Official nobility

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Official nobility was the designation for the nobility that emerged from an official position or was associated with it . The official nobility stems from the fact that the acquisition of some offices was automatically connected with the acquisition of the nobility or a certain nobility title .

It was primarily a French peculiarity at the time of the Ancien Régime ( Noblesse de robe ), through which commoners could rise to the nobility, but it also existed in Germany and Austria .

Official nobility in Germany and Austria

In the Habsburg lands there was such an official nobility for church princes more often , with Roman-German as well as Austrian and Bohemian awards. The Imperial Court Councilors are also likely to have acquired the nobility in the 18th century. The Austrian nobility was also based on merit.

The Prussian General Land Law also assumed that there were offices the holding of which was connected with the nobility (ALR II 9, §§ 32 and 33). However, the official nobility was not part of the actual nobility (ALR II 9, § 2); this was reserved for the sex or hereditary nobility.

In Württemberg , the personal nobility for residents was associated with the state offices of the top four ranks until 1913.

Heredity

The official nobility was always a personal nobility and was not hereditary.

Under the Ancien Régime, however, the noblesse de robe could also become hereditary if a corresponding office, such as that of a conseiller in one of the parlements , was inherited from father to son and both held it until death or for reasons of age or illness had to give up. An additional condition was that the incumbent regularly paid an annual tax, the paulette . Such offices were also available for purchase. If the owner had regularly paid the paulette , his widow could, in the absence of a qualified heir, sell the office to a qualified interested party accepted by the Minister of Justice. In this way, for example, Pierre de Fermat acquired his office as conseiller au parlement de Toulouse .

literature

  • Georg Freiherr von Frölichsthal : Nobilitations in the Holy Roman Empire. An overview, in: Sigismund Freiherr von Elverfeldt-Ulm (ed.): Adelsrecht , Limburg an der Lahn 2001, 67ff, here 107ff
  • Emanuel Schwab : About the personal nobility of the Reichshofräte, in: monthly Adler 6 (1906-1910), 333ff