Prussian court rank regulations from 1878
The Prussian Court Rankings of 1878 were a statute issued on January 19, 1878 by the German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm I , which formed the basis for the ranking and seating arrangements at the Prussian royal and German imperial courts.
The statute determined the rank of people appearing at court on official (and mostly also on unofficial) occasions and remained in force until the collapse of the German Empire in 1918. People who were not on this list had no emancipation .
After that, in the order of precedence came the chief treasurer , the highest Prussian court charge, followed by the field marshals - arranged one below the other according to the date of their appointment - and the Prussian prime minister . The civil service was divided into rank classes. At the top were the Real Privy Councilors with the predicate excellence and the rank of lieutenant general . This was followed by the first to fourth class councils, which corresponded to the ranks of major general , colonel , lieutenant colonel and major in the army . In total, the ranking comprised 62 ranks, down to the second lieutenants, the lowest officer rank in the Prussian army , with which all officers were automatically acceptable. Within the ranks, the date of appointment or seniority in the respective office was decisive. In comparison with other German and European court orders, the Prussian court order was the most extensive. For example, the court of the Habsburg Monarchy in Vienna managed only five ranks.
With women, the rank of acceptable married women was based on the rank of their husbands. The exception was the Empress's chief stewardess, who had priority over all women. For unmarried women, ranks were set according to the wives of men of different ranks. For example, the abbesses and heads of the women's monasteries , among whom the abbess of the Protestant monastery of the Holy Sepulcher came first , ranked ahead of the wives of the colonels.
The first 25 ranks were:
- The Chamberlain
- The Field Marshals General
- The Prime Minister
- The Colonel Marshal
- The chief stewardess
- The Colonel
- The Oberstjägermeister
- The Knights of the High Order of the Black Eagle
- The cardinals
- The heads of the princely and formerly imperial count families in a fixed order:
- Arenberg
- Salm-Salm
- Furstenberg
- Thurn and Taxis
- Solms-Braunfels
- Isenburg-Birstein
- Croy-Duelmen
- Hohenlohe-Oehringen
- Hohenlohe-Waidenburg-Schillingsfürst
- Wied
- Solms-Lich and Hohensolms
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein
- Bentheim-Bentheim and Bentheim-Steinfurt
- Salm-Horstmar
- Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Rheda
- Isenburg-Büdingen in Wächtersbach
- Isenburg-Büdingen in Meerholz
- Solms-Rödelheim
- Stolberg-Wernigerode
- Stolberg-Stolberg
- Stolberg-Rossla
- Bentinck
- Radziwill
- Carolath-Beuthen
- Lichnowsky
- Sagan
- Hatzfeld-Trachenberg
- Biron from Curland
- Blücher from Wahlstatt
- Sulkowski
- Lynar
- Putbus
- Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck
- Pückler-Muskau
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
- Rheina-Wolbeck
- Pless
- Rohan
- Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg
- Bismarck
- The Vice President of the State Ministry
- The active generals of the infantry and cavalry .
- The Minister of the Royal House and the Active Ministers of State
- The first presidents of both houses of the Prussian state parliament
- The inactive generals of infantry and cavalry, as such patents have been
- The inactive ministers of state, who are reserved for ministerial rank when they leave
- The inactive generals of the infantry and cavalry who have not been patented as such
- The active lieutenant general
- The real Secret Councils with a distinction of excellence
- The archbishops and the prince bishops
- The inactive Lieutenant General, patented as such.
- The Ober-Hof batches with the mark of excellence
- The upper court offices in the Kingdom of Prussia
- The inactive lieutenant general who was not patented as such
- The other persons with the grade of excellence