Vietinghoff (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the von Vietinghoff, Vietinghoff-Scheel and Vietinghoff-Riesch
Coat of arms of the von Vittinghoff-Schell

Vietinghoff (also Vittinghoff ) is the name of a Westphalian aristocratic family from the County of Mark with the Vittinghoff parent company (today a floor monument) near Essen-Rellinghausen , which also branched out in the Baltic States in the Middle Ages .

history

Burgstelle Haus Vittinghoff , Essen City Forest

origin

The brothers Heinricus, Theodericus and Winimarus de Vitighoven (original in the Münster State Archives ) as ministerials of the Bishop of Münster are first mentioned in a document in 1230 . At that time, House Vittinghoff must have already existed as a moth .

In the treaty of Essen concluded with Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg on May 1, 1243, Henricus de Vitinchoven are listed as Burgmann at Blankenstein Castle and Theodoricus de Vintinchoven as feudal man of Friedrich von Isenberg († 1226). They belonged to the lower knighthood of the Ministerials . Heinrich von Vittinghoff was appointed castellan of the New Isenburg on the Bremberg above the Ruhr by the Archbishop of Cologne in 1274 , but stayed in his Vittinghoff house, which is only 400 meters further north in the lowlands.

Westphalian Line (Vittinghoff-Schell)

Schellenberg Castle : The medieval residential tower (center) with the extension from the 17th (right) and the classicist residential building from the 19th century (left)

In 1452, Johann van den Vitinchaven called Schele, together with his brother-in-law Dietrich von Leithen, acquired the house opm berge , a residential tower from the 14th century not far from the Vittinghoff headquarters , which was later named Schellenberg Castle after the name of the family . Two years later he sold the Motte Vittinghoff together with several farms to the Rellinghausen chapter . Schellenberg Castle became the new seat of the Barons von Vittinghoff called Schell zu Schellenberg , who held the hereditary death office of the Essen monastery from 1456 until the secularization in 1803 . Some Vittinghoffs also served as canons , and several ladies as abbesses .

From 1660 to 1672 Schellenberg Castle was converted into a baroque country castle. After a coal mine shaft was sunk a short distance away at the end of the 19th century and a cable car for transporting coal ran just 100 meters from the castle, the Vittinghoff-Schell family moved to Kalbeck Castle , which they acquired through marriage in 1838. When the last male bearer of the Westphalian-Catholic line Vittinghoff, known as Schell zu Schellenberg, died in 1993 , both properties were inherited by the Barons Spies von Büllesheim .

The Westhusen Castle in Dortmund was from 1469 to 1620 in the family.

Baltic Lines (Vietinghoff-Scheel)

In the 14th century Arnoldus and Conradus , presumably younger sons of the Vittinghoff family, moved to the Baltic regions as knights of the Teutonic Order , where Arnold de Vitinghove first appeared in Livonia in 1341 as commander of the order, while Conrad von Vytinghove in 1387– 1413 is mentioned as a commander and master of the order. As they are committed to celibacy , there are no descendants of these emigrated crusaders . At the end of the 14th century, other family members who did not belong to the order moved to colonize the Baltic region: Diderich Vitinck, Henrik I. Viting and Henrich Vicnig (Vitinghoff), to whom the Baltic tribes B ( Ösel and Estonia ), C (Livonia) and D ( Courland ) go back. These historical landscapes were first subordinate to the order; after its disintegration they were under Polish , Danish , Swedish and Russian sovereignty.

The descendants of the immigrants spread out in the Baltic States for 700 years and acquired large estates there on numerous estates, some have emigrated from there to Sweden or Poland over the centuries, as well as to the interior of Russia or back to German areas in the south and from there partly relocated to Austria . From Sweden, Otto Johann Fitinghoff (1857–1934) founded a flowering branch in the United States .

Coat of arms of the Barons von Vietinghoff-Scheel

They were in the state and military service of the Russian tsars , the German emperors , the kings of Sweden, Denmark, Poland, France , Spain , the Netherlands , Württemberg , Saxony and Prussia , the dukes of Courland and Mecklenburg , the princes of Braunschweig and Hanover as well of the Margrave of Bayreuth . Many others were judges , secret councilors, councilors of the state and state or chamberlains . As landowners and members of parliament, they were responsible for agriculture and forestry as well as for infrastructure , social and cultural issues in entire regions. A Vietinghoff is named as a student of Martin Luther in Wittenberg , many women in the family served as court ladies or canons .

The Vietinghoffs defended the West against the Ottomans several times , took to the field against Wallenstein and Ludwig XIV. Georg Michael Baron von Vietinghoff called Scheel , however, became the king's royal French marshal. Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff was Minister of Health for Catherine the Great of Russia. Frederick the Great of Prussia had two generals of that name, Christian V of Denmark , Charles XII. of Sweden , Alexander I. , Alexander II. , Alexander III. of Russia as well as other Prussian kings and German emperors each had one. In the Napoleonic Wars, 39 of them fought mostly against (some of them also for) Napoléon Bonaparte .

A born Vietinghoff has been passed down as a Beethoven student in Vienna. Boris von Vietinghoff worked as a composer in the 19th century . The Swedish writer Countess Rosa Fitinghoff inspired Henrik Ibsen as the last lover for his play "When we dead awake" . Bruno von Vietinghoff sank in 1905 as ship commander in the fight against the Japanese near Tsushima and was posthumously promoted to admiral. Another bearer of the name was an imperial Ottoman major in Constantinople .

During the Russian Revolution , most of the Vietinghoffs fled to the west, but others also to the east, some even as far as China and later to the USA. One branch remained in what was then the Soviet Union and was only able to reunite with the family after its disintegration. To date, family members live in both Russia and Ukraine . Heinrich von Vietinghoff , as Colonel General in Italy in 1945 , initiated the German surrender early on on his own initiative (on the American side, another Vietinghoff faced). Since the 20th century, the descendants have had a variety of modern occupations in all areas of society. Today family members live in 20 countries in Europe and overseas, often with their nationality.

Name story

Over the centuries there were over 25 different spellings of the name, which probably goes back to descendants (Old Germanic ing ) of ministerials (service men) of the court (Low German also hoff ) of St. Vitus . He was the patron saint of the Corvey ad Weser monastery , which owned several farms on Hellweg , the trade and military route between the Teutoburg Forest and the Rhine near Duisburg , which the monks used as lodgings on their travels. One of these farms was the Vit farm in what is now Essen-Steele , the exact location of which is unknown.

The Catholic tribe A remaining in this region mostly bore the name "Vittinghoff" with the addition "called Schell" or later also "called Schell zu Schellenberg" . A flourishing evangelical line of tribe A is only called "von Schell" . The descendants of the emigrated, often branched out and predominantly Protestant tribes B, C and D often have the nickname "called Scheel" . One line is called v. Vietinghoff v. Riesch , after the property of the childless Count von Riesch in Neschwitz in Lausitz passed to her. Mention should be made of the Swedish spelling “Fitinghoff” , the Danish “Wittinghof” , as well as the Americanized “Fittinghoff” and the Russianized “Fitingof” .

The simultaneous existence of imperial German and German-Baltic family branches for many centuries , i.e. older lines and younger ones who remained resident in their original homeland, who emigrated to the Order Land in the Middle Ages and settled there, can also be seen in other noble families, such as the Frydag / Freytag von Loringhoven, the von der Wenge / Lambsdorff , the Behr , Hahn , Korff or the Waldburg-Capustigall .

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the von Vittinghoff family

Blazon : The family coat of arms shows three golden spheres (coins) on a black diagonal bar in a silver shield, on the helmet a black tournament hat with an open red brim and the three golden spheres, above a fleeting fox with a golden sphere in its muzzle.

Coat of arms of the von Vietinghoff

Blazon: The family coat of arms as before, but instead of the balls, the coat of arms shows three golden pilgrim clams and a fox looking back (home) . The Kurzeme root causes as a shield image in increased crest and the crest additional Mitra and recalls the Bishop candidacy their ancestor of 1404/1405.

Family association

The family association founded in Riga in 1890 and the Berlin family association in 1903 merged in 1903 to form today's “Association of Barons , Barons and Lords v. Vittinghoff, v. Vietinghoff and v. Schell e. V. “The family days take place every two years. The non-aristocratic bearers of the name (Vietinghoffs without "von") are not represented in the association because it has not yet been possible to establish a documented connection.

Name in literature

In his novel Heimatmuseum, Siegfried Lenz gave the name "Vitinghoff" to a commander of the Russian troops in the Battle of Masuria at the time of World War I. This is part of the dialectic of the work, where Polish actors also have German names and vice versa.

Well-known namesake

literature

  • Constantin von Buxhoeveden: family tree of the von Vietinghoff family from the house of Hauküll and Kuckemois. In: Yearbook for Genealogy, Heraldry and Sphragistics , 1902, p. 225.
  • Danmarks Adels Aarbog , Volume 64, Copenhagen 1947, Afsnit 2, pp. 71-75.
  • Gustaf Elgenstierna : The introducerade svenska adelns ättartavlor med tillägg och rättelser. Stockholm 1998, Adliga ätten FITINGHOFF nr 220.
  • Ernst von Engelhardt: The older genealogy of the family v. Vietinghoff. In: Yearbook for Genealogy, Heraldry and Sphragistics, 1903, pp. 100–106.
  • Nicolai von Essen (edit.): Genealogical Handbook of the Oeselian Knighthood , Tartu 1935, pp. 395-417 , 684 u. 707
  • Genealogical handbook of the nobility , CA Starke Verlag, Limburg / Lahn.
    • Adelslexikon Volume XV, Volume 134 of the complete series, 2004, pp. 246-250.
    • Genealogical handbook of noble houses , A4, Volume 22 of the complete series, 1960, pp. 612-624; A 16, volume 76 of the complete series, 1981, pp. 517-527; A 24, volume 111 of the complete series, 1996, pp. 447-464.
    • Genealogical manual of the baronial houses , A 3, Volume 21 of the complete series, 1959, pp. 450–495; A 8, Volume 51 of the complete series, 1971, pp. 350-397; A 13, volume 80 of the complete series, 1982, pp. 384-429; 19, Volume 110 of the complete series, 1996, pp. 372-429.
  • Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch , Justus Perthes , Gotha.
    • of the noble houses , 1912, (family line and older genealogy), 1914, 1916, 1922, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1937 (additions, family line and older genealogy), 1942.
    • der Freiherrlichen Häuser , 1848, 1849, 1853, 1854, 1855, pp. 661f , 1856, 1862, 1864, 1866, 1868, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1874, 1876, 1878, 1880, pp. 894ff , 1881 1900, 1902 , 1904, 1906 (main series), pp. 824ff , 1908, 1910, 1912, 1914, 1916, 1918, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1932, 1936 (additions, main series), 1940.
  • Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (edit.): Genealogical manual of the Estonian knighthood , part 2, 1.2: Estland, Görlitz 1930, pp. 520-534 .
  • Astaf von Transehe-Roseneck ( arr .): Genealogical manual of the Livonian knighthood , part 1, 1: Livonia, Görlitz 1929, pp. 209–226 .
  • Gerhard von Vietinghoff-Scheel: Family history of the sex of the barons, barons and gentlemen v.Vittinghoff, v.Vietinghoff and v.Schell. 4 volumes, Aschau im Chiemgau 2000.
  • Rolf von Vietinghoff called Scheel: The Westphalian tribe of the primeval noble family von Vittinghoff, von Vietinghoff and von Schell. In: Das Münster am Hellweg, 1961, pp. 131–144.
  • Rolf von Vietinghoff called Scheel: The Baltic tribes of the primeval noble family von Vietinghoff, called Scheel and von Vietinghoff von Riesch. In: Das Münster am Hellweg 16, 1963, pp. 19–29, 47–54.

Web links

Commons : Vietinghoff  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files