![Barfüsserkirche Treppe Fundort](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Barf%C3%BCsserkirche_Treppe_Fundort.jpeg/1200px-Barf%C3%BCsserkirche_Treppe_Fundort.jpeg)
Anna Catharina Bischoff (23 March 1719 – 30 August 1787), also known as the "Lady (or mummy) of the Barfüsser Church" was the wife of the
pastor
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
Lucas Gernler. She gained popularity in 1975, when her
mummified
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...
corpse was found in a shaft at the Barfüsser Church in Basel in
Switzerland.
History
![Barfüsserplatz 1835](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Barf%C3%BCsserplatz_1835.jpg)
In 1975, the Barfüsser Church underwent a thorough renovation, during which the archaeological department of the city of Basel excavated and documented hundreds of burial sites.
Discovery
On 20 October 1975, workers discovered a brick-walled grave chamber in front of the
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
, containing two well-preserved coffins sitting on a pile of bones. The upper coffin contained the skeleton of a female while the smaller coffin beneath contained the completely mummified corpse of a woman, who would later be known as the "Lady/Mummy of the Barfüsser Church."
First examinations
The woman was buried in a simple spruce wood coffin, her left hand holding her right arm above the wrist. The mummy was mostly intact: only the head and feet had decomposed while parts of her dress and hair were conserved. Her height was 142 cm. Skinfolds point at a stout body.
A first examination in 1976 by
anthropologist Bruno Kaufmann revealed that
Mercury sulfide
Mercury sulfide, or mercury(II) sulfide is a chemical compound composed of the chemical elements mercury and sulfur. It is represented by the chemical formula HgS. It is virtually insoluble in water.
Crystal structure
HgS is dimorphic with ...
(found in the whole body, especially in the lungs), prevented decay and was responsible for the mummification. Atmospheric conditions within the coffin and grave chamber also prevented
microbes
A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...
from breaking down the corpse.
Recent research
Since 2015, the mummy has been investigated using modern methods at the
Natural History Museum of Basel
Natural History Museum Basel (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Basel) is a natural history museum in Basel, Switzerland that houses wide-ranging collections focused on the fields of zoology, entomology, mineralogy, anthropology, osteology and pal ...
.
Computer tomography revealed
atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis in which the wall of the artery develops abnormalities, called lesions. These lesions may lead to narrowing due to the buildup of atheromatous plaque. At onset there are usually no s ...
of the abdominal
aorta
The aorta ( ) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries). The aorta distributes o ...
and
gallstones
A gallstone is a stone formed within the gallbladder from precipitated bile components. The term cholelithiasis may refer to the presence of gallstones or to any disease caused by gallstones, and choledocholithiasis refers to the presence of mi ...
, pointing at a diet consisting mainly of carbohydrates and fatty meat. During her lifetime, the woman had lost all the teeth in her upper jaw due to a sugary diet and oral hygiene neglect; her lower incisors and canines, although
decayed, were preserved.
![Behandlung mit Quecksilberdämpfen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Behandlung_mit_Quecksilberd%C3%A4mpfen.jpeg/1200px-Behandlung_mit_Quecksilberd%C3%A4mpfen.jpeg)
The detection of
Mercury in the lungs and other organs of Anna Catharina Bischoff led the medical historians of the 1970s to the conclusion that the woman had undergone a mercury inhalation therapy. In those days, it was the usual method of treatment, which, however, was only administered to patients with severe cases of
syphilis.
Modern analytical methods for measuring the level of mercury exposure indicate that the amount administered was below the threshold to have caused
mercury poisoning. Mercury was indeed found in the body of Anna Catharina Bischoff, but with the data available at present, it is not possible to ascertain whether this had actually led to her death. Thus, the cause of her death cannot be proven beyond doubt. Further investigation is necessary to indicate whether this was caused by the syphilis or a combination of syphilis and mercury exposure.
Identification
![Aktennotiz Blendinger](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Aktennotiz_Blendinger.jpg)
According to the prominent position of her grave, it can be deduced that the deceased was a member of a privileged class—the location was reserved for members of the high clergy or dignitaries.
Church archive documents show that the shaft in front of the choir had been opened once before 1843 when the nave of the church was transformed into a commercial warehouse. When the workers lifted the memorial slab labeled number 11, they discovered a grave underneath with three coffins. In 2016, Marie-Louise Gamma and Diana Gysin, members of Basel's citizen-researchers who discover and transcribe historic sources, discovered the relevant text in contractor Blendinger's notes, describing the text on the memorial slab as follows (in the original in German):
''Memorial slab no. 11, walled grave, contains 3 coffins. Here rests with God the noble and honorable Isaak Byschoff, former Hospital Master, died peacefully on 2 November 1709. At the age of 67 years minus ... months. Awaiting his Blissful resurrection in Jesus Christ. Here rests with God the honorable and virtuous Catharina Gyssendorfferin, housemistress, wife of Isaak Byschoff, the former Hospital Master. Died blissfully on 9 August ao 1697, aged 41 years. Awaiting blissful resurrection. (105)''
The number 105 references the memorial slab register of the Barfüsser Church of 1771, containing 110 family gravesites and information about the buried. It is kept in the State Archive of Basel City as StABS Bauakten JJ 32 bis 33’. In position 105 for the gravesite of the Hospital Master Bischoff, it is noted that his granddaughter Anna Catharina Bischoff was buried in August 1787.
Moreover, Blendinger noted:
N.b. Under this slab there was a walled grave (without soil), wherein 2 black and one yellow coffins, all well-preserved, were located. In the two black coffins were male, in the yellow one a small female corpse. They were all well preserved and resembled mummies, for their bodies were dried out only, their clothes still pleated; hair, teeth and fingernails still intact. Once they were taken out and inspected, they were buried again in the crypt, but covered with soil.
Thus for the first time there was a name for the mummy. Blendinger's description of the "small female corpse" coincides with the mummy of Anna Catharina Bischoff exhumed in 1975 for the second time.
Genealogy
![Boris Johnson official portrait (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Boris_Johnson_official_portrait_%28cropped%29.jpg)
A research team of the Institute of Mummy Research of
Eurac Research
Eurac Research is a private research center headquartered in Bolzano, South Tyrol. The center has eleven institutes and five centers. Eurac Research has more than 800 partners spread across 56 countries. Eurac Research collaborates with internatio ...
in
Bozen
Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...
succeeded in isolating the
mitochondrial DNA of the mummy and identifying a variant of the
haplogroup U, providing the basis for scientific identification. Female descendants of the mummy needed to be found to compare their saliva with the mummy's DNA. The team of genealogists of Basel's citizen-researchers undertook this painstaking task and drew a family tree of the female line with information drawn from church and marriage records and internet groups. (A further project of the Citizen Science was, for example, the research on
Theo the Pipe Smoker.)
Justina Froben, born 1512, was identified as Anna Catharina Bischoff's oldest ancestor, seven generations back: the daughter of the printer
Johann Froben in Basel. From her, Marie-Louise Gamma and Diana Gysin were able to reconstruct an uninterrupted female line over 15 generations, from the beginning of the 16th century to Rosemary Probst-Ryhiner in the present. A second line was identified in the US, to where one of Anna Catharina Bischoff's descendants had emigrated in the 19th century. DNA samples of both families were
analysed, both revealing a coincidence with the mummy's DNA of over 99.8%. It was thereby proven that Anna Catharina Bischoff, born on 23 March 1719 in
Strasbourg, was buried on 30 August 1787 in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
.
A direct connection through Anna Catharina Bischoff's son-in-law Christian Friedrich Pfeffel von Kriegelstein leads to the British politician
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
; his great-grandmother was Marie Luise
von Pfeffel. A
World News BBC team travelled to the media event in Basel's Natural History Museum in January 2018 to report on the forebear of the prominent politician.
Life
Anna Catharina Bischoff, granddaughter to Hospital Master Isaak Bischoff, stemmed from an old Basel lineage. She was born on 23 March 1719 as the oldest of five siblings, of which only her younger sister Anna Margaretha survived past childhood. Her parents were the reformed pastor Johann Jakob Bischoff (1683–1733) and Augusta Margaretha Burckhardt (1697–1735). The family was well-off and lived in the centre of Strasbourg in a ten-room, two-story house with a maid.
Her father died in 1733 aged 49, when Anna Catharina was 14. The same year, the widow Augusta Margaretha Burckhardt returned with her two young daughters to Basel, her city of origin. Just before the move, Anna Catharina met her future husband, Lucas Gernler (1704–1781), 15 years her senior. In 1732/33 he acted as a substitute for her father in
Wolfisheim
Wolfisheim (; Alsatian: ''Wolfze'') is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Its synagogue, built in 1897, is a listed monument.
Population
See also
* Communes of the Bas-Rhin department
The foll ...
, where services were held. Later, he would be his successor.
After their wedding in 1738 in Basel, the couple returned to Strasbourg, where Anna Catherina gave birth to seven children, of which only two daughters survived past childhood. Augusta remained single and the other, Anna Katharina Gernler (1739–1776), married the German historian and diplomat Christian Friedrich Pfeffel von Kriegelstein. She died in Versailles in 1776 aged 37.
In 1781, Lucas Gernler died from a stroke aged 77, leaving behind countless letters and a church
hymnal
A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Chr ...
; a year later, Anna Catharina, then 62, moved to Basel. Until her death she likely lived with her younger sister Anna Margareta Geymüller-Bischoff (1724–1804), who had married a wealthy trader.
Anna Catharina's great-grandson Karl Maximilian von Pfeffel (1811–1890) later married the illegitimate daughter of
Prince Paul of Württemberg
Prince Paul of Württemberg (Paul Heinrich Karl Friedrich August; 19 January 1785 – 16 April 1852) was the fourth child and second son of King Frederick I and his wife, Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
Early life
Paul was born in St ...
, Karoline von Rothenburg. The couple are the great-great-grandparents of Boris Johnson, who thereby is a descendant of the lady of the Barfüsser Church in the seventh generation.
Open questions
A team of 40 from the fields of
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
,
genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
,
forensic medicine,
molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
,
history of medicine
The history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies.
More than just histo ...
and
toxicology
Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating e ...
conducted the research underpinning the identification of the dead woman. Despite these comprehensive inquiries, several questions remain open, such as:
* What is the significance of the striking position of the hands?
* What happened to the two mummies of males mentioned 1843 by Blendinger?
* What is the origin of the skeleton found in 1975 in the upper coffin? The skull belongs to a roughly 25-year-old man, the rest of the skeleton to a roughly 40-year-old woman. It could be the remains of Catharina's grandmother Catharina Gysendörffer, buried in 1697 aged 41. The identity of the male, to whom the skull belonged, has not been ascertained.
[Spektrum der Wissenschaft; Spezial Archäologie - Geschichte - Kultur 3/2018, S. 82]
* Was there a correspondence between Anna Catharina Bischoff and her daughter Katharina Gernler (1739-1776)? If yes, in which archive could the letters been found?
* Is there a portrait of Anna Catharina Bischoff and her husband Lucas Gernler?
The team keeps researching with the objective to answer the open questions and to make the life and work of Anna Catharina Bischoff available to a wider interested public in form of a book. The research is undertaken in cooperation with the History Department of the
University of Basel
The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...
and coordinated at the Basel's Museum of Natural History.
References
Citations
External links
Natural History Museum of Basel: photos, family treeAlois Feusi, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, january 2018Guardian, january 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bischoff, Anna Catharina
1719 births
1787 deaths
People from Basel-Stadt
Mummies
1975 archaeological discoveries