Emigrations from Römerstadt
Emigration of the Brixels from Römerstadt took place at different times. These focal points are recognizable:
from early 19th century within Moravia, and also to Prussian Silesia;
from mid 19th century within Austria;
from late 19th century to Germany, and also to Brazil;
later individually to other countries.
In the Römerstadt parishes, the weaving craft was inherited from generation to generation. Even in the 20th century, individual Brixels were still working as weavers in Römerstadt. Exceptionally, a weaver took his weaving business far away, as reported by Franz Brixel (1840) of his father in Graz. However, usually regional moves also meant professional changes.
The invention of the Jacquard machine in 1805 soon changed the living conditions of weaver craftsmen drastically. The industrial revolution created new jobs, however also led to social hardship. Neighbouring Prussia saw the Silesian weavers’ uprising in 1844, and the Austrian Empire the revolution 1848/49.
Here, the current country names are used. For example, historically there was no “Germany”, but a Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (until 1806), then individual “German” kingdoms such as Württemberg and Prussia, then the German Empire. Moravia was predominantly ruled by the Kingdom of Bohemia and thus by the Habsburg dynasty, from 1804 the Austrian Empire, and between 1867 and 1918 the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Moravia became part of the newly founded Czechoslovakia in 1918 (and the ‘Sudeten Germans’ officially became citizens of Czechoslovakia in 1919 with the Treaty of Saint-Germain), and has been part of the Czech Republic since 1993.
Within Moravia
First entries in church registers of the county Römerstadt (Rýmařov) start in the 1750s in the parishes Harrachsdorf (Harrachov) and Rosendorf (Růžová) with the births of first Anton´s and then his brothers´ children. One generation later, first entries appear in neighbouring parishes, foremost in more industrial Janowitz/Johnsdorf (Janovice/Janušov), since 1805 also in neighboring eastern parishes (Braunseifen (Ryžoviště, Brunzeif), then Großstohl (Velká Štáhle) and Friedland an der Mohrau (Břidličná)).
Brixels began to move from Römerstadt into urban settlements and took new professions. A great-grandson of Augustin moved to Mährisch-Neustadt (Uničov) as early as 1831. From 1852, parish register entries are seen in other North Moravian cities. Besides factory workers, there are now teachers and pastors, then also merchants, tax inspectors, lawyers and doctors.
With increasing competition by the power loom, the Brixels began to move from Römerstadt into urban settlements, and started to take over other professions. Already in 1831, a great-grandchild of Augustin move into the ‘flatlands’ to Mährisch-Neustadt (Uničov), initially still in the weaving business. In 1842, a family settled in Mährisch-Schönberg (Šumperk). In 1844, Brixels settled in the northern industrial settlements at the foot of the High Ash Mountains (Klein-Mohrau (Malá Morávka) and Karlsdorf (Karlov pod Pradědem)), working as blacksmiths. Besides factory workers, we find increasingly middle-class occupations – first teachers and priests, then also merchants, tax inspectors, lawyers, physicians.
Within Austria
Evidence of early migration of the Brixels within the Austrian Empire can be found in parish registers. There are indications of isolated emigration of Brixels from Moravia as early as the 5th generation, in the 18th century. The oldest available documentation records the death of a Joseph Brixel (grandchild of Augustin) in Vienna in 1794 at the age of 26. No descendants are known.
A first Brixel family in Vienna was established from 1811 in Lichtental by journeyman Hubert (great-grandchild of Augustin) from Römerstadt. After the death of his first wife and remarriage, he returned with his family as master weaver to his home town in Northern Moravia.
The first permanent family establishment in Vienna (parishes Reindorf and Gumpendorf) came with a weaving family from Silesian Neustadt. Among them was the later, long-term principal of the Horak Music Schools, Franz Brixel (1852). Further details as well as later family migrations, among them the writer Franz Brixel (1840), can be found in the members area.
Most references to Brixels in international databases come from Austrian records. This is understandable, because the migration from Moravia to the heartland of Austria was not a migration to a “foreign” country.
To Germany
Isolated records mention 2nd and 3rd generation Brixels in southwestern Germany. At least in one case, it is assumed to be related to a younger brother of Melchior, with the name Caspar. From mid 18th century, there are no further church records of Brixels in southwestern Germany, and so it is also assumed, that no independent, permanent lines had been established.
Unlike the migration from Moravia to Vienna or Graz in Austria, the migration to Germany was an international one, as it was to foreign kingdoms (Württemberg, Saxony, Prussia). First permanent migrations are documented only after the creation of the German Empire in 1871. The family branches established until World War One are described in the members area.
By far the largest wave took place during and immediately after the Second World War with the expulsion of the (Sudeten) Germans in 1945 and 1946. Most of the Brixels now living in Germany can probably be attributed to this phase.
To Brazil
Documented is the entry of a Johann with his wife and two daughters into the province of Rio Grande do Sul in 1877, by ship from Hamburg. In the 19th century, there was a long-term German colonization supported by the Brazilian government (today there are around 5-12 million Brazilians of German descent, or 3-5% of the total population).
The passenger documents 1877 show:
Johann, born ca 1847, worker from Römerstadt, with wife Victoria (ca 1849) and children Maria (ca 1870) and
Anna (ca 1875). Their son Gustavo was born in Brazil in 1890. He registered the birth of his 10 children in Curitiba in the South Brazilian state Paraná, in the years 1908 to 1929.
Currently, a few dozen if not more than 100 Brixels are living in Brazil, mostly in Curitiba, most probably all descendants from the first immigration family.
Individually to other countries
Hungary
A family line living in Hungary can be traced back to a Franz Karl, descending from Brixels from Römerstadt. He was born in 1889 in Karlsdorf in Moravia and died in Budapest in 1949. The move to Budapest took place at the time of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy, and his children were given Hungarian (spelling of) first names in 1915 and 1917: Ferenc József and László Gyula.
USA
The first Brixel family documented in the USA is that of a Leopold, born 1853 in Römerstadt, who arrived from Liverpool in 1880 and immediately married. Leopold is great-grandson of Johannes (1757). His 2 daughters have descendants, but no name-bearers Brixel.
The few Brixels currently living in the USA all arrived or were born there after World War II.
France
Civil registry documents from the 17th to the 19th century show a few Brixel names, exclusively in Cote-du-Nord in the Bretagne. The spelling seems to have derived from the family name Brexel which had been in use locally already in 1630, and that spelling was resumed from 1875. There is no connection to this Brixel family of Swiss/Moravian origin.