Bernstorff (noble family)

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Family coat of arms of the von Bernstorff family

The von Bernstorff family comes from the ancestral home in Bernstorf in what is now the district of Northwest Mecklenburg and belongs to the Mecklenburg nobility. She also acquired properties in Lauenburg, Lüneburg and Denmark.

history

The family first appears in a document in 1300 with Johannes dictus de Bernardestorpe . The family line begins in 1411 with Johann Bernstorp , Knappe zu Bernstorp.

The family was divided into Line I of the Lords of Bernstorff (or the non-counts) and Line II of the Counts of Bernstorff. The non-count has the older 1st branch and the younger 2nd branch, the latter expired in 1966. The count's branches are Gartow-Wedendorf and Wotersen-Dreilützow-Stintenburg ; the former split into the Gartow-Wehningen and Wedendorf branches in the 19th century (this included the then divided goods Wedendorf, Bernstorf, Beseritz, Alt-Karin and Quadenschönfeld). The latter was divided into the Wotersen branches (to which the Danish houses Gyldensteen and Kattrup also belong, the latter extinguished in 1949) and Dreilützow-Stintenburg (the Dreilützow house extinguished in 1946) and the Magnus branch .

Careers and advancements

Andreas Gottlieb von Bernstorff (1649–1726), First Minister of the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg

In 1716 the royal British and electoral Braunschweig-Lüneburgsche Minister Andreas Gottlieb von Bernstorff (1649–1726) was raised to the status of imperial baron. He was first the leading minister in Celle, then head of the German chancellery in London in the service of the Electorate of Hanover , where he had a decisive influence on British politics; in Hanover, too, he subsequently served as leading minister. In 1679 he acquired the Wedendorf estate in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in 1694 the Gartow estate in the Lüneburg region and in 1717 the Wotersen estate in the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg , which thanks to him had fallen to the Principality of Lüneburg-Celle in 1693; In Gartow and Wotersen he had new castles built and left behind a family fideikommiss ; in 1725 he also acquired Dreilützow in Mecklenburg .

In 1767 his grandchildren, the brothers Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff (1712–1772), became Danish Foreign Minister as well as Mr. auf Wotersen , Schloss Bernstorff , Wedendorf and Rüting , and Andreas Gottlieb von Bernstorff the Younger (1708–1768), Mr. auf Gartow and Dreilützow , who also acquired Stintenburginsel in 1740, elevated to the status of a Danish count by Christian VII .

Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff (1712–1772), Danish Foreign Minister

Johann Hartwig Ernst managed to keep Denmark out of the Seven Years' War , which gave the country a period of prosperity, but not its home, the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . With Catherine II he concluded an alliance treaty and, through the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo, ensured the reunification of the previously divided Duchy of Holstein . In 1751 he had a city palace built in Copenhagen and in 1752 acquired a country house near Copenhagen, on which he had Bernstorff Castle built from 1759 ; Furthermore, by 1767, he expanded the Wotersen manor house into a splendid baroque complex.

His nephew Count Andreas Peter von Bernstorff (1735–1797), the son of Andreas Gottlieb the Younger, whom he had sent for the Russian negotiations, was also Danish Foreign Minister from 1773 to 1780 and from 1784 to 1797; Thanks to its diplomatic skills, Denmark experienced a period of peace and prosperity. His older son Hans Hartwig (1767–1791) married Konstanze von Knuth, heir to the liege count Johan Heinrich Knuth -Gyldensteen, and founded the Danish line, which is still located in Gyldensteen today. The younger son, Count Christian Günther von Bernstorff (1769-1835), was briefly also Danish Foreign Minister in 1800, then in 1815 envoy to the Congress of Vienna , where Denmark lost Norway ; In 1818 he switched to the service of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and was its foreign minister until 1832; he created the basis for the later German Customs Union .

Count Arthur von Bernstorff (1808-1897) from the Gartow-Wedendorf house inherited Wedendorf and Bernstorf in Mecklenburg and became a Mecklenburg district administrator. He bought the Quadenschönfeld and Beseritz estates , where - as in Bernstorf - he had new manor houses built, as well as the Gut Mühlenhof hunting seat .

Albrecht the Elder Ä. Count von Bernstorff (1809–1873) from Dreilützow-Stintenburg served as Prussian Foreign Minister from 1861–1862 and later as Ambassador to London. His son Andreas Graf von Bernstorff (1844–1907), on Stintenburg, was a member of the Reichstag and his son Albrecht the Elder. J. Graf von Bernstorff (1890–1945), in Stintenburg, became a diplomat and resistance fighter against National Socialism ; in April 1945 he was murdered by the SS.

coat of arms

  • The tribe crest of the von Bernstorff is as follows described : "In red a silver wave beams from long-stemmed growing beams, three, top, green (natural) Seeblätter ." - "In the pot helmet with red-silver covers (on gelehntem plate) two outwardly inclined , tapering, long-stemmed, red spherical fans, each set with seven natural peacock feathers. "In the past the water lily leaves were golden, in some coat of arms variations the wavy bar is covered with three (veined) short-stemmed, pointed green water lily leaves (natural sea leaves, see above: Count's coat of arms of 1837), the crest has seven natural peacock feathers without a stemmed ball.
  • The coat of arms was increased each time it was raised to the baron class and later to the count class . The count's coat of arms is squared with a silver heart shield , which shows a green wreath (the heart shield when raised to the count state). Fields 1 and 4 show the family coat of arms, 2 in black two golden wheel rims facing each other with four pointed spokes each without hubs, 3 in blue behind a three-pointed silver rock growing a red clad gold crowned virgin with flying golden hair, who has a green wreath with both Holding hands in front of him. 2 and 3 was the coat of arms of the extinct Austrian family Pernstorffer, which is not related to the Mecklenburg family. Three crowned helmets; on the middle a peacock feather, on the right rock and virgin, on the left a closed black flight with the Saxons facing right, covered with the wheel rims. Shield holder on the right a black eagle looking back, on the left a golden leopard.
  • Emblem: "Fear God, shy no one."

  • Variant of the family coat of arms of those von Bernstorff

  • Coat of arms graphic by Otto Hupp in the Munich calendar of 1903

  • Count's coat of arms in the Mecklenburg coat of arms book

people

Count Andreas Peter von Bernstorff (1735–1797), Danish Foreign Minister
Count Christian Günther von Bernstorff (1769–1835), Danish and Prussian foreign ministers
Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff (1890–1945), resistance fighter

Possessions

The goods that were in the possession of the Bernstorff included:

  • Stammgut Bernstorf , northwest Mecklenburg , owned by the family from the 13th century until the expropriation in 1945
  • Gut Wedendorf , northwest Mecklenburg , acquired in 1679 by the minister Andreas Gottlieb ; Sold in 1931
  • Gut Wotersen , Duchy of Lauenburg, acquired by Andreas Gottlieb in 1717; Sold in 1996
  • Gut Dreilützow , Mecklenburg, acquired by Andreas Gottlieb in 1725; Sold in 1929
  • Gut Borstel , Schleswig-Holstein, acquired by the Danish Foreign Minister Count Johann Hartwig ; Sold in 1789 by his grandson Joachim Frederik , bought Gut Lehmkuhlen in return (sold in 1807)
  • Bernstorffs Palæ, Copenhagen, Denmark, built by Johann Hartwig in 1751, sold in 1799
  • Bernstorff Castle , Denmark, acquired by Johann Hartwig in 1752, rebuilt from 1759; Sold in 1812
  • Gut Kattrup , Jutland, Denmark, acquired in 1852 by the court hunter Frederik Emil Herman Bernstorff; Sold in 1949
  • Gut Alt Karin , Mecklenburg, acquired in 1868, expropriated in 1945
  • Gut Beseritz , Mecklenburg Lake District, acquired by District Administrator Count Arthur in 1879 ; Expropriated in 1945
  • Quadenschönfeld estate , acquired by Count Arthur in 1883; Expropriated in 1945
  • Gut Mühlenhof near Fürstenberg / Havel, acquired in 1911 by Count Arthur as a hunting seat; Sold in 1935
  • Gut Schnackenburg , Lower Saxony, Pertinenz zu Gartow
  • Schiermonnikoog Island , Netherlands, owned by the Berthold von Bernstorff family from 1892 to 1945

and until today:

  • Gartow , Lower Saxony, acquired by Andreas Gottlieb in 1694; today owned by Count Andreas von Bernstorff
  • Stintenburg with Lassahn, Lauenburg, acquired in 1740; the resistance fighter Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff , who was executed in 1945, was expropriated by the Nazi government, and the site was then ceded to the GDR through an exchange of borders; Restituted to the family in 1993
  • Gyldensteen on Funen , Denmark, 1802 by Countess Constance Henriette Bernstorff born. Inherited by Countess Knuth-Gyldensteen, today owned by Count Frants Bernstorff-Gyldensteen
  • Gjessinggård , Jutland, Denmark, came to Peter Emil greve Bernstorff in 1977 through inheritance from the von Folsach family

See also

literature

  • Aage Friis : The Bernstorffs, Volume 1: Apprenticeship and wandering years. A cultural image from the German-Danish aristocratic and diplomatic life in the 18th century , Leipzig 1905
  • Aage Friis: The Bernstorffs and Denmark, Volume 2: Johann Hartwig Ernst Bernstorff in the Conseil Friedrichs V. A contribution to the political and cultural development history of the Danish state 1750-1835. Bentheim 1970
  • Genealogical manual of the nobility , Adelslexikon Volume I, Volume 53 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1972, ISSN  0435-2408
  • Wilhelm Morhardt: The tomb of Anna Magdalena Luise von Bernstorff (1688–1690) in Babenhausen. In: Babenhausen Mosaic = Babenhausen then and now. 20. Babenhausen 1990, pp. 30-34.
  • Eckardt Opitz : The Bernstorffs. A European family (= Small Schleswig-Holstein Books . Volume 51). Boyens, Heide 2001, ISBN 3-8042-0992-0 .
  • Werner Graf v. Bernstorff: The Lords and Counts v. Bernstorff, Eine Familiengeschichte, private printing, Celle 1982, p. 73 digitized
  • Karl Hopf: Historical-genealogical atlas from the birth of Christ up to our time. Volume 1, Issue 2, p. 37, digitized , family tree of the Counts of Bernsdorff
  • Genealogical paperback of the knights and Aristocratic families, 1878, third year, p. 43ff.
  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the count's houses, 1898, p.106ff

Web links

Commons : Bernstorff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schwerin State Archives, Mecklenburg. Document Book No. 2627
  2. ^ According to Gustav von Lehsten: The nobility of Mecklenburg since the constitutional hereditary comparisons (1775). Rostock: Tiedemann 1864, p. 19 f.
  3. ↑ History of the house - Hospiz Schloss Bernstorf. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 9, 2015 ; accessed on July 24, 2018 . 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.schloss-bernstorf.de
  4. ↑ On Hermann's life data http://www.vonbernstorff.net/ahnen-suche
  5. ^ History of Rijsbergen op Schiermonnikoog