Adelheid von Stein zu Nordheim and Ostheim

Adelheid Freiin von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (* 1870 , † 1960 ) was provost of the v. Cronstetten and v. Hynspergischen Stift in Frankfurt am Main .

Life and family environment

Adelheid Fanny Freiin von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim came from a Frankish imperial knighthood family, which in 1830 was accepted into the aristocratic inheritance of the House of Alten Limpurg , a Frankfurt patrician society that had existed since the Middle Ages. She was born on November 21 in Völckershausen, the ancestral home of her family, as the daughter of the Saxon-Coburg and Gotha secret government councilor Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (1828-1915) and Marie Freiin von Dietrich (1847-1933) born. She remained unmarried and died on March 3, 1960 in Frankfurt am Main.

Adelheid von Stein as a canoness

In 1903 Adelheid von Stein joined the Cronstetter Stift as a canon . Canons can only become unmarried daughters or widows of members of the Frankfurt patrician families from the noble inheritance of the House of Alten Limpurg. The Cronstetten Foundation was established by will of the patrician Justina von Cronstetten , the last of her family, and was given imperial privileges in 1767. Justina had not only brought in the entire fortune of her very rich family, but also determined the purpose of the foundation. After that, the foundation served two purposes: to provide for the widows and unmarried daughters of the member families as well as to support needy old people and the sick in Frankfurt and to support schoolchildren and students from Frankfurt.

Adelheid von Stein has been committed to the foundation's purpose since she joined and was therefore appointed provess of the foundation as early as 1915. While other aristocratic patrician foundations lost their assets in the inflation , the Cronstetten Foundation not only managed to survive the perils of currency devaluation, but also took over failed foundations and incorporated them into the Cronstetten.

The Second World War and the post-war period brought heavy losses due to the destruction of the foundation building. Despite this destruction, it was possible to erect new buildings elsewhere, including a modern old people's home, to continue the foundation and to fulfill the statutory tasks. Adelheid von Stein died at the age of almost 90.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Volume VII (A – F), page 445, CA Starke-Verlag, Limburg 1969, p. 445.
2. ^ Hans Körner: Frankfurter Patrizier, page 346, Ernst Vögel Verlag, Munich 1971