Austrian nobility

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Nobles greet the emperor at the court ball in Vienna .
Watercolor , Wilhelm Gause , 1900

The Austrian nobility (like the nobility of other European countries) emerged from the feudal system of the Middle Ages and until the end of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918 was characterized by great diversity in hierarchy as well as linguistic, ethnic and religious affiliation, which reflected the European diversity of the dual monarchy . In contrast to the “ Second Society ”, the nobility was also known as the “First Society”. In 1919 the nobility was abolished in the Republic of Austria .

structure

The Austrian nobility outside the imperial family was divided into five ranks last (1918):

  1. the simple nobility with the form of the name of or parole Edler of ;
  2. the knighthood with the name form Ritter von ;
  3. the Freiherrnstand with the name form Freiherr von (in everyday life mostly addressed and written as a baron ; in Austria-Hungary was also formally considered to be of equal rank with a Hungarian barony);
  4. the count class with the form of the name Graf von , in the case of mediatized houses often with the salutation Erlaucht ;
  5. the prince class with the name form Fürst von , often with the salutation Your Highness .

A few princely families also had duke titles that could refer to actual territorial possessions (e.g. the House of Liechtenstein as Duke of Jägerndorf and Troppau , Schwarzenberg as Duke of Krumau , Auersperg as Duke of Gottschee , Hohenberg as Duke of Hohenberg ) .

In addition, there were numerous Austrian families who originally came from abroad and who were allowed to lead their nobility ranks, which had been conferred by other rulers, in Austria (e.g. Duc de Rohan from France, Viscount Taaffe from Ireland, Lubomirski from Poland, Pallavicini from Italy) .

Baron Diploma for Dr. Wilhelm and Dr. Alfred Berger , 1878

Austrian families who had received their titles of nobility during the time of the Holy Roman Empire often put the designation imperial before their title after the end of 1806 (e.g. imperial knight , imperial baron , imperial count ), although this is the case in the case of the numerous post-aristocratic families was a social convention and not a legal elevation towards someone who was later ennobled.

In Austria it was customary to insert the title of nobility between the first name and the family name (e.g. Alfred Freiherr von Berger ). This was not only done in official correspondence, but also at court.

Nobility in the monarchy

Until the 18th century

For the development, the phases from the early Middle Ages to the modern age as well as the economic basics, the descriptions in the article about the German nobility apply . For Uradel then include families by 1400 at the latest ritterbürtigen have belonged to nobility. Those who have been raised to the nobility by letters of nobility since Emperor Charles IV , following the French model, are in contrast referred to as letter nobility . The term "old nobility" used in Austria-Hungary - instead of primeval nobility - encompassed the primitive nobility and the early post nobility.

The Roman-German emperors , almost always belonging to the House of Habsburg since Albrecht II (or the imperial vicars in the case of Sedis vacancy ), were able to award titles of nobility from the Holy Roman Empire (valid throughout the entire empire). Within the Habsburg monarchy , their rulers could also, in their capacity as rulers of the Habsburg hereditary lands , especially as kings of Bohemia or Hungary, bestow hereditary-Austrian or Hungarian titles (with the title only valid for these areas). The inheritance of the title took place in accordance with the nobility law . After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the awards were made in the Austrian Empire and then in Austria-Hungary . The fact that the Roman-German elected emperors and kings resided almost permanently in Vienna (or Prague) from 1438 until the end of the Old Empire in 1806, led to more ranks (barons, counts, princes) for the nobility of the Habsburg hereditary lands than in the Rest of the empire. The numerous offices and benefices that could be obtained at the imperial court and in the provincial administrations also led to considerable prosperity, which is why the castles of the Austrian nobility, especially in the Renaissance and Baroque periods , were often larger and more magnificent than the mansions of the lower nobility in other parts of the empire.

The close relationship between the noble families of the hereditary lands (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, etc.) is also characteristic, as they got close to each other at the Viennese court, in government and administrative positions as well as in military service and, through marriage and subsequent inheritance, they often owned properties in various provinces of the Acquired hereditary lands. The famous "Adels-Du" is a result of these relationships and is still used today (but mostly separated into men and women), even if the people concerned did not know each other before. However, this custom originated in the 19th century in the army of the Habsburg monarchy ( "You, Uncle Field Marshal") , while still in until the 18th century French nobility commonly used (even within families) "You" (more precisely: "You "," You ") was exemplary and even children sent their parents by letter z. B. as "Your lover, high-born Mr. Duke, dear father".

In contrast to permanently centralized states such as France or Great Britain , however, the Habsburgs never succeeded in suppressing all essential regional estates centers of power in the long term, although after the battle on White Mountain and in the course of the Counter-Reformation they did not try to eliminate Catholic elites were largely successful in Bohemia and in what is now Austria. For the most part, the aristocratic families in Austria, Bohemia and Hungary had converted to the Protestant faith after the Reformation , but were forced to convert or had to emigrate and their goods under pressure from Emperor Ferdinand II and his successors in the radical implementation of the legal principle cuius regio, eius religio sell, unless they were expropriated immediately, in particular because of participation in the class uprising in Bohemia (1618) or simultaneous rebellions in Austria. The Hungarian nobility in particular was always ready for conspiracy and revolt and became the core of the Magyar national movement in the 19th century. In Upper and Lower Austria , in the 16th and 17th centuries, due to an amalgamation of religious and political interests, there was a front position between the initially predominantly Lutheran nobility and the Catholic centralist rulers' interests of the Habsburgs; however, the Counter Reformation prevailed. After the often violent end of religious conflicts, the relationship between the Habsburgs and the nobility was no longer fraught with tension.

The baroque Palais Liechtenstein is an example of a noble garden palace in front of the Vienna city walls (around 1760)

During the Baroque period, after the threat to Austria from the Ottoman Empire ended, nobles had magnificent buildings and gardens built in and around the royal seat of Vienna in order to be as close as possible to the monarch and, on the other hand, to demonstrate great representation themselves. Outstanding examples were the "Turks conqueror" Prince Eugene of Savoy with his Belvedere Palace , which was built until 1723, and the Princely Liechtenstein family with their Liechtenstein Garden Palace, which was built until 1709 .

In the 18th century, the aristocracy of the Danube Monarchy reflected their claim to be the leading power of Catholicism in Europe; Spanish and Irish families were also integrated, of course also families from the formerly Spanish and now Austrian Netherlands and the remnants of Western Austria . Every foreigner was allowed to use the title brought with him from home as a foreign one if he had proven his rights. The foreign titles (such as Principe, Duca, Marchese, Conte from the nobility of the Italian states ) were not allowed to be translated into German because they allegedly did not correspond to the nobility level of the same name in the states of the Habsburg monarchy. Only the ranks of nobility conferred by the Republic of Ragusa and the Dukes of Milan were recognized. In the multi-ethnic state of the Habsburgs - unlike in many other European states such as Prussia, France, Great Britain or Russia - there were German-speaking noble families (from the Archduchy of Austria , the Duchy of Styria , the Duchy of Carinthia , the Fürstete Grafschaft Tirol , Front Austria, etc. also the German-speaking parts of Bohemia and Hungary), also the local nobility in Bohemia and Moravia , Hungary , Croatia , Slovenia , in addition at times parts of the Polish Szlachta , parts of the Italian nobility and the Dutch or French-speaking nobility of the Austrian Netherlands . The titles of nobility in these historically very different countries were not always comparable and therefore a source of constant rank disputes.

In the south of the Old Empire the number of imperial lords and cities was significantly higher than in the north, but far more in Swabia and Franconia than in the areas of the Habsburg hereditary lands, which is why the higher Viennese court nobility endeavored to acquire such territories in order to to rise to the imperial estates . On the other hand, the Brandenburg-Prussian nobility was more strongly represented in the Prussian army than the Herbland nobility in the Austrian army . This was due on the one hand to the fact that many of these noble families were wealthier than the average of the Prussian nobility, so that young nobles were not so often forced to go into military service, on the other hand there was no pressure to serve comparable to that of the Prussian kings since the soldier king exercised on the nobility, and in addition, the yielding heirs could easily find their livelihood as civil servants in the extensive state administration of the many sub-provinces of the hereditary lands, since these positions were assigned more according to status and relationships than according to qualifications.

As a prerogative of status introduced by Maria Theresa in the countries ruled by the Habsburgs, every officer of civil origin between 1757 and 1918 could, under certain conditions, acquire a legal right to be raised to the hereditary Austrian nobility. The most important prerequisite for this was at least thirty years of military service, later participation in a campaign was also required. From 1896 officers without combat experience could be elevated to this systematic nobility even after 40 years of service .

19th and 20th centuries

High society at the Freudenau racecourse around 1900. Such events were very popular and also served to maintain social contacts.
Genealogical paperback of the noble houses of Austria 1906

The old nobility lost importance in the course of industrialization and the rise of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century, but from 1861 onwards they played a political role in the manor house of the Reichsrat (see below).

As part of the so-called December constitution, the constitutional law of December 21, 1867, which is still in force today , stipulates the general rights of citizens ( RGBl. No. 142/1867) in Art. 2: “All citizens are equal before the law.” In Art. 7 was "every subservience and bondage association ... abolished forever". However, until the end of the monarchy, social practice showed that titles of nobility had hardly lost their effect. Their carriers expected advantages and mostly received them. In addition, the award of certain medals by the emperor was associated with the right to be raised to the nobility upon request. In the last decades of the monarchy a nobility of officers, merit and officials emerged, some of which could be recognized by the unhistorical "territorial predicates" chosen. Apart from the seldom granted exemptions, the principle was that such a name addition was not allowed to coincide with a real place name. Some of the newly ennobled therefore formed their territorial predicate after the family name (e.g. Hofmann von Hofmannsthal , Steiner von Steinstätten , Weber von Webenau ), or they showed their loyalty to the state and imperial family with imaginary names (e.g. Klimbacher von Reichswahr , Hartmann von Franzenshuld , Bielka von Karltreu ). This was particularly the case with the systematic nobility from the 18th century . All in all, this regulation led to “a multitude of very peculiar predicates that easily identified those who wore them as members of the new nobility” and thus of the “ Second Society ”.

The “Second Society” stood between the high nobility and the old nobility (the “First Society”) and the “People”. It included ennobled businesspeople, civil servants, artists, officers and members of the liberal professions, including the bourgeoisie , who, despite being ennobled, mostly remained rather bourgeois in their mentality and social behavior: The Austrian Second Society formed from the 18th, but above all from the middle of the 19th century, the elite of the rising, partly liberal -minded bourgeoisie. In 1884 these ennobizations, which had already taken on a kind of “assembly line” character, were restricted by the fact that the acquisition of a higher order was no longer always associated with the right to apply for ennoblement.

First and Second Society had social contacts in the army or in the area of ​​"charity". But the connubium was very limited - there were only a few money marriages of aristocrats with rich daughters of the Second Society. The arrogance of class between the different classes, described by Voltaire as a “cascade of contempt” for the Ancien Régime , played a role particularly in Austria-Hungary , where many of the newly ennobled banking and industrialist families were originally of Jewish origin. Typically, this kind of ennoblement only took place up to the rank of knight or baron , the ranks from count status were reserved for noble families. The Austrian Second Society formed the elite of the rising, liberal and loyal bourgeoisie, especially from the middle of the 19th century.

Prince Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen , nobleman and Prussian general, described in his memoirs, published posthumously from 1897 onwards, the gap between the noble and the ascended category within the First Society in the broader sense:

“I already mentioned that the Viennese highest aristocracy was very closed. The Schoenburgs , Schwarzenbergs , Liechtensteins , etc., did not want to receive Minister Bach . But since a number of families [...] had worked their way up to the ranks of the ruling class, and intercourse with them was unavoidable, there were more ennobled banking families in Vienna than in other capitals, which also had an influence due to their enormous wealth one could not avoid counting these circles as part of the first society, which was then divided into two categories. These two categories were so intertwined that the gentlemen of the first went into the second, those of the second were invited here and there to the first. But one never saw a lady from the first in the second or one of the second in the first. If a gentleman from the first married a lady from the second, his family would not find access to the first. At the imperial court […] the second category is said to have also been invited to the large court balls. She was not allowed to attend the smaller so-called chamber balls. These two classes in the first society were certainly a phenomenon only belonging to Vienna. "

Towards the end of the monarchy, the nobility had less political influence than in earlier epochs, especially the First Society, whose economic and thus also political power was increasingly ousted by the Second Society, the property bourgeoisie, and finally also by the numerically increasing and organizing working class . This was reflected in the successive democratization of male suffrage, which was based on the December constitution of 1867, until the House of Representatives of the Reichsrat could be elected for the first time by all male citizens of age with equal voting weight in 1907.

The manor house 1861–1918

Meeting room of the manor house in the Reichsrat building (photo taken in 1902)

The mansion was comparable to the British House of Lords . In this upper house 106 families had hereditary seats and sat next to imperial princes and the princes of the church. These families included:

The 106 families in the manor house, counted according to the strict hierarchy, belonged to the most illustrious noble families in the Austrian half of the dual monarchy. These families were often referred to as "Austrian nobility", although not only royal houses and mediatized counts (i.e. families that were listed in the three sections of the princely houses of the Gotha court calendar ), but also numerous "simple" count and baronial houses hereditary in the Manor houses that were and are not listed in any of the three princely departments, but in the Gothic paperback series "Count's houses" or "baronial houses", that is, according to the "Gotha" understanding, by no means belong to the high nobility (just as little as the hereditary members of the comparable Prussian mansion or the free landlords ).

The Hungarian nobles who had their seat in the magnate house in Budapest did not belong to the manor house . The emperor occasionally called non-aristocrats or nobility from the Second Society to the manor house for life because of their services. Since 1907, members of the manor could also run for the House of Representatives; while their membership in the House of Lords was suspended. The manor house members used their right of co-determination in the legislation of Cisleithania very differently; In addition to dutiful members, there were also those who never showed up in the house. The mansion was abolished by the republican state of German Austria on November 12, 1918. Its member lists and meeting minutes can be read on a website of the Austrian National Library , alex.onb.ac.at.

After the end of the monarchy

Nobility Repeal Act of 1919

On April 3, 1919, "the nobility, its external honorary privileges, as well as titles and dignities and the associated honorary privileges of German-Austrian citizens not related to an official position, occupation or scientific or artistic qualification, which were granted merely for distinction," were revoked. The use of nobility denominations, titles and dignities was made a criminal offense ( Nobility Repeal Act , StGBl. No. 211/1919, enforcement order of April 18, 1919, StGBl. No. 237/1919). The law came into force on April 10, 1919 and is still in force today. The Austrian Federal Constitutional Law , which was passed in 1920 and is still valid today in its amended form, states in Art. 7 :

“All German citizens are equal before the law. Rights of birth, gender, status, class and creed are excluded. "

Especially the civil servant nobility of the “Second Society” felt this republican approach as degrading, because the rise in rank had been the social coronation longed for for the civil servants and their families. The members of the former Austrian high nobility found it easier to get over the formal unloading, - although they formally lost their titles and privileges, they continued to form a closed milieu, maintained their social traditions and manners and kept their possessions. Michael Hainisch , Federal President from 1920 to 1928, named the official abolition of the nobility:

“… A childish beginning, if only because you didn't meet the people you wanted to meet. I spoke to Princess Fanny Starhemberg, who was as fine as she was clever, about this point. 'We', she said, 'the abolition of the nobility does not matter, we always remain the Starhembergs with or without the title.' "

The abolition of aristocratic names is viewed by conservative groups as a violation of human rights to this day, since in 1918 all aristocratic names were merely individual personal rights of the name designation and were no longer linked to professional rights or other legal advantages. A legal regulation similar to the Austrian regulation was announced in the new Czechoslovak Republic as early as December 1918 (see below).

The Italian nobility , to which many old families belonged in the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) , who already belonged to the nobility in Imperial Italy under the Habsburg emperors or later in the Habsburg kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto (1815–1851), was abolished in 1946 and the nobility titles without the rank titles as part of the name. In Italy, however, as well as in Austria, Hungary or the Czech Republic (or in Germany the abolished Primogeniturtitel ), in private and social traffic, some of the titles are still used.

Document from November 1942 from the head of the archives department of the Reichsarchiv Vienna , Department: State Archives of the Interior and Justice. Here in particular the last paragraph:
“... it should be noted that the earlier Austrian nobility abolition law is still in force today and that, in particular, by the Fiihrer's decision, any question of the possible recognition of the Austrian nobility is initially postponed until after the end of the war. Former Austrian citizens are therefore not entitled to use aristocratic designations either. "

Austria's former nobility and National Socialism

Although pan-German and German-national aspirations were also supported by aristocrats in the old monarchy (see Georg Schönerer , Taras Borodajkewycz or Edmund Glaise-Horstenau ), the general enthusiasm of the former Austrian nobility for National Socialism was limited. The reason for this was the Catholic and monarchist attitude of the majority of the Austrian nobility. The anti-Prussian resentment of the Austrian nobility towards the German Reich, including groups such as the Österreichische Aktion , also played a certain role .

A decisive factor, however, was the political stance of the Austrian pretender to the throne, Otto von Habsburg , who, in contrast to the German Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia or his brother SA Obergruppenführer August Wilhelm von Prussia, rejected National Socialism from the outset. This was also due to Hitler's deep dislike of the multi-ethnic Habsburg empire, which was diametrically opposed to all of his ideas. As a result, the legitimist association of Catholic nobles in Austria (banned by the Nazis in 1938) and the majority of its members - in contrast to the even racist German aristocratic association - rejected National Socialism.

In addition, many members of the Austrian nobility actively supported the corporate state , which had banned the National Socialist Party, as officers or civil servants. As a result, a number of Austrian nobles were arrested and murdered after the "Anschluss" . Many Austrian aristocrats were in active resistance against National Socialism, such as Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg , Hanns Georg Heintschel-Heinegg , Erwin Lahousen-Vivremont , Joseph Franckenstein , Josef Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg and his wife, Hans Hammerstein-Equord , Peter Revertera-Salandra as well Maximilian Hohenberg and Ernst Hohenberg .

On the other hand, there were quite a few aristocrats who were very close to the German Empire, such as Max Egon II zu Fürstenberg , who lived in Germany most of the time. Fürstenberg joined the NSDAP and the SA in mid-1933 and was appointed SA Standartenführer in 1938. Some of them tried to join the NSDAP even before the “ Anschluss” : “Austrian aristocrats and industrialists managed to join the NSDAP in 1938 despite being banned from joining the NSDAP - by having a past as illegal SA men certified in an SA brigade that almost . existed only on paper "among the Austrian nobles there were enthusiastic Nazis:" Catholic motivated anti-Semitism met with revived power fantasies and attraction of new ideological set pieces "Already in. austrofaschistischen corporate state had the national wing under Johann Hardegg and Johann Gudenus from pro-government course distanced from most other peers.

The former nobility in Bohemia and Moravia

In the Czech Republic , where the nobility of the Czechoslovak Republic was already abolished by the Nobility Act of December 10, 1918 and a land reform was carried out (not carried out in Austria) , which resulted in the expropriation of almost a third of the large estates in return for compensation of around 10% of the market value the part of the former aristocracy who had declared themselves to be Czech in 1938/1939 received their property back in 1945, some of which had already been seized by the Nazi regime, until it was again expropriated by the communist regime in 1948. After 1992, the formerly aristocratic Czechs received their confiscated castles and, in part, their property back again, provided they had Czechoslovak citizenship in the interwar period , e.g. B. the formerly princely families Schwarzenberg , Lobkowitz , Mensdorff-Pouilly and Kinsky as well as members of the count families Czernin , Colloredo , Dobrženský , Haugwitz , Kolowrat , Podstatzky-Prusinowitz , Schlik , Sternberg and others.

The sons of 1,914 murdered Archduke-heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand , entitled dukes or princes of Hohenberg had received were their castles Konopiště and Chlumetz withdrawn and Czechoslovakia after 1918 not returned to date. The ruling Princely House of Liechtenstein also did not get back its property in the Czech Republic, which it had seized in 1945. As citizens of a sovereign state in 1938/1939, the Liechtensteiners were not obliged to choose between Germans and Czechs; But they were attributed to the Germans to be expropriated by Edvard Beneš in 1945.

Todays situation

The former noble families in the old home lands of the Habsburgs were largely able to maintain their position as landowners even after the Second World War , as the goods confiscated in the Soviet occupation zone after 1945 were returned according to the 1955 State Treaty . The family affide of the Habsburg-Lothringen family was the only one transferred to the Austrian state in 1919 (see Habsburg Law ), partly repaid by Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg in 1935 and again expropriated by the Nazi regime after the annexation of Austria in 1938. Since 1945 it has been in the possession of the Austrian state again.

The Association of Nobles in Austria has existed since 2005 ; It regards itself as the successor to the Association of Catholic Nobles in Austria, which was founded shortly before the First World War, but has only been active since 1922 and forbidden by the National Socialists in 1938 . After the Austrian Ministry of the Interior initially dissolved the association in February 2006, it was decided in November 2006 to discontinue the dissolution proceedings. Although the members of the association are not entitled to hold a title of nobility under the Nobility Repeal Act in Austria , they still belong to the historical nobility. This does not affect the use of nobility titles outside of Austria, where the titles are partially recognized (for example, the Austrian Lorenz Habsburg-Lothringen, as a Belgian - and brother-in-law of the king - carries the title Archiduc d'Autriche d'Este = Archduke of Austria- Este, with the salutation Altesse Impériale et Royale = Imperial and Royal Highness ).

The former nobility is a historical and social phenomenon in Austria today, but politically and legally insignificant. Jokes about the counts "Bobby and Rudi" have become rare. However, representatives of the former nobility are still present in the rainbow press . Members of former noble families can also be found relatively often in the business elite. A study (2009) showed that such people in Austria are six times more likely to be found within the domestic business elite than outside.

The descendants of the Austrian nobility seem to have got used to the status quo in an ambivalent way without really accepting it - and to a certain extent the rest of the population as well. This is how a (former) count answers the question about his aristocratic origin in an interview:

“You know it, but you don't address it and you don't jump in everyone's face with it. Nevertheless, I find it presumptuous that an entire booth was banned in 1919 ... "And:" What do I get from running (the title)? We know each other. And if you want something, you suddenly know the title too. "

In any case, the subject is still on the agenda. For example, the columnist Jens Jessen judges in an essayistic consideration on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the "abolition" of the nobility in 2018:

"The radical title shave has brought the aristocratic enthusiasm, which already sprouted considerable buds in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, to pathological bloom today."

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Austrian Aristocracy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to Austrian opinion, the name “Uradel” was an invention of the Prussian heraldry ; it was therefore only able to assert itself in Germany. In Austria-Hungary this designation was rejected by the very highest authority, i.e. by the emperor. In Austria one spoke of the "old nobility". In this way, the excessive number of ennoblings by nobility letters, including inflationary increases in rank, which have been customary in Austria-Hungary for a long time and which cannot do justice to the specifically interpreted term “primeval nobility”, but can at least be assigned to a less defined term “old nobility”.
  2. ^ Peter Frank-Döfering, Adelslexikon des Österreichischen Kaisertums 1804–1918 , Herder Verlag (Freiburg) 1989, p. 643.
  3. ↑ Cf. István Deák , Der K. (below) K. Officer 1848–1918 , translated by Marie-Therese Pitner, Böhlau Verlag (Vienna-Cologne-Weimar) 1991, 1991, pp. 190–191.
  4. ↑ Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen: From my life. Vol. 1, Berlin 1897, p. 323.
  5. ↑ http://www.coresno.com/standeserhoehungen/164-texte/3459-reichsrat.html
  6. ↑ The nobility and the Nazis: Aristocrats between honor and career. Profile, May 22, 2004, accessed on September 17, 2011 : “Did Hitler assassin Stauffenberg embodied the typical attitude of the nobility towards the Third Reich? profile research and the book by a German historian give a very differentiated picture. "
  7. ↑ Thomas Jorda: "In the Resistance". In: Nobility obliges: a series from NÖN. Niederösterreichische Nachrichten, October 18, 2010, accessed on May 17, 2012 .
  8. ^ Gudula Walterskirchen: Blue blood for Austria. Nobles in the resistance against National Socialism. 2000, accessed September 17, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Stephan Malinowski , Sven Reichardt : The ranks firmly closed? Nobles in the leader corps of the SA until 1934. Eckart Conze , Monika Wienfort : Nobility and modernity. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-412-18603-1 , pp. 119–150, here: pp. 136f.
  10. ↑ Marianne Enigl: How Austrian aristocrats joined the NSDAP despite being blocked from membership. (No longer available online.) Profile January 9, 2010, archived from the original on November 25, 2012 ; Retrieved September 17, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.profil.at
  11. ^ Hannes Stekl , Ernst Bruckmüller (ed.): Nobility and bourgeoisie in the Habsburg Monarchy, 18th to 20th century. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-486-56846-9 , p. 122.
  12. ↑ Oliver Pink : Litigation: Nobles of Today , in Die Presse , November 3, 2007
  13. ↑ Philipp Korom, Jaap Dronkers: Mr. Director, from and to. Die Presse , July 11, 2009, accessed on July 21, 2009 (German).
  14. ↑ Johann Seilern-Aspang from Litschau in nön.at of July 20, 2011
  15. ↑ Jens Jessen : What remained of the nobility. A bourgeois consideration , p. 18, on Klampen Essay 2018, ISBN 978-3-86674-580-3