb Späth family had been offered
money by the community for passage to America.  Konrad had offered to pay the same modest rent amount
for the house and adjacent vegetable garden as had the prior "tenant."

The document showed Konrad then to have been the local Polizeidiener, a menial job within the village.  A
local constable without a sidearm (probably). Maybe a billy club?  The town council approved his request, and
presumably Konrad, wife and 5 children moved in to the village-owned former living quarters for the
village-hired herders of their livestock.

12 May 1858.  This document indicates that Konrad Schwenk, the local Polizeidiener, now applies for
addition community-offered jobs: night-watchman and Waldschütz (someone to watch over the village-owned
woodland).  So now he has additional jobs.  The ann. pay is stipulated in this doc. The document does not
indicate that Konrad is still occupying the Armenhaus, but I would assume that he was still residing there.  That,
because he does not build his new home until 1864/65.

1875.  The Kiess book shows that a Schwenk, local Polizeidiener, night watchman and fruit tree caretaker,
received a certain amount of salary from the village in that year.  And here he was at age 70 still holding down
those jobs!

And so it is evident that Konrad had fallen onto hard times.  Dr. Kiess told me that Eva, Konrad's wife,
reputedly had been poor "with numbers," referring to the bookkeeping necessary in a business. But these were
hard times throughout the region. Overpopulation, bad crop years, and industrialization  were some of the
reasons.  Keep in mind that our own John Schwenk and three of his siblings headed for America during this
time period, never to return to their homeland.

If Konrad did in fact keep the brewery until 1862, it must have not been a money-maker!  And if he, indeed,
still owned this, it must not have contained any area  inside of it for a residence.  I think that he sold it in 1844
along with the inn. Maybe we can find this out through Dr. Kiess' help or my own research in July of 1998
when I visit Mundingen again.

So where does he get the many Gulden needed to build a new home in 1864/65?  And the same question
applies for his nephew across the street.  My best guess is that Conrad Sr. who was then about age 92 and still
living in Mundingen, may have given them the Gulden!  Perhaps he sold his home then, for he moved to the city
of Metzingen at about this time and died there in 1867.

Click here to see a family record of Konrad and M. Eva and children.

Don Schwenk  November, 1997