Der preußische Adel und das Weimarer System (German Edition)

This is particularly true as a number of old families have branches of various levels. For instance, the Counts, Barons, and untitled von Bothmers are all part of the same family. The Uradel also tend to look down on the Briefadel as parvenus, even when the Briefadel may have been noble for centuries. Though meant as a joke, there was still a bit of seriousness behind it.

The basic designation of the nobility is the predicate "von", which the vast majority of German nobles carry. There are a small number of noble houses, almost exclusively of the Uradel, which have never used the "von" or any other noble predicate, but are nevertheless of fully equal standing with those that do.

In northern and eastern Germany there are a substantial number of families such as the von Kranichfelds that use the "von" as designations of the towns where they come from as is the case with most older noble families but have never been noble and make no pretense to be so.

A few noble houses use "von und zu", meaning they are not only from the place mentioned but still retain it. Another Uradel house is named "aus dem Winckel" instead of "von dem Winckel" but having the same meaning.

• .
• 81 best Weimar Germany images on Pinterest | Deutsch, Germany and Election results.
• chio vivo: Diario di guerra (Memorie Vol. 2) (Italian Edition)!
• German nobility - Wikipedia.
• Mother of the Bride!

Other noble predicates sometimes seen are "von dem", "von der", or "vom". As a way of differentiating themselves from non-nobles, the aristocracy of northern Germany in most cases uses the abbreviation "v. The southern Germans most often write out the "von".

It is always spelled with a small "v" unless it would be grammatically incorrect, such as in the beginning of a sentence. Notwithstanding regional preferences, the "Bible" of the nobility, the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility , published by C. This handbook, colloquially known as the "Gotha" for its predecessor the Almanach de Gotha in German, Gothaisches Hofkalendar attempts a comprehensive listing of all German noble houses currently or recently in existence and comes out in several volumes on a yearly basis, listing all living members of a family and all those deceased since the last edition.

German Nobility

The handbook is divided into several series with the binding in different colors: Within these series the families are, except since recently the Counts and Barons, divided into Uradel or Briefadel. The advantage of having these books is obvious: It is also a way of being able to investigate people's claims to noble status, though this kind of checking is not considered "gentlemanly". The listing are thorough and are checked for accuracy, though they depend to a large degree on the individual's honesty in telling the truth about themselves.

• 61. A Change Of Hearts (The Pink Collection)?
• .
• .

Not every German noble family is included, as most often the family concerned must contribute financially to its inclusion, or the family may be too small, poor, or unwilling to warrant repeated updating. For instance, my own family, with some 70 members, appeared lastly in and will do so again in , but that of my grandmother, von Bulmerincq, has not appeared since The current series of books has been published since , and is available at a number of larger libraries.

Most often these houses are counted as noble since "time immemorial" as at their first appearance in written records they were already noble. The families that make up this segment of the nobility usually descend from the knights or most important warriors of a sovereign that were the basis of his fighting force, or more rarely from a senior civil official of the time. The Uradel often had legal privileges over the newer nobility certifying their higher standing, such as in the Nobles Law of the Kingdom of Saxony of There are far fewer Uradel families still in existence than Briefadel due to the fact that families die out over the centuries and no Uradel has been created in almost years.

This level of the nobility is made up of those houses which were ennobled since the beginning of the 15th Century through the end of the German or Austrian Empires in There were widely differing prerequisites for this level of the nobility, though most often military or civil service to the sovereign were the qualities most valued.

The Briefadel includes houses ennobled or recognized as noble by the Emperor or one of the sovereigns of the high nobility. Also included are patricians of the free Imperial cities and non-German noble houses that immigrated over the centuries, such as the Counts von Polier from France or the Herren von Zerboni di Sposetti from Italy.

These seats were reserved for sovereign houses. These families were also Reichsunmittelbar, or in a feudal sense holding their lands directly from the Holy Roman Emperor, who for four centuries, until the end of the empire in , came from the house of Habsburg. In essence, these families were rulers of their own countries, often in times of a weak emperor paying only lip service to their subservience to him.

Navigation menu

Their relationship to the emperor was then much like that of today's Commonwealth rulers to the British Queen. Even in times of a strong emperor he was to them more like a chairman of the board rather than a ruler. Up to the early 19th Century, there were some baronial and untitled families that held lands directly of the emperor, so essentially being their own rulers, but had no seat in the Parliament, thus being members of the lower nobility.

Many families of the high nobility have house laws applicable to their members. Often these laws do not allow marriage outside their ranks, even to the lower nobility which would be considered a morganatic alliance.

German nobility

Even today, the children of a member of the high nobility who marries morganatically become members of the lower nobility. Within this division of the nobility the highest title is Emperor, or Kaiser, deriving from Caesar in Latin. Through most of German history, there was only one of these, the Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation, lasting from the crowning of Charlemagne in the year through the renunciation of the last emperor, Franz II, in under the influence of Napoleon, who by then had proclaimed himself Emperor of the French.

In essence, the emperor just changed his title so as to more accurately reflect the political realities of the time. He was never titled Emperor of Germany, as this nation was not a unitary state but a federation of monarchies and free city-states with quasi-republican governments. The Austrian Emperor, based to a large degree upon his position as King of Hungary, was addressed as Apostolic Majesty. The last empress, Zita of Austria, died in The current heir to the throne is titled the, rather than a, Prince of Prussia, and is the only one in Germany still addressed as Imperial and Royal Highness.

The children of the Austrian emperor were titled Archdukes or Archduchesses of Austria rather than princes, and called Imperial and Royal Highnesses. They were addressed as Majesty, and their children, princes or princesses, as Royal Highnesses. Additionally in the Saxon kingdom, grand duchy, and duchies, all the children of the ruler were also styled dukes or duchesses. The electors were originally the greatest lords of the Holy Roman Empire, both temporal and spiritual, who elected the Emperor before the throne became hereditary.

They later became sovereigns no different from the rest. The last ruling Elector, Hesse-Cassel, lost his throne to Prussia in All sovereigns of this rank were eventually "promoted" to higher titles, but the titles were sometimes used instead of crown prince for their states, and are currently used for the Heads of the Houses of Baden, Hesse and Saxony. Depending on circumstances, they could be styled Royal Highness or simply Highness. In the Middle Ages, some sovereigns were Burggrafs, or Burgraves, but all these took higher titles early on and Burggraf became a title and sometimes function, like Wildgraf, of the lower nobility.

These are styled Durchlaucht, translated as Serene Highness. In the third generation their descendants sometimes become counts, except for the ruling line, which retains the princely title. The last category of the high nobility still in existence is that of Graf, or Count. The last sovereigns of this rank ceased ruling after the Congress of Vienna in They are styled Erlaucht, or Illustrious Highness. Their children are all counts or countesses. Very often a certain level of income, wealth, or social standing was necessary for appointment to these ranks, so as to demonstrate the ability of the person ennobled to maintain himself at a proper level.

The highest rank of the non-sovereign nobility is Herzog or Duke, a title almost never given them and then only "ad personam", or much like an English life peer. In this respect, the General State Laws for the Prussian States of spoke of marriage and children "to the right hand". This excluded marriages with women of the lower social classes, but did not mean a woman had to come from nobility herself. Especially towards the end of the 19th century and beyond, when a new upper class of wealthy common people had emerged following industrialization, marriages with commoners were becoming more widespread.

This did not apply to higher nobility, however, who largely continued to marry among themselves. German titles of nobility were usually inherited by all male-line descendants, although some descended by male primogeniture , especially in 19th and 20th century Prussia e. Upon promulgation of the Weimar Constitution on 11 August , all Germans were declared equal before the law. Other German states enacted equivalent legislation. This caused [ clarification needed ] an exceptional practice regarding surnames borne by former members of the nobility: However, former titles shared and inherited by all members of the family were retained but incorporated into the surname.

Any dynast who did not reign prior to but had held a specific title as heir to one of Germany's former thrones e. However, these titles became extinct upon their deaths, not being heritable. All other former titles and nobiliary particles are now inherited as part of the surname, and remain protected as private names under the laws. Whereas the title previously prefixed the given and surname e. However, the pre style sometimes continues in colloquial usage. In Austria, by contrast, not only were the privileges of the nobility abolished, but their titles and nobiliary particles as well.

German nobility was not simply distinguished by noble ranks and titles, but was also seen as a distinctive ethos. Most German states had strict laws concerning proper conduct, employment, or marriage of nobles. Violating these laws could result in temporary or permanent Adelsverlust "loss of the status of nobility". Until the late 19th century, for example, it was usually forbidden for nobles, theoretically on pain of Adelsverlust , to marry persons "of low birth".

Moreover, nobles employed in menial labour and lowly trades or wage labour could lose their nobility, as could nobles convicted of capital crimes. Adelsverlust only concerned the individual who had violated nobility codes of conduct. Their kin, spouse, and living children were not affected, but children born to a man after an Adelsverlust were commoners and did not inherit the father's former nobility. Various organisations perpetuate the historical legacy of the former nobility, documenting genealogy, chronicling the history of noble families and sometimes declining to acknowledge persons who acquired noble surnames in ways impossible before Most, but not all, surnames of the German nobility were preceded by or contained the preposition von meaning "of" or zu meaning "at" as a nobiliary particle.

German Nobility - GenWiki

Therefore, von und zu indicates a family which is both named for and continues to own their original feudal holding or residence. However, the zu particle can also hint to the split of a dynasty, as providing information on the adopted new home of one split-off branch: Other forms also exist as combinations with the definite article: When a person by the common occupational surname of " Meyer " received nobility, they would thus simply become " von Meyer ".

When sorting noble—as well as non-noble—names in alphabetic sequence, any prepositions or former title are ignored. In this, the German language practice differs from Dutch in the Netherlands, where the particle van is usually capitalised when mentioned without preceding given names or initials, or from Dutch in Belgium, where the name particle Van is always capitalised.

A family whose nobility dates back to at least the 14th century may be called Uradel , or Alter Adel "ancient nobility", [12] or "old nobility". This contrasts with Briefadel "patent nobility": The first known such document is from September 30, , for Wyker Frosch in Mainz. Hochadel "upper nobility", or "high nobility" were those noble houses which ruled sovereign states within the Holy Roman Empire and later, in the German Confederation and the German Empire.

They were royalty ; the heads of these families were entitled to be addressed by some form of "Majesty" or "Highness". The former ruling houses of these states were still considered Hochadel under laws adopted by the German Empire. In addition, the ruling families of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen were accorded the dynastic rights of a cadet branch of the Royal House of Prussia after yielding sovereignty to their royal kinsmen. The exiled heirs to Hanover and Nassau eventually regained sovereignty by being allowed to inherit, respectively, the crowns of Brunswick and Luxembourg Nobility that held legal privileges until greater than those enjoyed by commoners, but less than those enjoyed by the Hochadel, were considered part of the lower nobility or Niederer Adel.