Gebrüder Dötschel Fountai

Diary Entries about Sorrows and Woes in Mitwitz in the 17th Century

The brothers Andreas and Georg Dötschel lived and worked as farmers and tailors in Mitwitz during the 17th century. They became well known through their diary, in which they recorded the hardships and small joys of the people of Mitwitz during the painful Thirty Years' War and the difficult times that followed.

The fountain – donated by Dr. Heinz Köhler and designed by the artist Prof. Heinrich Schreiber – offers insight into the diary. Ten pages are open. What happened...?

The first diary entry, 1624:

Andreas Dötzschell am I called (…)

The paper is my field. (…)

The ink (…) my seed.

The memory of the parents’ wedding in 1606

List of people who were present at my father’s and mother’s wedding: (…) Claß Dür and Hans Dür, both brothers of his father, and Cuntz Dür and Hanssn Dür and Claß Dürr the younger…

The raids by the people of Kronach on Mitwitz in 1631 and 1632:

… the dragoons (…) attacked Mitwitz and plundered the castle, destroyed everything, and ravaged it with several hundred men.

Raid on Mitwitz in Thuringia, 1634

Execution in Coburg, 1662

Church penance, 1663

Comets in the sky, 1664

Starling plague, 1667

Execution in Kronach, 1678

Floods in Mitwitz and the surrounding area, 1682

(...) During the night, it started to rain, and by Sunday the water began to rise. (…) The water (…) grew so large that it swept away houses and carried off a child.

But now we close the book (Sound). Let us also leave this place, the Zimmeranger, which had been a place of execution until the beginning of the 17th century, and turn towards brighter moments once again.