The Origin of the Surname Zumbrun/Zumbrum/Zumbrunnen

Fountain Bern

A distinctive octagonal Swiss Fountain.
Nikolai Karaneschev via Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-3.0

The most direct and literal translation of the name Zumbrunnen is “to the fountain.” Zum is a German contraction that means “to the” and Brunnen is the German word for “fountain.” Zumbrun, Zumbrum and Zumbrunn have no other meaning, they are simply a shortening of Zumbrunnen.[1]

This German word Brunnen is especially used for a distinctive type of Swiss fountain that served as the town well, often located in a central square. These fountains typically had a basin in the shape of a hexagon or octagon. In their center was a pillar with multiple spouts. The top of the pillar would typically have a decoration at the top. (The fountain at the right has a sculpture of Samson killing a lion.)

The earliest members of the Zumbrunnen family used a drawing of the distinctive Swiss fountain on their coat of arms.

There is, however, a very specific story about the original adoption of the Zumbrunnen surname that has never before been shared in English (but exists in a number of old Swiss history books).

In central Switzerland in the 1100s there was a powerful medieval lord by the name of Werner, the Baron of Attinghausen. Werner was the lord of a castle (the ruins of which can still be toured today) near the banks of the Reuss River in the town of Attinghausen. He was married to a noble woman named Richenza Von Löwenstein, who had lands of her own.

The castle of Attinghausen by Roland Zumbuehl/Wikimedia  Commons CC-BY-3.0

The ruins of the Castle of Attinghausen
Roland Zumbuehl via Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-3.0

Ancient record books speak of Werner in the year 1189. By the year 1206, Werner had become the chief magistrate (the title of Landammann) of the Canton of Uri.

Werner had two sons — Werner II and Walter. The custom of the time was often that a first-born son would inherit everything, while later-born sons could disappear into obscurity. Indeed Werner’s oldest son, Werner II, would inherit the title of Baron of Attinghausen.

But Werner did not neglect his second son Walter. Rather, in the year 1209, he gave Walter possession of the Schloss Zumbrunnen. (Schloss is often translated as “castle,” but what Walter inherited was probably closer to something that we would call a “manor house”). Walter dropped the name Von Attinghausen and began to use the name Walter Zumbrunnen, thus becoming the founder of our family.

The Barons of Von Attinghausen would die out within a few centuries, and their castle is thought to have been a ruin for over 600 years. No Zumbrunnen were ever barons of their own. In fact, they have a much more interesting legacy than most noble families. One sure sign of it is that more than 800 years after Walter Von Attinghausen dropped his birth name and became the first Zumbrunnen, our family endures.

Questions for Further Research

  • Where was the Schloss Zumbrunnen located?!
  • Are there any other men alive today who might be patrilineal descendants of the Barons of Attinghausen? If so, could YDNA genetic testing identify an 800-year-old fork in the family tree?
  • 1) In a later post I’ll present evidence that the name was shortened from Zumbrunnen to Zumbrunn when the family moved from central Switzerland into regions closer to Bavaria, and that Heinrich Zumbrun dropped the second “n” when he arrived in America.

    10 Comments

    1. […] Sadly for families B-Z, the author never finished even the second volume, let alone all 26. But luckily for us, he did document our ancestors because (in a rare example of our family benefiting from alphabetical order) he included them in the entry for the Attinghausen family, from which the Zumbrunnen family originated. […]

    2. […] Zumbrunnen was the first man to adopt the Zumbrunnen surname. His eldest son Burkhard Zumbrunnen thus must have been the second […]

    3. […] In 1865, a Swiss historian named Theodor Von Liebenau, who would later become the chief archivist of the city of Lucerne, wrote a detailed history of the Barons of Attinghausen and Schweinsberg (from whom the Zumbrunnen descend). […]

    4. […] Castle was the home of the Barons of Attinghausen, and the home in which Walter Zumbrunnen, the first Zumbrunnen, would have grown up. The castle was built perhaps as early as the 1100s, although it is uncertain […]

    5. […] Zumbrunnen family descends from the Barons of Attinghausen. As already discussed, the first Zumbrunnen in history was Walter Zumbrunnen, who had been born into the Attinghausen family and changed his name to […]

    6. […] makes sense that Zumbrunnen men would have this status, as they were descendants of the Barons of Attinghausen, but were not the primary branch that inherited the […]

    7. […] Schloss Zumbrunnen in the early 1200s which he gave to his son Walter in the year 1209. Walter adopted the name of the castle as his own surname. But where was this castle that became the namesake of the Zumbrunnen […]

    8. James Forward says:

      I have The Wisconsin line From Jacob b.26 dec 1830 back to a Michael born 1515 but stops there. Most if not all of the early Zumbrunnens are Zweisimmen, Bern, Switzerland. to you have anything on this one? Michael is the Son of Oswald Zumbrunnen.

    9. Janelle says:

      Hi Josh,

      My name is Janelle McCaughey (maiden name Davis), my grandmother was Minnie Zumbrunnen. I traced my line of the Zumbrunnen’s from Los Angeles, CA to Bern, Switzerland. I would be interested to see if we have family in common, as well as possibly compare notes from our research. You can email me @ [email protected]

      I hope to hear from you soon!

      Janelle

    10. David Price says:

      I am the 18th great-grandson of Johannes Zumbrunnen
      I carry the R-z306 y-dna haplogroup

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