Gentleman

Standesherr is a term for nobles in various German countries and Austria since the 18th century.

Standesherren there was in a twofold to discriminating sense: the lords of the German Confederation were members of those houses of the nobility , which after 1806 (end of the Holy Roman Empire ) or 1815 ( Congress of Vienna ) their imperial immediacy and imperial estate shaft (and thus their relative sovereignty within of the Reich Association).

It was also used to describe the owners of regional “free class lords ”, which were manors with certain special political rights that came from the crown of Bohemia and were widespread in Silesia and Lusatia .

Rights and Status

In their territories, landlords exercised sovereign rights such as jurisdiction and supervision over school and church matters and had other privileges. They were represented in the representative offices of the German states in the Princely Chamber.

In the course of the 19th century they lost a large part of their rights and privileges, such as the jurisdiction in 1849, but remained represented in the state parliaments.

literature

• Heinz Gollwitzer : The gentlemen. The political and social position of the mediatized 1815–1918 ; Stuttgart 1957; 2nd edition, Göttingen 1964.
• Leopold von Zedlitz-Neukirch : New Prussian Nobility Lexicon . Verlag Gebrüder Reichenberg, Leipzig 1843. pp. 151–153 (Directory of the civil register in Prussia)

Web links

• Class gentleman nobility law