Ahlefeld (noble family)

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Coat of arms of those of Ahlefeld

Ahlefeld or Ahlefeldt is the name of Schleswig Uradels gender that the Equites Originarii belongs. It appears for the first time in the area around the Westensee near Kiel and later spread from the Duchy of Schleswig to Holstein , Mecklenburg and Denmark .

The Ahlefeld are of a tribe and were of a coat of arms with that of Rumohr and are of a coat of arms with the extinct ones of Bosendahl - also Botzendal - († approx. 1535) and of Rastorp († 1749). This old noble family has played an important role in Danish and Schleswig-Holstein history .

history

According to an older legend, the community of descent Rumohr-Ahlefeld-Bosendahl-Rastorp goes back to a "Hunold" ( Hunoldus comes de Schwabeck ) from the Swabian family of Schwabeck (similar coat of arms) and of Baltshusen , whose great-grandson Konrad ( Conradus baro from Alhefeld ) 1152 participated in the murder of Count Hermann II von Winzenburg and then in 1153 to King Sven III. had fled from Denmark ; There is no evidence of this.

The brothers Benedictus et Scacco de Prodole - Benedikt and Schack von Perdöl (municipality of Belau, district of Plön), who first appeared in documents in 1220 and 1221, are the first real representatives of the von Ahlefeldt and von Rumohr families . The same "Scacco de Rumore" is mentioned again in 1245 and 1253. He called himself after the village Rumohr southwest of Kiel. The safe line of the Ahlefeld family begins with Benedictus de Alevelde senior , miles (Benedict - called Bendix in Denmark - the elder, 1320-1380), who is documented on June 16, 1321 and named after the village of Ahlefeld . (Gut Friedrichshof in Ahlefeld, the family's eponymous seat, was demolished in 1953 after a fire.)

While the Ahlefeldts have named themselves after their progenitor Benedict for centuries, the Rumohrs have retained the name Schack for the same reason, but alternating from grandfather to grandson with Schack (1245/53) - Benedict (1283/89) - Schack (1308) - Benedict - Schack (1351) - Benedict (1408) etc.

Seegaard Castle (reconstruction from 1935)

From 1398 Seegaard was owned by the family in what is now Denmark's North Schleswig, which was by far the largest aristocratic estate in the Duchy of Schleswig . In 1643 the manor house was destroyed and only rebuilt in the 19th and 20th centuries; however, the ruin provided the building material for the construction of Gravenstein Castle on a former farm. Count Carl von Ahlefeldt , lord of the Danish island of Langeland with Tranekær Castle , was also the last owner of Seegaard; he also had the Gravenstein Castle built 1700–1708, after he had built the Sorgefri Castle as early as 1705/06 . After his death in 1722, the debts he left behind had to be settled through extensive sales; Gravenstein was sold to the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg . In its present form, Gravenstein Castle was rebuilt in 1758 after a fire. Like Sorgefri, it is still owned by the Danish Crown and serves as a country residence for the royal family.

The Ahlefeldt family later split into around 15 lines, of which the Haseldorfer line was the most common of all. In 1494 the knight Hans von Ahlefeldt received the bailiwick of Haseldorf from King Johann I in exchange for other areas, including the Haseldorfer Marsch , Haseldorf Castle , the five associated parishes as well as Gut Gelting with its villages and some scattered holdings. Gelting, where the still-preserved side wings of the manor house were built by the Ahlefeldts, had to be auctioned in 1712, Haseldorf remained in the family's possession until 1731.

In the battle of Hemmingstedt on February 17, 1500 against the Dithmarsch farmers, eleven Ahlefelds were actually killed, while according to Theodor Fontane's ballad, there were only seven.

Benedict Wilhelm von Ahlefeldt managed already in 1709 at Gut Kaden to serfdom , and was the first in Holstein. Benedikt von Ahlefeldt had a grandiose French baroque park laid out on Gut Jersbek in the years after 1726 , just like his father had previously at Gut Seestermühe .

The Counts Ahlefeld

Burchard von Ahlefeldt (1634–1695), Danish chamberlain, district administrator and Oberlanddrost, who had inherited a large complex of twelve estates in Schleswig-Holstein, was raised in 1672 by King Christian V as the first Holstein nobleman to the Danish count status and founded the up today existing count line Ahlefeldt- Eschelsmark .

The feudal counts Ahlefeldt-Laurvig in Denmark

Count Friedrich von Ahlefeldt (1623–1686), Danish governor of Schleswig and Holstein, chancellor of Denmark

The royal Danish governor of Schleswig and Holstein as well as the governor of Süderdithmarschen , Friedrich von Ahlefeldt (1623–1686) from the Gravenstein line was raised to the personal status of imperial count on December 14, 1665 in Vienna . With him, the old Schleswig knight dynasty undertook a political and social rise. From 1676 to 1686 he was Chancellor of Denmark. In 1669 he bought the small imperial rule of Rixingen ( Réchicourt ) in the diocese of Metz in Lorraine and the Freiherrschaft Mörsberg in Upper Alsace in order to gain imperial estate , although these tiny territories were not sufficient for this, especially since Alsace had been occupied by France from 1662 and later was annexed. However, in 1672 he also became hereditary liege count of Langeland , a Danish island, where his first wife Margrethe Dorothea von Rantzau inherited Tranekær Castle in 1663 , which is still owned by Count Ahlefeldt-Laurvig.

Friedrich's daughters first marriage married into the imperial direct houses Nassau-Ottweiler and Leiningen . His two sons followed him as governors in Schleswig and Holstein. The son of his first marriage, Friedrich (1662–1708), married Christiane Gyldenløve in 1687, an illegitimate daughter of King Christian V of Denmark . His son from his second marriage (with Marie Elisabeth Countess von Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg ), Count Carl von Ahlefeldt , inherited the dominions of Rixingen and Mörsberg in 1686, which he sold in 1703 to his brother-in-law, Count Friedrich Ludwig von Nassau-Ottweiler , who in 1680 his sister Christiana had married. After the death of his older brothers in 1708 he inherited the county of Langeland with Tranekær Castle. He married Ulrica Amalie Antoinette von Danneskiold-Laurvig (1686–1755), who came from a morganatic descendant of the Danish kings. His eldest son Friedrich married Birthe von Holstein (1705–1735) in 1730 ; The later major general and chamberlain Christian von Ahlefeldt-Laurvigen (1732–1791) emerged from this marriage. After a long legal dispute, he inherited the Lehnsgrafschaft Laurvigen in Norway in 1785 and received approval to use the name "Count of Langeland and Laurvigen"; The feudal county Laurvigen was sold after his death in 1805 and from the proceeds a Fideikommisskapital was placed in the state treasury, the beneficiaries of which had all the privileges of the former liege counts of Laurvigen. The name Ahlefeldt-Laurvig (en) remained with the Danish line to this day.

The Counts Ahlefeldt-Laurvig have owned Tranekær Castle on the island of Langeland since 1663 . They have also owned Nordenbrogård in Magleby Sogn since 1720 and Hjortholm in Fodslette Sogn since 1896 . From 1731 to 1931 they also owned the Vestergaard estate in Humble Sogn and from 1749 to 1960 the Lykkesholm estate in Tryggelev Sogn . The Egeskov Castle on Funen is 1882 in the inheritance of the noble family Bille came -Brahe to the Count Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille who own it to this day.

The barons Ahlefeldt von Dehn

A third line, the Ahlefeldt (Barons) von Dehn , has existed since 1783 and was recognized as a baronial house on March 12, 1913 through a royal Prussian elevation of status . The name and coat of arms association with von Dehn was recognized for the respective beneficiary of the Gut Ludwigsburg ancestral home on June 25, 1783 (for the first time for Carl Friedrich Ulrich von Ahlefeldt , married to Sophie Charlotte Friederike Freiin von Dehn ); since 1913 the respective entertainer has held the legitimate title of Ahlefeldt Freiherr von Dehn . The German Nobility Law Committee recognized this name despite the loss of the Fideikommiss (November 30, 1949).

In 1950 the Ludwigsburg estate, which had come to the von Dehn family in 1729, was sold.

The Counts of Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt

A branch of the Brockdorff family , the Counts of Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt, descends from Konrad Graf von Brockdorff , who was adopted by Conrad Graf von Ahlefeldt at Gut Ascheberg in 1837 . Ascheberg came to him in 1825 and has been in the possession of Count Brockdorff-Ahlefeld since adoption to this day.

Goods in the (temporary) possession of Ahlefeldt

The numerous aristocratic estates that were temporarily owned by Ahlefeld included:

Ahlefeld , Ascheberg , Bekmünde , Bülk , Büstorf (Bystorp) Good Julianka in Brunsbüttel , Danish-Nienhof , Dollrott , Drage , Egeskov , Ehlerstorf , Eschelsmark , free will , Gelting , Geréby , Gravenstein , green wood , Güldenstein , Haselau , Haseldorf , Hasselburg , Heiligenstedten , Hjortholm , Jersbek and webs , Kaden , Kaltenhof , Kampen , small North Sea , Kluvensiek , Knoop , Kollmar , Kronsburg , the Danish Lehnsgrafschaft on the island of Langeland (based castle Tranekær ) Laurvigen , Lehmkuhlen , Lindau , Ludwigsburg , Lykkesholm , Mehlbek , Mörsberg , Neudorf , Noer , Nordenbrogård , Ohe , Olpenitz , Ornum , Osterrade , Perdöl , Rixingen , Rögen , Rundhof , Saxtorf , Seegaard , Seekamp , Seestermühe , Sehestedt , Sorgenfri , Stedingshof , Stubbe , Tremsbüttel , Vestergaard , Wittmoldt .

coat of arms

Until 1500, the noble family had a heraldic coat of arms that was somewhat different from today's . Right a simple flight and left half of the shield was simply divided into two white and two red fields. Today the split family coat of arms shows on the right in blue a simple silver flight growing out of the division and on the left in silver two red bars . Sitting on a helmet with red and silver blankets on a gold tufted red pillow is a silver bracke with a gold ringed red collar.

  • Cartouche with the arms of the von Ahlefeld (t) in the Uetersen monastery

  • Coats of arms on the crypt extension of the Seester church : CVA (= Cay von Ahlefeldt) SEVA (= Blessed Eva von Ahlefeldt)

  • Coat of arms graphic by Otto Hupp in the Munich calendar of 1905

  • The coat of arms of those of Ahlefeldt and Dehn

people

Family association

Epitaph at the Church of St. Laurentii in Itzehoe. Inscription:
FRAU MARGARETA CATHARINA
VON AHLEFELD ABBSSESS
FRAULEIN EMERENTIA VON AHLEFELD
CONVENTUALIN
FRAU METTA CHRISTINA VON AHLEFELD
ABTESSIS
SISTERS FROM THE HOUSE KÖNIGSFERDE ANNO 1728

The German-Danish family association of Ahlefeld (t) has existed since 1900.

  • President of the Danish Association is liege Count Preben Ahlefeldt-Laurvig, Trankeaer, Langeland;
  • The chairman of the German association is Heiko von Ahlefeld, Neustadt / Weinstrasse; Deputy Trutz von Ahlefeld, Saltsjöbaden , Sweden.

A family reunion takes place every three years at the end of May, alternately in Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Ahlefeld (noble family)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schleswig-Holstein. Document book 1, p. 565 fg.
  2. ↑ Lübeck document book, Volume III, p. 69
  3. ^ List of the knights and squires who died on February 17, 1500 near Hemmingstedt on the part of the Schleswig - Holstein knighthood
  4. ^ Theodor Fontane: The day of Hemmingstedt (ballad). Retrieved July 18, 2020 .