Schulenburg (noble family)

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Family coat of arms of those of the Schulenburg

The dynasty of the von der Schulenburg is a first mark brandenburg , later Brandenburg-Prussian it noble family . It appears for the first time in the Altmark in 1237 with the knight Wernerus de Sculenburch . The ancestral seat of the aristocratic family, which later expanded widely, was the small Schulenburg castle complex on the Jeetze near Salzwedel in the 13th century .

Field marshals , generals and numerous high officers of the Prussian army came from the noble family . Other representatives achieved high positions such as minister of state and bishop . Two members of sex, Fritz Dietlof and Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg , included in the uprising against Hitler conspirator circle of 20 July 1944 and were executed.

Origins

The von der Schulenburg family emerged from the dark of history in the 13th century. Possibly it comes from the old Holstein noble family Scharpenberg , who lived in the Elbmarschen and disappeared in the 13th century. Members of the sex were named as knights and castle men in documents of this time . They appeared in today's eastern Lower Saxony and in the Altmark , the north-western part of today's Saxony-Anhalt . Through an episcopal document from 1237, the knight Wernerus de Sculenburch is known as the first of the noble family in the Altmark area . In other documents from the years 1264 and 1271 the knights Thidericus de Sculenborch and Wernerus de Sculenburg are mentioned. Since the end of the 13th century, family members served as castle men at Salzwedel Castle .

Family coat of arms at Wolfsburg Castle

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the family shows three red eagle fangs with sharp claws. In the Middle Ages there were only three families whose coat of arms showed three eagle fangs, including that of the Schulenburg. It appeared for the first time as a family coat of arms in a document from 1324, which concerned the knight Bernhard I von der Schulenburg, lord of the white tribe. The eagle catch was a common coat of arms of the Brandenburg families, which was probably derived from the red Brandenburg eagle of Brandenburg .

Eponymous family castle

The name of the family is based on the ancestral castle Schulenburg on the Jeetze near Stappenbeck in the Altmark , a few kilometers southeast of Salzwedel . The naming of Schulenburg was derived from its geographical location and the word train , hide (Engl. Skulk - lurking in secret ) from. The idiom te der sculenden borch meant for the hidden castle and it became Schulenburg .

Remains of the tower hill castle Schulenburg in the Altmark

The small castle site with the dimensions of 20 × 25 meters was hidden in the Jeetz marshes and had the character of a tower hill castle . Only a mound of earth can be seen today. She was already in the 14th century desolate fallen. Research in the 19th century revealed the remains of the castle tower, house and cellar. State director Wilhelm von der Schulenburg (long-time chairman of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History and Industry ) excavated medieval weapons and equipment and restored the castle site.

In 2016 the University of Göttingen carried out archaeological investigations at the castle site. Remnants of the octagonal castle tower with a diameter of 12 meters and the palace were discovered and partially exposed.

New family home

After the small hill tower castle Schulenburg bei Stappenbeck , located in the swamp, had largely disintegrated, in 1345 about 12 km southwest of the already existing castle Beetzendorf became the headquarters of the von der Schulenburg. This much larger castle enhanced the family. From then on it was considered a castle and belonged to the most important families of the Brandenburg nobility. In the Altmark, this layer also included those of Alvensleben , Bartensleben , Bismarck , Jagow , von dem Knesebeck , Platen and Schenck von Flechtingen (and Schenck von Dönstedt ). These eight families were directly subordinate to the governor and were given the title noble by the emperor and the margrave as belonging to the army .

For centuries the family center was Beetzendorf Castle. The von der Schulenburg acquired further power in 1351 through the fiefdom of the castle and town of Apenburg in the Altmark , which is located to the east of Beetzendorf. The Beetzendorf and Apenburg estates were the family estates that secured the core of their manorial power until the 19th century. Beetzendorf Castle was expanded like a fortress with surrounding moats until around 1600. After that, the members of the noble family settled in the village of Beetzendorf and the surrounding area, so that the fortification became useless. In the Thirty Years' War she was no longer defensible. The last cannon was sold in 1642 and the last castle buildings were demolished in 1780. Today there are still some ruins of it. From 1648 the Apenburg fell into disrepair. The Apenburger Hof became the seat of the Beetzendorf manor.

Family lines

In the 14th century the family split into two lines in the Altmark. Dietrich II. (1304-1340) founded the Black Line , his younger brother Bernhard I († after 1340) the White Line . Both lines divided further over the centuries and are sorted genealogically according to "branches", "twigs" and "houses". Today the sex is in the 22nd generation. The White Line dominates in numbers today. Of all the branches, the Wolfsburg branch , which goes back to Adolph Friedrich , expanded the most.

The continued existence of the sex was not always guaranteed because of high child mortality , epidemics, wars and the entry of members into the clergy. In 1499 there were only 42 male representatives, in 1610 there were already 70 people. The decline to 58 male heirs in 1700 is explained by the losses caused by the Thirty Years' War. While there were 70 male school burgers around 1800, there were only 100 around 1900 despite the general increase in population. In 1983 the number of male family members was 91. In the 20th century, the extinction of individual houses of the sex increased. Despite the loss of 15 relatives in World War II , the cause of the decline was rather wedlock and childlessness.

Seats

Awards

1563 were Jacob , Alexander and Daniel von der Schulenburg, the sons of Matthias von der Schulenburg of the line Altenhausen, I. by Emperor Ferdinand Freiherr diplomas awarded. They were the first representatives of their noble family to be honored in this way, but this did not mean an increase in rank. The line of barons continued through the sons of Daniel as follows:

On December 4, 1713, Emperor Charles VI confirmed . the Hanoverian Lieutenant General Alexander von der Schulenburg (1662–1733) from the Altenhausen family the honor of baron awarded to his great-grandfather Daniel. In 1715 he awarded his cousins, the Venetian Field Marshal Matthias Johann and his brother, the Saxon Lieutenant General Daniel Bodo with the title of Imperial Count , and also their sister Honor Guard Melusine , the long-time mistress of the Hanoverian Elector and British King George I.

In 1644 Heinrich Joachim von der Schulenburg (1610–1665), Lord of Lieberose, was given by Emperor Ferdinand III. awarded a baron diploma. However, his two marriages remained childless. In his will he had decreed that Achaz von der Schulenburg from the House of Beetzendorf (1610–1680), intended as his universal heir, should receive the title of baron. Achaz achieved this with Emperor Leopold on March 21, 1667 with a simultaneous increase in the coat of arms.

Life paths

The life path of the male members of the aristocratic family was mapped out and corresponded to the usual economic principles of the German nobility . In addition to the administration of their estates, they were active in large numbers in the military: in the Middle Ages as castle men and as captains of the feudal troops in the Margraviate of Brandenburg , in the early modern period as leaders of mercenary troops and later as officers , especially in the Prussian army , but also in other countries. Most famous was Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg , who rose to field marshal in the service of the Republic of Venice and was supported by Emperor Karl VI. 1715 was raised as the first member of the family to hereditary imperial count.

Many members of the noble family achieved high positions. These included four field marshals , 25 generals , three masters of the Order of St. John , six ministers of state and four bishops .

The family held several inheritance positions. They had been hereditary chefs in the Kurmark Brandenburg since the 14th century at the latest . They were also treasurer of the Landgraviate of Thuringia from October 18, 1861. Furthermore, they had a hereditary seat in the Prussian manor house for the respective lord of the free state Lieberose from October 12, 1855 to 1918.

In the registration book of the Dobbertin monastery there are also two entries of the daughters of the counts' families von der Schulenburg from Tressow and Groß Krankow in Mecklenburg from 1874 and 1903 for inclusion in the aristocratic women's monastery .

Many family representatives have also held positions in state administration. The tendency of the school burgers to become a soldier meant that the family had to lament numerous casualties in wars, most recently in the First and Second World Wars.

In the 20th century, two members of the family ( Count Dietlof and Count Friedrich-Werner ) were resistance fighters of July 20, 1944 against the regime of Adolf Hitler during the Nazi era. Both were convicted and executed by the People's Court .

In the ranks of the National Socialist German Workers' Party there were around 41 members from the von der Schulenburg family.

Expansion and economic base

From the 15th century onwards, the family expanded through the acquisition of properties outside the Altmark. Around 1600 the estate of the family reached its greatest expansion. They held fiefs in the Mark Brandenburg, the archbishopric of Magdeburg , Anhalt , Wolfenbüttel , Lüneburg , Braunschweig, Electoral Saxony , Pomerania , the Mark Lausitz and Bohemia .

The family members achieved their livelihood, insofar as they did not receive it from state, court or military service, mainly by letting the rulers' fiefs be cultivated by the farmers. They paid taxes on it or performed labor services . The Schulenburg showed approaches to its own agriculture through the establishment of Vorwerke , from which goods later developed. The abolition of serfdom in the 19th century led on the one hand to the loss of sources of income (the Fronen , tithes and Naturalabgaben), on the other hand it allowed the increase of some goods through purchases by the money received for this detachments.

The most serious turning point in the course of many centuries was the land reform in the Soviet occupation zone in 1945 , through which almost all the Schulenburg family estates were expropriated without compensation and the branches of the family, whose history they had helped to shape, were driven out of their homeland. Since then, most of the family members have been engaged in "civil" gainful occupations. There were only a few possessions in West Germany, including Wolfsburg Castle in Lower Saxony with Bisdorf and Brome Castle, which was later acquired by the von Bartensleben family in inheritance to Adolph Friedrich von der Schulenburg from the Beetzendorf house , and the Nordsteimke manor (see below: Wolfsburg Line) . In 1943, however, Wolfsburg Castle - including a large part of the property - had to be sold to the city ​​of the KdF-Wagons and the newly built family seat Schloss Neumühle near Beetzendorf was expropriated with the associated land through the land reform. Only after the German reunification could the property in Neumühle (without the castle), along with other areas in Brandenburg, be repurchased. Today the entire operation of the Count von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg consists of approx. 780 hectares of agricultural land and 5,350 hectares of forest area.

An even older Lower Saxony property of the family was Gut Hehlen, acquired around 1558 from the “white line” by the mercenary leader Fritz von der Schulenburg, with its moated castle Hehlen , built between 1579 and 1584 , which was sold in 1956 with all property and inventory without need. Another company owned by Count Schulenburg since 1748 is the estate in Osten-Altendorf near Cuxhaven.

The Angern estate in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, which has been family-owned since 1448 and which was expropriated in 1945, was repurchased in 1997 and is now being farmed by Alexander Graf von der Schulenburg with 800 hectares of forest and 150 hectares of arable land (see below: Line Angern) .

In the period after the Second World War, the Lippe manor Hovedissen in Leopoldshöhe , Schönbrunn Palace in Upper Bavaria and Philippsburg Palace in East Friesland were inherited by family members. The Upper Palatinate Castle Falkenberg , rebuilt in 1936 , was sold in 2008.

Known family members

Alabaster - epitaph for Fritz von der Schulenburg (1591–1613) in the Tübingen collegiate church
Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg (1661–1747), Saxon general, Venetian field marshal, 1715 first imperial count; Painting by Giovanni Antonio Guardi , 1741
Adolph Friedrich Graf von der Schulenburg (1685–1741), Prussian lieutenant general in the Schulenburg regiment under Frederick the Great
Melusine von der Schulenburg (1693–1778), Duchess of Kendal and Munster; Mistress George I of Great Britain
Friedrich Werner Graf von der Schulenburg (1875–1944), diplomat, executed as a resistance fighter
Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg-Tressow (1902–1944), executed as a resistance fighter

Angern line

Angern moated castle

At around 500 years old, the Angern line has the oldest tradition in the school castle alongside the Beetzendorf line . The moated castle Angern (today the district of Börde ), built in 1341, became family property in 1448. The brothers Busso, Bernhard and Matthias von der Schulenburg received it for 400 guilders as a Magdeburg fief. During the Thirty Years War , the castle and manor building burned down completely in 1631. In 1736 a castle with three wings was built on the old cellar vaults. The complex was still surrounded by a wide moat, which still gives it the character of a moated castle today. In 1849 it was modernized in the style of classicism . After the Second World War, Sigurd Graf von der Schulenburg, as the owner of Angern Castle and the associated lands, was expropriated without compensation. The Soviet occupation forces expelled him in 1946 after his family had lived there for thirteen generations.

During the GDR era, the castle housed a vocational school. But it was only after the fall of the Wall in 1989 that the building was permanently damaged by vacancy and water ingress. In 1997, Alexander Graf von der Schulenburg acquired the palace complex, which was threatened with decay. After a renovation, he and his family moved from Hamburg to Angern in 2000. The lord of the castle rents representative halls and salons in the baroque and rococo style for events . In addition, he maintains the family tradition of the Angern family and cultivates 800 hectares of forest and 150 hectares of arable land on the acquired land.

Wolfsburg line

Gebhard Werner Graf von der Schulenburg from the Beetzendorf house (1722–1788), the first offspring of the Wolfsburg line with his wife Sophie Charlotte; 1750–86 Court Marshal of Frederick the Great

In 1746/47, the Schulenburg inherited the property of the von Bartensleben and Wolfsburg families . The wife of Adolph Friedrich von der Schulenburg -Beetzendorf (1685–1741), Anna Adelheit Catharina von Bartensleben (1699–1756), brought the fortified palace complex into the family. Her husband had already died in 1741 before joining the family. She was the sole heir when her father Gebhard Werner von Bartensleben died in 1742 and the male line died out. The Wolfsburg branch of the Schulenburg family developed from the children of Adolph Friedrich and Anna Adelheid Catharina. The most important successor was Gebhard Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, who was born in Wolfsburg in 1722 .

After the takeover of Wolfsburg in the middle of the 18th century, the Lords of Schulenburg used the church of St. Mary built directly next to the castle in what is now Alt-Wolfsburg as a family funeral . Between 1759 and 1805, eleven of their relatives and nine representatives of the previous lords of Bartensleben rest in the crypt. The Wolfsburg family branch had held many church patrons since the 18th century, during which the maintenance of the corresponding places of worship and the care of the clergy had to be done. When Günther Graf von der Schulenburg died in 1985 as the last lord of the Wolfsburg castle, he was the patron of 26 churches in the area.

The new Wolfsburg in the 20th century

Neumühle Castle

In the 1930s, the area around Wolfsburg Castle was declared the center of the Greater German Empire . The Volkswagen factory and the city ​​of the KdF car were to be built here. At the end of 1937, it was clear that the von der Schulenburg family had to leave their traditional holdings at Wolfsburg Castle. Their land of around 2,000 hectares of agricultural land was needed for the construction of the city and factory and was expropriated. The head of the family Günther Graf von der Schulenburg decided to build a new castle in the old Neumühle forest property near Tangeln (then the Salzwedel district ). In a four-year construction period from 1938 Neumühle Castle was one of the last major castle buildings of the 20th century in Germany, planned and built by the well-known architect Paul Bonatz . The new castle was built in a modern construction made of reinforced concrete with four round corner towers and was only slightly smaller than the Wolfsburg. In November 1942 the family moved into the "new" Wolfsburg in the Neumühle Forest, about 35 km northeast of the "old", and around 1000 m of Reichsbahn wagons were needed to transport the Wolfsburg Castle inventory. The city ​​of the KdF-Wagons acquired the old Wolfsburg in 1943 for 560,000 Reichsmarks (today: 2,188,926 EUR).

Return to Wolfsburg-Nordsteimke

Mansion of the manor of the Schulenburg in Nordsteimke

Shortly before the withdrawal of the British troops and the entry of the Red Army on July 1, 1945, the von der Schulenburg family fled their castle in Neumühle, leaving almost all their belongings behind, back to Wolfsburg in the British occupation zone . The Soviet occupation soldiers looted the inventory of Neumühle Castle, threw the archive material into the courtyard and set it on fire. The castle administrator, Mr. Gaal, was brought to the Buchenwald internment camp by the new rulers , where he perished. After the war and the loss of property in the east, the family took their seat on the manor Nordsteimke near Wolfsburg, which was once in the Duchy of Braunschweig and had been in the family since 1846. The Burg Brome in the district of Gifhorn was sold 2,001th Gut Bisdorf, part of the Lüneburg knighthood, is still owned.

The foundation stone for the new beginning was the agricultural and forestry family property in the Wolfsburg area. The members of the count's family have since worked as farmers and foresters and are medium-sized entrepreneurs. The schulenburg estates are now managed from the manor in Wolfsburg-Nordsteimke, where a street is named after the family. The head of the family (2005-2018) was Günzel Graf von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg , who was born in 1934 at Wolfsburg Castle. His son, Günther Graf von der Schulenburg, who was born in 1965, took over responsibility for the agricultural and forestry operations in 1998. The forest administration manages a total of 5,300 hectares of forest in the Wolfsburg region, the Altmark , the Colbitz-Letzlinger Heide and in Fläming (Brandenburg). From Nordsteimke, the agricultural business in the city and in the neighboring district of Helmstedt produces arable crops such as grain, rape and sugar beet on around 600 hectares.

Burial place

Family crypt in St. Mary's Church
Family burial site in the Rothenfeld cemetery

The Wolfsburg line chose the St. Mary's Church in Alt-Wolfsburg, which is located directly on Wolfsburg, as the burial site . It was the patronage church of the von der Schulenburg and served the castle residents as a house church from around the 16th century. In the crypt under the bell tower there are 27 ornate coffins made of alabaster and black marble , including children's coffins. Eleven deceased bear the name von der Schulenburg . In the other coffins lie more extensive family members and eight members of the von Bartensleben family who were on Wolfsburg before the Schulenburg lords of the castle. Those buried here died between 1670 and 1832. After the last burial, the crypt was closed and only reopened in 1984 when it was renovated. Later deceased family members were buried in the cemetery in Rothenfelde and in the family cemetery in Nordsteimke .

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Detlef Detlefsen : History of the Holstein Elbmarschen , Volume 1, p. 269 (Glückstadt 1891)
  2. ↑ Detlef Detlefsen: The knight families of the Holstein Elbmarschen, especially the Wilstermarsch , in: ZSHG, Vol. 27 (1897), pp. 171–190.
  3. ↑ Castle ruins discovered in Volksstimme from August 15, 2016
  4. ↑ Erich Neuss : Handbook of historical sites. Province of Saxony Anhalt . Ed .: Berent Schwineköper (= handbook of historical sites . Volume 11). 2nd, revised and supplemented edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-520-31402-9 , Beetzendorf (Kr. Salzwedel / Klötze), pp. 33-34.
  5. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility, Vol. GA IV, p. 410, confirmation by Emperor Karl IV. On September 12, 1373, Starke-Verlag, Limburg 1962.
  6. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility, Vol. GA IV, p. 438, Starke-Verlag, Limburg 1962.
  7. ↑ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility, Vol. GA IV, p. 411, Starke-Verlag, Limburg 1962.
  8. ↑ https://www.cicero.de/kultur/es-war-kein-aufstand-des-adels/38066
  9. ^ Website Günther Graf von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg
  10. ^ Christian Gahlbeck: Lagow (Łagów) or Sonnenburg (Słońsk). On the question of the formation of a residence in the Brandenburg ballot, the Johanniter from 1317 to 1527 . In: Christian Gahlbeck, Heinz-Dieter Heimann , Dirk Schumann (eds.): Regionality and transfer history. Coming from the Knights' Order of the Templars and St. Johns in northeast Germany and Poland . 1st edition, Lukas Verlag für Kunst- und Geistesgeschichte, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86732-140-2 , Bernhard von der Schulenburg, pp. 312-315.
  11. ^ Christian Popp: The St. Nikolaus Abbey in Stendal (= Germania Sacra . New series 49). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019535-4 , § 38. The canons. Werner von der Schulenburg, pp. 300–301.


This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 22, 2005 .