Mayor Tobias Holländer (1636 - 1711) on a painting
In history books, Hofen is mentioned in 1258 for the first time as »Hof zu Hova«. At the beginning, the estate belonged to the monastery St Georgen in Stein am Rhein, in the 15th century the ownership changed to the lords from Stoffeln. It was only in the year 1538 that the estate was sold to Schaffhausen. From 1660 the estate »Hof zu Hova« belonged to Mayor Johann Mäder from Schaffhausen.
Tobias Holländer was born on 24th February 1636 as the son of Conrad Holländer from Basle. In the same year he got the civil rights of Schaffhausen. His career started with the professions parson and teacher. Soon, he went on studying at different universities until 1661 when he became a member of the tanner's guild and was also elected to the district parliament called »Kleiner Rat«.
Mayor Tobias Holländer (1636 - 1711) on a painting
Soon he made an impressive career. In 1665 he became the judge of the administered area of Thayngen, in 1672 treasurer, in 1679 landvogt of Thayngen, in 1678 the title »von Berau« was bestowed (from Berau) on him, in 1682 he was appointed as town clerk and in 1683 he became a mayor and hold so held the highest political rank in Schaffhausen.
The letter from prince Carl Ludwig for the elevation of Tobias Holländer
to the nobility, issued on 15th January 1678
On 18th January 1684, Tobias Holländer bought the »Hof zu Hova« for 1100 florins (Gulden) and built then his manor house, the famous Holländer's house.
Front view of the Holländer's house: The manor house of Tobias
Holländer
Holländer was very ambitious, his model was Ludwig XIV. Therefore he built on his estate a little fortress. Some parts of the wall encircling his estate are still visible nowadays. Even a small army was part of his little empire so he also built barracks for his bodyguards.
The Kaserne (barracks), the accommodation of Holländer's private army.
A white lily served as the characteristic symbol on the banner of his army. It is still visible on the red shutters of the barracks. The heraldic animal of the family Holländer was the lion, the heraldic animal of Holländer's origin, the Netherlands. It is still preserved in the flag of the community Hofen.
The flag of Hofen with the heraldic animal, the lion, the symbol for power.
Between the Holländer's house and the barracks, where there are several greenhouses of Weber's market garden nowadays, there was the parade ground of Holländer's army.
Holländer's goal was to come to power over the whole Reiat. At that time, the remaining part of the Reiat belonged to Austria. The town of Schaffhausen had only its rights over the area against a pledge of 20,000 florins for 15 years. Since the Austrian emperor would not do business with him, he tried to acquire the land with all sorts of tricks and lies, though he didn't succeed. As a consequence of this failure he lost the confidence of the people in the Reiat and moreover he was charged for abuse of his authority. A fee of 200 florins was imposed on him. As a result of this affair he became weary of his post as mayor of Schaffhausen and on 11th March 1695 he declared his voluntary resignation. Afterwards he lived the life of a recluse in his miniature palace.
In the year 1699 he obtained again the post as mayor of the town Schaffhausen and was also engaged to negotiate once more with Austria about the take-over of the Reiat. This attempt failed miserably again. The small »dictator« died on 31st August 1711 at the age of 75.
Owing to the different interests of Austria and Schaffhausen, in 1716 Johann Felix Wepfer was sent to Vienna. After long-lasting and tenacious negotiations he persuaded the Austrian emperor finally to sell the Reiat to Schaffhausen. In 1723 the Reiat changed its owner for 221,744 florins. Since then, the Reiat has belonged definitely to Schaffhausen and to Switzerland. At the same time the »Hof zu Hova« was renamed with its modern name »Hofen«.
After the death of Tobias Holländer, the property was bequeathed to three grandchildren of his. The heirs sold the estate to the community of Bibern and to citizens of Bibern afterwards. The community of Bibern split up its part among 24 citizens. Therefore at the end of 18th century, all Holländer estates belonged to the district of Bibern.
Subsequently, some people from Bibern moved to Hofen and cultivated their land. In the course of the years the village developed an extensive autonomy by making use of the constitution and laws in a clever way. An own district council was elected of their own. Finally only the poorhouse and the administration of estates united Hofen to its maternal community Bibern. In 1838 the people of Hofen founded their own school for their children. They didn't want their children hanging around by water and bread over noon in the wintertime. The call for independence became louder. Four petitions were submitted to the government in Schaffhausen, however each time without success. The endeavour always failed at the question of the allocation of the burden for the poor. 40 families with the civil right of Bibern resided out of the village, most of them were poor and they had to be backed by the community. Bibern feared a costs explosion at the burden of the community if the costs for poor people were not enjoyed on both communities.
At the fifth attempt, the desired separation succeeded after tenacious debates. The fifth petition was launched by the district councillor Jakob Bührer who became finally the first mayor of Hofen. Based on the development of the village, the Hofemer struggled for their independence. Bibern was still in fear of the financial burden and begged the canton parliament (Grosser Rat) to refuse.
The cantonal parliament issued a decree that both villages should be separated in many spheres but should, however, have only one council and one mayor in common. Bibern was not prepared to compromise. Its objection was based on the premise that the decree would break a law of the constitution of the canton. (Extract from the constitution: »Each community has the right to vote its own mayor.«). The opinion of Bibern was: if both communities should be separated, the separation should be rigorous. The cantonal parliament agreed and issued a new decree in which both communities should be declared as politically completely independent.
As a result of a dispute about a boundary between the two villages - the senior civil servant had to intervene - the independence of Hofen was not until the 1st June 1861, the Hofen's Independence Day. The celebration of its independence was just a small-scale affair. The actual celebration had taken place already in the previous year with bread, cheese and wine.
Nowadays the Hofemer are still proud of their independence and don't think about amalgamation with neighbouring villages. Examples of joining together in the German neighbourhood act more as a deterrent to the population of the Unterer Reiat. In spite of that the communities co-operate in many fields nowadays.
Industrialisation began also in Hofen in the 19th century. In the year 1834 the brick factory Hofen was established. Its production did not start however until 1861. From 1870 the factory belonged to the »Vereinigte Ziegelfabriken Thayngen, Hofen und Rickelshausen« (united brick factories of Thayngen, Hofen and Rickelshausen).
The brick factory during its heyday
This factory produced bricks, pipes of clay and tiles which have partly remained on roofs of old buildings. The business had at least 100 employees. The clay was extracted in the »Lättgrueb« and transported with the help of a cable railway to the factory which was 400 m away. As a result of the exhaustion of clay, the factory had to be stopped in 1917. As a remnant of these days, there is still the channel dam bridge at the Wuhr which spans the Biber.
120 years ago, Hofen enjoyed an extensive trade. There was a smith, a bricklayer, a carpenter, a glazier, a weaver, a baker, a butcher and many more. Furthermore there was a grocery until 1984, a petrol station until 1978 and there were also two inns.
Old postcard dated back to 1893
Both these inns were the Schweizerbund, shown on the postcard above, and the Hirschen.