Groeben (noble family)

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Coat of arms of
the von der Groeben family

Groeben , even Gröben , is the name of an old märk een noble family . The gentlemen von der Groeben belonged to the primeval nobility in the ore monastery of Magdeburg and from there came to East Prussia via the Mark Brandenburg . Branches of the family, some of which were elevated to the rank of count , still exist today.

history

origin

The family was first mentioned in a document on November 29, 1140 with Luiderus de Grebene . Gribehne (also Grubene, Grobene, Cyprene, Grebene or Gröben), the probable parent company, is a desert near Calbe on the Saale in the Altmark , today located in the Salzlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt , and is still used as a field name today. As a result of the settlement policy of Otto I of Brandenburg , a colonist village called Gröben was founded further east, near Potsdam, around 1170 , the locator of which was probably the family from the Altmark, who gave the new settlement its name, although it was first documented there in the 14th century appears as a landowner.

Tradition has it that the family originally came from the Duchy of Saxony . Relatives probably came to the Mark Brandenburg together with King Heinrich in 927 . They are also said to have belonged to the twelve old Saxon noble families who chose the four lords of the kingdom from among their number .

The origin of the name Groeben is not certain. Possibly the name goes back to the Slavic Grob'n = grave, ditch, dam . For the family there are the spellings of Groeben and von der Groeben and von der Groeben .

Expansion and possessions

Statue of Friedrich von der Groebens in the parish church of Groß Schwansfeld (around 1713)

Already in 1284 Derwitz and around 1370 or 1375 Gröben near Ludwigsfelde together with other estates in the Mark Brandenburg were in family ownership.

The family was one of the most important and powerful vassals of Emperor Karl IV . a. from his land book of 1375. The somewhat older description of the state of the Mark Brandenburg from 1373 counted them to the castle-seated nobility . Many members of the family went to Prussia early on as knights of the Teutonic Order . A line settled there permanently in the 15th century. Later branches of the family also came to Pomerania and West Prussia .

The progenitor of the East Prussian line was Heinrich von der Groeben, who came from the Mark and acquired Kobbern near Friedland in 1408 . Adam, his son, Teutonic Knights and Panierführer , fell together with his brothers in the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410. Ludwig was the only one who survived, at that time still a child who was later able to continue the tribe. His descendants were the later lords and counts of the Groeben.

One of the descendants was Hans Ludwig von der Groeben († 1669), lord of Lichtenfelde , prelate in the Brandenburg monastery , landscape director and privy councilor of Brandenburg . He brought the office of hereditary hunter of the Electorate of Brandenburg to his house.

Friedrich von der Groeben (1645–1712) served in the Brandenburg and Polish armies. He was a Polish envoy at the Tatars - Khan and took 1683 as a lieutenant general under King John III. Sobieski participated in the relief of Vienna . In the Turkish wars he made a big fortune, because soon afterwards he bought a large complex of goods in Prussia, from which he donated four major family members on April 8, 1711 : Groß Schwansfeld (Kr.Bartenstein), where he lived, Ponaria (also in East Prussia ) , Large and Small Ludwigsdorf near Freystadt in the Rosenberg district and Neudörfchen near Garnsee in the Marienwerder district (both in West Prussia ). In 1711 he founded a family education facility (scholarship house) for five family members as well as a middle-class scholarship holder in Königsberg , to whose financing and maintenance the Harnau estate and the four majorates had to contribute. From then on, many of the family's sons were brought up in this Groebisches Institut ; In 1898 the Corps Masovia Königsberg zu Potsdam took over the scholarship house. Until his death, Friedrich was the royal Prussian governor at Osterode i. Ostpr. and Hohenstein . The tent of a Turkish pasha he captured was brought to the Berlin armory in 1903 at the request of the emperor from Groß Schwansfeld , where it is still located today. Friedrich died childless in 1712 and bequeathed his majorates to nephews. All four majorats (Groß Schwansfeld, Ponarien, Ludwigsdorf and Neudörfchen) remained in the family until the escape and expulsion in 1945.

At the request of Friedrich Wilhelm I, Johann Heinrich von der Groeben had a baroque palace built at Leipziger Strasse 3 in Berlin by Philipp Gerlach from 1735 to 1737 , which soon changed hands (the silk manufacturer Antoine Simond acquired it) in the 19th century belonged to the Mendelssohn Bartholdy family; In 1899 it was demolished for the new building of the Prussian mansion .

Otto Friedrich von der Groeben (1657–1728), major general, founder of Fort Friedrichsburg in Ghana

Otto Friedrich von der Groeben (1657–1728) from the House of Bäslack became known as a general and explorer in the service of Brandenburg-Prussia . As a young man he already undertook an eight-year trip to the Orient, which he described in a printed document (published in Marienwerder in 1694 ). He was first major general of Brandenburg , later royal Prussian governor and finally royal Polish lieutenant general. On January 1, 1683, under the government of the Great Elector, he founded Fort Friedrichsburg on the coast of Ghana in Africa. The Brandenburg-African Company was founded . He later retired to the Neudörfchen estate, which he had inherited from his uncle Friedrich.

His grandson Karl von der Groeben (1788–1876), lord of Neudörfchen, died as a Prussian general of the cavalry . He was initially adjutant general , chief of the 2nd Silesian Uhlan Regiment and received membership in the Prussian manor house. From his marriage to Selma von Dörnberg in 1816 there were five sons, all of whom served in the Prussian army , including the future General Georg von der Groeben as the elder . Gut Neudörfchen with the manor house built in a classicist style in 1828/29 belonged to the family from 1693 to 1945. In 1892 the Divitz estate in Western Pomerania also came to the Neudörfchen branch, also until 1945.

Langheim , East Prussia

Heinrich Wilhelm von der Groeben (1657–1729), lord of Ponarien, officer in the imperial and then in the Polish army under King Johann Sobieski , acquired the Langheim estate in 1728 (in the former Rastenburg district ). His son Wilhelm Ludwig von der Groeben remained unmarried and in 1742 brought his fortune into a family foundation, which was supposed to enable all family members to lead a befitting life. It consisted of the Langheim and Liep estates (in the Königsberg district ), which were combined to form a Fideikommiss in 1772 , for which the family was granted the right to present to the Prussian mansion on July 7, 1855 . The foundation assets were administered by family members until 1945. After the expulsion from East Prussia (Langheim Castle burned down in World War II), the family foundation was converted into a charitable foundation based in Kiel .

Arthur von der Groeben , son of Count Wilhelm von der Groeben and his wife Ida von Auerswald , Majorate on Ponarien, was appointed a member of the Prussian manor for life. He married Auguste von Dörnberg in 1837 . The marriage resulted in eight daughters and four sons. The family of Count Karl Konrad von der Groeben -Ponarien acquired the Eickstedt estate in Uckermark after 1990 .

Theodor von der Groeben, a Prussian major in Kallisten in the former district of Mohrungen and Paul von der Groeben in Jesau in the district of Rastenburg , came from the non-count's branches . During the 19th century, the Wetterau and Groß Klingbeck estates in the Heiligenbeil district and Groß Krutschen in the Trebnitz district also belonged to the family. Other possessions were Arenstein , Beeslack , Bollendorf , Karschau , Quossen , Rückgarben , Schrengen (1700–1793) and Weßlienen (1768–1832).

In the north of the Mark Brandenburg , the family acquired the Rauschendorf manor in 1552 . In 1581 she received further lands in the area on the exchange route, including Meseberg . In 1668 Schönermark received it in exchange from the Great Elector . In 1723 Rauschendorf and Schönermark came to Dorothea von der Groeben's marriage to her husband, Colonel Hermann Graf von Wartensleben , and around 1735 to Meseberg and Baumgarten . The couple had Rauschendorf Castle rebuilt in 1723 and, from 1736, Meseberg Castle instead of a previous building that had burned down .

Furthermore, from 1749 to 1823 the Groeben owned the Löwenbruch estate in the Teltow, south of Berlin. On an associated deserted village was at the behest of the Great Frederick during the Repeuplierung (repopulation abandoned places) a Vorwerk created that and royal after the lion Brucher landlords Chamber President Ernst Ludwig of the Gröben (1703-1773) Ludwigsfelde was named, from which the present city has developed.

On February 4, 1895, a family association of the Counts and Lords von der Groeben was founded in Berlin . It was re-established in 1964/68 and holds family days every two to three years.

Status surveys

On September 19, 1786 in Königsberg, after King Friedrich Wilhelm II. Of Prussia ascended the throne , the cousins ​​Gottfried von der Groeben auf Weßlienen , royal Prussian secret councilor , war minister and chief marshal and Ernst Wolfgang von der Groeben auf Schrengen with all male descendants received the Prussian counts .

On the same day, the cousins ​​Johann Ernst von der Groeben, Majorate Lord on Ludwigsdorf, Otto Heinrich von der Groeben, Majorate Lord on Neudörfchen, Wilhelm von der Groeben, Majorate Lord on Ponarien and Ludwig von der Groeben, Majorate Lord on Groß-Schwansfeld and their four eldest became Sons raised to the Prussian count status. The title was linked to the possession of the majorate and in primogeniture .

coat of arms

Coat of arms window in Koenigsberg Cathedral

Family coat of arms

Wapen von der Groeben klein.svg

The family coat of arms is split. Heraldically on the right in silver a red eagle's claw growing out of the gap , on the left in blue an upright silver spear. On the helmet with red and silver helmet covers on the right and blue and silver covers on the left, a hat trimmed in red and silver .

Count's coat of arms

The count's coat of arms, awarded in 1786, is split within a golden shield edge , on the right in blue an upright brown silver spear, on the left in silver a red eagle's claw growing out of the gap. On the helmet with blue-silver helmet covers on the right and red-silver helmet covers on the left, a pilgrim hat made of silver and red with a flying red cord. As a shield holder on the right a gold-reinforced and crowned Prussian black eagle with the initials FWR, on the left a Brandenburg red eagle .

Heraldic saga

The family is said to have originally borne the name of the griffins, which later became Groeben or Groeben. Since they always valiantly defended the Christian faith, they were given a cardinal's hat with golden tassels.

Known family members

Nobility of the same name

The Genealogical manual of the aristocracy called yet another, letter noble family of the same name, whose ancestor Hans Gottlob Greben (1724-1777), Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon lieutenant , and later royal Prussian lieutenant was. His son Friedrich Wilhelm (1774–1839) became a royal Prussian lieutenant general and, with his descendants, bore the name von der Groeben and the coat of arms of the old aristocratic family from Brandenburg.

swell

  • Johannes Schultze (Hrsg.): The land book of the Mark Brandenburg of 1375 (= Brandenburg land books . Volume 2; publications of the historical commission for the province of Brandenburg and the imperial capital Berlin . Volume VIII, 2). Commission publisher von Gsellius, Berlin 1940 ( digitized in Potsdam University Library ).

literature

Web links

Commons : from the Groeben  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Archives Saxony-Anhalt , Cop. 341 VIa
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume IV, Volume 67 of the complete series, pp. 263–264.
  3. ↑ a b c New General German Adels Lexicon Volume 4, pp. 43–46.
  4. ↑ Herr Nolte: The land book of the Mark Brandenburg from 1375 . Commission publisher von Gsellius, Berlin 1940, place and person directory. von der Gröben, p. 427.
  5. ↑ Johannes Schultze (ed.): The land book of the Mark Brandenburg from 1375 . Commission publisher von Gsellius, Berlin 1940, description of the Mark Brandenburg 1373, pp. 1–5.
  6. ↑ On the history of Ludwigsdorf
  7. ↑ Source: Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Adelslexikon, Volume IV, p. 263. CA Starke-Verlag, Limburg 1978.
  8. ↑ Johann Georg Theodor Grasse : Legends of gender, name and coat of arms of the nobility of the German nation . Reprint-Verlag, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-8262-0704-1 , p. 55.
  9. ↑ General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. Volume 32, Leipzig 1872, p. 7.