Karajan (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the von Karajan family, Austrian knighthood 1869.

Karajan is the name of an originally Greek family who came to Austria via Saxony in the 18th century. Members of this family, which was raised to the imperial aristocracy in 1792 and to the Austrian knighthood in 1869 , were mainly active as entrepreneurs, scholars and civil servants. Probably the most important representative of the family that still exists today was Herbert von Karajan (1908–1989), who became world-famous as a conductor.

history

Theodor Georg Ritter von Karajan (1810–1873), lithograph by Adolf Dauthage , 1853
Karajan Villa in Eselsbach near Bad Aussee (later retirement home)
Apartment of the surgeon Ernst von Karajan (1868–1951) in Salzburg, birthplace of Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan, 1938

The sex is of Greek origin; The family originally named Karagiánnis or Karajoannes (Greek Καραγιάννης , from kara = Turkish "black", thus about "Black John") is mentioned for the first time in a document in Kozani in the Greek region of Macedonia , which at that time became Ottoman under the name Rumelia Belonged to Reich .

In the second half of the 18th century the merchant Geórgios Ioánnes Karagiánnis ( Γεώργιος Ιωάννης Καραγιάννης , 1743-1813) emigrated to the Electorate of Saxony and ran a cotton business in Chemnitz . For his services to the emerging textile industry in Electoral Saxony , he was appointed during the imperial vicariate of Elector Friedrich August III. On June 1, 1792, together with his wife and sons Demeter and Theodor, raised to the imperial nobility and used the family name Karajan ever since . Georg Johann von Karajan retired from Chemnitz to Vienna, where he died in 1813. The imperial nobility in Austria , which was awarded to Georg Johann von Karajan in 1792 , was recognized for his widow and sons by an imperial decree of January 4, 1832.

One of those sons, Theodor Georg (1810-1873), came after his promotion to Dr. phil. into the Austrian civil service. He first worked in the court chamber archive and the court library , became a member in 1848 and vice-president in 1851 of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and in 1866 its president. He was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848, and from 1867 he was a member of the Austrian Manor House for life . In recognition of his services as a historian and politician, Theodor Georg von Karajan was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Leopold Order by Emperor Franz Joseph I in Vienna on July 11, 1869 , and was raised to the hereditary Austrian knighthood based on the statutes of the order as "Ritter von Karajan" .

Of his sons, Max Theodor Ritter von Karajan (1833–1914) was a classical philologist and worked after his doctorate as Dr. phil. from 1857 to 1904 as a professor of classical philology at the University of Graz . In the mid-1860s he founded the Grazer Singverein. In 1909 he wrote a history of the association under the title "The Singverein in Graz in the first forty years of its existence (1866/67 to 1905/06)". His younger brother Ludwig Anton Ritter von Karajan (1835–1906) became a doctor and worked after receiving his doctorate as Dr. med. as an official in the public health system of the Lower Austrian provincial government . In 1880 he had the Villa Karajan built in Mosern at the western end of the Grundlsee .

Salzburg municipal cemetery , grave of parents, brother and sister-in-law Herbert von Karajans

Ernst Ritter von Karajan (1868–1951), Ludwig Anton's son, also embarked on a medical career, became a surgeon and settled in Salzburg . He was initially a senior physician at St. Johann Spital (today's regional hospital ) in Salzburg, where he specialized in the treatment of thyroid diseases ( goiter ). He later became head of public health in the Salzburg state government. From the marriage of Ludwig Anton von Karajan to Marta Kosmač / Kosmatsch (she came from a Slovenian family; her father Mihael Kosmač was born in Mojstrana - today a part of Kranjska Gora , German: Kronau -) came the sons of Wolfgang Ritter von Karajan (1906 –1987) and Heribert Ritter von Karajan (1908–1989), who was two years his junior . Wolfgang first embarked on a scientific career and ran a laboratory for technical physics in Salzburg. In 1950 he founded the "Organ Ensemble Wolfgang von Karajan" with his wife Hedy and Hans Andreae, with whom he toured around the world. The highlight of their repertoire was Bach's The Art of Fugue . At this time his brother was already a famous conductor , who, under the name of Herbert von Karajan, is one of the most famous and most important interpreters of classical music of the 20th century. He worked with many respected symphony orchestras , worked at major opera houses and published numerous recordings of classical music.

After the end of the monarchy in Austria-Hungary , the parliament of the Republic of German-Austria decided on April 3, 1919, to abolish the nobility. As a result of this Nobility Repeal Act , the members of the von Karajan family living in Austria also lost the right to use their titles, so that their family name became "Karajan" without the prefix "von". When he gained international fame, the conductor wanted to appear publicly in Austria under his birth name. After he was refused by the authorities and Karajan threatened not to perform in Austria if his earlier “von” was not allowed to appear on the announcement posters, the Austrian government, under the influence of Kreisky , decided to use the name Herbert von Karajan as the conductor To officially grant artist names.

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the von Karajan family, imperial nobility 1792

In the imperial nobility diploma from June 1, 1792 by Elector Friedrich August III. The coat of arms awarded by Saxony to Geórgios Ioánnes Karagiánnis showed 1 silver field, 2 and 3 green field, 4 gold field in a squared shield with a shield base; a red heart in the middle of the dividing line. In the black foot of a shield there is a crane of natural color standing upright on a green hill with a stone in its right claw. The head and neck rest straight on the dividing line of the two lower fields. On the shield there is an open, straight forward, blue tarnished, red lined aristocratic tournament helmet with a gold gem and on the right gold and green, but on the left mixed silver and green, hanging blankets adorned and covered with a bead wound with green, gold and silver. On this bead rises a black anchor, placed straight upwards with the ring underneath, wrapped with an olive branch between an open flight, the right wing of which has black saxons and silver flight feathers, the left wing has green saxes and gold flight feathers.

The coat of arms of the knighthood awarded on July 11, 1869 by Emperor Franz Joseph I on the occasion of Theodor Georg von Karajan's appointment as Knight of the Order of Leopold was on the shield like that of 1792, only a second helmet rests on the shield.

Genealogy (extract)

  1. Geórgios Ioánnes Karagiánnis (* 1743; † 1813), since 1792 Georg Johann von Karajan , owner of a cotton shop in Chemnitz ⚭ 1801 (2nd) with Zoë Domnando (* 1783 in Constantinople; † 1863 in Vienna?); of the 6 children from this marriage, two sons survived him:
    1. Demeter von Karajan (* 1806; † 1852), kk hussar colonel
    2. Theodor Georg (born January 22, 1810 in Vienna; † April 28, 1873 ibid), since 1869 Ritter von Karajan , historian and politician ⚭ NN (*?; †?), And had from this marriage:
      1. Max Theodor (* July 1, 1833 in Vienna; † August 20, 1914 in Salzburg), classical philologist at the University of Graz ⚭ NN (*?; †?), And had from this marriage:
        1. Bertha (born June 23, 1868 in Graz; † January 3, 1919 ibid), unmarried daughter.
      2. Ludwig Anton (* 1835; † 1906), doctor and civil servant of the Lower Austrian provincial government ⚭ Henriette von Raindl (* March 27, 1837; † October 28, 1912 in Vienna), and had from this marriage:
        1. Ernst (* 1868 in Vienna; † 1951 in Salzburg), surgeon in Salzburg ⚭ 1905 Martha Kosmač / Kosmatsch (* 1881 in Graz; † 1954), and from this marriage had:
          1. Wolfgang von Karajan (born January 27, 1906 in Salzburg; † November 2, 1987 in Salzburg), technical physicist, organist and ensemble leader ⚭ Hedy NN (*?; †?)
          2. Herbert von Karajan (born April 5, 1908 in Salzburg, † July 16, 1989 in Anif; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan , officially Heribert Karajan in Austria ), conductor ⚭ (I) 1938 Elmy Holgerloef, ⚭ (II) 1942 Anna Maria ("Anita") Gütermann , ⚭ (III) 1958 Eliette Mouret (* 1935 in Mollans-sur-Ouvèz , France ), and had 2 daughters:
            1. Isabel (born June 25, 1960 in Vienna), actress ⚭ NN (* 1953; † 2011) and has a daughter (* 1994)
            2. Arabel (* January 2, 1964 in Samedan ), musician and has a daughter (* 2003)
        2. Emanuel ("Max"; * 1871 in Vienna, † 1947 in Vienna), civil engineer and before 1914 head manager of the Vienna State Opera

Web links

Commons : Karajan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Δελιαλής Ν. Συμπληρωματικά περί της εκ Κοζάνης οικογενείας των εν Αυστρία διαμενόντων Καραγικάνδη - from Karajan, Μικάνδνοο Α΄, Θεσσαλονίκη 1940, σελ. 526. (PDF; 6.6 MB)
  2. Wikisource: BLKÖ: Karajan, Theodor Georg von ... "His father was a Greek merchant based in Vienna" ...
  3. a b c d e f g h i j http://www.karajan.co.uk/family.html
  4. ^ Delo Newspaper , December 2, 2008, Ljubljana.
  5. Archived ( memento of October 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Heraldisch-Genealogischen Gesellschaft ADLER. Retrieved from the web archive on November 16, 2016.
  6. a b Dr. Georg Frölichsthal (Vienna): The Austrian nobility since 1918. Lecture to the German Nobility Law Committee on September 13, 1997: "... The latter [note: the enforcement instructions for the Nobility Repeal Act] considered the use of nobility titles to be punishable for themselves, among other things, if this is connected with a permanent or challenging disregard of the Nobility Repeal Act. "
  7. Maximilian Gritzner: "Status surveys and grace acts of German sovereigns during the last three centuries", Verlag CA Starke, 1881, p. 738
  8. Max Theodor von Karajan:  Karajan, Georg Johann von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 108 f.
  9. cf. s: BLKÖ: Karajan, Theodor Georg
  10. Die Karajan on keyboard ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )