Rotenhan (noble family)

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Family arms of those of Rotenhan and Rottenhan
Rotenhan castle ruins
Development of the family coat of arms

The family of the Freiherren von Rotenhan , also Count von Rottenhan , is a noble family of the Franconian nobility , which derives its name from the family castle of the same name near Eyrichshof, Lower Franconia. The Rotenhan were servants of the Bamberg diocese . The sex belonged to the Franconian Imperial Knighthood of the Canton of Baunach .

The family was raised to the baron status in 1771; the Protestant barons of Rotenhan are still in bloom today. The Catholic counts branch (Untermerzbach) of Alexander von Rottenhan , who was raised to the rank of imperial count by Emperor Joseph II in 1774, expired in 1886.

history

The ancestry of the family from one of the three Langheim brothers, who were servants of the Bamberg cathedral chapter and co-founders of the Langheim monastery (documented in 1132) and who later took the name de Rotha (ha), seems to be secured by ownership connections, the same first names and similarity of coats of arms.

The first documentary mention is on August 15, 1229 with "Winther" and "Wolfram de Rotenhagen", with which the family line began.

The family's ancestral home was the castle of the same name, destroyed in 1324 , about two kilometers north of Ebern above the Eyrichshof district in the Haßberge district in Lower Franconia .

The family also owns Eyrichshof Castle (originally the farmyard of the nearby Rotenhan Castle, converted into a moated castle around 1330/40), Rentweinsdorf Castle (built since 1333, today's Baroque castle from 1750 to 1762), Fischbach Castle (since the 13th century) .), Lichtenstein Castle (since 1845), Gut Saarhof in Maroldsweisach and Neuenhof Castle in Thuringia (from 1863) as well as the former Untermerzbach Castle (13th / 14th century until 1886), Ebelsbach Castle (from 1355 to 2000) and Buchwald Castle in Lower Silesia (from 1854 to 1945).

From 1190 to 1322 the Rotenhan family held the post of lower leg in the bishopric of Bamberg and then called themselves Schenk von Rotenhan . Wolfram Schenk von Rotenhan was declared forfeited by the king in 1323 because of perjury. The bishop then gave the office to the Aufseß family . Since 1453 the Rotenhan zu Rentweinsdorf were hereditary treasurers of the Bamberg monastery.

The name Rotenhan is likely to derive from cleared Haag, Hain , after which the family castle was named. Some researchers also consider a derivation from the Rodach river to be conceivable. The name certainly has nothing to do with the red rooster, which the sex uses as a crest , rather it was chosen later because of the consonance.

Main line of the family up to the division of the line

Winther Schenk von Rotenhan (named 1190 and 1229)

  • Ludwig Schenk von Rotenhan († 1258), ⚭ Sophie von Bibra
    • Wolfram Schenk von Rotenhan († 1303), ⚭ Sophie von Fulbach
      • Wolfram Schenk von Rotenhan († 1353), ⚭ Luidgarde von Schaumberg
        • Wolfram von Rotenhan († 1364), ⚭ Kunigunde von Seckendorff
          • Gottfried von Rotenhan, ⚭ Gertraud von Schaumberg
            • Mathäus von Rotenhan († 1472), ⚭ Agathe Stein von Altenstein
              • Mathäus von Rotenhan († 1506), ⚭ Walburga Förtsch von Thurnau
                • Hans von Rotenhan (* around 1490; † 1559), reformer, ⚭ Margaretha von Seckendorff
                  • Georg the Pious von Rotenhan († January 22, 1465), ⚭ Anna von Rotenhan
                    • Hans Georg von Rotenhan (1559–1613), knight captain, ⚭ Eva von Münster
                      • Adam Georg von Rotenhan (1599–1648), councilor, ⚭ Anna Christine von Adelebsen
                        • Valentin Julius von Rotenhan (1628 –1680), councilor, ⚭ Anna Christine von Rotenhan
                          • Philipp Albrecht von Rotenhan (1671 –1725), Councilor of Knights, ⚭ Dorothea Friederike von Künßberg
                            • Johann Friedrich von Rotenhan (1713–1776), General Director of the German Imperial Knighthood, ⚭ Johanne Wilhelmine von Seckendorff

Grave place in the parish church of the Holy Trinity (Rentweinsdorf)

  • Exterior view

  • The bronze epitaph Wolfgang von Rotenhans

  • Sebastian, Hans and Martin von Rotenhan

  • Hans Georg von Rotenhan

  • Sebastian and Anna Rufina von Rotenhan

  • The sculptor's self-portrait

  • The high tower of the epitaph

  • Heraldic stones under the gallery

coat of arms

The family coat of arms shows a red, stream-shaped, undulating inclined beam , accompanied by a five-pointed red star and above a helmet with a red-silver cover on which there is a red rooster.

Historical coats of arms

Personalities (by year of birth)

See also

literature

  • Genealogical manual of the nobility . Band 125. Adelslexikon . 2001. CA Starke Publishing House. ISBN 3-7980-0825-6 .
  • Bitha Rotenhan: Rotenhan houses - a picture book. Bamberg, 1988.
  • Gottfried Freiherr von Rotenhan: The Rotenhan. Genealogy of a Frankish family from 1229 to the Thirty Years War. (Publications of the Society for Franconian History, Series IX, Vol. 34). Neustadt an der Aisch 1985.
  • Julius Freiherr von Rotenhan: History of the family von Rotenhan older line. 2 volumes. 1865, Volume 1 , Volume 2
  • Siegfried Freiherr von Rotenhan: History of the Rotenhan family. Rentweinsdorf. Self-published in 1989.
  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses for the year 1862. Twelfth year, p. 646ff

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rotenhan, Siegfried von .: History of the Rotenhan family: Continuation of the family history of Julius Frhr. v. Rotenhan from 1865 . Selbstverlag, 1989 ( worldcat.org [accessed December 18, 2019]).
  2. ^ Schloss Neuenhof ( Memento from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Claus Fackler: Stiftsadel and spiritual territories 1670–1803, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8306-7268-5 , pp. 71-72.
  4. ^ Rotenhan, Gottfried Freiherr von .: Die Rotenhan: Genealogy of a Franconian family from 1229 to the Thirty Years' War . Kommissionsverlag Degener, 1985 ( worldcat.org [accessed December 18, 2019]).
  5. ↑ gw.geneanet.org: Philipp Rudolph Heinrich Joseph von Rotenhan .