Egidy (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the von Egidy family

Egidy is the name of a German aristocratic family that has settled in the Electorate of Saxony since the late 17th century . The imperial nobility was confirmed in 1687 by Emperor Leopold I to Samuel Egidy, chief chef of the Electorate of Saxony. Of his descendants, the majority of the male representatives embarked on an officer career in the Saxon army until the First World War .

Origin of the name

The spelling of the name Egidy goes back to the genitive of Aegidius = Aegidii, whose two first letters merged into E and the two last letters to y. On the family in general and the other noble family with a similar name, cf. Egidy (family) .

origin

According to intra-family tradition, the oldest known ancestor, Johann Egidy, emigrated from the Spanish Netherlands to the Prussian coastal town of Elbing at the end of the 16th century . Birth or baptismal registers that could clearly confirm his origin are not known, as the Dutch Protestants at the time hardly set up such registers under the pressure of persecution. Various people lived there with names like Aegidi or Egidy, with whom a family connection has not been proven, but is possible on the basis of various indications.

Confirmation of nobility

In September 1687, the son of Johann Egidy, Samuel Egidy (approx. 1630 / 31–1710), sent a request from Dresden to Emperor Leopold I in Vienna with the request to join the imperial nobility. In support, he wrote that his late father had heard in Elblag to patrician status, he enjoyed a noble education, served the Count of Stierumb in the Netherlands as a steward, then under the Great Elector as adjutant general at the Battle of Fehrbellin participated located married to the noble Fraulein von Ripperband and finally with the Elector Johann Georg III. received the noble office of chief kitchen master from Saxony . The emperor complied with the request, confirmed the inherited and acquired nobility and on October 21, 1687 issued the corresponding imperial nobility diploma with improved coat of arms for Samuel von Egidy and his male and female descendants.

Family association of Egidy-Kreinitz-Naunhof

Christoph Hanns from Egidy

Christoph Hanns von Egidy (1772–1843), second entails commissioner on Kreinitz and Naunhof, married to Henriette Wilhelmine von Schleinitz (1774–1818), is the founder of the Kreinitz-Naunhofer line of the family. He had nine sons, all of whom were given monosyllabic first names with a superior "Christoph". Allegedly, this should facilitate communication with the authorities. Most descendants have continued this custom to this day. On January 1, 1862, the descendants of Christoph Hanns united by family law to form the Egidy-Kreinitz-Naunhof family association. The widows, daughters and sons of the Präbenden family, scholarships and other support were granted from the related family assets. The assets of the family association were first devalued by inflation in the 1920s. After 1945, due to political changes, especially in eastern Germany, the foundation for the association ceased to exist. Today the family is kept informally together through regular family gatherings and publishes annual reports.

Career choice

For the first two centuries, the male descendants of Samuel von Egidy were either officers or manor owners. Few of them had studied. That only changed in the course of the 19th century, when lawyers and administrative officials became more common in the family. Seven members of the family lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars; after 1945 the survivors were scattered to the West or abroad.

By 1918, five officers from the family had received the highest Saxon honor, the Military Order of St. Henry , and one the Order of Pour le Mérite . Since Egidy no longer became a professional soldier after 1945, the 250-year-old tradition of a Saxon officer family, of which more than fifty members had served their country, ended. In recent times pharmacists, doctors, civil servants, merchants, pastors and scientists have been chosen as professions.

Possessions

  • Badrina manor with Göritz (1693–1772). The first and oldest real estate that the family acquired in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was the Badrina manor with the village of Göritz, located in the Delitzsch district . Otto Heinrich von Egidy (1662–1702) bought it in 1693 for 14,400 guilders from the Braunschweig-Lüneburg captain Hermann Heinrich von Hoff. Even his son Hans Otto von Egidy (1690–1753) could not hold the manor due to high debts and left it in 1737 as a deposit of 30,000 guilders to his wife from the Hartitzsch family . After her death in 1749, her children and grandchildren inherited the Badrina estate, who agreed the following year that the eldest brother, Captain Julius Heinrich von Egidy, would take over the estate. He died in 1763 without any male offspring. The heavily indebted manor Badrina fell to his only daughter Conradine Elisabeth Catharina Augusta von Schütz, who left the estate to her husband Otto Ernst von Schütz in 1772, who sold it on in 1789. The castle survived the Second World War undamaged. In 1972 it was demolished because of dilapidation.
  • Ottersitz manor (1751–1839). Another family estate was Ottersitz on the right bank of the Elbe across from Belgern . It was purchased in 1751 by Friedrich August von Egidy (1724–1796) for 13,125 thalers or 15,000 guilders. His son Christoph Hanns von Egidy (1772–1843), who after the death of his father paid off the other siblings and became the progenitor of the Kreinitz-Nauhofer line of the family, had to sell it again in 1839 for economic reasons. Today the buildings are only preserved as ruins.
Manor Naunhof, the castle around 1912
Kreinitz manor, the castle around 1900
  • Majorate Kreinitz (until 1939) and Naunhof . Of greater importance than the two aforementioned goods are the two majorates of Kreinitz and Naunhof. Christoph Moritz von Egidy (1756–1820), ducal-Brunswick landdrost and great-great-grandson of Samuel von Egidy, had gained wealth through undertakings. In 1814 he bought the Kreinitz manor on the right bank of the Elbe across from Strehla and in 1817 also acquired the Naunhof manor near Moritzburg. In his will of the same year he designated both estates as entails and majorats for the von Egidy family. Moritz's brother Christoph Hanns von Egidy (1772–1843) was heir to the two majorates. His sons' descendants followed him into the 20th century, when all entails in Germany were repealed by law in the 1930s. As a result, the goods fell into the private property of the last majorate lords and could be sold. In 1936, the "Saxon Farmers' Estate" acquired Naunhof for settlement purposes. Karl Heinrich Diener von Schönberg bought the Naunhof Palace. The Kreinitz manor was sold to Fritz Pietsch in 1939. The buyers lost their property again in 1945 through the land reform . The baroque mansion in Kreinitz was blown up in 1950 as a "Junkerbesitz", Naunhof took on a children's home for some time and later became a home for the elderly. Today the Naunhof buildings are empty.

coat of arms

The coat of arms is divided. Above in a field split by gold and blue a fleeting natural stag, below split and divided three times by blue and gold alternately. On the helmet with blue and gold covers a growing naked virgin between natural deer antlers, grasping the deer sticks.

Personalities

literature

Web links

Commons : Family von Egidy  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gothaisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen Häuser, 2nd year, Gotha 1908, p. 235
  2. ↑ Of about 50 male descendants of the progenitor Samuel von Egidy, who were born by the beginning of the 20th century and reached adulthood, 31 family members are recorded in the Saxon cadet corps. Source: J. Höser: Directory of the former Saxon cadets, Leipzig 1937