	THE BORSINGER CHRONIK

After Karl Joseph Anton insert: Children: Olga Maria Anna Elisa Bertha 1909 Antoinette Anna Maria 1911 Hedwig Anna Maria Clara 1912 Maria Anna Aloisia 1913 Josephine Anna Maria Carolina 1914 Wilhelmina Anna Maria Helena 1916 Helena Anna Maria 1918 Karl Alois Anton Tarcisius 1922 JOSEPH ALOIS LEO born Oct.30,1884 and died May 7, 1931, son of Carl and Josephine,born Hanauer Primary school in Emmetten. His mother wanted him to become a priest, sent him to the Stella Matutina, Jesuit school in Feldkirch,Austria where he stayed from 1894-97 and from there to the Collegium in Schwyz, not wanting to become a priest and not liking Latin nor Greek he did not do well scholastically and did not finish. On the advise of his uncle, William Hanauer he was to be prepared to take over the maintenance at the Schoeneck and was sent to the Kunstgewerbeschule (art trade school) in Lucerne.He liked it and we kept some beautiful crafted roath iron candleholders and lamps. Finishing this school he went to a business-school in Neuchatel,also for the French language and for the English to a privat family in England. Then he worked at a Hotel in Scheveningen,on Holland’s seashore (which Jo and I visited during our Holland tour in1987). and for one season he was in Florence (Italien language). In 1909 he worket at the Hotel Titlis in Engelberg and later on in Hotels in Vulpera, Tarasp, Hotel Waldhaus, also in Rome, Paris, Annecy,Villars sur Olon in positions up to Concierge and then up at the Schoeneck. Oct.14,1912 marriage to Maria Agnes Hedwig Flueler fom the Stanserhof in Stans where he frequently had stopped in on his horseback ridings.It was a big wedding with 80 people,my grandfather took the wedding picture I found the negative and used it to copy many of the faces on it which I enlarged , otherwise we never would have had them for the Chronic. My parents stayed up at the Schoeneck for 4 years but during off saison my father went to work in other hotels as mentioned . During W.W.I 1914-18 he served together with his brother in the Cavalry, Carl moved up to lieutenant and Papa took his place as Fourier, (quatremaster.) When the first child, Elsa was born he sneeked away from his troups in Sargans and had on his return pay with confinement, During the war Maxli and I were born, we lived in the farmhouse upstairs in the shade of pinetrees and overlooking the pond., which was the reservoir for the power station. At the Schoeneck my father was working in the office, my mother In the laundry or supervising the chambermaids, while Karl was the Director and Olga Mrs.Director living lavishly at the doctorshouse,and things did not go smooth, the War had brought a steep decline in business, and with 5 000 Fr. from his mother, my father left and rented the Hotel Kastanienbaum near Lucerne which at that time was a small Hotel, only about 50 rooms, with a large gardenrestaurant for weekend visitors from Lucerne, comming by boat, our porter had to mann the boatlanding. The war went on and then the depression did not help and my dad lost 4 000Fr. The death of my brother Maxli affected my mother, she wanted to move away from the water and my father had it with “Saison-Hotels” and wanted a year around place. They found the Hotel Krone in Lenzburg, which had been neglected and the HERO “Conserve factory”neede a good place for its clients.The place was rented for one year and then bought for 130 000 Fr. and HERO gave a 11 000 Fr. second morgage which helped my father update and enlarge the place. And business was good. Dad could enjoye his hoby and went hunting in the fall. I remember well when ones a year he had to get into his uniform (from W.W.I), clean his gun and go for inspection. Politically he was independent, turning down the invitation of several parties to bring him to the polingboot in Horw, he went by himself on his bicycle. We kids spent hours with him in the cellar, which he managed by himself, cleaning,filling, corking and labeling bottles, at times going inside 300 liter barrels to scrub them from the inside by candlelight, while Dad was watching outside carefully. My father ones took me in his office after he heared that I expressed my wish to become a Doctor. He explained that he does not have the money for it and that he wanted me to become a Hotelier like all the Borsingers before me, to get the proper education from the cellar up to concierge and office and to become a Director of a Hotel,not to land up like him as an “Inkeeper”! More and more he must have become disappointed in life and he became an alcoholic. My mother expressed how many times he tried to stay away from and finally-after a severe fall down the cellar stairs, he consented to a one year treatment at Dr. Krayenbuehls Clinic in Ziehschlacht-near Bischofszell. which he completed. Returning home things went swell for a while, but not for long. He also was a 2 pack cigarette (Parisienne) smoker, and in 1930 noticed a had lump on his neck. Dr .Leimgruber referred him to a surgeon who advised immediate surgery.Having made plans for a long overdue vacation, the surgery was delayed and my parents enjoyed a good vacation in the Tessin. All but one vacation my father took with only my mother, but the one with the entire family became especially memorable. From Sachseln through the Melchtal we hiket up to the Frutt,where we stayed over night and dipped shortly into the icy-cold lake.Next day we went over the Jochpass, and comming down could slide on our behind on snow. In Engelberg we stayed over night in the Hotel Titlis. Well,my father entered the Hospital in Aarau after his vacation and was operated by Dr. Eugen Bircher, and a malignancy of the thyroid was found, could not be removed compleately, and the cauthery was used where suitable. It happened that in about 1943 I assisted Dr. Bircher while he did a meniscectomy on one of his very privat patient at the Hospital in Solothurn, when he asked me: Do you know what your father had? I said Ca of the thyroid. No,he said he had a sarcoma of the thyroid, Diagnosis: Pleomorphic Giant Cell Sarcoma of the thyroid. Only 10% one year survival.(Today treated with Adriomycin.) My father came back from the hospital but never left our privat quatre, the wound drained and the tumor grew to almost babyhead size on his neck and finally practically suffocated him. I fixed a room in black and he was layed out in flowers. Never have I seen a bigger funeral in Lenzburg and the cadetts I commandet carried the wreights to his grave. MARIA AGNES HEDWIG born Flueler Nov.1,1890 and died Jan.7,1991,wife of Joseph Alois Leo. The Fluelers originate from Stansstad.Her grandfather Alois was married to a Langenstein, he became policedirector of the canton Unterwalden and moved to Stans, and they had 3 sons 1) Friedrich started his own Bank,then moved to Schwyz and was the founder and lifelong director of the Kantonalbank of Schwyz, had 14 children from 2 wifes. The oldest was Pater Bernhard OSB my art and music teacher in Einsiedeln Then Max, made his thesis in Berlin where he married a “Berlinerin”,three of his 5 children were Doctors, Dr.phil,Dr.iur,and Dr.med,Max who went to Medical school with me, in the military to the officers and captain-school and we worked together in Solothurn. Then Hermann who became Director of Agfa in Milan, Norbert,Hedwig Elsa and Maria,who’stepson is Dr.Gustav Durrer, Dentist at Rockefeller Center NYC maried to the daughter of Ammann,the bridgebuilder, and is Lawrence’s godfather, and 7 more children from the second wife, we had close contact with all of them, and ones with Max and the wife of one of the Fluelers I climbed the northwall of the Mythen . (2 nd) son of Alois was Edward who became Pater Norbert OSB in Einsiedeln, was a missionary and exellent preacher,became Archivar of the Swiss National Archives in Schwyz and later on of the Archives at the monastery,where he showed me the portrait of P.Phillip Borsinger. We have (at Dr.Carl Flueler in Stans) a family tree back to Saint Niklaus von der Flue (brother Claus,who lived in the 14 th century)of 15 generations, and now also a tree on the Hess’es side (my mothers mother) of 13 generations going back to brother Claus.(in my possession) And now to the Hess side. My mothers grandfather was a M.D in Kerns,who died relatively young of Appendicitis-prior to the time when they started to operate. His widow had 5 children to bring up and ran the Hotel Sonne in Kerns. The first were twins,one of them died, the other married a Kathriner.in Sarnen. Paul was a dentist and was my first dentist in Stans across from the Stanserhof, the drill still driven by footpedal! His wife was a Deschwanden, sister to the 2 famous churchpainters. We have one small scetch ”Mother with child on a churchpew” given to Jo by Grete Hess,his daughter,who did the childrens hour on Radio. Paul’s son became also a dentist and was my dentist whom I visited in Rapperswil when I studied in Einsiedeln, he was a good musician as well. Hedwig was single. Franz build two Hotels the Burgflue-which he sold and the Hotel Nuenalphorn above Sachseln,near the hermitage of brother Claus. He and his wife,born Michel had 4 sons who all died of leucemia in infancy and 4 girls who survived, one was Miggi,who came to the USA married a Kohler, residet in Bergenfield N.J. was at our wedding and shortly after died of a Glioblastoma of the brain. and the last child was Marie, my grandmother,who became Joseph Flueler’s second wife after his first one died of TB in the first year of their marriage. When the railroad from Stansstad to Engelberg was built, Joseph became relief stationmaster, but then he and his wife built the Hotel Stanserhof and raised 5 children. (1)Edward died 21 years old returning from England wit TB,(2) my mother Maria, (3)Joseph who became an M.D.,practiced in Montana and died at the age of 39 of perforated ulcer leaving his wife with 4 ,one unborn, children. Pierre became a Jesuit, 2 girls Gaetane and Andree are married and the youngest Jacque was born after his fathers death,became my godchild as his father was my godfather Jacque tragically died young, as a result of a severe car-accident.(4), Alfred, married Agnes Walker and moved to Lima ,Peru, came back,worked for BBC (Brown Bovery) in Baden who sent him to Camden N.J. where Helen,was born,therefore is U.S citizen. From here he was called back to Peru,then moved to Santiago,Chile, his wife died of kidneyfailure and after W.W.2 he returned for a visit to Switzerland found my sister Elsa,whom he married and had two children with her. They retired in Switzerland and my mother moved in with them.(5) Friedrich (Fritz) came to New York City,went to Chicago from where Alfred called him to come to Peru,where he spent about one year and returned in 1924 to Switzerland. He went to work for HERO,where he had a job prior to his time in the USA. He met Hermine Michel, Olga’s cousin at the Schoeneck and married her, they had one son Hansjoerg while still in Lenzburg. He then was made director of the HERO conserve factory in Saxon,Valais, which position he held until he had to retire because of his severe rheumatoid arthritis. They moved in with my mother at the Schlossgasse in Lenzburg until they found an apartment in Rueschlikon near Zuerich, where we visited them in 1958, he died of a perforated ulcer. Maria,Agnes Flueler went through primary school with the Nuns in Stans.1905-06 at an Institut in Bulle,where she did well and wanted to complete her “bachaloreat” in commerce, but the financial conditions did not allow it. 1908-to Jan.4, 1910 in England where she worked for a Swiss Bank. 1911 - 2/2/1912 in Turin and Genua with a family,taking care of their children. She was sent there in order to forget the man who came to visit her on horseback frequently,Joseph Borsinger. The family thought he would never become serious with her, was from a wealthy family and would never marry her. However, letters went back and fourth and finally Mary wrote to him,that they should brake up. The letter crossed with his,telling her that he is on the way to pick her up, because in Genua a pleage broke out. They met in Milan and on Febr.14,1912 the engagement was celebrated at the Schoeneck. The wedding on Oct.14 became a big event,Pater Norbert was the celebrant at the St. Ann’s chapel, 80 guests were present, my grandfather took the weddingpicture.(I later found the negative from which I was able to copy and enlarge many of the Borsingers, who’s picture I kept for the Chronik). The honeymoon was to Milan,Rome where they stayed with relatives (Haas),had a privat audience with Pope Pius X, and I have to mention it, in 1965 when I took my mother with us on our vacation, she was kneeling at the altar of the now Saint Pius X and visited his tomb. They continued there honeymoon by boat to Marseille and back to Switzerland and moved into the apartment on top of the farmhouse, where Elsa,Maxli and I were born. Papa worked in the office, Mama in the laundry or supervising the chambermaids. The athmosphere was not congenial and in 1916 they moved to Kastanienbaum, where she lost Maxli who drowned in the lake while visiting with a neighbors friend, and where Hedy and Fredy were born. In 1922 we all moved to Lenzburg, uncle Karl brought us there with his “Zettel” automobile, how well do I remember those rides! After my fathers death in 1931 she continued to run the Hotel, her parents retired and moved into an apartment in Lenzburg,visiting us daily, and when grandfather died in 1932,grandma moved in with us in room No 14 at the Krone,mending our stockings, helping with the laundry and taking care of the flowers. When my mother sold the Hotel,”Grossmutterli” moved in with her at the “Schlossgasse” she later fell, broke her hip, was operated in Aarau, I gave her the local anesthesia and assisted at the hipnailing, she recuperated, but was never the same again. She always said: I want to live until you,Guido, get married. Our day of marriage was Nov.19, the same as hers. We sent a cable to them after our marriage and she died the same day, Nov.19,1950!! After her death and Elsa moved to Chile, Mama moved to the Buergenstock and enjoyed to work at the reception desk of the Hotel Waldheim for several years, but tragically on March 6,1958 the hotel burned down killing Hedy and her two boys, mama stepping out on the balcony with Hedy’s girl,Monique, was saved. She then moved in with my brother Fredy in Gockhausen and after Elsa and Alfred came back from Chile she moved in with them in Nassenwil. She started to travel at the age of 62 and went three times to Chile, on the way home visited Marianne Baumgartner-Flueler, her niece in Caraccas,Venezuela, then us in Farmingdale,Stonypoint and Upper Nyack and ones Mario in London. She also went with my brother Fredy to London for Mario’s wedding. After the death of Alfred, she moved with Elsa to Niederhasli, the last 3 years spent at a nursinghome, where she celebrated her 100 st birthday and we visited her for the last time, and where she died and was burried in Niederhasli, next to Alfred and Elsa. Children: Elisabeth Maria Gertrud 1914-1992 Maximilian Karl Joseph 1914-1919 Guido Joseph Alois 1916- Hedwig Maria Agnes 1919-1958 Alfred Joseph Eduard 1921- MarioFriedrich Joseph 1930- After Elisabeth Borsinger-Hanauer add: 22nd GENERATION the Verenahof Line: MELCHIOR FRANZ JOSEPH ALOIS, born July 27,1915, son of Franz Joseph and Margaret,born Kimberli. He was born somewhere in France when, during W.W.I his parents traveled through France returned from England to Switzerland, he then was brought to Geneva and later joined his family in England. His mother wanted him in the school of the Benedictine monks, but later on when his father was transferred to Belgium he went to a Jesuit school there.,which he had to interupt when his father was transferred to the Swiss legation in Rome and then Vienna before being placed in Bern in Switzerland. His studies finished,he started to work for the International Red Cross in Geneva and had a good position. He met Bridget who worked in the British Service of the United Nation and had an even better position! His job brought him quiet around in the world and he brought home many souvenirs from many countries. On the Internet we found his name in connection with an international meeting in 1926 in Bruessels,Belgium for: revised arrangement for unification of medical formulas. In 1978 we met Bridget and Melchior for the first time. He picket us up at the Hotel and gave us the “grand tour” of Geneva, showing us all the International buildings as well as the surrounding Patrician homes, while Bridget prepared for our supper. We met them again at the Horben castle for a family reunion and kept our contact up to the present time. Melchior began to suffer of osteoarthritis and had kneejoint replacement done and as I remember in 1987 had a pacemaker implanted. While I was in Wolfsburg,Germany in 1945/46 for the Swiss governement and the Red Cross taking care of the Swiss refugies, I sent a bi-monthly report, which in Geneva Melchior has seen to his surprise with the Borsinger name on it.. Melchior is now coowner of the “Schloss Horben”, now protected as a national monument, with its 40-50 surrounding acres which are rented out to a farmer, it is located at an altitude of 2100 feet. They go there on alternate years for the sommer. BRITGET,born WATNEY,born 12/30/1922 in England from a good family.and where she received a good education. She worked in Geneva in the United Nations for Britton where she met Melchior and they were married in 1949. With antique furnitures from her departed parents from England and all kind of sounveniers Melchior brought back from his trips abroad for the International Red Cross, she created a beautiful athmosphere at her lovely apartment at 1 Rue Beauregard in Geneva,where we spent a lovely evening. And again during our visit- and family reunion-at the Horben castle she played a marvellous hostess, she and the two girl she taught English in return of them helping her with the domestic work, -dressed in costumes of times passed in the diningroom downstairs we had a reception and dinner for royalties. It was cold,though, and in spite of July electric heaters were turned on. In 1983 we received a copy of a “circular letter” from Britget describing beautifully the wedding of her son Nicolas to Marie Adele de Weck and their experiences in Argentina, and. every christmas since I have received a letter from her. BRIDGET, born 1919 in Geneva, daughter of Franz Joseph and Margaret,born Kimberli.. She is married to GROS,lives in Geneva and they have 3 children: Sarah Gros Ticino Christopher Gros Geneva Catharina Biner-Gros,Lausanne The BLUME line and still 22 Generation MARIA JOSEPHINE,born April 2nd,1910 and died June 11,1988, daughter of Max and Bertha born Walser, married to Dr.jur Kuhn. She was born 7 month premature, the only child of Max and Bertha but developed well, went through primary and “ Bezirksschule”(county or junior high) in Baden and then was sent for her French to the French part of Switzerland and for her English to England, from where she was called back because of her fathers sudden death. From then on she stayed at her mothers side and became acquainted with hotel business, but beside that she studied languages,German,French,English,Italien and Latin in school added now lessions in Russian, she liked conversations and writing poems,helped the Blume through hard and stormy times trough W.W.II. one of her hobies was the “Gwunderchraetly” a small room in the Blume where she kept behind glas, pieces from the Roman excavation, on the walls portraits of Caspar and Caroline Borsinger-Haessig, and all the relics of the Blume’s past. In 1946 she married Dr.Max Kuhn, a lawyer from Wohlen, where she now moved. They had one daughter, Verena who later married Markus Fuellimann, and engineer working for international Cementfactories(originally “Holderbank” on the Swiss Jura),they ones visited with us in Upper Nyack. Maria still kept close contact with her mother and with the Blume. After the death of her mother she had a manager and his wife put in charge of the Hotel. We met them in about 1965, very pleasant people, but after Dr.Max Kuhn’s sudden death of a coronary, Maria returned to the Blume and managed it by herself til its sale in 1972. She built an apartmenthouse on the Blume’s land, now named Roemerstrasse, where she retired in one apartment (which now, to my knowledge, has become the Fuellimans home).We met Maria at the Horben castle at the Borsinger reunion in 1978. She was later operated for ovarien cancer from which she died in 1988,however she had been able to accomplished, that a room at the museum in the “Niedere Feste” was made the “Borsinger room”with all the memorabilias from the Blume and the Borsingers. Maria ones told me that when during W.W.II they had officers logging at the Blume, a Mayor noticed her teeth, just like himself she had two “incisivi” missing, and they found out.that they were related to each other throug the Walsers. Maria was burried in Baden, Friedhof Liebenfels. OLGA MARIA ANNA ELISABETH, born June 7,1909,daughter of Karl and Olga,born Michel.They had a privat tudor :Anita Rohr,married later on a Meyer Stuedeli from the watchfactory in Solothurn, I knew them very closely when I worked in Solothurn, and in 1945 her brother in Mannheim,Germany had empyema and I was able to bring Penicillin (at that time not on the market) to him in a war demolished home,which helped him recover.(quiet an experience!) Anita came to the States was in Long Island where we saw her and Jo and I visited them twice at the Weissensteinstrasse in Solothurn, Switzerland. They also were of tremendous help to the Borsinger children after their parents death. Mr. Meyer received the Doctor Honoris Causa because of his social work, especially for his emploeyees. They had a lovely cottage at the lake of Murten,where the Borsinger girls often spent their vacations and I visited ones. Olga went to an Institut in Bulle(French),and for further language studies to England and Verona Italy. She then worked as gouvernante at the Schoeneck until it’s demise.when she found a job as housekeeper in charge of the employees of the house by the Saurer Family in Arbon (Saurer is a famous Truck manufacturing company and to my knowledge our MACK is a subsidiary). Then she worked at a Hotel in Ascona followed by a similar position in Arbon. In 1935 and 1936 I visited her frequently during my basic military training in Basel,when she was the “Hausdame” houselady at the family RAS,he was the editor of the “Beobachter” a known Swiss montly journal.There she had an apartment at the employees house. In 1937 she married Albert Amstutz from the Buergenstock, the second son of Amstutz Bolt, a family of 14 children from 2 wifes who owned the Hotels Waldheim and Mattgrat on the Buergenstock and Gasthouse Orselina above Locarno. They took over the later on, ran it for 2 years and then bought it from the parents, were successful and year after year built it up to a large establishment,now called Hotel Orselina. They had one son (Oli was 38) and called him Alberto who now owns the place and further enlarged it. In 1965 Olga lost her husband of bladder Ca, he was a wonderful man,liked by family and guests and in the community where he held important positions. We visited Orselina often on our vacation trips and always had a fabulous welcome. Oli and Albert were able to enjoye wonderful vacation trips to Japan and Africa and years later Oli went to the Bahamas repeatedly with her sisters for their wintervacations She worked in the Hotel up to her heigh age and later bought a house nearby where she enjoyes her retirement with Tony and Hedel and where Josel and Hely from Portugal and England came for their vacations ANTOINETTE ANNA MARIA. born 1911, daughter of Karl and Olga,born Michel.They had a privat tudor for their primary school after which she went to Baldegg and Belgium in privat schools and to England. She worked at the office at the Schoeneck and after it’s bankruptsy my uncle Alfred Flueler took her to Saxon,canton Wallis where she worked at the HERO factory,s office.In 1943 she started to work at Feldpausch in Basel(womens fashion) as cashier. Tony was my favored cousine, and not having a girfriend, I invited her to the official ball of the “Renaissance”student organisation in Fribourg at the Zaehringer Hotel, and ones, in 1946, comming back from Germany unexpected I stayed over night at their apartment (having had no money for a hotel!). She was extremely helpful to uncle Fredy in Saxon when he was suffering from his arthritis. After she retired from Feldpausch, she moved to Orselina into the house with Oli. We saw her there in 1984 at the church ,during our vacation, but I was shocked,when I found no respond from her. Tony suffers of Alzheimer’s disease and in about 1995-96.she had to be admitted to a nursinghome in Locarno.