Keeper of the Seven Secret: New field juror in Gauting

Created: 05/10/2022, 19:11

Georg Mühlbauer was officially sworn in by Mayor Dr.

Brigitte Kössinger in the town hall.

© Municipality

Field juror Georg Mühlbauer was sworn in in Gautinger town hall.

There are currently only four people in the village who actively exercise the oldest communal honorary office in Bavaria.

Gauting – Mayor Dr.

Brigitte Kössinger the new Gautinger field jury Georg Mühlbauer on Thursday in the town hall.

The retired sports and technology teacher from Stockdorf is now working with surveyors throughout the community.

When he was sworn in, Mühlbauer pledged himself “to keep the Siebener secret and to maintain secrecy for life”.

The 72-year-old is one of seven field jurors in Gauting who are called to help by the surveying authorities in border disputes.

Field jury member Rainer Fuchs conceded at Mühlbauer's swearing-in that this oldest municipal honorary post in Bavaria was a bit outdated.

The field jury has been documented since the Middle Ages.

During the Napoleonic era, when cadastral plans for the military were introduced in Bavaria in 1801, the field jurors were assigned to the then newly created state surveying offices.

That's how it is to this day.

The seven-secret goes back to an old tradition, explained the historian Fuchs.

Field juries once marked property boundaries with secret signs made of metal, glass or clay.

And they were only allowed to pass this secret on to the successor orally.

Since there must always be a majority in border disputes, the odd number seven is fixed, Fuchs continues.

That's why there are seven field jurors in Gauting, including Brigitte Lenker from Buchendorf as the only woman.

But since you take on volunteering for life and you have to be physically fit in order to uncover hidden boundary stones from compost heaps or fields, "we only have four active people at the moment," says Fuchs.

In any case, the newly sworn Georg Mühlbauer feels fit.

His first trial was on the large meadow between Würm and Gautinger Trinklhochhaus on Grubmühlerfeldstrasse, he said.

He likes the opportunity to get to know the Würmtal community better through this voluntary work and to get in touch with new people.  

Christine Cless-Wesle