Kröcher (noble family)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coat of arms of those of Kröcher

Kröcher (also Kroecher or Kröchern ) is the name of an old noble family from the ore monastery of Magdeburg . Cröchern , the ancestral home of the family, is now part of the Burgstall community in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt . The family name changed between Cröchern, Krocher, Krocker, Kröcker and Kröcher. Branches of the family still exist today.

history

The Lords of Kröcher belonged to the archmagdeburg nobility, they also settled in the Mark Brandenburg early on. They shared their rare coat of arms , the camel or dromedary , with the von Olvenstedt family, who were also from Erzmagdeburg and appear at the same time . There was probably a tribal community between the two families.

The Kröcher first appeared in a document in 1184 with Radobo de Crochere and in 1189 and 1197 their ancestors Marquardus and Albertus de Olvenstede . While the Olvenstedt went out at the end of the 14th century, the Lords of Kröcher were able to stay permanently in the Mark Brandenburg.

In the 70s and 80s of the 13th century, Johann von Kröcher worked at the court of the Brandenburg margraves . His son Johann , called Droiseke, mentioned in a document from 1281 to 1321, came into an influential position and became the most important representative of the family around 1300. Droiseke acquired the castles of Beetzendorf and Calbe with 21 villages in 1296 . He was so wealthy that he and his relatives could lend the sovereigns enormous sums of money. For this loan , the Kröcher received goods in the Prignitz , including 1336 Roddahn and 1337 Lohm (today part of Zernitz-Lohm ) and in the same year Dreetz in the Ruppin rule . The Altmark Beetzendorf passed to the von der Schulenburg in 1343 ; Dreez was divided several times, the last part exchanged for Blankenberg in 1774 , Lohm also divided.

In the middle of the 15th century the sex split into two main lines. The older one became extinct in the first half of the 18th century, the younger branched further into four large branches in the 16th century. The second branch on Vinzelberg (since 1816) and Lohm II and the fourth branch on Lohm I and Babe (today part of Roddahn ) in Ostprignitz are still in flower today.

Important members of recent times were the Real Secret Council Jordan von Kröcher auf Vinzelberg (* 1846, † 1918), President of the Prussian House of Representatives from 1898 to 1911, and Bertha von Kröcher (* 1857; † 1922), a social reformer and founder of the Conservative Association Women. In 1924 Hans Adolph Bernhard von Kröcher sold the Lohm II estate with a size of 953 hectares and emigrated to America; his mother and sister lived in a cavalier house until after 1945. Vinzelberg was expropriated in 1945.

coat of arms

Family coat of arms

Kröcher coat of arms in the register of coats of arms of Johann Friedrich Christoph Schrag (1703–1780)

The coat of arms shows a striding, silver camel in blue . The camel is growing on the helmet with the blue-silver helmet covers .

Older coats of arms depict a dromedary instead of a camel.

Heraldic saga

According to the legend, two Kröcher brothers once met a Saracen crowd in the promised land who were carrying a captured Christian woman on a richly laden camel. They had bravely attacked the numerous enemies and snatched the Christian woman and her treasures from them, brought her back home and added the camel to her coat of arms to commemorate that day.

Name bearer

Bertha von Kröcher
(* 1857; † 1922)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adolph Friedrich Riedel : Codex diplomaticus Brandenburgensis , I, 25, 164