Lorber or Lorbeer is a surname with German roots (Lorbeer means Laurel in German).
Origin and meaning
The name "Lorber" probably derives from the German name of the spice Bay Laurel ("Lorbeer") and could therefore refer to an activity as a spice merchant.
Known family branches
Nobility
Two aristocratic families by name Lorber are mentioned by nobility directories. Although they share the same name, there seems to be no connection between these families.
Lorber (von Störchen)
The family (von) Lorber, also called "Lorber von Störchen", was found over the centuries in the City Council Bamberg and among the servants of the Prince Bishops.
The family was found up to the Secularization of the Prince-Bishopric of 1802 among the leading offices of the Bishopric and the Council of the City. The last known name carrier was Ignatz Nepomuck Lorber von Störchen (1788–1857). The street name "Lorbersgasse" in Bamberg is keeping the memory of the distinct family.
History
These Franconian, later Bavarian noble family was mentioned the first time in 1394: A certain Clas or Niklas Lorber is known as a master chef of the Prince-Bishop Lamprecht von Brunn. The historian Konrad Arneth expressed the assumption that there may be a connection to a (still existing) farmer family branch from Stübig. Therefore, it might be possible that the name (after the spice "bay"), is associated with this task as cook.
The family remained in the service of the Prince Bishops and quickly rose through the ranks to able-bodied citizens of the city council. 1412 is Clas Lorber (perhaps the chef said) named as mayor of Bamberg.
The family seems to have come quickly to prosperity in addition to their position in the council. 1445 the family donated a chapel dedicated to Saint Pancras of Rome. 1462 on today's "Am Kranen 14" – the former town port on the banks of the Regnitz – the "Kupferhof der Lorber" (copper-yard) was mentioned. This the copper trading post remained at least until 1635 in family ownership.
1546 Pankraz Lorber is listed as owner of the “Haus unter den Störchen” ("house among the storks") in today's "Dominikanerstraße 4". Meanwhile, this building is located in the well-known Bamberg inn, the "Schlenkerla".
Remaining for generations among the leading families of Bamberg, it was granted to the peerage on September 1, 1571, by Emperor Maximilian II. The document then lists the five surviving sons of Pankraz Lorber as the receivers of the diploma. In the course of the survey the arms of the family had been relieved. The Shield (five silver lilies on a red shield) remained, the ridge has been replaced by a coronet, which were originally silver buffalo horns in the crest now alternately red and silver divided and among them was another silver lily added.
To differentiate from other lines of bourgeois and peasant Lorber-named cousins, the family took the name "Lorber von Störchen". The epithet may refer to either the first known residents of the Austraße 33 (but of 1571 no longer inhabited by the family) or the aforementioned "Haus unter den Störchen" in the Dominkanerstraße. This property was sold in 1677 to the Dominican Order.
Michael Lorber von Störchen, a son of one of the brothers ennobled, wrote a family chronicle in 1613. The family treasures included a silver bowl "of 2 marks and 1 ounce of weight," which Michael, Pancraz and Jobst Justus Lorber decreed in her will. The bowl showed the arms of the Lorber and closely related Haller-family, and the oldest of the family should be inherited.
The Lorbers over the centuries produced many scholars, especially the lawyers and Councillors Thomas Johann Jakob Lorber of storks (1695–1734) or his son Johann Nepomuk Ignatz Christoph Lorber of storks (1725–1797).
The feud of the family were scattered across the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg. In addition to houses and fields in Bamberg, possessions were also mentioned in Zeil am Main and Scheßlitz. Last family seat was the "Lorberhof" on Jakobsplatz 15 in Bamberg. Unlike the still surviving (albeit uncommon) house name suggests, it was only a few decades in the hands of the family and is now the “Don Bosco St. Joseph's home” as a youth accommodation.