Firstborn title

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Titles of firstborn or primogeneity ( Latin primus "first" and genitus "born", see primogeniture ) are titles of nobility which, according to old custom or nobility law, were only passed on to the first-born son (or the eldest), but not to subsequent children. They occurred as inheritable titles in families of the so-called " high nobility " (for example Prince von Schönburg- Hartenstein , his eldest son Hereditary Prince von Schönburg-Hartenstein , the subsequent princes and princesses of Schönburg-Hartenstein ), but also in families of the "lower nobility " Adels ”, for example the first-born title Graf von Wuthenau -Hohenthurm , but the descendants only from Wuthenau-Hohenturm (see also titular count ).

The first-born titles were conceivable in different combinations, for example Prince and Count of Stolberg , the eldest son Hereditary Prince of Stolberg , the children of the Prince and Hereditary Prince, Princes and Princesses of Stolberg-Stolberg , the other descendants of Counts and Countesses of Stolberg-Stolberg .

Until 1920, titles of firstborn could not be transferred to another gender through inheritance , adoption or in any other way - they expired with the extinction of the gender entrusted with them.

Historical context

The primogeneity titles of monarchs are accepted with the accession to the throne. There have been kings and princes in all parts of the world since prehistoric times ; it was the widespread form of rule in ancient Egypt and in the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean. Among the Teutons , military leaders were called dukes and were initially chosen by free men of a tribe for the duration of a campaign by election during a thing . In the early Middle Ages , hereditary tribal duchies emerged in the area of ​​the Frankish Empire . The Frankish royal office was hereditary among the Merovingians and Carolingians , since the imperial coronation of the Frankish king Charlemagne in 800 in Rome, the renewed Roman imperial title was awarded by the pope, from Otto I (Otto the Great) the Roman-German emperor was elected by king until 1806 and subsequent imperial coronation .

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the tribal duchies of the Holy Roman Empire were increasingly split up into territorial duchies. These were given to certain families by the Roman-German king as hereditary flag feuds, whereby within these families the title of duke was carried by all family members, for example with the Wittelsbachers from 1180 as dukes of Bavaria , with their predecessors, the Guelphs , from 1235 as dukes of Braunschweig -Lüneburg , with the Wettins from 1423 as Dukes of Saxony , with the Habsburgs since 1453 as Archdukes of Austria. Within the feudal duchies, the ducal families were able to establish and bequeath partial duchies after which they also named themselves, but the respective imperial fiefdom remained undivided to the entire family, which is why all family members also carried the ducal title (and - for example with the Guelphs and Wettiners - until today as Lead part of the name). It was similar with the lower-ranking imperial families, whose titles of nobility varied ( prince , landgrave , palatine , margrave , count ). Reichsfürst is a generic term for these territorial rulers represented in the Reichsfürstenrat of the Reichstag , which also included the clergy princes . The emperors could also raise ranks under these imperial houses, i.e. elevate counts to princes, whereby the prince title was always held in primogeniture and the other family members either remained counts or were elevated to princes / princesses.

The mere titular princes (and similarly the titular counts ) are to be distinguished from these imperial princes with imperial status . They were given their titles by the Roman-German emperor as mere titles of nobility, which were valid throughout the empire, but did not result in imperial immediacy (or imperial status), because a family could only achieve this by acquiring imperial territory and the attain the associated inclusion in the Reichstag (which sometimes also happened afterwards). The title of prince was usually given to the firstborn (primogenous), whereas the title of count was usually given to the entire family or all descendants of the person raised, but there were also awards ad personam (i.e. non-hereditary). Furthermore, in exceptional cases, a prince without imperial direct territory was accepted into the Reichstag as a personalist . Many noble families divided their territories under their various lines, sometimes some lines also acquired new territories through inheritance, so that it is not uncommon for one and the same sex to produce several ruling lines with corresponding firstborn titles (such as the Bentheim , Castell , Fugger , Hohenlohe , Löwenstein-Wertheim , Oettingen , Salm , Sayn-Wittgenstein , Solms , Stolberg , Waldburg ).

In the course of the dissolution of the Old Reich between 1803 ( Reichsdeputationshauptschluss ), 1806 (end of the Reich) and 1815 ( Congress of Vienna ) numerous count and princely houses lost their state independence to neighboring, larger territories through mediatization , while the houses still ruling there as members of the German Confederation achieved full sovereignty within a confederation of states until they reunited to form a federal state in the Second German Empire from 1871. The mediatized houses, however, retained their titles, their property, some special civil rights and, according to the German Federal Act , the equality with the houses that continued to rule and thus their membership of the high nobility . The titles of the mediatized houses were often raised by one rank to compensate for the loss of sovereignty by their new sovereigns, and formerly ruling counts then became (primogenic) titular princes. The Bavarian and Wuerttemberg kings endeavored to confer the title of prince as often as possible within their kingdoms, in order to place the mediatized imperial princes (sometimes not very sympathetic to them), whose territories they had captured, under a multitude of titular princes. Therefore, in Bavaria, for example, a deserving general from the middle-class Wrede family was awarded the title of prince in such a way that all descendants were allowed to lead him, not just the oldest (this was traditionally done in the Russian nobility ). Similarly, in Württemberg the members of a morganatic line of the royal family, the Urach , were all allowed to call themselves princes, while the head of the family became duke. Since the Habsburgs had been Roman-German emperors for centuries and in this capacity had often elevated the leading families of their hereditary lands to the status of imperial prince or imperial count, the new imperial house of the Hohenzollern also wanted to surround itself with a higher-ranking court from 1871 and therefore awarded a number primogenic Prussian prince title. In order to create a sufficient number of counts (because the number of old imperial counts in Brandenburg-Prussia was manageable), the Prussian title of count was now more frequently awarded to wealthy aristocratic families, but mostly only primogenic and tied to the respective possession of a family entourage , not one Bring about inflation of landless counts.

Since in most of the other European monarchies there were no semi-sovereignty rights of individual noble houses comparable to imperial estates, the titles of dukes and princes in these countries were (or are) pure titles of nobility without governmental power (but sometimes with political rights in the form of a seat in a house of lords ) . The duke title is usually a first-born title. The peculiarity of the British nobility is that all titles of nobility can only be inherited primogenically; only for the first generation of the younger children of a peer there are so-called courtesy titles ( Lord , Lady , The Honorable ), while the descendants of the next generation descend into the middle class. The prince title does not exist in Great Britain, nor in Spain, while in France prince and prince are identical (as prince ). In the Italian nobility, on the other hand, the firstborn titles bestowed (Duca, Principe, Marchese) are often divided between the family lines (and often also between the living generations). A special feature are also the primogenous feudal titles according to Danish nobility law , which are passed on to the eldest son in a patrilineal way together with a property ; in many cases the daughters are also countesses , while the younger sons have the title of baron . Such awards sometimes also affect Danish families residing in Schleswig-Holstein or with German-born families.

Part of the name (Germany)

Since the Weimar Constitution came into force in 1919 with the abolition of noble status privileges, firstborn titles, like all nobility titles, have only been part of the name and may no longer be awarded. People who had titles of nobility based on primogeniture until 1919 could continue to use them as part of their names until the end of their lives. The Prussian Nobility Act of June 23, 1920 states in Section 22:

"If a family member was entitled to a special designation before the other family members at the time the Reich constitution came into force, he may retain this designation for his person [...]."

But they could no longer pass on their primogeneity titles, not even in their own gender. For example, since the people of the name Fürst von Bismarck and Fürst von Thurn und Taxis who were still alive in 1919 died, there has only been the name Graf von Bismarck or Prince von Thurn und Taxis and the corresponding feminine declarations. The well-known "Princess" Gloria is correctly called Princess von Thurn und Taxis , like the other members of the family. The components of the name Herzog , Fürst or Graf usually only exist when traditionally all family members are called that (for example the Fürst von Urach or Herzog von Württemberg families ).

Formerly aristocratic families with titles acquired primogenically before 1919 went to court against the abolition several times, even during the Weimar Republic :

The Reichsgericht, reported Der Spiegel , finally removed any doubts about the legal situation. It decided that ...

“... the nobility often individual family members, namely the head of the family [entitled] to use a designation that distinguishes him from the other family members, for example as 'prince' or 'count', cannot be considered part of the family name because the family name [...] is inherited by all descendants of the name bearer. "

With the decision cited by Spiegel, the Federal Administrative Court confirmed on March 11, 1966 the naming law regulation of the Weimar Constitution, which continues to apply as simple federal law according to Article 123 of the Basic Law . The proceedings that brought about this highest judicial ruling concerned a plaintiff with the name component "Freiherr von", whose ancestors had been counting since 1840 and whose deceased father still had the old nobility designation "Graf von" as part of his name after the primogeniture nobility would have. Despite the doubts brought to him by the aristocratic archives maintained by the German aristocratic associations and the competent civil status authority, which only granted him the official name component “Freiherr”, the plaintiff claimed the name component “Graf” in an administrative court proceeding. The action was dismissed in all three administrative court instances with reference to the Weimar Imperial Constitution, Art. 109 Paragraph 3 and the Name Change Act, Section 8, up to the Federal Administrative Court on the grounds that he was not entitled to “use his baronial name when his father died to change to a count's name because he was only entitled to use a baronial name ”.

Titles that were previously inherited primogenically in the family according to nobility law can no longer be used as part of the official family name with the abolition of nobility privileges and the associated abolition of the primogeniture nobility. Conversely, renouncing a title or the so-called nobility predicate “von” is not easily possible. Since these are part of the name, the waiver represents a name change that is legally only possible after a corresponding name change procedure before the competent authorities.

On the one hand, the German naming law no longer provides for the first-born title after the death of the last entitled bearer of the name after the abolition of the monarchy, which is why the passports of many noble princes have since then, as in the rest of the respective family, as a component of the name Prince or Count , on the other hand there were and are cases in which registry offices actually carry out a corresponding name change in accordance with the general administrative regulation for the law on the change of surnames and first names (NamÄndVwV) if, for example, the name component “Prince” is generally accepted and used by the local population, especially after many years of management.

The name change of the new head of the family at the death of the father of z. B. "Prince" to "Prince" depends on the one hand on the goodwill of the local authority, on the other hand, such cases are sometimes assessed approvingly or negatively at the level of the respective regional council or interior ministry of the responsible federal state. For example, in 1950 in North Rhine-Westphalia , Armin Prinz zur Lippe was not allowed to have his name changed to Fürst zur Lippe after a naming resolution. In Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, however, there are various examples of such name changes. Apart from that, it is free to use different name variants from the official name, which is why many titleholders authorized under nobility law appear in public with the name component “Prince”, although this often does not correspond to the official name. The same is true of primogenic counts. Formal name changes, on the other hand, are usually only applied for after many years of unofficial use of the first-born title as part of the name, if at all, since on the one hand the general familiarity of the name to be changed is a prerequisite for a name change, on the other hand the previous first-born title, which then becomes the family name, is inherited by younger children from the families themselves are not wanted. Karl Friedrich von Hohenzollern, for example, had the name “Prince” in his passport, like all Hohenzollern people. He appeared until 2010 as the first-born son of the "Prince of Hohenzollern" (- Sigmaringen) under the title " Hereditary Prince ". After the death of his father in 2010, he became - as is customary in the high nobility - the sole heir of the castles, lands and industrial companies of his family. As the head of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , he calls himself “Prince of Hohenzollern”.

In some of the houses that ruled until 1918, the federal princes , the primogeneity titles of the respective house boss were only created after the end of the monarchy through recourse to traditional medieval titles of the family in order to emphasize the respective heads of the family: So Albrecht , the son of last Bavarian Crown Prince, in contrast to the name Prince of Bavaria - as it is carried by all family members - after the death of his father in his function as head of the House of Wittelsbach in 1955, the name Duke of Bavaria , as well as his son after Albrecht's death in 1996 Franz of Bavaria . Similarly, the heads of the House of Baden , Berthold and his son Max , assumed the title of Margrave of Baden , which in earlier centuries had always been held by all family members before the head of the family became the Grand Duke and the other family members became princes in the Grand Duchy of Baden (1806–1918) had risen. In the cases of the houses of Bavaria and Baden, corresponding name changes were made. Friedrich Christian , the son of the last Saxon king, took the medieval title Margrave of Meissen as his name, as did his son Maria Emanuel after him . In the Hesse family, on the other hand, all family members have the official name Prince and Landgrave of Hesse , but only the respective head of the family uses the historical landgrave title , while the other family members “only” use the name prince or princess. There is something similar in the former ruling houses of other republics today, for example in the House of Bourbon (Orléans or Sicily lines) or in the House of Savoy , where the respective head of the house “awards” historical duke titles within his family.

Nobility law (Austria)

The problem does not arise for the Austrian nobility inasmuch as the nobility forfeited their nobility titles with the Nobility Repeal Act of 1919 and the associated honorary privileges of Austrian citizens were abolished. In contrast to Germany, the former titles of nobility or primogeneity have not become part of the name. After Austria was annexed to the German Reich, German naming rights were also in effect in Austria from 1938 until 1945. Earlier titles of the Austrian nobility, which had been abolished since 1919, were not automatically reintroduced as part of the name, but only upon special request. The abolished titles, including the first-born titles (such as Fürst), are still used in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Italy, as well as in Germany, in private and social traffic.

Naming practice in France

In the French Republic , the titles of first birth are not entered in the passport, not even by changing names; They are referred to and used as such by the courts as “non-justiciable courtesy titles” (“titre de courtoisie”), and also by politics and the press. The head of the House of Orléans traditionally bears the title Count of Paris , Duke of France , and "confers" the members of his family titles used under private law according to the historical house law of the former French royal house of the Capetians .

Nobility law in monarchies

In the European monarchies that still exist , including those with German as the official language ( Kingdom of Belgium , Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Principality of Liechtenstein ), nobility law is still public law today , even if the privileges and privileges associated with the nobility were largely abolished. In these countries, primogenic titles are still used, inherited and, in some cases, newly awarded. Titles of nobility from other countries, irrespective of whether they were abolished there or not, are generally recognized when foreigners are naturalized in monarchies and are therefore adopted when incorporated into the local nobility, for example with Claus von Amsberg (as "Jonkheer van Amsberg") or with Lorenz Habsburg-Lothringen (as "Archduke of Austria-Este").

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the overview at: User: Stolp / Erstgeburtitel
  2. ↑ Exceptions are the titles of the respective Crown Prince: Prince of Wales or Prince of Asturias .
  3. ↑ For example Brockdorff , Moltke , Raben-Levetzau u. a.
  4. ↑ See Art. 109 Para. 3 of the Weimar Constitution (Constitution of the German Reich of August 11, 1919, Federal Law Gazette III, structure number 401-2).
  5. ↑ Prussian Nobility Law: Online (PDF for the legal text with display document available at the top right.)
  6. ↑ ( Primogenitur - only one syllable . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1966, pp. 61 ( online ). )
  7. ↑ March 11, 1966 BVerwG VII C 85/63, printed in: BVerwG Official Collection , Vol. 23, pp. 344–347. ( Full text on Wikisource .)
  8. ↑ Federal Administrative Court, Az. VII C 85/63.
  9. ↑ General administrative regulation for the law on changing family names and first names (NamÄndVwV)
  10. ^ Wilfried Rogasch : crash course nobility. DuMont, Cologne 2004, pp. 17/18.
  11. ↑ Tilman Toepfer: How princes become princes . Mainpost.de, November 29, 2013
  12. ↑ TV report from Bayerischer Rundfunk, broadcast on December 12, 2013 and available in the BR media library: Klangvoll Name. Nobles want to become princes ( Memento from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ A good overview of the specific use of first-born titles can be found at: User: Stolp / Erstgeburtitel
  14. ^ Tribunal de grande instance de Paris (1st Ch.) , December 21, 1988