Johann Gareis

Johann Gareis, joinermaster, 1745-1809

Johann was born 24.07.1745 in the settlement Klosterfreiheit and has had three sisters. He became a joiner and has worked, under others, for the cloister St.Marienthal. His father Joseph, who died 1751, has worked for this cloister as a maltster and brewermaster. 1750 died Johanns uncle Anton and later 1784 his mother. He has married 1773 Johanna Fischer from Ostritz, daughter of the innkeeper Gottlieb Fischer. Gottlieb Fischer was a cuirassier in the 7-years-war and was then an emissary for Austria. About his clever executions of secret orders he got by the Saxon elector the allow to open anywhere an inn or pub. This inn he has opened on the cloisterberg of St.Marienthal and got in addition a pension from empress Maria Theresia.

The family Gareis is emigrated 1738 from Litschkau in Bohemia, where grandfather Georg was working as a brewermaster. He died before 1738 and just Johanns grandmother, her sons Anton and Joseph, Josephs wife and both in Litschkau born daughters, made themself on the journey to the Saxon Marienthal, where Georgs wife died two years later 1740. The family descends originally not from Litschkau, it descends from the region around Heinrichsgrün. In the local brewery there grandfather Georg has learned the brewer-handicraft by the cousin of his father, the brewermaster Martin Gareis. The Gareis'es was a whole brewermaster-dynasty, and the eldest conserved letter of apprentiseship is from Matthes Gareis, another cousin of his father. Already in 1525 are some Gareis-families traceable in this area, and not far back they are emigrated from the neighboured Francony. In this reason my research applies mainly to the District Elbogen.