Zeppelin (noble family)

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Family coat of arms of those of Zepelin (Zeppelin)

Zeppelin , also Zepelin , is the name of an old Mecklenburg - Pomeranian noble family . The family, some of whose branches still exist today, later acquired property and prestige mainly in Württemberg , but also in Bavaria , Prussia and Denmark .

history

origin

The family Zepelin (Zeppelin) with Heynricus de Cepelin is mentioned for the first time in a document dated September 17, 1286. The uninterrupted trunk line begins around 1400 with Hermann von Zepelin .

Zepelin , the family home of the same name, is today a municipality in the Rostock district in Mecklenburg. It appears in a document for the first time in 1246. After Kneschke and Zedlitz-Neukirch there was a tribal relationship with the noble family von Bützow, which died out in the 17th century.

In Western Pomerania, the Zepelin sat at the beginning of the 17th century in Zarnekow near Glewitz, not far from their Mecklenburg goods on the other side of the Trebel that forms the border there, where they according to the so-called Kahlden register, a hoof register, from 1631 24 1/2 Owned land hooves.

Spread and personalities

Mecklenburg

Hermann von Zepelin, who is mentioned in documents between 1474 and 1488 and was a grandson of the ancestral father of the same name , acquired Thürkow (until 1796) and Appelhagen near Teterow on March 17, 1481 . Appelhagen, now part of the community of Dalkendorf , became the family seat in Mecklenburg for a long time after the loss of the Zepelin headquarters. Other regular estates were, among others, Wulfshagen, Guthendorf (today both districts of Marlow ) and Mieckow (today district of Groß Roge ), the latter was already family-owned before 1418. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, Wohrensdorf, Duckwitz, Alt-Pannekow, Schlackendorf and Teutendorf were owned or partially owned by the family, as did Goritz from 1863.

In 1523 the zeppelins were among the signatories of the Union of Estates .

In Einschreibebuch the monastery Dobbertin are 17 items of daughters of the families of Zepelin / Zeppelin Appelhagen, Where (h) rensdorff and Thürkow from the years 1724-1873 for inclusion in the local nobles convent . The coat of arms of the deceased on August 14, 1833, Kloster Dobbertin Konventualin no. 379 Maria Friederica of Zepelin on Wohrensdorff depends on the nuns' gallery in the monastery church.

Denmark

In the second half of the 17th century, the family under Christian V settled in the Kingdom of Denmark. There, on October 3, 1806, Christoph Carl Friedrich von Zepelin from the Wulfshagen-Guthendorf line, royal Danish staff captain and later colonel , received the Danish nobility naturalization. Likewise, the royal Danish chamberlain and out-of-service colonel Adolph von Zepelin from the Thürkow-Appelhagen line on July 22, 1878.

Württemberg

Karl von Zeppelin (* 1766) was the founder of the imperial count line in the Duchy of Württemberg . He was the son of the Brunswick Rittmeister Melchior Johann Christoph von Zepelin († 1782) and Friederike Charlotte von Walsleben . For the first time he used the notation with two p , which his line has been carrying since then, while other lines stayed with the simple p . In 1783 he became adjutant to Prince Friedrich von Württemberg , who later became King Friedrich I. When he took office in 1797, he appointed Karl Minister of State and Conference, and in 1799 a real secret councilor . In 1792 he was raised to the rank of imperial count in Vienna. He died unexpectedly on June 14, 1801 at the age of 35. His marriage to Wilhelmine Freiin von Dalwigk († 1802) in 1787 had a son and a daughter.

His brother Ferdinand Ludwig von Zeppelin († 1829) became royal Württemberg Minister of State, Lord Chamberlain and member of the Württemberg state estates and in 1806 was raised to the rank of Count of Württemberg. He was the grandfather of the famous airship builder .

Aschhausen Castle

Johann Friedrich Karl Graf von Zeppelin (1789-1836), the son of Count Karl, was still a minor by the Elector Friedrich II. Von Württemberg, on April 28, 1803 the date of acceptance of the Electorate , which Reichserbpanneramt and related fiefdoms Aschhausen with Aschhausen Palace and Buchhof. He married Hippolythe du Plat (1793-1854), the daughter of Colonel Georg Carl August du Plat, in Göttingen on September 17, 1817 . The couple had five children, four sons and one daughter. His sister Wilhelmine Countess von Zeppelin (1791–1872) married Ludwig von Taube, State Minister of the State of Württemberg, who was King of Wurttemberg . Aschhausen Castle still belongs to the Counts of Zeppelin, the current owner is Johann Graf von Zeppelin.

Count Friedrich von Zeppelin (* 1807), the son of Ferdinand Ludwig and Pauline Freiin von Maucler (1785–1863), a sister of Eugen von Maucler , became court and government advisor to the Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen . He married the daughter of a factory Amélie Françoise Pauline Macaire d'Hogguèr (1816-1852) (Bankhaus Macaire & Co.) and moved in 1837 to Constance in the former Dominican monastery on the Dominican island where the Macaires a 1813 Indigo operated dye-works. From his father-in-law David Macaire (1775-1845) he also received the Girsberg Castle on Lake Constance in 1840 .

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
(1838–1917)

Their son Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838–1917) became the best-known representative of the family as an aviation pioneer and entrepreneur. He grew up in Konstanz and, like his mother's family, belonged to the Reformed denomination. After attending grammar school and cadet school, he became a lieutenant in the Württemberg Army in 1858 , was called up to the engineer corps in 1859 and took part in the Civil War as an observer since 1863 , as well as a general staff officer in the German War . In 1882/85 Zeppelin was the commander of the Uhlan regiment "King Karl" (1st Württembergisches) No. 19 in Ulm , and then envoy of Württemberg in Berlin . In 1899 he began building the first steerable rigid airship . In 1900 the first ascent of LZ 1 (airship Zeppelin 1) took place. In 1908 he founded Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH with donations . In 1909 he co-founded Maybach-Motorenbau , which later became MTU Friedrichshafen and in which his heirs held a stake until it was taken over by the investor EQT in 2005.

He was promoted to general of the cavalry and awarded the Order of the Black Eagle . In 1915 he founded Zahnradfabrik GmbH to manufacture gear parts for driving the airscrews of the zeppelins; In 1921 it became Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen AG , today ZF Friedrichshafen AG . He brought Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and Zahnradfabrik GmbH to the Zeppelin Foundation , founded in 1909 ; both companies are still owned by the foundation, which was transferred to the city of Friedrichshafen in 1947.

Count Ferdinand lived mostly in Stuttgart and in the summer at Girsberg Castle on Lake Constance. In 1908 acquired an estate in Pirschheide near Potsdam . His only child was his daughter Helene (Hella) von Zeppelin (1879–1967), who married Alexander von Brandenstein (1881–1949) in 1909, from his marriage to Isabella Freiin von Wolff in 1869 . In 1911 he was raised to the rank of (primogenic) Württemberg Count von Brandenstein-Zeppelin . The grandchildren include Albrecht von Brandenstein-Zeppelin (* 1950) and Constantin von Brandenstein-Zeppelin (* 1953).

Ferdinand's brother, Count Eberhard von Zeppelin (1842–1906), also married to a Wolff, was an important local researcher and entrepreneur. He was a partner in Bank Macaire & Co. and in 1875 converted the dye works in the Dominican monastery in Konstanz into a luxury hotel. After his death, the heirs sold today's Steigenberger Inselhotel in 1907. He had built Ebersberg Castle near Girsberg .

Prussia

In the Kingdom of Prussia , several members achieved the highest dignity as officers in the Prussian army . Konstantin von Zepelin (1771–1848) was Lieutenant General , Commander of Stettin , Knight of the Order of the Red Eagle First Class and of the Order Pour le Mérite with Oak Leaves. Another Konstantin von Zepelin (1841-1913) became major general .

A family association ( registered association ) was founded in June 1870 at Wilhelmshöhe near Kassel and a family foundation on June 25, 1902 in Berlin.

Status surveys

Karl von Zeppelin from the Thürkow-Appelhagen line, ducal chamberlain of Württemberg and later a real secret councilor and minister of state, was raised to the rank of imperial count in Vienna on September 18, 1792 with the salutation high and well-born . His son Johann Friedrich Karl Graf von Zeppelin received on July 23, 1803 in Stuttgart after being enfeoffed with Aschhausen, a name increase as von Zeppelin-Aschhausen . After being awarded the Reichserbpanneramt by decree of January 1, 1809, he also received an increase in the Württemberg coat of arms on January 15, 1809 .

Friedrich Hermann Graf von Zeppelin-Aschhausen auf Aschhausen and Buchhof from the line Thürkow-Appelhagen, was registered on October 26, 1915 in the count class of nobility in the Kingdom of Bavaria .

The royal Württemberg travel marshal and later Lord Chamberlain and Minister of State from the Thürkow-Appelhagen line, Ferdinand Ludwig von Zeppelin , received the Württemberg count on January 1, 1806 in Stuttgart. His grandson Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin auf Gyrsberg, royal Württemberg general of the cavalry at the disposition and builder of the rigid airship, and his brother Dr. phil. hc. Eberhard Graf von Zeppelin at Ebersberg Castle , royal chamberlain of Württemberg, liege councilor and lieutenant out of service, received an increase in the Württemberg coat of arms on February 12, 1906 in Stuttgart.

Coat of arms graphic by Otto Hupp in the Munich calendar of 1902

coat of arms

The family coat of arms shows a right-facing silver donkey head in blue. On the helmet with the blue and silver blankets the donkey's head.

Coat of arms history

The family coat of arms appears for the first time in a seal from 1308. It bears the legend S. Hinrici de Zepeline . The donkey's head comes out of the bottom of the shield on the left side with part of the neck and turns upwards at an angle to the right.

Ludolf de Sepelin sealed the seal in Ribnitz on November 14, 1313 with the donkey's head coat of arms , Bolze de Sepelin likewise in Rostock on October 11, 1331.

In Johann Siebmacher's coat of arms, the shield is tinged in red and the helmet covers are red and silver. In the lexicon of noble families in Denmark, the shield is also red and the coat of arms is turned to the left.

Karl von Zeppelin received the following coat of arms when he was raised to the rank of imperial count in 1792: In the blue shield a silver donkey's head with a red tongue and a red neck section; Above the shield is the nine-pearl, gem-studded count's crown, from which an open, blue tarnished and fully lined tournament helmet with a golden neck ornament and golden crown rises, above which the silver donkey's head appears again, looking forward. The helmet covers are silver and blue; the shield is held up on each side by a silver eagle looking forward.

When Karl's son Friedrich von Zeppelin auf Aschhausen was enfeoffed with the Königlich Württembergischen Reichserbpanneramt on January 1st, 1809, this coat of arms was modified so that the symbol of the inheritance, the golden German imperial storm flag, with the black imperial eagle “on the right side of the the length of the shield was divided in the inclination from the left to the right, floating freely in a black field “next to the family coat of arms. In addition, there was no change in the coat of arms, since "the imperial jewel should not be attached to any helmet".

Known family members

Ferdinand Ludwig von Zeppelin (1772–1829) and family
Friedrich von Zeppelin
(1807-1889)

literature

Web links

Commons : Zeppelin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City Archives Stettin and Mecklenburgisches Urkundenbuch 3, No. 1866
  2. ↑ a b New Prussian Adelslexicon Volume 4, p. 369.
  3. ↑ a b c The coats of arms of the German baronial and noble families , Volume 2, pp. 478-480.
  4. ^ Matriculations and registers of the Pomeranian knighthood from the XIV. To the XIX. Century, ed. d. Robert Klempin and Gustav Kratz, Berlin 1863, p. 315
  5. ↑ a b c d Genealogical manual of the nobility . Nobility Lexicon. Volume XVI, Volume 137 of the Complete Series, pp. 504-504.
  6. ↑ Shown in the Yearbook for History, Volume 29, 1864, in: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology, Volume 29 (1864), p. 110 or 112 ( digitized version )
  7. ↑ Royal Decree of January 15, 1809, quoted in Fromm: Geschichte (Lit.), p. 24