The origin and meaning of the name Schmerse has been investigated in detail by scientists,1, 2 according to Herbert Schmerse from Dortmund, and my thanks go to him. Previously there was only speculation. The four most used names dictionaries are not very helpful. Max Gottschald3 thinks the last name is derived from the name of a place called Schmersau, but says nothing about origin and meaning of the place name. He is of the opinion that the last names Schmartz, Schmars, Schmarse und Schmarsow go back to the Polish word smardz, which (supposedly) means mushroom. With respect to the translation he is wrong; the word smardz has to be translated as morel4. Mushroom on the other hand is Polish grzyb. Hans Bahlow5 is of the opinion that the last name Schmerse traces back to the Slav place name Schmersau, but offers no proof for the Slav origin. He indicates a connection with Schmarsow and similar names. It has to be added that he does not mention any of these similar names and says nothing about origin and meaning. Adolf Bach6 and Heintze-Cascorbi7 do not mention Schmersau, Schmerse, Schmars, Schmarse or Schmarsow.
There is only one place name with the prefix Schmers-, and ten with Schmars-8: Schmersau (near Stendal/Magdeburg), Schmarsow (today Smardzewo, Kreis16 Schlawe in Pomerania), Schmarsau (Kreis Lüchow), Schmarsau (Kreis Dannenberg), Schmarsow (Kreis Ostprignitz), Schmarsau (Kreis Glogau in Silesia), Schmarsow (Kreis Prenzlau), Schmarse (Smardzów, Kreis Oels in Silesia), Schmarsow (Kreis Demmin), Schmarse (Smardzewo, Kreis Züllichau), Schmartsch (Smardzów, Kreis Breslau). The village Schmarse in Kreis Züllichau, inhabited at the beginning of the 13th century by Slavs (Wends), was originally named "Smoarz," meaning "morel village."9 Furthermore, there is a place Smarso next to Forst (Kreis Guben), which is also called Smarzów10, Schmarso8 and Schmarsow11 as well as Schmerse12.
The difference from smar(d)z- to schmers- is easily explained: a vowel preceding the letter r is often subject to change. The corresponding Slav root smr- appears in Old-Sorbic as smer-, in New-Sorbic and Russian as smor- and Polish as smar-. In borrowed words a clear a in Polish corresponds to an open German e, as with the words ratunek-Rechnung (calculation), fala-Welle (wave) or fankiel-Fenchel (fennel). The consonant beginning sm- becomes schm- in German words, the ending -s corresponds to the sharper Polish -dz. In Polish, derivatives from mushroom designations to personal names are mostly rydz "Reizker" (the saffron milk cap mushroom), but the names Smardz and Smarsz are found, too.
The name Schmerse is first mentioned about the year 1600. It appears in the draft lists of the cities Zielenzig in Kreis Oststernberg (Os) (in 1599) and Landsberg (L) (in 1623). Prior to the year 1700 nine Schmerses are known to the author, all of them from the Kreis Landsberg and neighbouring counties in the German state of Neumark: besides the two mentioned above four from Kernein (L) and one each from Ostritz (Kreis Schwiebus), Schermeisel (Os) and Wepritz (L); furthermore two from Rädnitz (Kreis Crossen) and one from Zielenzig (with the name Schmarse) and one from Dobersaul (Cr, named Schmerser).
As a conclusion one may say that the last name Schmerse is derived from the Slav word smardz and means morel. The name has been transferred from a place name or directly from the mushroom designation to a personal name. This transfer and change to German form may have taken place between the middle of the 13th century (first citation of the place Schmersau) and the end of the 16th century (first citation of the last name Schmerse).
The change of the name from Slavic to the German form is paralleled by the change of the area south the Warta River from Slavic to German control; because the surnames where introduced first between the 12th and the beginning of the 15th century, the name could be established in the changed form. The Slavs possibly had long lived close to the Elbe River, at least since the migration of nations, but the Slav land and so the later Neumark was settled quite thinly in that age. It is probable that in the 13th century a considerable number of named single farms still were present in the country; perhaps the system of many farms within a village developed under the influence of Germanization. One may think that most villages were found on the property of a noble or half-noble, who might have had his permanent residence there also13. The first settlements were the living place of an individual family, from which emerged many settlements with names which referred to the natural condition of the place. These settlements in many cases lay in proximity to running water; the place name Kernein, e.g., is interpreted as "settlement at the water course."
Duke Heinrich the Bearded of Silesia (since 1228 on the throne of Krakau), in 1231 is heir to Wladyslaw the Elder, sovereign of one part of Greater Poland, who died as landless fugitive, and begins to take away the country from his grandson Wladyslaw Odonicz, who holds the other part. In the peace treaty of 1234 he receives all areas left of the Warta and in addition the citadel Zantoch. Heinrich as well as Wladyslaw was anxious to encourage the settlement of the knights and monk orders and in this way promote the German culture. If we consider all those awards and confirmations of goods towards the orders, their quantity, their extension, we cannot content ourselves by explaining this generosity by referring to the known attitude of Wladyslaw to the clergy alone. The orders usually settled on large country roads, where they then took care of order and safety, also serving the interest of merchants in increased traffic. Border zones were preferred for these reasons as well. They all were brought into the hands of the orders, although they remained at the disposal the ruler according to the conception of that time. There were therefore thoroughly peaceful intents which guided the conduct of the Duke Wladyslaw and his princely contemporaries. Since donations to the church were generous mainly at the boundaries, Duke Przemysl, son of Wladyslaw Od., in 1252 had recovered the later Kreis Landsberg for the Citadel Zantoch.
There were no monasteries within the area of the later Neumark. The Cistercian settlements which bordered here, Kolbatz and Paradies, were not essentially Slavic at this time. Southeast of Seeren the Cistercian monastery of Paradies stood since 1234/6, 2 miles north of Schwiebus, a daughter of the Havellandian Lehnin. During more than 20 years it had taken over a large number of estates, but not much seems to have happened in these decades for a real German colonization. The number of estates owned by the monastery Paradies climbed continually, however; in 1257 the monastery already owned 28 villages outside the later Kreis Schwiebus. Even the village Kernein next to Zantoch belonged to it since 1252. In any case the parent monasteries at this time began to encourage German settlement in order to make their possessions useful. A similar emphasis on the Germanization of the villages can be seen at Paradies, where success increased after the area at the western border had become part of the March.
By far the most outstanding activity of the order was the Germanization and Christianizing of the country of the Wends in northeast Germany14. The Cistercians were especially effective. No order had such organizational unity; the influence of the parent-monasteries was unusual. Now all the parent-monasteries lay in German area. From there the filial monasteries draw their inhabitants, from there they were inspected. The monasteries of the country of the Wends still required much subsidy. Considering the large extent of the district transferred to them, they stood in need of many workers and so they certainly will have had a continuous supply from the parent-monasteries. Many of the settlers without doubt originated from older parts of the March. In addition, constitutional changes beginning in Lower Saxony made many people "freeholders" and they looked for new properties in the country east of the Elbe.
The monastery Lehnin, parent-monastery of Paradies, was the oldest and most considerable of all in the March. It owned 24 villages and several outworks, among them the village Schmergow;15 not far away lay Schmersau near Stendal. From this area, therefore, around 1260 the new farmers came, and the village Kernein was settled by them. And even though the possibility of Slav ancestors in Kernein in the 13th century cannot be excluded, it is probable that the Schmerse, as new settlers, brought along their surname as a derivation of their origin.
Sources:
1. Prof. Dr. sc. Ernst Eichler, Leipzig: pers. Mitteilung an Herbert Schmerse.
2. Prof. Dr. Andrzej Z. Bzdega, Leiter der Abteilung Deutsche Sprache im Institut für germanische Philologie der Universität Posen: pers. Mitteilung an Herbert Schmerse.
3. Gottschald, Max: Deutsche Namenkunde, Berlin 1971
4. Kalina, P. : Handwörterbuch polnisch-deutsch, Wiedza Powszechna, Warszawa 1963. Piprek, J. et al. : Großwörterbuch Polnisch-Deutsch, Warszawa 1986. Chodera, J. ; Kubica, St. : Handwörterbuch Deutsch-Polnisch, Warszawa 1979.
5. Bahlow, Hans: Deutsches Namenlexikon, München 1967
6. Bach, Adolf: Deutsche Namenkunde, Heidelberg 1952
7. Heintze-Cascorbi: Die deutschen Familiennamen, Halle/Berlin 1933
8. Petzolds Gemeinde- und Ortslexikon, Bischofswerda 1911
9. Seeliger, Oskar: Geschichte des Kirchspiels Schmarse, Landsberg 1915
10. Eichler, Ernst: Die Ortsnamen der Niederlausitz, Bautzen 1975
11. Berghaus, Heinrich: Landbuch der Mark Brandenburg ..., Brandenburg 1856
12. Zedler, Johann Heinrich: Grosses vollständiges Lexikon, Leipzig und Halle 1743, Nachdruck Graz 1961
13. von Nießen, Paul: Geschichte der Neumark im Zeitalter ihrer Entstehung und Besiedlung, 1905
14. Winter, Franz: die Zisterzienser des nordöstlichen Deutschlands, Gotha 1868, Neudruck Aalen 1966
15. Klöden, Karl: Die Mark Brandenburg unter Kaiser Karl IV. bis zu ihrem ersten Hohenzollerschen Regenten, oder: Die Quitzows und ihre Zeit. Berlin 1836/7
16. A Kreis is part of a state or Land and is equivalent to the American county.
