Choice (noble family)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coat of arms of those of Wahl (1795)

The Wahl family belongs to the German nobility in the Baltic States . Sex is in the Livonian , the Estonian and the Courland knighthood enrolled .

history

The Wahl family is a branch of the old Scottish aristocratic family "Mac Dowall" or "Mac Dougall of Makerstoun". The family originally came from Galloway on the west coast of Scotland. In the Middle Ages, the Mac Dowall clan had an important position of power there, beginning with Fergus Lord of Galloway (1096–1161). Already in 1390 there was a loan to the knight Baron Archibald Mac Dowall with the property Makerstoun am Tweed in the Borders . With him the uninterrupted line of the family begins. The owners and barons of Makerstoun had an hereditary seat in the Scottish feudal parliament. The Mac Dowalls of Makerstoun branch, now extinct in Scotland, held the property until the end of the 18th century.

Around 1582 the royal Scottish officer and captain Robert Albrecht Mac Dowall (1541–1641) emigrated from the untitled, younger line of the House of Makerstoun, first to Brandenburg and later to Mecklenburg . Maybe he was, like the clan chief Uchtred Mac Dowall, Laird of Garthland, involved in the well-known "Raid of Ruthven" in 1582, a failed Protestant aristocratic frond against King Jacob / James VI, so that Robert Albrecht had to leave Scotland. In Brandenburg he married Elsa von Bredow and, after her death, another marriage to Ursula von Stralendorff from Mecklenburg . Numerous children each resulted from the two marriages.

In 1594 Robert Albrecht entered the Swedish service and was for many years the royal bailiff of Örbyhus and Tierp . The family was later naturalized in Sweden under the name "Duwall" . His sons, the royal Swedish colonel Mauritz Duwall (1603-1655) and his half-brother, the royal Swedish general Jacob Duwall (1589-1634), were raised to the Swedish nobility for their service in the Thirty Years' War and with their descendants in the Nobility class of the Swedish knighthood introduced (sub.no. 241). General Jacob Duwall was posthumously awarded the Swedish baron status in 1674 because of his military merits and introduced to the baron class of the knight house (sub.no.64). The Swedish Duwalls died out in the male line in 1923.

Mauritz Duwall and his half-brother Jacob Duwall founded the Swedish branch of the family from Robert Albrecht's nine sons. Jacob's other half-brother from the marriage of their father to Ursula Stralendorff, the royal Swedish colonel of the infantry Axel Duwall (1595-1630), is the ancestor of the German-Baltic family by choice.

Axel Duwall took part in 1628 as a Swedish lieutenant colonel in the successful defense of Stralsund against the imperial troops of Field Marshal Wallenstein . In 1629, with the support of the Swedish king, he acquired the Hallkved estate in Uppland. With his regiment, Axel Duwall, as colonel of the infantry from the mainland hill, secured the mouth of the Peene and thus the landing of the Swedish army on the island of Usedom on June 26, 1630. Axel Duwall was seriously wounded and died while conquering the ducal-Pomeranian fortress Wolgast in July of his war wound on September 6th of that year. He was buried in Stralsund on November 13, 1630 in the presence of King Gustav-Adolph of Sweden . The grave of Axel Duwall is next to the grave of his half-brother Jakob in the "Duwall'schen Kapelle" in the Nikolaikirche in Stralsund . Axel's grave with a German inscription was restored at the instigation of the family and is thus preserved to this day.

Axel Duwall's only son, the Swedish captain of the Dragoons , Joachim Adolf de / De Wall / Wahl (1631–1705), settled in Livonia , which was then Swedish, after 1682 . In the Northern War (1700–1721) he served in the Livonian dragoon regiment of General von Meyerfeldt. Joachim Adolf began to spell the family name separately.

Joachim Adolf's son, Johann Georg (1682–1735), also fought as a Swedish dragoon in the Livonian regiment of General von Schlippenbach in the Northern War against Russia . He took part in several skirmishes with his regiment, including in 1709 the decisive defeat of the Swedish army in the battle of Poltava . In 1710 Johann Georg was captured by Russia in the Swedish border fortress Wiborg in Finland, from which he was only released in 1722 after the peace treaty of Nystad .

As a result of the defeat in the Great Northern War, the Kingdom of Sweden lost Estonia and Livonia to the Russian Empire through the Peace Treaty of Nystad in 1721 . The German knighthoods of the Baltic provinces, however, were guaranteed German self-government and the evangelical faith of Tsar Peter the Great and his successors, with later restrictions, until 1917 , even under Russian rule .

Johann Georg's son, Johann Heinrich von Wahl (1725–1795), as administrator and leaseholder of large estates in Livonia and a successful farmer, was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire on October 15, 1795 in Vienna .

In the next generation, the son Carl Gustav von Wahl (1766-1825) made it possible to acquire several large estates in the Estonian part of Livonia in the region around Oberpahlen (Kawast, Pajus , Kawa, Köppo and Tappik) with extraordinary economic success as an entrepreneur and farmer . His six sons established the various lines of the family, four of which still exist today.

Due to his services to the Russian army and to the city of St. Petersburg during the Napoleonic Wars , Carl Gustav was also awarded the Russian nobility in 1816.

The family was registered with the Livonian Knighthood in 1860 and with the Estonian Knighthood in 1863 . Several more matriculations followed. The enrolled owners of goods eligible for Landtag had a seat and vote in the Landtag of the knighthoods with their German self-government of the Baltic Sea provinces. The members of the von Wahl family in the Livonian state parliament all belonged to the liberal party of the land reformer Hamilkar von Fölkersam. Since there were no ruling princes in the Baltic States, the knights represented the politically ruling classes of aristocratic republics as part of their extensive self-government. After the expropriation of all German landed property (1919 and 1920) with the abolition of knighthoods as subjects of international law and resettlement from the Baltic states as a result of the 1939 Hitler-Stalin Pact , most of the elections now live in Germany and Canada.

A family union with a legacy was founded in Livonia in 1852. In 1964 the family association was reconstituted as a registered association. This holds a family day every two years.

Real estate

The family acquired extensive property in Livonia , Estonia and Courland . In Livonia: (Estonian district): Pajus with Luik, Addafer, Tappik with Toifer and Lane, Lustifer with Kalliküll, Surgefer, Wilhelminenhof with Eduardhof and Karlswald, Neu-Nursie, Quellenhof; (Latvian district): Old and New Annenhof with Hermannshof. In Estonia: Annia , Assick with Wahlhof and Schildau Island. In Courland: Blieden with Aahof. These family estates with around 50,000 hectares of land were expropriated in 1919 and 1920 by the newly established republics of Estonia and Latvia . Other goods that were only temporarily owned by the family are not mentioned here.

After German reunification in 1990: Lausnitz forest estate near Neustadt / Orla in Thuringia , Friedrichsruh estate near Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg .

Family coat of arms

The Scottish family coat of arms , which was also used by the Swedish Duwalls , was forgotten in the Baltic branch of the family due to the war and was replaced by the new coat of arms awarded with the imperial nobility in 1795.

The family coat of arms from 1795 shows in a quartered shield in 1 and 4 in red a golden clover stem with a leaf on each side, in 2 and 3 in silver one with a discarded chain of six golden rings, placed on blue oblique left bars . On the crowned helmet with red and gold covers on the right and blue and silver covers on the left there is a gold-armored black double -headed eagle .

Family saying

Being able to do what you want is bliss.

To want what you can is strength of mind.

But it is virtue to do what one should.

Name bearer

  • Robert Albrecht Mac Dowall / Dougall ad H. Makerstoun (1541–1641), co-lord of Makerstoun, royal Scottish captain, royal Swedish bailiff of Örbyhus and Tierp. He founded the two branches of the Swedish-Baltic family Duwall / v. choice
  • Axel Duwall (1595–1630), royal Swedish colonel of the infantry, commander of the Västerbotten infantry regiment, acquaintance of King Gustav-Adolph of Sweden, ancestor of the Baltic family v. choice
  • Johann Heinrich von Wahl (1725–1795), successful farmer in Livonia, posthumously imperial nobility 1795
  • Karl-Gustav von Wahl (1766–1825), entrepreneur and farmer, purchaser of numerous estates in Livonia, Russian nobility in 1816
  • Thomm Alexis v.Wahl-Lustifer (1835–1867 at sea), Kgl. Great Britain, Commander of the Navy
  • Viktor von Wahl-Surgefer (1840–1915), Imperial Russian General of the Cavalry, City Commander of Saint Petersburg, Governor General of Vilna, Wing Adjudant of Emperor Alexander III. , Member of the Imperial Council, Deputy Interior Minister of the Russian Empire
  • Otto von Wahl-Kawast (1842–1884), KK Rittmeister, Imperial Russian Colonel
  • Nikolai von Wahl-Pajus (1833–1904), landowner, Livonian state politician and district deputy of the Livonian state parliament
  • Ernest von Wahl-Assick (1878–1949), Imperial Russian Major General
  • Wilhelm von Wahl-Surgefer (1880–1944), Imperial Russian Colonel of the Cavalry, Commander of the Guard Regiment on Horseback, Chief of Staff of the White Northwest Army of General Yudenich in the Russian Civil War
  • Eduard Georg von Wahl-Lustifer-Haakhof (1833–1890), physician and surgeon, founder of the psychiatric clinic in Dorpat , professor and rector of the University of Dorpat
  • Arthur von Wahl-Assick (1870–1951), medical doctor, professor hc, Estonian colonel of the paramedics
  • Alexander von Wahl (1839–1903), sculptor from the St. Petersburg Academy of Art and sculptor and painter from the Munich School , pupil of Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg and Max von Widnmann , Alexander Wagner and Wilhelm Diez , oil paintings in the possession of Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria , sculptures in Estonia Art Museum in Tallinn
  • Bruno von Wahl-Assick (1868–1952), painter and illustrator
  • Anna von Wahl-Lustifer (1861–1938), painter
  • Edgar von Wahl-Assick (1867–1948), mathematician, linguist and founder of the world auxiliary language "Occidental" or " Interlingue "
  • Dietrich von Wahl-Lustifer (1913–1999), lawyer and notary, President of the Bremen Bar Association, Vice President of the Chamber of Notaries, President of the Baltic Knighthoods
  • Ellen Delbrück, b. von Wahl-Pajus (1907–1978), wife of the Nazi opponent and resistance fighter Justus Delbrück , Reg.Rat a. D. (1902–1945), brother of Emmi Bonhoeffer geb. Delbrück (1905–1991) and by Max Delbrück (1906–1981), brother-in-law of Klaus Bonhoeffer (1901–1945)
  • Otto von Wahl-Pajus (1914–1984), lawyer and notary, councilor and city councilor in Schleswig , major in reserve, re-founder of the family association after the war , discoverer of the port facilities of Haithabu and the Viking ships lying there
  • Klaus von Wahl-Pajus (1923–1997), dubbing director and author of numerous well-known English and American films and series
  • Erik von Wahl-Lustifer (* 1934), Lawyer, Ltd. Reg.Dir., Vice-President a. D. of Defense Division I in Kiel
  • Wolf von Wahl-Lustifer (* 1942), mathematician, professor and dean at the University of Bayreuth
  • Thure von Wahl-Annenhof (* 1944), businessman, founder and owner of the international mineral oil trading company "Select-Energy GmbH" in Hamburg

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Estonian estates
  2. ↑ Adelige Häuser , Volume XXXII, Volume 148 of the complete series, pp. 438–439, CA Starke Verlag , Limburg (Lahn) 2010