About True and False Turks

Author: Robert Czoelner, Siedlungsweg 11, 51647 Gummersbach, Germany, Telephone: +49 2763 364, Fax: +49 2763 212 561, Email: Czoelner@compuserve.de, Czoelner@hotmail.com

This article is an English translation of an excerpt from the author’s website: http://homepages.compuserve.de/Czoelner/Turck ("History of the noble family Turck from Westphalia")

All rights reserved. Permission is given to present this paper during a special meeting of family researchers at Istanbul or to publish it on the website http://www.turkgenealogy.com

The surname Turck (Tuyrck, Turcke, Turck) is mentioned in connection with the parish of Valbert near Meinerzhagen in Westphalia for the first time in 1575. Most people living here at the present time are able to trace back their ancestry more or less accurately to that early date. Here originated also several branches which extended to the parishes in the neighborhood , e. g. to Lieberhausen, Kierspe, Halver, Lüdenscheid and Altena. Many of these branches are still flourishing, and if somebody belongs to them, he has a great chance to draw up a very impressing pedigree. In most cases the lineages of families with a bourgeois background from this area end up with the time of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). The existing church records start mostly with the year 1648, and consequently the researcher is compelled to use for earlier dates other sources. But it is a very difficult task to collect and scrutinize material of that kind. Another obstacle is that some families of minor social importance have left no traces in the archives. Keeping these facts in mind, it has to be acknowledged that it is certainly a great success in genealogy, if somebody is able to trace a family back to 1575.

But as the Turcks all of a sudden enter the scene in Valbert in this year and no earlier data for their prior existence in this village are available, this offers a great incitement for any genealogist or historian to draw the veil from the unknown and to unravel the mystery. Deciding himself for this way, he has to remove many obstacles and to gain in the first place insight into the political, cultural and economic structure of the area and the time in question. The knowledge of these details is necessarily a basis for a truthful and colorful description of the lives of one’s ancestors. It is the only method which offers a chance to avoid the inconveniences occasioned by the lack of documentary material.

I have used this method successfully over a number of years, and I should like to present part of my results in this paper.

In the first place, it has to be observed that there are many families bearing the surname Turck in Germany and in foreign countries all over the world. They descend from a great number of different ancestors and so are in most cases not akin to one another. The apparent identity of their names is a pure work of chance, and the etymology of one name differs from that of another. With increasing distance from Valbert the probability for any ties between these families, disregarding momentarily emigration, decreases.

Although it is true that there was some flux of people between countries during the 16^th century, it cannot be compared with modern migrations. Valor, hardiness and the hope to make a fortune led in 1492 to the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus. That was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of mankind: The people were governed by unrest and greediness and the states of Europe were shaken by never ceasing cruel wars. The adventurous expeditions and military movements mixed together people from Europe and all over the world. That is a fact that cannot be denied. But on the other hand, it is also true that in the countries bordering on the Rhine and in Westphalia these events induced no mass migrations. There was some immigration from foreign countries, but it was normally constrained to a small number of individuals. An event comparable with the immigration of foreign workers after World War II will never be noticed for that time and in that area. But there is – as almost always – an exception to this rule, and I’m going to tackle this problem later on.

I have sometimes been told that the Turcks in Valbert descended from an ancestor in Anatolia or Turkey. But that is mere guesswork, and a documentary proof or a source for this hypothesis have never been shown to me. The basis for this etymology is really the phonetic similarity between the words Turk, describing an inhabitant of Turkey, and the German surname. Such stunning similarities occur in some cases by chance, but a careful study of the development of such names and words reveals in most cases their true origin. In the course of hundreds of years words and names are subject to many changes, so that their true meaning and origin are more and more hidden. That means of course that a man or woman with the surname Turck is not necessarily of Turkish descent. This can be shown by a very informative example.

The sturdy water castle of Crottorf in the valley of the rivulet Wisser is very well known to any friend of the local history of the land bordering on the south-east of Oberberg near Cologne. This castle is in possession of the counts of Hatzfeld-Wildenburg. One of them, count Paul of Hatzfeld, had been ambassador to Madrid and Constantinople for the German Reich between 1874 and 1881. Around 1600, Sebastian of Hatzfeld was lord of Crottorf, Wildenburg, Merten and Schönstein. His son Melchior became during the Thirty Years’ War together with Tilly and Wallenstein one of the leading war-lords. A queer story is told about Sebastian.

According to that tradition there is a gallery of family portraits of the Hatzfelds in one of the state rooms on the ground floor at Crottorf. One of the portraits is said to show count Sebastian, who went to war against the Turks and was taken a prisoner by his enemies. To escape from the dungeon he had to agree to a marriage with a Turkish woman, who followed him after his release to his mother country Germany. But at Crottorf lived his Christian wife, whom he told that she had either to accept living with her pagan rival or to acquiesce in her shooting. She agreed to live with the Turkish woman, very probably because she wanted to save her life. So the count practiced polygamy and had from either woman three children. When the Turkish wife came to know at a later time that her life had been at stake, she decided to build in thankfulness for her salvation a chapel on a hill near Crottorf, where the decision over her destiny had been taken. The rumor runs that Sebastian’s portrait is in the family gallery of the Hatzfelds, showing him with his two wifes. A similar sculpture is also said to be in the church at Friesenhagen.

Heinrich Kleibauer, collector and researcher of popular folktales, has tried to trace the origin of this story. He turned also to Dr. Ebel, the director of the archives of the Hatzfeld family, and asked for his opinion. The result was that there are really on the ground floor of the castle two portraits showing Sebastian and his wife, but there is nothing in the picture of the woman which could give a clue to her Turkish descent, and there is no other portrait. The same holds true for the tomb chapel in the church at Friesenhagen. Kleibauer found on the wall of the chapel just a sculpture of Sebastian and his Christian wife, but no trace of a Turkish woman with morganatic background. He learned also from an inscription above the portal that the chapel on the hill near Crottorf had been built in 1701 by the countess Anna Elisabeth née baroness Kessel.

As Kleibauer thought that the question had been decided, he could not find the true origin of this folktale. But we know from reliable genealogical sources that he had indeed married four times! Before the year 1618 he took his third wife: Margarethe of Bockenvörde called Schüngel from Echthausen near Werl, daughter of Georg and Margarethe of Hatzfeld, widow of Franz Wilhelm of Hatzfeld at Merten and Schönstein.

The noble family of Bockenvörde called Schüngel from Echthausen had at that time indeed Turkish and even Moslem relatives. That came about in this way: On St. Gertrud’s day in 1496 Johann Schüngel at Echthausen had a son with his wife Gerharde of Fürstenberg. He was baptized Johann Christoph. As he lived a very comfortable life during his youth, he degenerated and turned light-headed. Having seduced in 1514 a young nun, who was to boot a near relative, his father’s anger was kindled against him. He decided to shut up his fallen son for weeks, with water and bread, in a detached vault. At last the son gave up every hope that his father would ever forgive him and release him from his prison.

In his desperation he attacked and overcame his jailer, a servant of his father, and escaped with many adventures to Cologne, Mayence and Strasbourg. He had no chance ever to return, since the servant was in danger of losing his life from the wounds he had inflicted upon him with a knife. In Strasbourg, Christoph chose the name Heinrich Gerau and became a servant of the mayor Litzau. His work was easy, but his evil manners brought him into bad company. Soon the money to finance his debauches was missing. So he decided to steal it from his master. But as his crime was about to be detected, he escaped under the shelter of darkness to Paris.

Here, he was soon running out of money for a second time. For this reason he went with a Spanish count, who was looking for a servant to accompany him on his journey to the town of Ofen in Hungary. But the count didn’t like his licentiousness and therefore dismissed him once they arrived in Hungary. There was now left no other choice for Johann Christoph but to make a living as a soldier. His regiment was stationed at Belgrade, then the sultan Soliman besieged this town in 1521. The commander of the fortress gave a secret message for king Ludwig to Johann Christoph, whose hardiness was very well known. His comrades hoped that he would break through the lines of the enemy and safely deliver the message. But Christoph went instead straightaway to the headquarter of the Turkish army and delivered the letter which had been concealed in his clothes personally to the sultan Soliman.

The Turks rejoiced that he had deserted and betrayed his troops. Furthermore he converted to Islam and became a Janizary officer. After Belgrade had been taken, he went with the troops of the sultan to Aleppo in Syria, with the intention to conquer Egypt. But in Aleppo the army received the order to retreat. The troops returned to Turkey and came at last to Smyrna (Izmir). In this town Christoph made friends with a Turkish merchant whose father had been a Spanish renegade. Their friendship was such that the Turk offered him a partnership in his business and to boot his daughter in marriage. Christoph gladly accepted this offer and married the daughter of his Turkish business partner.

During this marriage his Turkish wife bore him two sons, one of whom was named Azir-Harrab. But the harmony was disturbed, when Christoph noticed in the slave market one day a very beautiful French woman. He learned that her highly respected parents lived in Brittany. The greedy captain of a ship from the Netherlands had seen her taking a stroll and had decided to abduct her and to sell her as a slave. It was now intended to sell her to the serail of a noble Egyptian pasha. But Christoph, who had fallen in love, bought her instead and made her his second wife. For his Turkish wife he felt no longer any love. When she died at last in 1531, he made soon plans together with his French wife to return to his mother country. The opportunity offered itself in 1537, when a French ship came to the port of Smyrna. Together with his second wife and a female slave he went aboard. He left his two Turkish sons, the oldest of whom was at that time 14 years of age, in Turkey. But he gave them a description of his life and his future address.

After arriving successfully at Toulon, he sent at once a message to the parents of his wife. They rejoiced to get back at last their daughter whom they believed to be dead a long time ago. Christoph returned to the Christian religion and got dispensation and absolution from the bishop. For many years he lived now in a manor near Brest, until his wife became ill at last and died from exhaustion. In his sudden loneliness he developed a strong longing for his mother country and so returned to Westphalia. It was in the monastery of Liesborn, where he according to his own words "made atonement for his sinful life by rejection of all earthly pleasures", that he finished in 1563 his written confession.

The wife of the count Sebastian of Hatzfeld was a near relative of this man Christoph of Bockenförde called Schüngel. And that is why she became in the fancy of the people a Turkish woman. The two wives who are ascribed to Sebastian are really the spouses of Christoph. But there is no connection between them and the Turcks at Valbert who lived already in the year 1575 in that parish. There is also no hint in the memoirs of Christoph as to the question whether his Turkish sons followed him to Germany or whether he had tried to contact them. And why should they leave Turkey, where they were settled with their business, to toil as peasants on the Westphalian soil? Furthermore, why should they settle at Valbert and not at Echthausen near Werl, the home of their father?

On the other hand, the family of Bockenvörde called Schüngel had a seat at the castle of Schnellenberg above the town of Attendorn, not very far away from Valbert. Already in 1541 they inherited their possession from the lords of Schnellenberg. Jaspar Schüngel at Schnellenberg and his spouse Margaretha are even mentioned before 1537.

It was very probably important for the popular conception of the genealogy of the Schüngel family that they were indeed related to another noble family with the name Torck (also Turck, Türck). And what is more, a branch of that family is at that time settled at the castle of Gimborn near Gummersbach. Regina of Isengarten (1477-1535), heiress of Gimborn, married first Dietrich Torck, probably a son of Dietrich. Her second husband was Albert of Bockenvörde called Schüngel from Hemer. He descended from the lords of Wocklum and is mentioned several times in documents from the archives of that manor.

Many documents on the history of the noble Torck family from Westphalia are available for research. They are mentioned for the first time in the 13^th century. Their possessions were then situated on the outskirts of Soest. They had even up to 17^th and 18^th century the greatest part of their domains and manors in this area. Some branches of this family lost their nobility, but that can be proved only from the end of the 16^th century upwards, and that is too late to connect them to the Turck family at Valbert.

The example of the noble Torck family shows that the researcher has to avoid connecting families merely on account of the similarity of their names. It can be proved in this case that they at least had nothing to do with the ethnic group called Turks from Asia. In the oldest documents from the 13^th century they call themselves exclusively Thoric, and it seems that this was the original variant of their name. It is anyway hardly to explain, how the variant Turck could have developed into Thoric. But the process is vice versa very probable and similar to changes in other words.

A descendant of this noble family from Westphalia is also Heinrich Türck, born in 1607 at Goch. He became a member of the Jesuit congregation in 1627 and took vows in the monastery at Treves (Trier). Two times the office of a rector was entrusted to him. As he was an able man and an ardent lover of researches in history, Karl Kaspar, archbishop of Treves and Elector, used to say: "Nothing about this man is Turkish, excepting of course his name." The Elector should have been told that even the name isn’t Turkish, but only appears to be so.

Ostinghausen (Münster in Westphalia, 1972), Hovestadt – Burglehen, III (1), III (68-75) – pedigree of the first generations of the Torc family