Wolfstein (noble family)

Coat of arms of the Wolfstein family from Scheibler's book of arms

Wolfstein Castle near Neumarkt, the family seat

Family coat of arms according to Siebmacher's coat of arms book 1605

Wolfstein is the name of an old Bavarian - Franconian noble family that ruled over parts of the region west and south of Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate from the 13th century .

history

The rule of the noble family of imperial knights , imperial barons (since 1522) and finally imperial counts (since 1673) of Wolfstein extended to the two imperial fiefs Sulzbürg and Pyrbaum ( fiefdom ) until the male line died out in 1740 . As sovereigns subordinate only to the Reich, they ruled over two enclaves, which were enclosed by the (Upper) Electoral Palatinate , most recently the Upper Bavarian Palatinate and the Franconian part of the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg , or bordered in the northwest on the area of the Imperial City of Nuremberg . Today their territory coincides essentially with the area of the communities Mühlhausen and Pyrbaum in the district of Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate . As sovereigns, they had a high degree of jurisdiction over their serfs. In addition, they still had free float in the neighboring principalities in individual villages and farms ( allodial property ); especially around Allersberg and Hilpoltstein . They only ruled over the subjects living there as landlords and therefore only had lower jurisdiction . Despite the fact that, as holders of imperial fiefs, they were only subject to the empire, the Wolfsteiners had to defend themselves against constant attempts by the aspiring and power-hungry Wittelsbachers to take their sovereignty away from them until the formal elevation to the imperial status of imperial barons by Emperor Charles V ; especially against the Count Palatine . In contrast to other aristocratic families who , like them, emerged from the rank of Reichsministeriale ( Reichsministerials ), they avoided relegating themselves to mere country residents of the Wittelsbachers. On the contrary, with the appointment of hereditary imperial counts, they even managed to rise to the high nobility .

In a document from Emperor Friedrich II. Gottfried I (also the elder) von Sulzbürg is named as a witness in 1217. 30 years later he and his wife Adelheid von Hohenfels founded a Cistercian monastery for nuns in Seligenporten , which he also designated as a burial place for himself and his family. In the second half of the 13th century, Wolfstein Castle near Neumarkt came into family ownership. As early as 1290, Gottfried's son, Gottfried II (also the younger), and his descendants called himself "von Wolfstein". In 1292 the Wolfstein coat of arms appears for the first time - two lions (leopards) lying on top of one another, the upper one striding and the lower one erect - in a seal .

In the 14th century, the Duke of Lower Bavaria , allegedly because of the extinction of the Counts of Hirschberg , raised claims to feudal sovereignty . In 1353 the imperial immediacy of the Wolfstein possessions was expressly recognized with the rule of Sulzbürg-Pyrbaum . At the beginning of the 14th century they received the Allersberg rule, around 1346 Castle and Pyrbaum rule and in 1362 the village of Mühlhausen from Emperor Charles IV as a fief. In 1350 Ober-Sulzbürg and 1403 Unter-Sulzbürg also came into family ownership.

In the 14th century the family split into two lines, which also shared the ancestral seat, Wolfstein Castle. In 1414, both lines were granted high jurisdiction through imperial privilege. In 1460, Hans von Wolfstein only knew how to defend himself against the Count Palatinate's access to the Wolfstein feudal estate by offering it to the King of Bohemia . After the death of Hans von Wolfstein, the realm of Wolfstein fell to the king, who sold it to Count Palatine Otto II in 1465 . This ended the rule of the Wolfsteiner over the territory and the castle, after which they once named themselves. In 1628, the Electorate of Bavaria finally came into its possession. But by the beginning of the 17th century, parts of Wolfstein Castle fell into disrepair.

In 1522, Emperor Karl V granted Albrecht von Wolfstein the status of imperial baron on his free rule of Ober-Sulzbürg. Since then, the Lords of Wolfstein zu Sulzbürg belonged to the imperial knighthood in the knightly canton of Altmühl of the Franconian knight circle . Now they were safe from further access by the Count Palatine to their sovereignty in the imperial fiefs that remained to them. Perhaps gratitude to the emperor was a reason, possibly the decisive one, that the Wolfsteiners remained Catholics in the first decades of the Reformation. In 1561 they introduced the Reformation in the sense of Lutheranism . Even before the Wolfsteiner became imperial counts, Emperor Leopold I granted the Duke of Kurbayern the right to this fief in the event of their extinction in the male line and the associated relapse of the imperial fief. In order to avoid this, the Wolfsteiners have long divided rulership into two lines.

In 1673 Emperor Leopold I granted baron Albrecht Friedrich the status of imperial count. The Wolfsteiner thus owned the imperial estate and were members of the Frankish imperial count college with a seat and vote on the imperial diets . The area of the Counts of Wolfstein now consisted of the dominions Sulzbürg and Pyrbaum. In addition, they had the manorial rule in many villages in the Upper Electoral Palatinate and in Hilpoltstein in the neighboring Palatinate-Neuburg. At the beginning of the 18th century, Count Philip Friedrich acquired Trautskirchen Castle through marriage .

The sex died out on April 20, 1740 with the death of the last Count Christian Albrecht in the male line . By this time the younger line of Wolfsteiners had already expired. So the imperial fiefdom fell back to the empire and because of the entitlement granted to them, the rule over the fief came to Kurbayern, which also incorporated it despite the resistance of the heirs of the allodial property. The heirs of the allodial property were as sons-in-law of the last Wolfsteiner Karl August Count of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg (1707–1767; he was married to one of Wolfstein's first marriage) and to Christian Friedrich Karl Count of Giech zu Thurnau (1729–1797, his mother was a Wolfsteiner). After a long legal battle, Bavaria was also able to acquire the family's allodial property by paying a severance payment. The first Bavarian administrator was Johann Franz Balthasar von Griesenbeck , Freiherr von Griesenbach (1698–1751); he took his office in Sulzbuerg Castle . Bavaria still invested in Wolfstein Castle on the Sulzbürg plateau, but sold it in 1804. It was gradually demolished by the new owners. You can still see the Protestant castle church with the crypt of the Counts of Wolfstein and the Catholic parish church.

The Wolfsteiners were related to the Rindsmaul family.

coat of arms

Blazon : The coat of arms shows two red leopards lying on top of each other in gold , the upper one striding and the lower one rising; on the helmet is a silver wolf's hull, carrying a black lamb in its throat; the helmet covers are red and silver.

In Siebmacher (1605) the coat of arms is listed in the chapter "Herr und Freyherrn" (plate 19). The coat of arms is extended by a second crowned helmet with a golden, crowned lion between a black, gold-dotted open flight as a helmet ornament .

The two leopards (lions) from the Wolfstein coat of arms can still be seen in some of the Upper Palatinate coats of arms.

Coat of arms of the district of Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate
Coat of arms of the Allersberg market

Name bearer

Sophie Christiane von Wolfstein (* 1667, † 1737), born Countess von Wolfstein and married Margravine of Brandenburg-Kulmbach

literature

Otto Hupp : Munich calendar 1911. Munich / Regensburg publishing house 1911.
Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German countries. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 7th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54986-1 .
Bernhard Heinloth: Historical Atlas of Bavaria . Part Old Bavaria, Series I, Issue 16: Neumarkt . Commission for Bavarian State History, Munich 1967, p. 73–110 ( digitized version [accessed January 6, 2018]).

Johann David Köhler: Historia genealogica Dominorum et Comitum de Wolffstein Lib.Baronum in Sulzburgo superiore et Pyrbaum . Riegel, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1726 ( digitized [accessed on January 6, 2018]).

Arnold Heinrich von Glandorff: Extractus Reichs-Hofraths-Protocolli. Jovis December 18, 1732. Von Wolfstein, in terms of Separationis Feudi from Allodio ... 1732 ( digitized version [accessed on January 6, 2018]).

Johann Kirchinger: Prayer and Violence in Public. Denominational perceptions of space in the conflict between Capuchins and Protestants in Sulzbürg and Pyrbaum in the second half of the 18th century. In Tobias Appl; Manfred Knedlik (Ed.), Upper Palatinate Monastery Landscape. The monasteries, monasteries and colleges of the Upper Palatinate. Pp. 291 - 323. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7917-2759-2 .