Langenstein (noble family of Baden)

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The counts of Langenstein and Gondelsheim were a morganatic , non- evenly matched sidelines of the house of Baden . The aristocratic family created in 1827 came about through an illegitimate union between Grand Duke Ludwig I and Katharina Werner . While the male family died out in the first generation, it joined the female line with the Swedish Douglas dynasty , thus establishing the Douglas-Langenstein line that still exists today .

Katharina Werner

Katharina Werner (1799–1850), the daughter of a Baden corporal from Weisenbach in the Murgtal , performed as an actress and dancer at the Grand Ducal Court Theater . The Grand Duke, who was over fifty years old, probably met the then sixteen year old in 1816. A relationship developed between the two and Mademoiselle Werner was soon considered to be the Grand Duke's mistress . The first child together, Luise (1817–1821); was born the following year; the mother was not yet eighteen years old. The daughter died at the age of three and a half.

In 1820 and 1825, Katharina Werner gave birth to two more children, Ludwig Wilhelm August (1820–1872) and Louise Katharina (1825–1900). All children were recognized by the father, but as illegitimate and incongruous descendants were of course not entitled to the throne. In 1827, mother and two children were raised to hereditary nobility as Counts of Langenstein and Gondelsheim . There may have been a secret morganatic wedding between Catherine and the Grand Duke beforehand .

Katharina's younger sister, Gertrud Werner (* 1807), was to marry the officer Johann Heinrich David von Hennenhofer at the suggestion of the Grand Duke .

Privileges and possessions of the sex

Coat of arms of the Counts of Langenstein and Gondelsheim (after Ernst Heinrich Kneschke )

The elevation to the Baden counts took place on April 9, 1827, combined with the creation of its own coat of arms .

In the years before, Grand Duke Ludwig had bought extensive estates as private property, these were now grouped together as the Count's Langenstein family estate and on June 28, 1827 raised to a grand-ducal-Baden status. The possessions were the Langenstein manor including Beuren , Volkertshausen and Münchhof im Hegau as well as Adelsreute , Tepfenhard and Urnau in Linzgau , the manor Gondelsheim in Kraichgau and the manor Stetten am kalten Markt in the upper Danube valley, as well as a hotel with a park in Karlsruhe. Later, the lords of Worndorf , Gutenstein and Sickingen were also united with the Langenstein class.

The two residences of the family were the castles Langenstein and Gondelsheim , which also gave their names to the family. The name "Langenstein" is derived from a Reichenau noble family of the same name that has been extinct since the Middle Ages .

The rulership was to be inherited undivided as a majorate in the male line , which was also associated with membership (in the form of a rulership equal to the rulers) in the first chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly . The mother, now Katharina Countess von Langenstein and Gondelsheim , received Sickingen, Mägdeberg and Mühlhausen as her own possessions ; the daughter Heilsberg , Gottmadingen and Ehaben .

After the death of the Grand Duke in 1830, the Langenstein family inherited most of his private fortune of over three million guilders .

The Baden Counts of Douglas

The family seat of Langenstein Castle (today part of Orsingen-Nenzingen )

Countess Katharina died in 1850 and her possessions were divided between the two children. In 1872 her son Ludwig died. Since he had neither married nor left offspring, the male line died out again and the entire family property fell to his sister Louise. She had married the Swedish Count Carl Israel Wilhelm Douglas (1824–1898), a member of the Swedish line (going back to Robert Douglas (1611–1662)) of the originally Scottish Douglas dynasty in 1848 . Her children reached important political offices in both Sweden and Germany. The grandson Karl Robert founded the Baden count line Douglas-Langenstein, which still exists today, when he moved his main residence to Langenstein Castle in 1906. Gondelsheim Castle also remained in the family's possession until 2010.

The collection of books compiled by Countess Louise and her descendants, the Douglas Library , comprises around 2118 volumes. It was originally located in the Villa Douglas ( Hinterhausen Castle ) in Allmannsdorf on Lake Constance, at the end of the 1970s / beginning of the 1980s the entire collection was then transferred to Ebnet Castle in Breisgau, along with other archive materials .

Important members of the sex were the German Reichstag delegate Wilhelm Graf Douglas (1849-1908), his brother, the Swedish Reichsmarschall and Foreign Minister Ludvig Douglas (1849-1916), his son, the landowner Karl Robert Graf Douglas (1880-1955), his son and successor Wilhelm von Douglas-Langenstein (1907–1987) and his uncle, the Swedish army chief Archibald Douglas (1883–1960). The current head of the family of the German branch is Axel Graf Douglas (* 1943). His cousin, Count Patrick Douglas (1938–2010) became head of the Barons von Reischach by adoption . Other well-known family members from more recent times are the art broker Christoph Graf Douglas (1948-2016) and the personnel consultant ( Korn / Ferry ) Hubertus Graf Douglas (* 1952).

Tribe list

Ludwig Graf von Langenstein in 1834; Oil painting by the Baden court painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Extract from the root list, only the family members relevant for Baden are shown:

  1. Ludwig I. , Grand Duke of Baden (1763–1830) ⚭ Katharina Countess of Langenstein and Gondelsheim, b. Werner (1799-1850)
    1. Luise Werner (1817-1821)
    2. Ludwig Wilhelm August Graf von Langenstein and Gondelsheim , b. Werner (1820–1872)
    3. Louise Katharina Countess of Langenstein and Gondelsheim, b. Werner (1825–1900) ⚭ Carl Israel Wilhelm Douglas (1824–1898)
      1. Wilhelm Ludwig Karl (1849–1908) ⚭ Waleska Weiss
      2. Ludvig (Ludwig) Wilhelm August (1849–1916) ⚭ Anna Ehrensvärd
        1. Anna Lovisa (Louise) Dorotea (1878–1964) ⚭ Theodor Adelswärd - descendants
        2. Karl Robert (1880–1955), founded the actual Douglas-Langenstein line, ⚭ 1) Sofie von Fine Blaauw, ⚭ 2) Auguste Viktoria von Hohenzollern
          1. Ludwig Wilhelm Karl (1907–1987) ⚭ Ursula von Ellrichshausen
            1. Madeleine (* 1939) ⚭ 1) Christoph Albert Eugen Ferdinand von Malaisé , ⚭ 2) John Denham, ⚭ 3) Sir Raymond Hoffenberg - descendants
            2. Gunilla (* 1941) ⚭ Peter Henry Arthur Stanley (* 1933), great-grandson of the 16th Earl of Derby - offspring
            3. Axel (* 1943) ⚭ 1) Johanna Princess von Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein , ⚭ 2) Karen-Marguerite von Kühlmann, ⚭ 3) Johanna Ernst - descendants
            4. Hubertus (* 1952) ⚭ Theresia von Oppen - descendants
          2. Ludwig Friedrich Morton (1909–1979) ⚭ 1) Anne-Marie Staehelin, ⚭ 2) Edith Straehl
            1. Patrick Morton Robert Friedrich (1938–2010), by adoption Freiherr von Reischach, ⚭ 1) Alexandra Margarethe Helene Anita von Berlichingen , ⚭ 2) Helga Ambros - descendants
            2. Catharina Lovisa (* 1941) ⚭ 1) Russell Layland, ⚭ 2) Alain Paul Charles Le Menestrel
            3. Beatrice (* 1944) ⚭ Rudolf Graf von Blanckenstein - descendants
            4. Christoph Archibald Ludwig Friedrich (1948–2016) ⚭ Bergit Oetker - descendants
          3. Robert (1914–1985), founded the Douglas-Gerstorp line, ⚭ Mielikki Tapiovaara - descendants
          4. Marie-Louise (* 1921) ⚭ 1) Dennis von Bieberstein-Krasicki von Siecin, ⚭ 2) Zygmunt von Michalow Michalowski - descendants
        3. Wilhelm Archibald (1883–1960), founded the Douglas-Stjärnorp line, ⚭ Astri Henschen - descendants
        4. Hedvig (Hedwig) Ingeborg Madeleine (1886–1983) ⚭ Charles Louis Fouché, 6th duc d 'Otrante - offspring
        5. Carl Sholto (1888–1946) ⚭ Maria von Schlichting - descendants
        6. Ellen Maria Augusta (1892–1987) ⚭ Martin Mansson
        7. Oscar Wilhelm (1896–1991), founded the Douglas-Kolfall line, ⚭ Dagmar Skarstedt - descendants
      3. Magdalena Sophie Henriette (1852–1899) ⚭ Hans Freiherr von Meyern-Hohenberg
      4. Catherine Caroline Luise (1852–1893) ⚭ Heinrich Freiherr Gayling von Altheim - descendants
      5. Maria (1854–1923) ⚭ Carl August Philipp Graf von der Goltz
      6. Friedrich Archibald (1859–1921)

literature

  • Edmund von der Becke-Klüchtzner, Stamm-Tafeln of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Baden: a newly edited book of nobility , Baden-Baden, 1886 online
  • Edmund von der Becke-Klüchtzner, Stamm-Tafeln of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Baden: a newly edited book of nobility , Baden-Baden, 1886 by Steinberg online
  • Wolfgang Kramer: Katharina Werner, the Grand Duke's lover ; In: Hegau 66.2009, pp. 71–84

Individual evidence

  1. Klaus GerteisLangenstein, Katharina Countess of. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 354 ( digitized version ).
  2. Kurt Kramer: Kaspar Hauser - A short dream and no end , 2008, pp. 109–112
  3. ^ Baden and Württemberg in the Napoleonic era: Exhibition of the State of Baden-Württemberg , Volume 2, 1987, p. 46
  4. Archive for Family Research and All Related Areas, Volume 54, Issues 109–112, 1988, p. 542
  5. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : German count houses of the present: In heraldic, historical and genealogical relation. A – Z , Weigel, 1854, p. 216/217 ( digitized from Google Books )
  6. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: New general German nobility lexicon : In associations with several historians, Volume 2 , F. Voight, 1860, p. 560 ( digitized at Google Books )
  7. ^ Karen Kloth: Handbook of the historical book inventory in Germany: Baden-Württemberg and Saarland AH , Georg Olms Verlag, 1994, p. 183
  8. ^ Südkurier : Aristocracy meets for the funeral of Patrick Graf Douglas Freiherr von Reischach , December 15, 2010
  9. ^ A b Lisa Zeitz: On the death of Christoph Graf Douglas . WELTKUNST online, September 12, 2016
  10. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Volume 94, Starke, 1989, see entry Douglas (page 200ff); and: geneall.net: descendants of Grand Duke Ludwig von Baden

Web links