Altstadtwinkel

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16 th cent. M A N S U C R I P T S D I S C O V E R E D

                       The discovery
While the reconstruction of the pension was in process in june 1998 three manuscripts dating back into the 16th century where discovered in the roof of the southern building.

The results after the first inspection: the manuscripts are so called "Schossregister" (taxation-lists) from the years 1547, 1548 and 1570. They content 800 to 1000 names from the 16th cent. and their taxes and debts. The scripts where coverd into older missale-pages dating back into the time 1230-1280.

We informed the newspapers and wrote a first artikel for a lokal historical yearbook.
Then Thomas started his research. He wrote his master-thesis about the books on the University of Cologne.

                      The research
After transkription all 300 pages, dating 20 pieces of the wood of the house, comparing 1050 names from four centuries and dusty researching in the archives we solved the three main questions:

                                      How coverd the books? When and why?

                      The occupation 1547
In february 1547 the city of Quedlinburg was occupied by soldiers from the elector Johann Friedrich. He took a tax of 5000 Taler (about 1 million Euro) and he had to leave after a lost battle in june 1547. The total budget of the city was only 10.000 Taler. So this anormal tax was hard for all the citizens. Four years later the new elector Moritz took a tax of 8000 Taler (about 1,5 million Euro). The citizens found this was to hard and nobody was able to give more taxes. So for the next 17 years everybody was trying to avoid his payment.

                      The Secret
In 1575 a noble man called Adam Heune a member of the council took the books with all the debts and coverd them in the roof of his new building.
On his deathbed he told his son the secret and he told it to his successor. My grandma told it to me twenty years ago. But I wouldn't believe it. The message was encoded from ear to ear. So I recieved that a piece of gold is covered below the stairs. But it wasn't below - it was above the stairs in the roof. 428 years later we were able to date the wood of the roof with dendro-chronology into 1575.

                      Summary
In 1575 council member Adam Heune covered three taxation lists in his roof because the citizens were not able to pay their taxes. No books - no debts.

If you are interessted in the hole proof. We publish next year the master-thesis with 295 pages...

P.S.: In september we will open an exhebition with all the pieces we found in our house...