Witzendorff

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Witzendorff coat of arms

Witzendorff , also Witzendorf or Wizendorf , is the name of an old noble family from Lower Saxony . The family, some of whose branches still exist today, was one of the most important families in the patriciate of the city of Lüneburg and later acquired property and prestige primarily in the Duchy of Lüneburg , but also in Mecklenburg , Lauenburg and Prussia .

history

origin

The family was first mentioned in a document in 1290 with Johannes de Wizendorpe as a citizen of Lüneburg. The uninterrupted line of the family begins with Christian van Witzendorpe , who appears in a document in Wietzendorf from 1360. His son Christian acquired citizenship of the city of Lüneburg in 1383 . According to Johann Heinrich Zedler's Great Complete Universal Lexicon of All Sciences and Arts (1748), Johann Christian von Hellbach Adels-Lexicon (1826) and the Gotha Genealogical Pocket Book of the Noble Houses (1912), members of the family also belonged to the circle society of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck at times .

Name-giving ancestral home of the family was the village Wietzendorf , today a municipality in the district of Heidekreis in the Lüneburg Heath in Lower Saxony. The place is mentioned for the first time in 1058 in the founding document of the Gozeka Monastery. In Wietzendorf, the Wietzendorffers owned the Krepauhof, also Crepauhof , from the St. Michaelis monastery in Lüneburg as a fief or a lease until 1516 . Wietzendorf's coat of arms, the use of which was approved in 1937, also comes from the von Witzendorff family.

Spread and lines

A Johann von Witzendorff is said to have been appointed councilor of Lüneburg by Pope Nicholas V in 1445 . Hans von Witzendorff died on July 18, 1475 as a councilor in Lüneburg. His son of the same name Hans († November 1, 1507) was also councilor and sod master in Lüneburg. His son Hieronymus von Witzendorff (born July 5, 1493) became Sülfmeister of the Lüneburg salt works in 1514 and councilor of Lüneburg in 1517. He was one of the first to convert to the Protestant faith and in 1533 became mayor of Lüneburg. He was able to buy Kaltenmoor and secure the tithe from Hagen, now Neu Hagen . Hieronymus, he married Anna Stötteroge from the house of Lüdershausen (1494–1571) in 1513 , died on May 31, 1556. Their son Franz was born in 1520. Franz was hereditary lord on Kaltenmoor, 1546 Sülfmeister and 1555 bar master. In 1557 he became councilor, 1561 sod master and 1562 mayor of Lüneburg and captain in Bleckede . He died on January 25, 1574 and was buried in the Benedictine monastery of St. Michaelis in Lüneburg. With the acquisition of Hagen, he was able to expand the family's property.

Epitaph for Heinrich von Witzendorff († 1617) in the church of St. Clemens and St. Katharinen in Seedorf

His two sons Heinrich and Hieronymus, from his marriage to Ursula Garlop (1527–1573), were the founders of two of the first lines of the family. The line to Kaltenmoor, Hagen and Göxe , founded by the older son Heinrich von Witzendorff (1551–1617), expired in 1751. Heinrich, Herr auf Kaltenmoor and Hagen and mayor of Lüneburg bought Göxe near Hanover . His younger brother Hieronymus von Witzendorff (* 1553) was lord of Vrestorf and bar master of the Lüneburg salt works. He was enfeoffed with Kaltenmoor in 1580 and died on March 22, 1606. The sons from his two marriages donated two new lines.

Franz von Witzendorff (1581–1627), the son of his first marriage to Dorothea Töbing (1559–1588) in 1577, was able to acquire Wülschenbrook, now Wilschenbruch , in what was then the Lüne office , and Dachmünden. Like many of his ancestors, Franz became mayor of Lüneburg. He died of the plague on September 28, 1627 . The line he founded in Wülschenbrook expired in 1765. His half-brother, the son of Hieronymus and his second wife Margarete Borcholten (1565–1649), married in 1591, Stats Friedrich von Witzendorff was born on October 10, 1594 in Lüneburg. He, too, was appointed Sülfmeister in 1624, councilor in 1631 and mayor of Lüneburg in 1648, and was also enfeoffed with Wülschenbrook. Stats Friedrich received together with his half-brother Franz and his son Hieronymus von Witzendorff, Herr auf Wülschenbrook, from Emperor Ferdinand III. on September 6, 1639 in Vienna the imperial nobility with an improvement in the coat of arms . On September 17, 1623 he married Anna von Elver (1600–1660) in Lüneburg and died on November 21, 1652 in his hometown.

Dietrich Wilhelm von Witzendorff , the grandson of Stats Friedrich and Anna, was born on January 27, 1661 in Lüneburg. His father Franz Heinrich von Witzendorff (* 1625), councilor since 1658 and mayor of Lüneburg from 1660, was able to acquire Vrestorf in the Winsen an der Luhe office in 1661 . He abdicated early on as mayor and resigned from his councilor position in 1662. Franz Heinrich lived quietly until his death in 1689. Dietrich Wilhelm's mother Ilsabe Sophie (1633–1676) was, like his grandmother, a born von Elver. Dietrich Wilhelm was from 1694 lord of the donated Fideikommiss Großzecher and Kleinberckenthins, the latter was sold in 1711, and a pawn owner on Dobbin from 1694 to the end of 1699. In addition, he was able to 1697 Seedorf with Hackendorf, Bresahn and Dargow (today both districts of Salem (Lauenburg) ), Butz and Sterley in the Duchy of Lauenburg . From 1706 Dietrich Wilhelm was ducal Holstein privy councilor and cathedral dean of the Lübeck bishopric as well as ducal Brunswick-Lüneburg court judge and district administrator in Lauenburg. On February 16, 1695, he married Anna Maria von der Borch from the Schönebeck family († 1733), the daughter of the princely Braunschweig colonel and heir to Schönebeck Friedrich von der Borch . Three sons from this marriage divided the family into three lines, of which only the second, middle line could be continued to the present day.

1st line

The eldest son Hieronymus Friedrich von Witzendorff, born on December 11, 1695 in Lüneburg, took over the entails for large mines from his father. He was the master of Seedorf and until 1730 of Groß Thurow. Hieronymus Friedrich became royal British district administrator in Lauenburg and founded the first line. He died in Lübeck on June 6, 1742. From his marriage to Christiane Luise Friederike von Jasmund (1708–1758) son Adolf Friedrich emerged. Adolf Friedrich von Witzendorff , born in Lübeck on October 23, 1737, served as Drost and Chamberlain in the service of the ducal Mecklenburg-Strelitz . He died on December 27, 1772 on his Groß Zecher estate. Of his five children, two sons and three daughters, from his marriage to Dorothea Sophie von Behm (1735–1774) in Neustrelitz in 1762 , only the youngest son was able to continue the line.

The eldest son Georg Friedrich Theodor (* 1763) died as a student in Leipzig in 1787 . The three sisters were initially canons in the Medingen monastery . The monastery was converted into a women's monastery in 1559 and over the years received rights to the Lüneburg salt works, but also to customs , mills and shipping on the Ilmenau . Numerous nuns were daughters of Lüneburg patrician families who entered the convent with their rich household and were thus able to increase the monastery property. The eldest daughter Friederike Sophie Christine Albertine (* 1764) later married the later royal Hanoverian forest master Christian von Seebach . After her death in 1797, he married her younger sister Albertine Sophie Christiane von Witzendorff (1769-1824) that same year. Christian von Seebach emerged from his first marriage and continued his father's profession. The second oldest sister Elisabeth Friederike Karoline (* 1766) died as a chaplain in 1817 in the Medingen monastery. Karl Gotthard Hieronymus von Witzendorff, the youngest son Adolf Friedrich and Dorothea Sophie, who was born in Großzecher on December 29, 1771, was able to continue the line. After the death of his older brother, he became entrant master at Großzecher and master at Seedorf and Webelsfelde (today part of Mühlen Eichsen ). Karl Gotthard Hieronymus, who died on January 17, 1841, married the sister of his brother-in-law Henriette Luise Adelheit von Seebach (1799–1878) on July 30, 1815. The couple had nine children.

Three children died early, before their parents. The eldest daughter Luise Ida Albertine (1819–1848) became Chanoinesse in the Medingen Monastery. The eldest Wilhelm August Maximilian von Witzendorff (born October 3, 1822), Herr auf Seedorf, inherited the Fideikommiss zu Großzecher from her brothers. He married a distant relative in Hanover in 1847 , Adelheit Sophie von Witzendorff (1827–1882), with whom he had a daughter. Ella Adelheit Ottilie Marie von Witzendorff (* 1848), the only daughter, became after her marriage in 1867 with the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Chamberlain and Chief Chamberlain Alexander Graf von Bassewitz , also Chief Chamberlain at the Grand Ducal Court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Wilhelm August Maximilian died in Wiesbaden on February 6, 1849 . His wife Adelheit Sophie had a second marriage in 1853 with Otto von Kahlden , Herr auf Krumke and Heiligendamm and a Prussian Rittmeister a. D. , a. Wilhelm August Maximilian's younger brother Ottokar Hartwig Christian von Witzendorff, he was born on May 30, 1824 at Gut Großzecher, received the entails commission after the death of his brother and became lord of Webelsfelde and Seedorf. Ottokar Hartwig Christian was in the Prussian service as chamberlain and councilor and became a knight of honor of the Order of St. John . His marriage to Ida Auguste Karoline Lindemann (* 1852) in 1868 remained childless. The Lindemanns were a wealthy family of gas manufacturers in Schwerin. A Lindemann married the youngest sister Emma Auguste Christiane von Witzendorff (1828-1894) in 1848, this marriage also remained childless. With the death of Ottokar Hartwig Christian on February 1, 1890, this line died out in the male line . After his death, his widow became the mistress of Seedorf. She erected the building called Schloss Seedorf as a mansion in the neo-renaissance style.

2nd line

August Christian von Witzendorff , born in Lübeck on July 27, 1704, was the founder of the second line. Since 1730 he was the master of Groß Thurow and from 1751 also the master of Kaltenmoor, Hagen and Göxe. In 1740 and 1747 he was cathedral dean in the Lübeck bishopric. In 1743 August Christian became a royal British and ducal district administrator of Braunschweig-Lüneburg as well as chief captain in Lauenburg. In the same year he was appointed court judge in Ratzeburg and president of the Lauenburg court and chamberlain . August Christian died on May 13, 1763 in his native town. In 1740 he married Elisabeth Sophia Maria von Petersdorff in Lübeck († April 11, 1781 in Lübeck). His son Adolf Friedrich von Witzendorff , who was born on February 28, 1747 and became provost of the cathedral in Lübeck, was able to continue the line. He owned extensive real estate and was, among other things, lord of Thurow until 1786 and Kaltenmoor, Hagen and Göxe until 1803, Gresse with Leisterförde and Badekow with Bretzin from 1785 to 1792, Krempelstorf from 1792 to 1796, Westenbrügge with Uhlenbrook from 1794 to 1803 on Parchow, Gressow from 1794 to 1798, Kegsdorf from 1801 to 1803 and from 1802 on Kleibütz with Eulenkrug and Roserberg and Bolland. As chamberlain he was in royal Danish service and died in Klein Brütz on April 2, 1818. In Merseburg he married Luise Sophie Albertine von Oertzen (1753-1821) in 1771 .

Of their children, Christian Otto Wilhelm (born January 26, 1775 in Lübeck), heir to Moltenow, grand ducal Oldenburg thigh and head of the court administration in Eutin . In 1818 he sold Klein Bütz and in 1819 West Bruges. Christian Otto Wilhelm died unmarried on December 28, 1836 in Oldenburg . His younger brother Peter Friedrich Ludwig, born in Lübeck on March 29, 1778, was able to continue the line with numerous offspring. His extensive estates included Kleekamp, ​​Helmstorf from 1811 to 1817, Woltow from 1820 to 1840, Wilhelmshof from 1830 to 1842, Moltenow from 1836 to 1839, Wessin from 1840 to 1841 and Kritzow from 1840 to 1846. He died on March 25, 1857 as a royal Hanoverian captain out of service on his estate Wiebendorf, which he was able to acquire together with Bretzin in 1841. He had twelve children with Amalie Margarete Charlotte von Spörcken (1788–1866), whom he married in 1808.

Agnes Dorothea Elisabeth (1815-1888), a daughter of the couple, in 1835 married the Prussian Privy Councilor and District Chief of the county Lingen Christian Lodemann and her younger sister Elisabeth Karoline Ulrike (1817-1886) 1846 Gerlach von dem Knesebeck , Mountain captain of the Hanoverian mountain and Forestry Office in Claustal . The eldest son Adolf Ludwig von Witzendorff (born April 8, 1811 in Schwerin), died in 1885 as a Prussian major a. D. The latter's second son from his marriage to Karoline Friederike Albertine von Boyneburgk (1820-1909), Karl Friedrich Ludwig von Witzendorff (born March 23, 1855 in Osterode) was the first male descendant of the 1890, after the first line had finally died out second line the Fideikommiss to Groß Zecher. He left a son and a daughter.

August Christian von Witzendorff (born May 4, 1813 in Helmstorf), the first brother of Adolf Ludwig, died in 1852 as a grand ducal member of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin government. He also left descendants from his marriage to Luise Friederike Charlotte Marianne von Lowtzow (1814–1901) in 1843 . Her first child, Alexandrine Friederike Charlotte (* 1844) became the prioress of the Medingen monastery. The first son Friedrich Adolf Ludwig von Witzendorff (born July 30, 1845 in Schwerin) was last as a colonel in the grand-ducal military service of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His younger brother Ulrich Karl Ernst Friedrich von Witzendorff (born March 19, 1847 in Schwerin) was put up for disposition as a Prussian lieutenant general . Her youngest sister Sophie Adolfine Charlotte Marie (* 1848) became a canon in the Medingen monastery. All four left no children.

Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Witzendorff (born April 28, 1824 in Scharnebeck ), the second brother of Adolf Ludwig, made it up to the General of the Cavalry à la suite of the 2nd Westphalian Hussar Regiment No. 11 of the Prussian Army . He died on March 23, 1891 in Göttingen . Karl Friedrich Wilhelm married Johanna Luise Marie Elise von Rehdiger (1829-1892) in Striese in 1859. Charlotte Sophie Ernestine (born August 18, 1868 in Lüneburg), a daughter, married the later Prussian Major General Walter Rabe von Pappenheim in 1888 . Their son Friedrich-Carl Rabe von Pappenheim was a military attaché and lieutenant general during the Second World War and later a diplomat for the Federal Republic of Germany . The only son Hans Georg Adolf von Witzendorff (born July 18, 1863 in Berlin) received a Prussian name and coat of arms association with those of Rehdiger, his mother's family, as given by Witzendorff-Rehdiger by the highest cabinet order of September 26, 1913 Hunting lodge Rominten . The diploma was issued on March 2, 1914 in Berlin. The union was valid for the duration of his own property, then that of his marital male descendants of the male line, the Striese manor near Breslau in Silesia . The property comprised 541 hectares . Hans Georg Adolf was last a Prussian colonel; in 1891 he married Adolfine Hermine Petronella Margarete, called Marga, von Brand from the House of Lauchstädt (* 1871). The marriage resulted in three children, two sons and a daughter. Ursula Charlotte Elisabeth (1895–1945), the youngest daughter, married the lawyer, writer and dramaturge Eckart von Naso in 1917 . Her brother Hans-Jürgen von Witzendorff (born December 10, 1893 in Gnesen) became an officer and was last lieutenant general in the Air Force in World War II. In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the US, from which he was released on May 23, 1947. He died on May 15, 1961 in Delmenhorst . Hans Georg Adolf's grandson Peter von Witzendorff, lieutenant out of service, received on September 25, 1958 in Marburg an der Lahn a nobility law non-objection to the name form of Witzendorff-Rehdiger by resolution of the committee for nobility issues of the German aristocratic associations .

Ernst Hieronymus von Witzendorff , he was born on April 20, 1828 in Schranbeck as the third brother of Adolf Ludwig, studied law at the University of Göttingen and from 1850 at the Rostock . He entered the service of the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin and was initially an auditor and administrator in Grabow and Doberan . He was then appointed to the Schwerin Ministry of Finance, where he was promoted to Ministerial Council in 1863 . In 1867 he was appointed a member of the Chamber and Forestry College and appointed to the Chamber Council. In 1877 he was appointed Privy Councilor. He died on February 16, 1896 as the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Chamber Director. In 1850 he married Elisabeth Sidonie Kornelie Freiin von Maltzahn , with whom he had four sons. Bodo von Witzendorff (born August 29, 1876 in Schwerin), the first born, was an officer and most recently a general of the Luftwaffe aviator in World War II. From 1938 he was head of the central department in the Reich Aviation Ministry , and in November 1942 he retired. A short time later, on August 9, 1943, he died in Berlin and was buried in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf . His marriage to Karola Julie Anna von Rantzau in Erfurt had two sons (1st Curt Franz Fritz Heino Karl * on September 26, 1916 in Erfurt, died on February 10, 1994 in Neustadt a. Rübenberge, 2nd Friedrich-Franz Bertram Ernst Ulrich * 23 August 1920 in Kassel, died 23 June 2011 in Hamburg). The second-born Kurt Karl August (born April 15, 1878 in Schwerin) fell from Bodo's brothers as captain , company commander and wing adjutant to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on July 11, 1916 during the First World War . The two youngest also became officers.

Dietrich Wilhelm von Witzendorff, born in Schranbeck on October 28, 1830, the youngest and last child of Peter Friedrich Ludwig and Amalie Margarete Charlotte, was an officer in the Prussian service. Dietrich Wilhelm was master of Wiebendorf and Bretzin. He died on January 3, 1865 in Laubbach as a prime lieutenant out of service. From his marriage to Marie Luise Wilhelmine Schliephake (1833-1893) he left three daughters and one son. Peter Friedrich Ludwig von Witzendorff (born March 15, 1857 in Halberstadt ), the only son, became a Prussian lieutenant , the youngest daughter Anna Friederike Dorothea (born April 3, 1863 in Wiebendorf) married the Prussian major general Oskar von Gerstein-Hohenstein in Halberstadt.

3rd line

Dietrich Wilhelm von Witzendorff, the founder of the third line, was born on June 12, 1707. In 1746 he was a major in the royal Polish and electoral Saxon services. Dietrich Wilhelm died on June 12, 1762 as a lord of Vietlübbe (today part of Dragun ) and Moltenow as well as a lieutenant colonel in Electoral Saxony . His sons Friedrich August Wilhelm and Hieronymus August already divided this line into two further branches.

Memorial stone in the cemetery in Glückstadt for Friedrich August Wilhelm von Witzendorff

Friedrich August Wilhelm von Witzendorff (born January 1, 1737; † July 3, 1810), the founder of the first branch, studied law at the University of Göttingen and received his doctorate in law. In 1756 he entered royal Danish service as a court squire . In 1762 he became a councilor, later also district administrator, and in 1795 Vice Chancellor of the Duchy of Holstein. He resigned from this office in 1803, but continued to receive full salaries. He owned numerous goods, including Vietlübbe until 1766, Moltenow from 1771 to 1785, Goldberg from 1785 and Niendorf from 1795. Friedrich August Wilhelm died on July 3, 1810 in Glückstadt . In 1771 he married Margarete Sophie Brockenhuus von Löwenhielm (1751-1831). The couple had four children, Sophie Margarete Luise (* 1779), the eldest daughter, died in 1817 as a chanoinesse in the Meding monastery, their younger sister Karoline Christiane Eleonore (1781–1863) married the royal Danish lieutenant general Rudolph Woldemar von Römling. The youngest daughter Dorothea Christiane Wilhelmine died in 1783 just a few days after her birth. The only son Johann Wilhelm August von Witzendorff was born on October 23, 1776 in Glückstadt. Johann Wilhelm August was the lord of Niendorf and Schrevenborn (today part of Heikendorf ). He died on February 2, 1838 as a royal Danish colonel. In 1832 he married the owner of Scharstorf (now part of Schellhorn ) Elisabeth Friederike Marie Meyer (1803–1869). The marriage resulted in three children, two daughters and one son. The two daughters married Schleswig-Holstein and Hanseatic officers. The son Karl Wilhelm Dietrich Bernhard von Witzendorff (born December 18, 1837) became master of Schrevenborn and later of Birkenmoor and Sprengerhof. His marriage to Adeline Klara Henriette Freiin von Löwenstern (* 1848) in 1878 resulted in two daughters. The younger Ilse Marie Luise von Witzendorff (* 1880) married the Prussian trainee lawyer and architect Karl Wilhelm Graf von Hardenberg in Kiel in 1913 . Her father Karl Wilhelm Dietrich Bernhard died on November 2, 1879 in Olpenitz . With him, the first branch of the third line in the male trunk went out.

Hieronymus August von Witzendorff, the founder of the second branch, was born in Moltenow on June 1, 1741. He was lord of Adendorf and Vrestorf and since 1766 also lord of Vietlübbe. Hieronymus August, like his father Dietrich Wilhelm, served as chamberlain in the Electorate of Saxony. He died on June 15, 1803 as an electoral cavalry master out of service. His three marriages had eleven children. Luise Sophie Elisabeth Amalie von Witzendorff (1769–1824), the eldest daughter from his first marriage to Elisabeth Anna Dorothea von Witzendorff (1735–1775), married in 1791 the later royal Hanoverian lieutenant colonel, district administrator and district commissioner Iwan Albrecht von Hodenberg . Johann Dietrich Hartwig von Witzendorff (* 1777), the only child from his second marriage in 1776 to Anna Elisabeth von Dassel (1747–1777), served as an ensign from the Electorate of Hanover in the 11th Infantry Regiment. In 1797 he entered Austrian service and was believed to have died on June 14, 1800 in the battle of Marengo . It was not until 1847 that Johann Dietrich Hartwig was officially declared dead. Hartwig Lewin Friedrich Georg von Witzendorff, who was born on March 18, 1783 in Lüneburg, was able to continue the branch. He was the fourth child from Hieronymus August's third marriage to Johanna Adolfine Christiane von Tausch (1757–1833). Hartwig Lewin Friedrich Georg was Major General and Commander of Hanover in royal Hanoverian service. In 1815 he married in Mons Marie Madelaine Sophie Dufour (1799–1864) and died on January 7, 1852 in Hanover. Of his seven children, the eldest son Gustav Hermann von Witzendorff (born April 5, 1818 in Gronau ) was the only one who left offspring. He was the royal Hanoverian secret legation councilor and had been married to Dorothea von Winckler since 1855. Gustav Hermann died on May 12, 1863 in Hanover. His eldest daughter Anna Madelaine von Witzendorff (1856–1904) was initially canon in the Medingen Monastery, and in 1886 she married the grand ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin Lord Chamberlain and Lord Chamberlain Dimitri von Vietinghoff . Her younger brother Paul Julius Karl von Witzendorff, born on November 17, 1861, became a doctor of law and a Prussian government assessor . With his death on November 9, 1901, the second branch and with it the third line in the male line finally became extinct.

Possessions

The at times very extensive real estate in Mecklenburg included:

  • Badekow and Gresse from 1785 to 1792
  • Bolland, now part of Carinerland , from 1802 to 1820
  • Klein Bütz, today Brüsewitz , from 1802 to 1819
  • Goldberg, today part of Passee , from 1785 to 1792
  • Gressow, today the district of Gägelow from 1794 to 1799
  • Helmstorf, today part of Ticino (near Rostock) from 1811 to 1817
  • Kritzow, today part of Langen Brütz from 1811 to 1846
  • Lützow in pledge possession from 1753 to 1784
  • Moltenow, today part of Alt Meteln , from 1736 to 1785 and from 1819 to 1840
  • Niendorf from 1795 to 1801 and from 1809 to 1837
  • Vietlübbe, today part of Dragun , from 1760 to 1784
  • Webelsfelde, today part of Mühlen Eichsen , from 1803
  • Wessin from 1841 to 1842
  • West Bruges with Parchow from 1794 to 1820
  • Wiebendorf with Bretzin, today both districts of Bengerstorf , from 1812 to 1857
  • Wilhelmshof, today part of Warin , from 1831 to 1843
  • Woltow, today part of Selpin , from 1823 to 1841

in Lauenburg:

and in Lüneburg:

As well as Krempelsdorf from 1792 to 1796 near Lübeck and in the middle of the 19th century also Schrevenborn, today a district of Heikendorf , near Kiel.

coat of arms

Family coat of arms

The coat of arms awarded in 1639 is used as the family coat of arms . It shows two black rakes in silver on a green mountain of three . On the helmet with black and silver helmet covers, six alternating green and silver ostrich feathers .

Witzendorff-Rehdiger coat of arms

The united coat of arms, awarded in 1914, is quartered and has two helmets. 1 and 4 the coat of arms of Witzendorff, 2 and 3 in black on a green Dreiberg, an erect, crowned golden roebuck (coat of arms of the extinct von Rehiger family). On the right the Witzendorff helmet, on the left the roebuck with black and gold helmet covers growing between a closed black flight (helmet of the Rehdiger).

Coat of arms history

The coat of arms appears on imprints of seals . In Johann Siebmacher's Wappenbuch (1605) the Witzendorff coat of arms is listed for the Saxon families. The rakes are five-pronged, the helmet is covered with a black and silver bead . On the helmet five ostrich feathers with the color sequence silver, black, green, black and silver. According to the Genealogiae or family registers of the noblest Lüneburg noble patrician families (1704) by Johann Heinrich Büttner, the coat of arms is a white or silver-colored shield in which there are two inward-facing black rakes placed crosswise on top of each other. On the open, aristocratic, crowned tournament helmet with black and white blankets, six ostrich feathers, standing side by side, hung from above, the one behind the first, third and fifth green and the other, fourth and sixth silver.

Christian Friedrich August von Meding Nachrichten von aristocratic Wapen , Volume 1 (1786), follows Büttner's blazon . He adds, however, that the handles of the rakes touch the ground and that the woodcut of the coat of arms is wrong or was misunderstood by Büttner, since the first ostrich feather is hatched in green. The imperial coat of arms diploma from 1639 starts counting the feathers from the left, literally: behind the first . However, according to Meding, the number of feathers should vary in numerous illustrations. In the Mecklenburgischen Wappenbuch (1837) the rakes have five prongs and the springs start with a green one. In the gender and coat of arms book of the Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Braunschweig (1854) the rakes have ten prongs, the feathers start with a green one and the motto Errante Animo Casum Sequere is written on a ribbon below the shield .

At Ernst Heinrich Kneschke the coats of arms of the German baronial and noble families in an exact, complete and generally understandable description. Volume 1 (1855) reads the blazon: In the silver shield on a green hill, two black rakes placed in the St. Andrew's cross , the prongs of which are turned inwards. On the shield is a crowned helmet, which wears six side by side, alternating silver and green ostrich feathers, three of which turn to the right and three to the left.

Coat of arms

Elements from the coat of arms of the Witzendorff family still appear today in the local coat of arms of the Lower Saxon community of Wietzendorf. The municipality was approved to use the coat of arms in 1937.

Known family members

literature

Web links

Commons : Witzendorff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lüneburg's oldest city book and fortification register in the Lüneburg City Council archive.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Genealogical manual of the nobility . Nobility Lexicon. Volume XVI, Volume 137 of the Complete Series, pp. 298-299.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Witzendorf, Wizendorf. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 57, Leipzig 1748, column 1992 f.
  4. ^ A b Johann Christian von Hellbach : Adels-Lexicon. Volume 2, p. 765.
  5. ↑ Gothaisches Genealogical Handbook of letter noble houses. Sixth year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1912, pp. 1045–1051.
  6. ↑ www.wietzendorf.de
  7. ↑ a b c Johann Heinrich Büttner: Genealogiae or root and genealogical registers of the noblest Lüneburg noble patrician families. Pp. 297-305.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadlige houses. Sixth year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1912, pp. 1045–1051.
  9. ^ Gustav von Lehsten: The nobility of Mecklenburg since the constitutional hereditary comparisons (1775) p. 295
  10. ↑ a b c Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : The coats of arms of the German baronial and noble families. Volume 1, pages 474-475.
  11. ↑ Captain Ernst von Witzendorff gorchfock.de