Hohenberg (Austrian noble family)

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Hohenberg is the name of an Austrian family who held the ducal or prince dignity in Austria-Hungary until 1919 . The Hohenbergs are descendants of the morganatic marriage of the heir to the throne couple Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este and Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa, who were murdered in the 1914 assassination attempt in Sarajevo . The male line comes from the Imperial House of Habsburg-Lothringen and the female line from the old Bohemian noble family Chotek von Chotkow and Wognin .

Coat of arms of the dukes and princes of Hohenberg
Archduke Franz Ferdinand with his wife Sophie. Their children received the princely title of Hohenberg .
Artstetten Castle , Lower Austria

history

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este (1863-1914) married in on July 1, 1900 Reichstadt ( Bohemia s) Countess Sophie Chotek of Chotkowa (1868-1914). The descendants from this marriage were not in keeping with their status because of the Imperial Austrian family statute , the house law of the Habsburg-Lothringen dynasty , and therefore not entitled to inherit the Austro-Hungarian throne.

The strict inheritance regulations initially only applied to Austria. In Bohemia and Hungary, however, Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg could have become queen and her children heir to the throne. In view of the unity of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , however, these claims were contractually waived.

On August 8, 1900, Sophie Chotek and her future legitimate descendants were raised to the Austrian prince status by Emperor Franz Joseph with the name Hohenberg and the salutation "Princely graces" and received a personal coat of arms as the wife of the heir to the throne.

The marriage resulted in the following children: Sophie (1901–1990), Maximilian (1902–1962) and Ernst (1904–1954). A fourth child was stillborn in the fall of 1908.

On June 8, 1905, Emperor Franz Joseph awarded the Princess von Hohenberg and her legitimate descendants the title "Highness". On October 4, 1909, the Princess of Hohenberg was raised to Duchess of Hohenberg with the address "Highness", although this only extended to Sophie personally and not her descendants.

After the assassination attempt in Sarajevo , the property of the murdered heir apparent passed to their children. As the eldest descendant, Prince Maximilian , who was only twelve years old at the time, inherited, among other things, Artstetten Castle in Lower Austria , where the heir to the throne was also buried. The three children also inherited Konopiště Castle south of Prague, Chlumetz Castle in southern Bohemia near the border with Austria and Greifenberg Castle in Radmer in Styria.

During the reign of Charles I. were the children of the heir pair on August 31, 1917, a hereditary crest and in the primogeniture hereditary duke with the salutation "sovereignty", the remaining descendants the title of prince or princess with the title "Excellency".

Due to the Nobility Repeal Act , members of the gender in the Republic of Austria have been using the Hohenberg family name since 1919 . Also in 1919 the sons of the heir to the throne, Maximilian and Ernst, then 17 and 15 years old respectively , were expropriated without compensation in Konopiště and Chlumetz in favor of the Czechoslovak Republic in a separate Lex Hohenberg and expelled to Austria as Austrian citizens . This expropriation later gave rise to a long-term legal dispute between the Hohenberg family and the Republic of the Czech Republic, which was led by Princess Sophie v. Hohenberg was carried before the European authorities.

After the death of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1916, 20,000 hectares of forest property in Radmer , Styria, which were actually intended as a testamentary inheritance for Franz Ferdinand, were transferred from his estate to his orphans Max, Sophie and Ernst.

After the annexation of Austria in 1938, Maximilian and Ernst Hohenberg were deported to the Dachau concentration camp because they had spoken out in favor of Austria's independence and against the "Anschluss" with the German Reich . Artstetten Castle was expropriated and the forestry in Radmer also became the property of the German Empire. This was one of the largest expropriations in Austria. The imprisonment of the Hohenberg brothers attracted a lot of attention in western countries. Maximilian was released in 1940, while Ernst was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp and was only able to return home in 1943. The expropriated family property came to the Republic of Austria after the Nazi era ; it was not returned to Maximilian Hohenberg until 1949. This inherited Artstetten with castle, forestry and agriculture in 1962 to his eldest son Franz. After his death in 1977, his widow Elisabeth von Luxemburg the property to her eldest daughter Anita, who married the French Count Romée de La Poeze d'Harambure. These brought the property into the Anita Hohenberg Foundation, which was established at the end of 2003 . The forest property in Radmer was divided among the heirs.

The Hohenberg family's burial place is in Artstetten Castle. In 1909, Archduke Franz Ferdinand commissioned the construction of the family crypt for twelve coffins under the forecourt of the castle and parish church of St. James the Elder . In 1955/56, after the death of Ernst Hohenberg , the crypt was expanded under the church tower and the south terrace of the palace. Today, in addition to the two sons and their wives, three grandchildren of Archduke Franz Ferdinand are buried here. The old crypt of the lords of the castle was reactivated for the descendants of Princess Anna von Hohenberg and Count Romée de La Poeze d'Harambure.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the dukes and princes of Hohenberg, awarded in 1917, is divided three times by silver and red; two helmets with red and silver covers, on the right a natural colored peacock bump (crest of Austria), on the left two buffalo horns divided by silver and red with confused fittings and cords (crest of the extinct Swabian Counts of Hohenberg). Ducal crown and mantle. (The coat of arms, like the two crests, refers equally to Austria and to the dynasty of the Hohenberg counts: on the one hand it is a reduction of the Austrian bar shield : under the silver shield head , but at the same time a reduction of the Hohenberg coat of arms: a doubling of its division of silver and red .)

As the wife of the future emperor, Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg had a personal coat of arms, which was based on the coat of arms that the emperor had given her paternal line of Chotek von Chotkow in 1745 when he raised it to the rank of imperial count : main shield, square; in fields 1 and 4 a black double-headed eagle in gold, each head crowned (= imperial sign of grace on the occasion of the elevation to imperial count), in fields 2 and 3 in blue a golden bear (= extinct family of the Charwat von Bärnstein ). The coat of arms of the imperial counts Chotek, which served as a heart shield, has been moved to the center of the lower half of the shield in favor of the imperial-royal house arms of the Habsburg-Lorraine , which is now in the middle of the upper half of the shield. House coat of arms Habsburg-Lothringen : split twice; in front a blue-crowned red lion (Habsburg) in gold, in the middle of red a silver bar (= Austria), behind in gold a red sloping bar, with three mutilated silver eagles (= Lorraine) in the direction of the bar.

Chotek family coat of arms : divided; at the top split by silver and red, at the bottom in red a wagon wheel below that touches the dividing line. Ducal crown and mantle.

Status surveys

  • Austrian princely status (unlimited for all legitimate descendants of both sexes) with the name "Hohenberg" and the predicate "Princely graces" for Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa , diploma dated August 8, 1900
  • Austrian award of the title "Highness" (unlimited for all legitimate descendants of both sexes) awarded Vienna June 8, 1905 for Her Princely Grace Princess Sophie von Hohenberg, née. Countess Chotek of Chotkowa
  • Austrian ducal dignity as "Duchess of Hohenberg" with the predicate "Highness" (personal) awarded Vienna October 4, 1909, Ministerial Confirmation Vienna December 17, 1909, for Her Highness, Princess Sophie von Hohenberg, née. Countess Chotek of Chotkowa
  • Austrian ducal dignity as "Duke of Hohenberg" with the predicate "Highness" (according to the rights of the male firstborn ) was awarded to Reichenau on August 31, 1917, diploma from October 5, 1917

Nobility law

The ducal-princely family Hohenberg is genealogically an agnatic line of descendants of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine , but comes from the morganatic marriage of the imperial and royal Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este with Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkow and is therefore considered an independent line Noble family , which, according to the court protocol, was never one of the official members of the imperial-royal house of Habsburg-Lothringen, and therefore was not entitled to the throne in Austria and was considered unequal to the ruling and formerly ruling European dynasties . The strict inheritance regulations initially only applied to Austria. In Bohemia and Hungary, however, Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg could have become queen and her children heir to the throne. In view of the unity of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , however, these claims were contractually waived. The three children of the Archduke heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este, were heirs to his private property in 1914 after their parents were murdered in Sarajevo.

With the name Hohenberg , a name was chosen that suggests or makes evident a genealogical connection to the House of Habsburg-Lothringen , since it goes back to the ancestral mother of all later Habsburgs , Gertrud von Hohenberg († 1281), who belonged to the family of the later extinct Count von Hohenberg , a side line of the Hohenzollern family , came from and was the wife of the Roman-German King Rudolf I of Habsburg .

Genealogy (extract)

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este (1863–1914) ⚭ Reichstadt 1900 Sophie Countess Chotek von Chotkowa (1868–1914)

  1. Sophie Hohenberg (1901–1990) ⚭ 1920 Count Friedrich Nostitz-Rieneck (1893–1973)
  2. Maximilian Hohenberg (1902–1962) ⚭ Countess Elisabeth Waldburg-Wolfegg (1904–1993), in Artstetten
    1. Franz Hohenberg (1927–1977) ⚭ 1956 Elisabeth von Bourbon-Parma , Princess of Luxembourg and Nassau (1922–2011), in Artstetten
      1. Anita Hohenberg (* 1958) ⚭ Romée Comte de La Poeze d'Harambure (* 1949), in Artstetten
      2. Sophie Felicitas Hohenberg (* 1960) ⚭ Jean-Louis Baron de Potesta (* 1951)
    2. Georg Hohenberg (1929–2019) ⚭ 1960 Eleonore Princess von Auersperg -Breunner (* 1928)
      1. Nikolaus Hohenberg (* 1961) ⚭ Elisabeth Countess von Westphalen (* 1963)
      2. Henriette Hohenberg (* 1964)
      3. Maximilian Hohenberg (* 1970) ⚭ Emilie Oliva
    3. Albrecht Hohenberg (* 1931) ⚭ 1962 Leontine Countess of Cassis-Faraone (* 1933)
      1. Margarethe Hohenberg (* 1963) ⚭ Karl Joseph Habsburg-Lothringen (* 1960)
      2. Leo Hohenberg (* 1964) ⚭ Rosalind Roque Alcoforado (* 1964)
      3. Johanna Hohenberg (* 1966) ⚭ Count Andreas Henckel von Donnersmarck (* 1959)
      4. Katharina Hohenberg (* 1969) ⚭ Carlos de Vigo
    4. Johannes Hohenberg (1933–2003) ⚭ 1969 Elisabeth Meilinger-Rehrl (* 1944)
      1. Sophie Hohenberg (* 1970)
      2. Stephan Hohenberg (* 1972) ⚭ Leonie von Kloss
      3. Georg Hohenberg (* 1975)
      4. Isabella Hohenberg (* 1976)
    5. Peter Hohenberg (1936–2017) ⚭ 1970 Christine Rehrl (* 1945)
      1. Marie-Christine Hohenberg (* 1970)
      2. Marie-Therese Hohenberg (* 1972)
    6. Gerhard Hohenberg (1941–2019)
  3. Ernst Hohenberg (1904–1954) ⚭ 1936 Marie-Therese Wood (1910–1985)
    1. Ferdinand Hohenberg (1937–1978) ⚭ 1964 Heide Zechling (1941–2015)
      1. Franz Hohenberg (* 1969) ⚭ Christiane Pirker (* 1970)
    2. Ernst Hohenberg (* 1944) ⚭ I 1973–1999 Patricia Caesar (* 1953), ⚭ II 2007 Margareta Anna Ndisi (* 1959)
      1. (I) Eva Hohenberg (* 1974) ⚭ 2005 Alessandro Geromella (* 1970) (canceled)
  4. Stillborn Son (1908)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Friedrich Weissensteiner: Franz Ferdinand - The prevented ruler. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Copyr. 1983, pp. 114-138.
  2. ↑ http://www.schloss-artstetten.at/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=55&lang=de
  3. ↑ The nobility and the Nazis, Part 2: Reich within the Reich. In: profil , No. 32/08, May 27, 2004. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  4. ^ Fritz Kieffer: Persecution of the Jews in Germany - an internal matter? 2002, p. 159. ( Page view in Google Book search .)
  5. ↑ a b Artstetten Castle
  6. ↑ Ancestral heraldic table of the dukes and princes of Hohenberg
  7. ↑ a b Personal coat of arms of the first Duchess of Hohenberg

literature

  • Genealogical manual of the nobility , Adelslexikon Vol. V, Vol. 84 d. Complete series, Limburg ad Lahn 1984
  • ibid, Princely Houses Vol. XV, Vol. 114 d. Complete series, Limburg ad Lahn 1997, pp. 600–608

Web links

Commons : Haus Hohenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files