Research in general, and historical research in particular, is not always a predictable, linear process. When art historian Brigitte Schliewen stumbled across “Katrey, Housewife of the Kunrat Prunmaister of Palthaim” five or six years ago, her connection to Baldham preoccupied her.
However, after discovering the well in the Ebersberg Forest, she remembered the term “prunmaister” – well master. “Sometimes coincidence helps when writing history,” says Schliewen, commenting on her find.
Kunrat fountain master lived at the time the fountain was built
Could this Kunrat well master from Baldham have had anything to do with the construction of the mysterious well? At least it would fit in time. A radiocarbon measurement has only recently set the probable period of construction to the years 1411 to 1444, possibly later.
Meanwhile, Katrey, the fountain master’s housewife, appears in a contract for the sale of a “Gütl zu Siggersdorf”. The document is dated August 8, 1458, and she appears as one of four witnesses. The Gütl was sold to the Benedictine abbot Eckhart von Ebersberg, who headed the monastery from 1446 to 1472. So he would be a possible builder.
A team of researchers, including Bernhard Häck from the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, wants to solve the mystery of the fountain – here during an investigation in summer 2022.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
It is also striking that Siegersdorf is mentioned and the fountain master can be linked to the place. As district home caretaker Thomas Warg explained, the stones from which the fountain was built come from near Siegersdorf. There was also a fairly high density of wells there.
As Schliewen explains, well masters were recognized by guilds in the early modern period and took care of the water supply of cities or towns. “So he wasn’t a simple worker,” says Schliewen. He would have been perfectly able to guide the construction of the well.
The “Prunmaister” was maybe just a “Prunmaier”
It is unclear whether he has anything to do with the well in the forest at all. He may have been employed for this project or even recruited to oversee the monastery’s drinking water supply. Maybe he was just in the right document at the right time. “However, only other sources can provide information about this,” says Schliewen.
District archivist Bernhard Schäfer curbs the enthusiasm somewhat. He looked at the regest of the contract, i.e. the summary of the legally relevant content of the document. “Someone corrected something there,” says Schäfer. “It says it shouldn’t be called ‘Prunmaister’ but ‘Prunmaier’.”
But a fountain meier is not a fountain master. In the Middle Ages and in the early modern period, large farmers were referred to as “Meier”. “So it may well be that it is simply a Meier who had his homestead near a well,” Schäfer continues. So you have to research whether there was a well that might have given the name to Baldham near a farm in Baldham at the time in question.
An account book could provide information about the designer of the fountain
However, it is also conceivable that the correction in the regest itself is wrong and that it is a matter of a master and not Meier. Schäfer would therefore like to get to the bottom of the matter in the Bavarian Main State Archives – where the original document is located.
In the meantime he was busy looking for well masters in monastery registers. So far without success. “That makes sense,” says Schäfer. “If the monastery simply commissions someone to dig a well, they will not take their own parchment deed.” A chance find in a monastic account book may be able to close the gap. A corresponding construction contract should have been noted there.