From Bill Moyer, 6 Mar 2005 - In the magazine of the Pfaelzish-Rheinische Familienkunde society in Kaiserslautern, dated April 1990, I found a note that in 1310 to 1312, "Wirich, Lord of Sponheim, was a close associate of Kaiser Henry VII and Henry's brother, Archbishop Baldwin of Trier, in the Italian Campaign. In the fighting in Brescia, he took prisoner the leader of the opposition, Theobald of the Brusciati...For his valor he was given the new title, 'King of the Hill', by the Kaiser." (You may know that "Kaiser" is the same as the Roman title "Caesar"--the only difference is how you pronounce the "c"! ) The leader he captured was Theobaldo de Brusciati", which is pretty darn close to "Theobald Britzius." There may or may not be any significance in this, but if the guy from Sponheim took the guy from Italy back home with him for ransome, etc., and kept him in Germany, that could have been the source of the name Britzius in Germany. Just a wild, wild guess. I think Wirich was a Knight from the Bernkastel area, on the Moselle or Mosel River which is the river flowing through Trier and further upstream, connecting with the Saar. Best regards, Bill
Soetern no longer exists as far as I can find out, however it was very near the modern village of Nohfelden, which is in the state of Saarland, very near to the border with Rheinland-Pfalz, and near the Pfalz town of Achtelsbach.
From "The Britzius Story" by Dianne Z. Stevens 2013:
The first Britzius of whom we know anything was Wendel Britzius (1546 Sötern, Saarland – 1618 Sötern, Saarland). His wife was Elizabeth (b abt 1580 Sötern). Sötern is a small village just west of where the rest of our German Britzius story takes place in the German state of Pfalz. Sötern is in an important iron producing region along the Saar River. Bill writes, “A souterrain in French is a tunnel, and the town has deep tunnels under it, though nobody now knows why.” Previously an entirely Catholic region, the Palatinate accepted Calvinism under Elector Friedrich III during the 1560's, when Wendel was a boy. So all our Britzius ancestors were Protestants.