The name

Hegnau stories: Vom Guggu und andere wahre Hegnauer Geschichten (VOV, 2010)

27 September 2026 · 11 min read

A booklet of thirteen traditional stories about Hegnau (Volketswil ZH), the village the surname comes from. Read in full on 27 September 2026 from the text layer of the publisher's PDF. The owner approved extracting that text locally; the illustrations were not seen. The booklet is copyrighted (© VOV 2010), so this note summarises it in our own words and quotes only a few words where the wording matters. No copy of the booklet or of its text is kept in the repo. The study chapter built on it is Hegnau.

Citation

Full form: Madeleine Jordi and Mayken Strub (collectors), Vom Guggu und andere wahre Hegnauer Geschichten, illustrated by Beni Merk (Volketswil: VOV Verein Ortsgeschichte Volketswil, 2010), 36 pp. Published for the jubilee festival of 22–23 October 2010, "200 Jahre Schule Chappeli". PDF on the publisher's site: vov-volketswil.ch/fileadmin/tb_theme/1_medien/dokumente/gedenkschriften/vom_guggu_und_andere_wahre_hegnauer_geschichten.pdf (accessed 27 September 2026).

Short form: Jordi and Strub, Vom Guggu (VOV, 2010), p. n.

Imprint (p. 4):

The title on the imprint page is Geschichtensammlung: Vom Guggu und andere wahre Hegnauer Geschichten ("a collection of stories").
It was published for the jubilee festival of 22/23 October 2010, "200 Jahre Schule Chappeli": two hundred years of the school in the Chappeli, Hegnau's old chapel.
The stories were collected by Madeleine Jordi and Mayken Strub of the VOV.
The illustrations are by Beni Merk of Winterthur, a teacher at the Feldhof school (p. 3).
Publisher: VOV Verein Ortsgeschichte Volketswil, Chronikstube, Zentralstrasse 14, 8604 Volketswil. Its postal address is Postfach 39, 8605 Gutenswil.
Coordination and production: Ruedi Schulthess, VOV. Printer: Druckerei Karl Schwegler AG, 8050 Zürich-Oerlikon.
Price CHF 5.00, described as a contribution to costs. © VOV 2010.
The VOV lists it among its Gedenkschriften (commemorative booklets), next to two booklets on the Chappeli school (see "Still to read").

Pages. The PDF has 36 pages. The printed page numbers match the PDF page numbers, counting the cover as p. 1.

Pp. 11, 14, 17 and 25 have only a page number in the text layer, probably because they are full-page illustrations.
Pp. 34–35 have no text, and p. 36 is the back cover.
The PDF's embedded creation date, 23 April 2006 (Adobe Illustrator CS2), is earlier than the imprint. It probably belongs to the cover design. Cite the imprint's date, 2010.

Outline

The source column gives the source each story names at its end. "Binder" means the local-studies binder of the Volketswil schools (Heimatkundeordner Schule Volketswil).

Page(s)	Content	Gist	Source named
1	Cover	The VOV as publisher, the title, and the society's vertical wordmark "Ortsgeschichteverein Volketswil"	—
2	Inside cover	Page number only	—
3	Foreword, signed by the VOV	The stories have passed by word of mouth for centuries. About 1990 ("twenty years ago") the local-studies team at the Feldhof school added Guggu stories to Volketswil's local-studies teaching materials, helped by the village chronicler Jörg Elmer, who has since died. Jordi and Strub collected and edited the stories, and Merk illustrated them. The VOV asks readers for further Hegnau stories.	—
4	Imprint	See above	—
5	Contents	Thirteen stories	—
6–7	Vom Guggu (The cuckoo)	The villagers fence in a tree to keep the money-bringing cuckoo, which has already flown	Binder
8–9	Vom grünen Sonntagsrock (The green Sunday coat)	The village tries to push the chapel away from the road, using the Untervogt's coat as a marker	Jörg Elmer; binder
10 (11 illus.)	Das Eselei (The donkey's egg)	The council goes to Zürich to order the Chappeli's bell and brings home a pumpkin to hatch	Jacques Frei of Hofstetten near Elgg
12	Die Glocke (The bell)	In wartime the bell is sunk in the Greifensee, and its place is marked on the boat	Jacques Frei of Hofstetten near Elgg
13, 15 (14 illus.)	Die Hegnauer messen die Tiefe ihres Brunnens (The Hegnauers measure the depth of their well)	A human chain down the draw-well, until the top man lets go	Binder
16 (17 illus.)	Eine Volkszählung in Hegnau (A census in Hegnau)	A headcount taken with nose-prints in a cowpat	Binder
18	Wie man in Hegnau Nägel machte (How Hegnau made nails)	Pins are planted in the fields to grow nails	Binder
19	Aushub beim Bau des Chappeli (The spoil from building the Chappeli)	A new hole is dug to bury the spoil	Volketswiler Neujahrsblatt 1974
20–21	Das Gras auf dem Kirchdach (The grass on the church roof)	A goat is hoisted up to graze the shingle roof and is dead when it arrives	Binder
22	Wie die Hegnauer ihre Häuser heizten (How the Hegnauers heated their houses)	A bonfire in the village square, and every door and window thrown open	Binder
23	Heuwätter flüg uf Hegnau zue! ("Hay weather, fly to Hegnau!")	"Hay weather" is bought in a box from a Zürich apothecary, and a hornet flies out	Alfred Temperli, Gutenswil
24 (25 illus.)	Ein ungewöhnlicher Schulbesuch (An unusual school inspection)	A school-board farmer inspects Traugott Vogel's school from the seat of his manure cart	Jörg Elmer
26–33	Warum die Hegnauer wasserscheu wurden (Why the Hegnauers became afraid of water)	A poor man is wronged by a rich neighbour, outwits robbers and the neighbour, and finally lures the whole village into the Greifensee. A short glossary on p. 33 explains Taunerhof (smallholding), ferm (sturdy) and Sente (herd).	J. J. Reithard, Zürcher Kalender 1920
34–35	—	Blank	—
36	Back cover	The VOV's name and addresses	—

The Chappeli and its tower in the booklet

The booklet never mentions an onion dome (Zwiebel) or a clock (Uhr).
p. 20: the tower is a Spitzhelmturm, a pointed spire. The roof and spire are covered with old, partly rotten wooden shingles, and the damp north side of the roof is green. In front of the chapel stands "the former manor house of the Freiherr von Hegnau" (the Baron of Hegnau). The booklet gives no name or date for him.
p. 21: the villagers fix a pole with a pulley on the tower to hoist a goat.
p. 10: the council goes to Zürich to order the Chappeli's church bell (later in the story, "the bells").
p. 12: in a war "near Zürich" the villagers sink the bell in the Greifensee from a Nauen, a lake boat. It is said to lie there still. The booklet does not say which war.
p. 8: the chapel (Kirchlein) stands too close to the main road (Landstrasse).
p. 19: the Chappeli is built "an der Usterstrasse" (on the Uster road).
p. 13: a pond lies on the south side of the Alte Gasse, between the Chappeli and the Gupfen.
p. 24: the Chappeli schoolroom (Chappeli-Schulstube), where Traugott Vogel taught the Hegnau children.
p. 4: "200 Jahre Schule Chappeli", celebrated in 2010.

The Chappeli in other sources (read 27 September 2026)

HLS, "Volketswil": the Liebfrauenkapelle (chapel of Our Lady) at Hegnau is dated to the 13th century and is first mentioned in 1503/04.
VOV, "Hegnau" (village timeline):
- The chapel was built in "1300" as a Romanesque chapel of Our Lady. The oldest foundations show a rectangular nave with a narrower choir, slightly wider than it is deep, and small round-arched windows.
- 1503/04: it was enlarged into a Gothic chapel, and the Zürich authorities gave 8 pounds towards it. The VOV prints the entry as "Dänen von Hegnow an ire Kappel", i.e. to those of Hegnau for their chapel.
- 1811: the chapel was rebuilt as Hegnau's schoolhouse.
- 1819: after the rebuilding, Hegnau had a schoolroom.
- Hegnau had its own school from 1667. In 1919 the school communities of the municipality were united.
Zivilstandsamt Volketswil, wedding-venue listing on hochzeit.ch:
- It describes the Chappeli as a building of the early 13th century with a characteristic Zwiebelhelm-Turm (onion-helm tower).
- Its rooms have been carefully restored. Councillors once met there, and farm children learned their ABC in the schoolroom.
- Civil weddings take place in the Freiherren-Stube, in the historic core. The former schoolroom and the Guggunäscht ("cuckoo's nest") can be hired for receptions.
- Address: Alte Gasse 5.
Gemeinde Volketswil, room booking: "Chappeli – Schulstube", the restored schoolroom on the first floor, Alte Gasse 5, 8604 Hegnau.
The sources differ on the date: "13th century" (HLS), "early 13th century" (Zivilstandsamt) and "1300" (VOV).
Not found in any source read: who built the chapel or its tower, and when the onion helm and the tower clock were added.

People named in the booklet

No one in the booklet bears the surname Hegnauer (or Hegnöwer, Hegenower or any other variant). Throughout, Hegnauer (feminine Hegnauerin) is simply the word for a person from Hegnau. It is the same formation as the surname. Examples: "die Hegnauer" (pp. 6–33), "ein Hegnauer" (p. 12), "der arme Hegnauer" (pp. 27, 28).

p. 12: Jacques Frei of Hofstetten near Elgg tells "Die Glocke". He says his father had almost fallen in love with "eine Hegnauerin". In context this means a woman of Hegnau. She is not named, and nothing points to the surname, so this is not evidence.

Characters in the stories. These are traditional figures, not records:

Name	In the story	Page
Andreas Gull	Spokesman and Untervogt. He had spent some summers in foreign service in Holland.	13, 15
Jakob Fischer	Villager, the third man in the chain down the well	13, 15
Ueli Reutlinger	Villager, the second man in the chain	13, 15
Bickel	The Ehgaumer (a parish elder). With the village tailor he was to measure each man with the ell.	15
Schaggi	The villager who supplies the beam	15
Heich	An older villager, who proposes hoisting the goat	20–21
Jokeb, Heusli	Villagers listening to the stranger	20
Babettli	A young maid drawing water at the well in front of the inn "Stammbaum"	20
s'Hannisse Heiri	Proposes the communal bonfire	22
Traugott Vogel	The teacher in the Chappeli schoolroom. He was a real person, the writer Traugott Vogel (1894–1975), who taught at Hegnau and Dietikon and, from 1929, in Zürich (HLS).	24
(unnamed)	A farmer from Zimikon on the school board, with his horse Fritz	24

Office-holders who are not named: the Untervogt (pp. 6, 8–9, 16); the parson (p. 8); the schoolmaster (pp. 8–10, 15); the Gemeindeammann and the council (Vorsteherschaft, p. 10); and the Vogt who was also an innkeeper (pp. 26, 31–33). The only Untervogt with a name is Andreas Gull (pp. 13, 15). The booklet explains an Untervogt as roughly a foreman of the communal works (p. 13).

Tellers and makers:

Name	Role	Page
Jörg Elmer	Village chronicler (Dorfchronist), who had died by 2010. He helped the Feldhof team and told two of the stories.	3, 9, 24
Jacques Frei	Of Hofstetten near Elgg. Told two stories.	10, 12
Alfred Temperli	Of Gutenswil. Told one story.	23
J. J. Reithard	Named as the source of the Zürcher Kalender 1920 version. Very probably the Zürich writer Johann Jakob Reithard (1805–1857), who published Geschichten und Sagen aus der Schweiz in 1853 (HLS).	33
Madeleine Jordi, Mayken Strub	Collectors (VOV)	3, 4
Beni Merk	Illustrator; teacher at the Feldhof school; of Winterthur	3, 4
Ruedi Schulthess	Coordination and production (VOV)	4

Places, buildings and terms (index)

In Hegnau:
- The village square (pp. 16, 22) and the village fountain (p. 16).
- Eight draw-wells, Sodbrunnen (p. 13).
- The pond south of the Alte Gasse, between the Chappeli and the Gupfen (p. 13).
- The Chellenland, a field name (p. 8), and the main road beside the chapel (p. 8).
- The Usterstrasse (p. 19).
- The inn "Stammbaum" (the name means "family tree"), with a draw-well in front of it (p. 20).
- The former manor house of the Freiherr von Hegnau (p. 20).
- The Vogt's inn at the end of the village (p. 31).
Around Hegnau:
- Volketswil (p. 6).
- Zürich (pp. 6, 10, 23, 26), with a guild house, the market (p. 10) and an apothecary (p. 23).
- Schwerzenbach and the marshland on the way from it (pp. 20, 23).
- The Fällander Holz, the forest on the road to Zürich, with the hill "where the old castle once stood" (pp. 26, 28, 30).
- The Greifensee (pp. 12, 30–32), the Wehntal (p. 31) and the rocks of the Au (p. 32).
- Zimikon (p. 24), Gutenswil (pp. 4, 23) and Hofstetten near Elgg (pp. 10, 12).
- Holland (p. 13).
Offices: Untervogt, Gemeindeammann, Vorsteherschaft (council), Pfarrer, Schulmeister, Ehgaumer, Vogt, the school board and its inspector, and voters (Stimmbürger).
Measures and money:
- Schuh (foot) and Elle (ell), pp. 13, 15.
- Scheffel (bushel), pp. 27–28.
- Bernese doubloons, crown thalers and Rappen, pp. 28–29.
- Emd, the second hay crop, p. 23.

Dates in the booklet

About 1990 ("twenty years ago", writing in 2010): Guggu stories added to the Feldhof school's local-studies materials (p. 3).
1974: the Volketswiler Neujahrsblatt, source of the spoil story (p. 19).
1920: the Zürcher Kalender, source of the water-shy story (p. 33).
The stories themselves carry no dates. The foreword says they have circulated "for centuries" (p. 3), and the last story is set in very old times (p. 26). The school-inspection story falls in Traugott Vogel's years at Hegnau, which were before 1929 (HLS).

The name's origin

The booklet does not say where the place name Hegnau or the surname comes from. For that, see Map of the Hegnauers: every line at a glance ("The name"), Switzerland: where the Hegnauers lived (the Zürcher Siedlungsnamenbuch's derivation from Hagino plus ouwa) and Hegnauers in the Zürich tax books, 1366–1470. What the booklet adds is usage. It calls every villager a Hegnauer, which is the word the surname is made of.

Use in the study

Context only. The booklet has no genealogical evidence, no dated records and no people surnamed Hegnauer. Its facts are used in Hegnau and in the WikiTree draft Hegnau: the WikiTree chapter.
An echo, not evidence. The Untervogt of the well story is called Andreas Gull, and a real "Hans Gul von Hegnau" is recorded in 1483 (Switzerland: where the Hegnauers lived, the list of variants).

Still to read

Done 27 Sep 2026: the VOV's two booklets on the Chappeli school. 200 Jahre Schule Chappeli (2010) dates the tower clock (recorded 1696), the onion cupola with a two-dial clock (1755), the four-dial clock (1926), the bells (1503, 1938) and the school (1810 to 1969; restored 1982–85). Schulgeschichten im Hegnauer Chappeli says nothing about the tower. See Hegnau. Still unread: the VOV's Die schulische Entwicklung unserer Dörfer (PDF).
The first written mention (partly done 27 Sep 2026).
- The VOV's 1267 is probably the Gfenn charter of 10 March 1267, Heginou (UBZH IV, no. 1343).
- An Einsiedeln record of 1244, "villa Hegenowe", is "probably" Hegnau (Ringholz 1904).
- The document behind the Siedlungsnamenbuch's "about 1150" is still to identify (ortsnamen.ch record 7059591).
The first printings of the stories: the Volketswiler Neujahrsblatt of 1974, the Zürcher Kalender of 1920, and whether the water-shy tale is in Reithard's Geschichten und Sagen aus der Schweiz (1853).
The chapel's architecture and restorations:
- the Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Zürich volume for the districts of Pfäffikon and Uster (Gubler 1978, pp. 522–542), not online;
- the cantonal Denkmalpflege reports for 1979–86 (the 10th and 11th), not online either. The report for 1964–65 has been read: its Volketswil entries are archaeological and do not mention the chapel.