Hohenzollern

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The coat of arms of the Hohenzollern family

The House of Hohenzollern is one of the most important dynasties of the former German aristocracy . The family was first mentioned in 1061 with “ Burchardus ” and “Wezil” in the chronicle of a monk of the Reichenau monastery and currently consists of a Brandenburg-Prussian line and a Swabian line, the so-called Swabian Hohenzollern .

Hohenzollern Castle , the headquarters of the Hohenzollern family, is located in the Bisingen district of Zimmer in the Zollernalb district in Baden-Württemberg. It is the symbol of the region and one of the most famous castles in Baden-Württemberg and the Swabian Alb . The first mention of the castle building as "Castro Zolre" dates from 1267; the construction of today's castle was completed in 1867.

Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia is the current head of the Brandenburg-Prussian line, which developed over centuries from the Franconian branch of the family and formerly represented the German emperors , Prussian kings and, as the fourth and last dynasty, the margraves of Brandenburg. With the Swabian Hohenzollern, Karl Friedrich Prinz von Hohenzollern has this position within the family, which once achieved the rank of prince and hardly moved away from the Swabian area of ​​origin. The two families have a common history up to the beginning of the 13th century; at that time the newly created Franconian Hohenzollern with the burgraviate of Nuremberg parted from the older Swabian Hohenzollern, who kept the headquarters.

The Swabian Hohenzollern became counts in 1111 with possessions in the vicinity of Hechingen, among others. With the division of the estate in 1576, the branches of the Hohenzollern-Hechingen , Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Haigerloch families were formed , with the Sigmaring line still existing today. The Counts of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen were raised to the rank of imperial prince in 1623 . The principalities gave up the Hohenzollern under the pressure of a revolution in 1849 . They fell to Prussia the following year and became the Prussian government district of Sigmaringen, also known as the Hohenzollern Land . Members of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen branch were able to regain political importance as regents of Romania from 1866 to 1947 .

The Franconian Hohenzollern provided the burgraves of Nuremberg from 1192 and withdrew from the city and the castle in 1427. The margravate of Ansbach and Bayreuth had already developed in the area of ​​the burgraviate in 1398 and remained under Hohenzollern rule until the beginning of the 19th century. The Nuremberg burgrave Friedrich VI. officially received the Mark Brandenburg in 1415 , with which the actual rise of the Hohenzollern began. As electors in the empire, the Brandenburg margraves were entitled to one vote in the elections of the Roman-German kings . The Franconian Hohenzollern had split into a Brandenburg, Ansbacher and first Kulmbacher and later Bayreuth line. The Ansbach family branch ruled the area of ​​the secularized Teutonic Order state in East Prussia as the Duchy of Prussia from 1525 . In 1618 the duchy fell to the Brandenburg branch and was then ruled in personal union with the Mark Brandenburg, which historians describe as Brandenburg-Prussia and is the name of the family branch that still exists today.

With the coronation of Frederick III. the Kingdom of Prussia was formed in 1701 . Friedrich Wilhelm I ruled from 1713 and armed Prussia. Prussia achieved the rank of a major European power after the Seven Years' War led by Frederick the Great between 1756 and 1763 . The Prussian King Wilhelm I became the emperor in the newly created German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 . The rule of the Hohenzollern ended on 9 November 1918 in the November Revolution by proclamation of the Republic in Berlin and the emergence of the Weimar Republic . The last Kaiser Wilhelm II lived in exile in the Netherlands after the abolition of the monarchy .

The Lords and Counts of Zollern

Origins and family history up to around 1200

Home of the Hohenzollern family and today's Zollernalb district . Separation of the Schalksburg dominion from the core property in 1288. The Black Counts and Strasbourg lines are established in 1344.
Hohenzollern Castle near Hechingen

The common land of sex are in the northern part of present-day Zollernalb district where by far Hechingen the Hohenzollern castle in the village rooms of the community Bisingen is. The original structure may date from the 11th century, was mentioned for the first time in 1267, and in 1423 it was conquered and largely destroyed by the Federation of Swabian Imperial Cities . Today's castle was built by Friedrich Wilhelm IV between 1850 and 1867 in the neo-Gothic architectural style. It is called the third castle and still belongs to the Brandenburg-Prussian and Swabian lines.

The earliest mention of the family is with " Burchardus et Wezil de Zolorin occiduntur" in the Latin chronicle of Berthold von Reichenau , in which the two Hohenzollerns who died in 1061 are mentioned. Burchardus and Wezil (Werner) were contemporaries of the Roman-German King Henry IV of the Salian family . The monk's work is chronologically linked to Hermann von Reichenau's world chronicle . Mention in the context of the Reichenau monastery suggests that the Hohenzollern as bailiffs of the Reichenau church property came into a local position of power. It is certain that there was a close connection with the Bodensee monastery in the early days. Ulrich von Zollern died as abbot of Reichenau in 1136 and later numerous Hohenzollern came there as monks.

The surviving text passage by Berthold von Reichenau is not without problems for historians, as the exact circumstances of the incident are not set out in the source and the named are not referred to as counts. The Tübingen professor Martin Crusius remarked at the end of the 16th century: “Burckhard and Wezil von Zolorin perish. So this is added in Hermann's Contract Chronicle. There is nothing below, neither the cause nor anything else from which one could see that they were Counts von Zollern ”(translation). Since the middle of the 19th century, the two Hohenzollerns have been the first known ancestors at the beginning of the family history, as the non-existence of people who were further back has been scientifically proven.

Interior view of Alpirsbach Abbey , donated in 1095

Documents naming family members have only existed since the end of the 11th century. Adalbert von Zollern from the Haigerloch branch line , called "Adelbertus de Zolro" in the original source, owned an estate in the Black Forest with other aristocrats and founded the Alpirsbach monastery there in 1095 . Little is known about this time in connection with the Haigerloch rule .

Friedrich I von Zollern († before 1125), called "Maute", was a descendant of Burkhard I, who died in 1061, and was the first steward of the Alpirsbach monastery. Through his commitment to the Salian emperor Heinrich V , the Hohenzollerns were noticed on the imperial level. The count stayed at the ruler's court and was active in government affairs for the empire and in the investiture dispute . The Hohenzoller was in 1111 in the entourage of Henry V at the imperial coronation by Pope Paschal II. In that year Frederick I was known as Count. Friedrich also gradually became the leading name of the Hohenzollerns.

After Maute's death around 1125, his son Friedrich II received the core property. Around 1125, the Counts of Zollern ruled with ministerials . Little is known about the location of the properties. In connection with ownership in donations, the places Höfendorf near Haigerloch (1095), Beuren (1134), Stetten , Engstlatt , Hart , Streichen and Thanheim could be determined.

Burkhard, the other son of Maute and henceforth Count von Hohenberg-Zollern , founded the Hohenberg family, which went out in 1486. According to another opinion, the property was not divided up after Maute's death, but only around 1170. The Hohenbergers built Hohenberg Castle , a hilltop castle near Schörzingen , and often did not have a good relationship with the Hohenzollern people, or even argued. A well-known Hohenberger was Albrecht II of Hohenberg-Rotenburg , the minnesinger († 1298). The separation of the Hohenberger had the loss of the western area for the Hohenzollern as a consequence. The Hohenbergers ruled Haigerloch from the 12th to the 14th century . In 1497 the Counts of Zollern received Haigerloch in exchange for property in Graubünden , after the rule had been pledged to the family in 1488.

The Hohenzollern were active in the 12th century on the diets of the dukes of Swabia and also on the court days of the Staufer in connection with Swabian affairs. The family was also present at the Diets of the Zähringers and at the Diets of Henry the Lion for fiefs near Ravensburg . The Hohenzollern built up their power through the offices for the empire and the church and through the church property administered by them.

The rise of the Hohenzollerns in the late Middle Ages was not least due to their loyalty to the king, first to the Hohenstaufen and later to the Luxemburgers . Friedrich III. von Zollern († around 1200) was a loyal follower of the Hohenstaufen emperors Friedrich I and Heinrich VI. His father or grandfather Friedrich II initially distanced himself from the Staufers due to an alliance with Emperor Lothar von Süpplingenburg , but fought with them against the Guelphs after 1138. In the Tübingen feud from 1164 to 1166, the Hohenzollerns stood in their homeland on the side of the Count Palatine of Tübingen and the Staufer against the Guelphs . Friedrich III. married Sophia von Raabs , daughter of the Nuremberg burgrave Konrad II of Raabs , around 1185 . The burgraves had extensive estates in Austria, which is also where Raabs Castle is located. After the death of his father-in-law, who left no male descendants, Friedrich III. from Emperor Heinrich VI. with the Burgraviate of Nuremberg in 1192 invested and reigned as Frederick I of Nuremberg. The burgrave office was a man's fief of the empire and meant a service to the emperor.

The sons of the burgrave divided the estates among themselves after first joint management. The elder Konrad I received the burgraviate of Nuremberg around 1218. He founded the Franconian line of the Hohenzollern, from which the Brandenburg-Prussian line later emerged. The younger brother Friedrich IV (II.) Continued the Swabian line and inherited the family castle near Hechingen and the property there. He became the progenitor of today's Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family.

Names and titles of the resulting lines

The name of the headquarters near Hechingen was originally not Hohenzollern, but only Zollern. Hohenzollern is also called the 855 meter high conical mountain on which Hohenzollern Castle stands. In medieval scripts, the spellings “Zoler”, “Zolr”, “Zolrin”, “Zolre” and “Zolra” can be found for the gender name. From the middle of the 14th century, Hohenzollern gradually came into use in the Swabian line and was used consistently from the 16th century. The name Zollern could be derived from Söller , which should mean something like height and refers to the castle hill near Hechingen. In this context, older specialist books occasionally refer to an old Germanic sun cult site called "mons solarius" by the Romans.

The line that remained in the Swabian ancestral lands at the end of the 12th century bore the title Graf von Zollern and later Hohenzollern until the branches of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen were elevated to the rank of imperial prince in 1623 , while the branch of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch until it died out 1634 remained a count. The branch, enfeoffed with the burgraviate of Nuremberg in 1192, initially bore the title of burgrave of Nuremberg , whereby the family name Zollern fell out of use in the Franconian line. Since the enfeoffment of the Mark Brandenburg in 1415, all members of the Franconian line carried the title of Margrave or Margravine of Brandenburg , unofficially supplemented by the designation of origin -Kulmbach, -Ansbach or -Bayreuth, for the branches remaining in Franconia, while the margrave ruling in Brandenburg at the same time led the rank of elector . It was not until the "Great Elector" Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg took on the title of Count of Hohenzollern again in the 17th century as one of many secondary titles .

From 1525 the title Duke of Prussia was only used by the ruling dukes there, who were identical with the electors from 1618. Since the elevation of the duchy to a kingdom in 1701, the descendants of the first king Friedrich I carried the titles of Prince and Princess of Prussia (while his siblings and their descendants remained margraves). In the German Empire (1871–1918) the official title of German Emperor was limited to the respective head of state, while his family members, apart from the Crown Prince, only had Prussian titles.

In 1695, the future King Friedrich I was appointed head of the two main lines, the Franconian-Brandenburg and the Swabian lines, by a contract of inheritance. This regulation is no longer relevant today; the only two branches that still exist today, the (Protestant) former Prussian royal house and the (Catholic) formerly ruling Princely House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen consider themselves two families of a noble dynasty, each with their own head, the former being the surname Prince and Princess of Prussia and the latter being Name prince and princess of Hohenzollern leads.

Inapplicable theories of origin

There is no reliable knowledge about the origin and family relationships of the Hohenzollerns before the 11th century. A descent from the Rhaetian Burchardingers , which Ludwig Schmid tried to prove in the 19th century, cannot be proven. The Burchardinger never owned the Zollernburg and died out in the 10th century. The Hohenzollern also do not descend from the fictional Count Tassilo von Zollern , who supposedly lived around 800 . The historian Johann Basilius Herold named this origin after he had been entrusted with historical research by Charles I of Hohenzollern in 1560 . Count Tassilo should be related to the Guelphs and was at the court of Charlemagne . The fictional ancestor can also be found in the works of Frederick the Great . The opinion that the Hohenzollern descend from the Roman Colonna family is also incorrect. Pope Martin V , himself from the Colonna house, expressed this opinion in a letter in 1424. As with many ruling dynasties, a legendary ancestry was constructed during the Renaissance period, which moved the beginnings of the family not only to the Roman Empire , but back to Troy .

In the second half of the 19th century, a small minority of Franconian researchers expressed the opinion that the origin of the House of Prussia should not be with the Swabian Hohenzollern, but with the Franconian Abenbergers , who died out around 1200 . The burgraves of Nuremberg in the 13th century would therefore not be Hohenzollerns. The dispute among genealogists on this question lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. The historical ties between the Swabian, Franconian and Brandenburg Hohenzollerns can be seen, among other things, in the use of the coat of arms with the crossing in black and white (silver). The coat of arms was used by the Swabian Zollern counts in the middle of the 13th century. The burgraves of Nuremberg and the Brandenburg Hohenzollern also used the coat of arms, who used it at princely burials in the Kurmark from the 15th century . The new seal of the Elector of Brandenburg from 1415 also shows the Zollern coat of arms.

The Franconian Hohenzollern

The Burgraves of Nuremberg

Area of ​​the Burggrafenburg Nuremberg, which was largely destroyed in 1420
Cadolzburg Castle , from 1260 the seat of the burgraves of Nuremberg
The minster of Heilsbronn Monastery , the burial place of the Franconian Hohenzollern

The descendants of Conrad I of Nuremberg (* around 1186; † around 1260/1261), called "the Pious" and son of Friedrich III. von Zollern, were burgraves of Nuremberg until 1427 with their seat on the Burggrafenburg , an annex to the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg . Initially, only a few possessions belonged to the burgraviate of Nuremberg. Rather, the family had usable rights through the Reich Office . The brotherhood with the Abenbergers brought Abenberg Castle (sold in 1296) and Cadolzburg in 1236 , which became the headquarters from 1260. Furthermore, the Hohenzollern took over the patronage of the Abenbergers donated monastery Heilsbronn , which was the family burial place between 1297 and 1625.

The territory could be expanded through acquisitions from the 13th century and was the largest territorial rule in Franconia at the end of the 14th century . After the Hohenstaufen had lost their power, the Habsburgs were approached. Friedrich III. , called "the heir", fought with Rudolf von Habsburg in Italy in 1242 and stood up for him in his election as king in 1273. By marrying Elisabeth von Andechs - Meranien in 1260 he came into possession of Bayreuth , which came from the inheritance of Duke Otto II of Andechs-Meranien.

Afterwards his eldest son Johann I became regent for a short time, then his younger son Friedrich IV. Friedrich IV held the influential position of a secret council with King Ludwig the Bavarian . In the battle of Mühldorf in 1322, the burgrave stood up for the king, was called the “savior of the empire” and in 1324 received economically important mining and ore rights from him. Frederick IV was named Vicar General of Tuscia in 1328 . In 1331 the Hohenzollern Ansbach was bought from the Counts of Oettingen . Johann II , called "the acquirer", took over the burgraviate first with his brother Albrecht and later alone; the brother Konrad had died early. Johann II was entitled to the inheritance of the Counts of Orlamünde and in 1340 received the rule of Plassenburg with Kulmbach. The Plassenburg was built by the Andechs around 1135. During the reign of Johann II. The Hohenzollern came into contact with the Margraviate of Brandenburg for the first time. In 1345 he defended the mark for Ludwig the Bavarian and administered it for a short time as governor for his son Ludwig the Brandenburger .

Burgrave Friedrich V was elevated to the rank of imperial prince by Emperor Charles IV of the Luxembourg family in 1363, along with his house , and was the holder of a flag loan . In the imperial service he took over the office of Reichshauptmann at the head of a Landfriedenbund in Franconia; after 1363 he worked as bailiff in Alsace and 1371 in Upper Swabia . The burgraviate expanded in 1373 to include Hof , which until then belonged to the governors of Weida . Friedrich V first regulated the future inheritance for his two sons Johann III in 1372 . and Friedrich VI. and laid down the provisions again in more detail in the Dispositio Fridericiana of 1385. He recommended a joint government for ten years, but also gave instructions in the event of a separation of property; certain locks and regalia should remain in community ownership. The sons first followed the father's request, but in 1403 they divided up the property.

The Plassenburg near Kulmbach

Johann III. was previously the first regent of the Principality of Kulmbach ("above the mountains") in 1398. In 1542, Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades moved the seat of government from the Kulmbacher Plassenburg, which was expanded into a fortress from 1530, to Bayreuth. From 1604 the country was called the Principality of Bayreuth . John's brother Friedrich VI. was also from 1398 the first regent of the Principality of Ansbach ("below the mountains"). The margraves and members of the Brandenburg-Kulmbach and Brandenburg-Ansbach family branches had “Brandenburg” in their name, as it was not until the Dispositio Achillea of 1473 that a separation between the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Franconian possessions was determined. The two principalities were on the territory of the previous burgraviate and remained with the family. The Burggrafenburg was largely destroyed by Ludwig VII of Bavaria in the Bavarian War in 1420 ; a reconstruction by the Hohenzollern did not take place. In 1427 the Burggrafenburg was sold to the imperial city of Nuremberg .

The childless margrave Karl Alexander signed a secret treaty with Prussia (under King Friedrich Wilhelm II. ) In 1791 to hand over the two Frankish principalities to Prussia and was guaranteed an annual payment. This ended the era of the Franconian Hohenzollern; even the Brandenburg-Prussian line could only maintain its power in Ansbach-Bayreuth until 1805 . The Principality of Ansbach became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806 , the Principality of Bayreuth in 1810.

When the burgraves of the Franconian line ruled:

  • 1218–1260 / 61 Konrad I (* around 1186; † around 1260/1261), called "the Pious", son of Friedrich III. from Zollern
  • 1260 / 61–1297 Friedrich III. (* around 1220; † 1297), called "the heir"
  • 1297–1300 Johann I (* around 1279; † 1300)
  • 1300–1332 Friedrich IV. (* Around 1287; † 1332), brother of Johann I.
  • 1332–1357 Johann II (* before 1320 (1309?); † 1357), called "the acquirer"
  • 1357–1397 Friedrich V (around 1333; † 1398), prince count 1363, Dispositio Fridericiana 1385
  • 1397-1420 Johann III. (* around 1369; † 1420)
  • 1397–1427 Frederick VI. , also Friedrich I of Brandenburg (* 1371; † 1440), brother of Johann III.

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach

The Ansbach residence

The Principality of Ansbach was the lower mountainous part of the former burgraviate Nuremberg, which existed until 1427. Strictly speaking, the term marrow graft should be used. Until 1486 the principality was led in personal union with the Mark Brandenburg, then with Johann Cicero von Brandenburg and Friedrich II. Von Brandenburg-Ansbach a separation of the property took place. Between 1398 and 1400, Friedrich I of Brandenburg had a monastery courtyard converted into a moated castle , the remains of which can still be seen in the current building of the Ansbach residence .

Like the Principality of Bayreuth, the Principality of Ansbach came to the Prussian state in 1791/1792 and was administered together with it as Ansbach-Bayreuth by Karl August von Hardenberg . Napoleon Bonaparte fundamentally reorganized the areas he occupied. Even before the defeat of Prussia in the Fourth Coalition War , the territory fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806 through a forced exchange of territory .

The rulers of the Principality of Ansbach were:

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (Bayreuth)

New Bayreuth Palace , built from 1753
Hermitage (Bayreuth)
Margravial Castle Erlangen , built from 1700

The Principality of Bayreuth developed from the Upper Mountain region of the Burgraviate of Nuremberg. Although the Principality of Bayreuth was ruled several times in personal union with the Principality of Ansbach, the principalities remained independent.

After the transfer to the Prussian state in 1791/1792 and the administration by Karl August von Hardenberg , the Principality of Bayreuth was occupied by French troops in the autumn of 1806 and had to be ceded to the French Empire in the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 . While maintaining the Prussian administrative organization, it was subordinated to a military administration. In 1810 the Kingdom of Bavaria bought the principality; on June 30th of the same year the property was taken.

The Principality of Kulmbach and Bayreuth was ruled by:

The dukes of Brandenburg-Jägerndorf

Georg the Pious , Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach , acquired the Silesian Duchy of Jägerndorf in 1523 , whose residence was in Jägerndorf (today: Krnov in the Czech Republic). The Hohenzollern were replaced as regents in the Silesian duchy in 1623 .

The following Hohenzollern ruled the duchy:

The Brandenburg Hohenzollern

The Electors and Margraves of Brandenburg

Friedrich VI. of Nuremberg receives the Mark Brandenburg as a fief

Friedrich VI. von Nürnberg (* 1371; † 1440), who later became Margrave Friedrich I of Brandenburg , received the Mark Brandenburg from King Sigismund of the House of Luxembourg, as he provided, among other things, significant financial help in his election as Roman-German King . The count worked from 1411 as a captain and administrator in the Mark Brandenburg; However, the king initially claimed the dignity of elector and arch chamberlain for himself. The Mark Brandenburg was at the takeover of Frederick VI. extremely difficult to rule. A multitude of nobles sought power and the number of feuds was great. The Nuremberg burgrave was disparagingly referred to by leading families as "Nuremberg trinkets ". Above all at the estates of the Altmark and Prignitz under the leadership of Caspar Gans von Putlitz , the Hohenzoller met with fierce resistance, but he was able to establish the central power and therefore became margrave at the Council of Constance in 1415 and received the dignity of elector. The Mark Brandenburg became inheritable property of the family. The Brandenburg estates paid homage to the burgrave in October 1415 at a state parliament in Berlin. Furthermore, the electoral college gave its approval for the increase in rank.

According to the testamentary provisions, Friedrich II then took over the leadership of the country with his brother Friedrich , known as “the fat one”. Friedrich II acted consistently against the robber nobility. His determination in government actions towards the estates and other opponents earned him the nickname "the Iron". He also did not tolerate the cities' striving for autonomy and created the Berlin City Palace as a residence, which was done against the strong indignation of the population . The recovery of the Neumark and the recovery of parts of the Uckermark was particularly important during his reign . In 1470 the margrave left the government to his brother Albrecht Achilles . Albrecht Achilles had previously taken over the reign in the Principality of Ansbach in 1440 and also in the Principality of Bayreuth in 1464 . From 1438 he was on the side of King Albrecht II of the House of Habsburg and in 1473, with the Dispositio Achillea, regulated the succession for the entire and indivisible march.

The son of Albrecht Achilles, Johann Cicero , took over government responsibility in Brandenburg in 1486. As stipulated in the Dispositio Achillea , the mark was separated from the Frankish countries. The provisions were written to clarify the immediate inheritance regulation. The three sons should use the same title and coat of arms. Later generations took the record more broadly as an order to divide property into three parts. The Brandenburg Hohenzollerns also turned away from imperial politics and concentrated their efforts on the market. The Franconian Hohenzollern became the spokesman for the Brandenburgers at the Reichstag. Johann Cicero was the first elector to find his resting place in the march.

Joachim I. Nestor (by Lucas Cranach the Elder ) stayed with Catholicism

His son Joachim I Nestor and his brother Albrecht IV of Brandenburg succeeded him in 1499. First of all, the Franconian uncle Friedrich got involved as a guardian, which would de facto lead to a reunification of the Mark with the Franconian territories. However, Emperor Maximilian I stipulated that Joachim I Nestor should become elector when he was a minor. His brother Albrecht renounced his co-reign, became Catholic Archbishop of Magdeburg in 1513, Archbishop Elector of Mainz in 1514 and Cardinal in 1518. In order to finance the acquisition of his spiritual benefice, he sent the indulgence preacher Tetzel , who gave Martin Luther the occasion to post the 95 theses that triggered the Reformation on October 31, 1517. Joachim I. Nestor stayed with Catholicism and expressed his rejection of Luther in 1521 at the Diet in Worms and even more committed in 1529 at the Diet in Speyer . He founded the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt / Oder, which represented the Catholic position in teaching. It became problematic that Joachim Nestor's wife Elisabeth of Denmark accepted the new confession, left her husband and went to Saxony in 1528, where she even lived with Luther.

Joachim II. Hector (by Lucas Cranach the Younger ) introduced the Reformation in Brandenburg

Joachim II. Hector succeeded his father Joachim I Nestor as elector in 1535. His younger brother Johann received the newly created Margraviate Brandenburg-Küstrin (1535 to 1571) according to his father's will . The father had also expressly ordered that the sons should maintain Catholicism. With his conversion to the Protestant faith on November 1, 1539, Joachim II. Hector introduced the Reformation in the Mark Brandenburg; his brother had already changed denomination the previous year. Joachim II had already met Hector in his youth through his mother Luther. However, it was problematic that later his Polish wife Hedwig stayed with Catholicism. The division of the estate with his brother with the associated reduction in income and the high private expenses made it difficult to find a financial equilibrium.

His son Johann Georg received the Mark in 1571 and, after the death of Johann von Brandenburg-Küstrin, also Brandenburg-Küstrin. The academically trained elector consolidated the state finances. The state parliament carried part of the liabilities totaling two million talers, with domain offices being pledged. Johann Georg also took action against the Jew Lippold, who once worked in the coin business; large numbers of Jews were ill-treated and pillaged.

Johann Georg's son and successor Joachim Friedrich became administrator of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg in 1567 and ruled Brandenburg from 1598. By creating a Secret Council in 1604, he provided an effective counterbalance to the estates. The exploitation of metal deposits and the construction of an iron hammer mill and a glassworks marked his economic policy. With the Gera house contract of 1599, the margrave finally established the primacy and indivisibility of the march. He was the guardian of Albrecht Friedrich von Prussia , who was incapable of government in the Duchy of Prussia, and married his eldest son to his daughter Anna in 1594 , and in 1603 he himself married Anna's younger sister Eleanor . Albrecht Friedrich's father came from the Ansbach line and in 1525 had received the secularized order of East Prussia as a hereditary duchy from the Polish king (see below) .

Johann Sigismund , Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, converted to Calvinism

Joachim Friedrich's son Johann Sigismund succeeded his father as Elector of Brandenburg in 1608 and in 1618 also succeeded his father-in-law as Duke of Prussia. In 1613 Johann Sigismund switched to Calvinism for political reasons ; the marriage also meant that the Hohenzollern family had the prospect of a Rhenish inheritance. In Brandenburg they stayed with the Lutheran denomination. The entire rulership from 1618 on is called Brandenburg-Prussia by historians .

The margraviate was ruled by the following Hohenzollerns:

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Küstrin

The margraviate of Brandenburg-Küstrin existed between 1535 and 1571 and included parts of the Neumark . It was the result of a secondary education in the sense of Joachim I. Nestor . Since the only regent Johann left no heirs entitled to inherit, Brandenburg-Küstrin was reunited with Brandenburg.

The Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern

Dukes in Prussia

The Duchy of Prussia was created in 1525 by converting the Teutonic Order State into a secular principality, which was a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland . The feudal relationship ended in 1667 with the Treaty of Wehlau . Albrecht von Prussia was the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order . The son of Frederick V of Brandenburg-Ansbach decided in November 1523, on Luther's advice, to resign from the office of Grand Master, to convert the Teutonic Order into a secular duchy and to introduce the Reformation there. Before King Sigismund I of Poland, Albrecht paid homage to Prussia in 1525 , thereby taking the monastic land as a fiefdom that inherited in a straight male line. However, his son and successor Albrecht Friedrich died in 1618 without a male heir and the Polish king enfeoffed his son-in-law, Elector Johann Sigismund von Brandenburg, with the Duchy of Prussia. The Mark Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia ( East Prussia ) were in possession of a single Hohenzollern and were run in personal union.

Brandenburg-Prussia under the Great Elector 1688

As early as 1614, the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute was ended and the Xanten Treaty stipulated that the Elector of Brandenburg, Johann Sigismund, should receive the Duchy of Kleve , the County of Mark and the County of Ravensberg , for which he had already converted to Calvinism the year before was converted. Brandenburg-Prussia refers to the entire rulership between 1618 and 1701. The territories were partly within and partly outside the Holy Roman Empire .

The "Great Elector" Friedrich Wilhelm and Luise Henriette of Orange (1647)

After the devastation of the Thirty Years' War , the country flourished under the “Great Elector” Friedrich Wilhelm . He initiated reforms, supported agriculture and immigration by bringing artists, craftsmen, builders, farmers and merchants into the country, especially from the home of his first Dutch wife Luise Henriette of Orange , and later also Jews and Protestants from Austria and Huguenots from France and the Netherlands. He managed to keep his scattered territories largely intact during the Second Northern War through a clever alliance policy and he acquired Western Pomerania . In 1664 he issued an edict of tolerance to end the rivalries between Lutherans and Calvinists, thereby establishing the tradition of Prussian tolerance. He left the palace of Potsdam , the Oranienburg Castle and a few smaller estates built.

Kings in and from Prussia

1701: Frederick I's coronation in Königsberg

His successor son in 1688, Elector Friedrich III. , Left off in 1699, the Berliner Schloss from Renaissance expand to a large Baroque palace and for his wife Charlottenburg Palace building, also began with a reconstruction of the Königsberg Castle and built in Berlin armory . The expensive buildings prepared for an increase in rank: After diplomatic negotiations with the emperor (and corresponding payments), the Brandenburg elector and Prussian duke declared his East Prussian duchy to be the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and put the crown on his own head. However, he continued to rule the small, remote kingdom on the Baltic Sea in personal union with the much larger and more important Electorate of Brandenburg. He was now elector of Brandenburg (as Friedrich III.) And King in Prussia (as Friedrich I.) The two territories were initially only connected by the person of the ruler. The royal title was limited to the previous Duchy of Prussia and this was - unlike the Mark Brandenburg - not part of the Holy Roman Empire. Other German electors also acquired foreign royal crowns during this period, August the Strong of Saxony the Polish-Lithuanian in 1697 and Georg von Hannover in 1714 the British-Irish.

In the 18th century, the numerous parts of the country were still unconnected or not very connected, so that a unified state could only slowly emerge, for which the name Prussia became naturalized. The electoral Brandenburg institutions became royal Prussian. Poland still had sovereignty over what would later become West Prussia , which made it impossible for the regent to be named King of Prussia . Friedrich Wilhelm I , known as “the soldier king”, took over the government in 1713 and turned the Prussian state into a military power by arming it without, however, making any significant use of the strong army. Rather, he promoted economic development and rehabilitated the state finances, which had been ruined under his prodigal father and his cabinet of three counts . In 1702 the Hohenzollern claimed the private property of the extinct House of Orange and received it in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, although Friedrich Wilhelm I ceded most of it to the House of Nassau-Diez in 1732 .

Frederick the Great (von Ziesenis, 1763)

His son Frederick the Great then used the new military potential after taking office in 1740 and came to Silesia and the County of Glatz through the Silesian Wars between 1740 and 1763 . This began a direct competition between the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs for supremacy. The conquests in the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 could only be held with luck, skill and effort, with great losses of human life, tax payments and devastation, especially in the neighboring countries. When Poland was first partitioned in 1772, Frederick the Great received parts of West Prussia and was thus able to call himself King of Prussia. With the land bridge between Pomerania and East Prussia, the latter was also connected for the first time directly to the ancestral lands in the empire. Frederick II pursued the economic development of the country's many provinces with determination. With the palace buildings and the park of Sanssouci he left a world cultural heritage. His nephew and successor Friedrich Wilhelm II acquired considerable territories through the second and third partition of Poland with South and New East Prussia.

Prussia in the German Confederation after the Napoleonic Wars in dark blue color (1815)
Prussia in the German Empire after the First World War in dark blue color (1920)

The Congress of Vienna in 1815 brought during the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm III. after the Napoleonic Wars with the Rhineland , Westphalia and Saxony further important areas to Prussia. The Rhine Province was formed in 1822 from the Province of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine and the Province of Jülich-Kleve-Berg . At that time there were also huge economic changes. In the course of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms , freedom of trade was introduced in 1810 , and the October edict abolished inheritance . The Industrial Revolution later took place in Prussia , with certain regions of the country becoming economically dominant.

Friedrich Wilhelm IV. , The "romantic on the throne", enriched the park of Sanssouci, Berlin and other places with important buildings. He was forced to accept the conversion of the country into a constitutional monarchy , but refused to accept the German imperial crown from the hands of the Frankfurt National Assembly .

German emperors

The brother and successor of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, Wilhelm I , put down the revolution of 1848/49 and pursued a policy that was as conservative as it was expansionist, directed by his Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck . After the German War of 1866 , Prussia received Hanover , Schleswig , Holstein , Nassau and Kurhessen as provinces . Prussia had the supremacy and so in 1871 Wilhelm I became the first emperor in the newly created German Empire, of which by far the largest part was Prussia from then on. On Bismarck's advice, the designation German Kaiser was chosen instead of Kaiser von Deutschland "". The emperor should be seen as primus inter pares among the German federal princes , in addition, the small German solution excluded the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Bohemia , which had also belonged to the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (Bohemia had been one of the electoral principalities from the beginning) and who, with their Habsburg rulers, had placed its emperor for many centuries. Out of consideration for Wilhelm, Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden avoided the delicate issue during the imperial proclamation in Versailles . At the ceremony on January 18, 1871, he shouted "His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Kaiser Wilhelm, live high".

Wilhelm II. With Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff (1917)

After the brief reign of Frederick III. followed on June 15, 1888 Wilhelm II as German Emperor. He was not unpopular in his time, but he strove for a great power position and pushed the colonial expansion, sometimes with little diplomatic feeling. The desire for expansion of various great powers, their lurking distrust of one another and a series of events aggravated the situation increasingly after 1906. The assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, on June 28, 1914 set events in motion that immediately triggered the First World War . The monarchy ended in the German Reich on November 9, 1918 with the proclamation of the republic in Berlin and the later abdication of Wilhelm II. The emperor went to the Netherlands, opted for exile and later lived in Haus Doorn until his death .

gallery

The kings in and of Prussia in chronological order:

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Schwedt

The rule of Schwedt was given in 1688 to a son of the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm , who called himself Philipp Wilhelm , Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. The manors were in the Uckermark , Neumark and in Hinterpommern . After the line had expired in 1788, Schwedt fell to Prussia.

Prince of Neuchâtel

In 1707 the selected estates of Neuchâtel after the extinction of its ruling house Orléans-Longueville which also reformed heir Frederick I to the sovereign prince of Neuchâtel and Valangin . Friedrich and his successors ruled the remote, French-speaking territory that was not integrated into the Prussian state through governors in personal union until 1806. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna renewed the ties that had been interrupted by the Napoleonic Wars and recognized Neuchâtel as a member of the Swiss Confederation . The fact that the canton of Neuchâtel had declared itself a republic in 1848 and deposed the king was accepted by Prussia after lengthy disputes in the Treaty of Paris in 1857 . After that, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV was able to continue the title for life.

The Hohenzollern since the end of the Empire

Wilhelm II.

Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II (center) with the former Crown Prince Wilhelm and his son Wilhelm in 1927

Wilhelm II signed a deed of abdication on November 28, 1918 while in exile in the Netherlands , officially renouncing the rights to the Prussian crown and the associated rights to the German imperial crown. For the first year and a half he lived in exile at Amerongen Castle near Utrecht . The former opponents of the war unsuccessfully demanded his extradition.

He bought the Doorn house in 1919 as a residence. Wilhelm II did not return to Germany. He regularly received visitors from home, wrote numerous books and believed a renewed German monarchy was possible at the time. In 1921 his wife Auguste Viktoria died ; In 1922 he married Hermine von Schoenaich-Carolath . Wilhelm II died in the Netherlands in 1941 and was buried in the park of the Doorn house.

A few days after the November Revolution in 1918, the Hohenzollern's assets were confiscated and administered by the Prussian Ministry of Finance. In the dispute over the so-called expropriation of the princes , the family negotiated with the Prussian state until 1926. On October 26, 1926, the "Law on the dispute between the Prussian state and the members of the formerly ruling Prussian royal house" was passed. Furthermore, in 1927 the " Administration of State Palaces and Gardens " was founded. The state of Prussia kept 75 castles, the Hohenzollern got 39 buildings and a number of agricultural goods back, including the Cecilienhof in Potsdam, where its builder, the former Crown Prince Wilhelm , took up residence, and Oels Castle in Lower Silesia, which his family used as a country estate. also Monbijou Palace in Berlin, the Marble Palace in Potsdam and Rheinsberg Palace , which were opened to the public as museums. The " General Administration of the formerly ruling Prussian royal family " took their seat in the Dutch Palace on Unter den Linden in Berlin. Other branches of the former Prussian royal family lived on at Glienicke and Schwedt Castle in Brandenburg, Kamenz Castle and Seitenberg Castle in Silesia, Krojanke Estate in West Prussia, Reinhartshausen Castle on the Rhine and Hemmelmark Estate in Schleswig.

Wilhelm

The former Crown Prince Wilhelm followed as head of the family in 1941. After the fall of the monarchy, he was housed by the Dutch government on the island of Wieringen , signed a declaration of abdication on December 1, 1918 and was able to return to Germany in 1923 at Gustav Stresemann's instigation .

Wilhelm had connections to the resistance during the Nazi era . In the picture with Adolf Hitler on the " Day of Potsdam ".

Wilhelm had connections to the resistance during the time of National Socialism , but before the war he also supported the rise of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists and forbade his son to participate in the resistance. After the end of World War II in 1945, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny gave the French occupation forces the order to take Wilhelm prisoner for three weeks. He was then placed under arrest in Hechingen for several years with the possibility of moving within a radius of 25 kilometers from his place of residence. Almost all of the buildings restored in 1927 were either destroyed in the Second World War or the properties were expropriated by the Soviet occupying forces in 1945.

Louis Ferdinand

Louis Ferdinand of Prussia , the son of Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Cecilie , was head of the house from 1951 . In the case of the Hohenzoller, the family preferred the traditional nobility predicate "Imperial and Royal Highness " of the Crown Prince and not only as usual today "Royal Highness" (other family members then and now "Royal Highness"), which is also a commitment to Monarchy was. With the Weimar Constitution in 1919, the privileges of birth and status were abolished throughout Germany. Since the abolition of the special rights and titles of the German nobility , the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern with their civil-legal surname have been called Prinz or Princess of Prussia.

In 1952, he arranged for the ancestral castle to be furnished with historically significant objects relating to the history of Prussia. Today, the Brandenburg-Prussian line only has a two-thirds share in Hohenzollern Castle and the Prinzeninsel in Plöner See and some smaller properties. The Princess Kira von Preussen Foundation was also founded in 1952 , with which the family is still involved in society and enables children to stay at Hohenzollern Castle. An important event for the Hohenzollern family was the transfer of Frederick the Great's coffin in August 1991 from Hohenzollern Castle to Sanssouci Palace.

Georg Friedrich

Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia , the boss of the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern, and his wife Sophie (2011)

There are currently around 50 family members of the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern family (as of 2016). The head of the family branch has been Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia since 1994 . He was born as the son of Louis Ferdinand von Preußen junior, who died in 1977, and his wife Donata. Georg Friedrich of Prussia succeeded his grandfather Louis Ferdinand of Prussia and his great-grandfather Wilhelm of Prussia as head of the family. Friedrich Wilhelm Prince of Prussia , the first-born son of the previous boss Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, was excluded from succession in 1967 under the Prussian house law because - like the second-born Michael of Prussia a year earlier - he had entered into an unequal marriage.

Georg Friedrich von Prussia married Princess Sophie von Isenburg in August 2011 , whom he has known since early childhood. The sons Carl Friedrich and Louis Ferdinand emerged from the connection in 2013, the daughter Emma Marie in 2015 and the son Heinrich in 2016.

As part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great in 2012 Georg Friedrich of Prussia was by Federal President Christian Wulff to Schloss Bellevue invited.

In 2016, Georg Friedrich von Prussia opened an exhibition on the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace at Hohenzollern Castle. The Berlin Palace was once a royal Prussian and later an imperial residence. The new building of the castle will be used by the Humboldt Forum from 2020 .

The family founded the Kgl in 2017. Prussian beer manufacturer, whose managing director is Georg Friedrich von Prussia. The seat of the company is Berlin; the production of the beer takes place in Braunschweig .

Claims for compensation and behavior during the Nazi era

In 1945, the Soviet military administration in Germany expropriated real estate belonging to the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern family. Louis Ferdinand of Prussia sought compensation for the expropriations since 1991. In 1994, the Compensation and Compensation Act (EALG) came into force, which enables financial compensation if the expropriated person did not give the National Socialist system any significant boost. Georg Friedrich von Prussia continued the negotiations from 1994 and has also been in negotiations with the state about expropriated art objects since 2014. The negotiations became known to the public in 2019, and the Hohenzollerns received extremely harsh criticism from academics and other people in the media. The demands of Georg Friedrich von Prussia regarding several thousand art objects were considered brazen. The family referred to the legal situation and relativized the demands. In November 2019, Jan Böhmermann ensured that four confidential reports by Christopher Clark , Wolfram Pyta , Peter Brandt and Stephan Malinowski were published. In the reports, the role of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia in the Nazi era was highlighted. One expert disagrees with the strengthening of the Nazi regime by Crown Prince Wilhelm, another gives him an unconscious, two a very conscious responsibility. Furthermore, in December 2019, the Hohenzollern's legal action against critical scientists became known to the public, which in turn led to controversy. The Hohenzollern lawyer rejected the allegations against the Hohenzollern family.

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The heads of the former royal house after Wilhelm II:

The Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern
The dukes in Prussia
regent Domination Remarks
Albrecht I (* 1490; † 1568) 1525-1568 1st Duke in Prussia , son of Friedrich II. , The Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Kulmbach
Albrecht Friedrich (* 1553; † 1618) 1568-1618 2. Duke in Prussia, last ruler from the Prussian line in the narrower sense
Georg Friedrich I the Elder (* 1539; † 1603) 1578-1603 Guardian of Albrecht Friedrich, also Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
Joachim Friedrich (* 1546; † 1608) 1603-1608 from 1603 guardian of Albrecht Friedrich, branch of the family of the margraves and electors of Brandenburg , son of Johann Georg von Brandenburg
Johann Sigismund (* 1572; † 1619/20) 1608–1618, thereafter sole duke until 1619 Personal union between the Mark Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia (enfeoffment 1611, Duke 1618)
Georg Wilhelm (* 1595; † 1640) 1619-1640 1618 to 1701 Brandenburg-Prussia
Friedrich Wilhelm (* 1620; † 1688) 1640-1688 Nickname: the Great Elector
Friedrich III. (* 1657- † 1713) 1688-1701 from 1701 as Frederick I King in Prussia
The kings in and of Prussia
regent Domination Remarks
Friedrich I (* 1657; † 1713) 1701-1713 first king in Prussia
Friedrich Wilhelm I (* 1688; † 1740) 1713-1740 Nickname: the soldier king
Friedrich II. (* 1712; † 1786) 1740-1786 Nickname: the great , popularly also the old Fritz ; from 1740 king in and from 1772 king of Prussia
Friedrich Wilhelm II. (* 1744; † 1797) 1786-1797 Son of August Wilhelm
Friedrich Wilhelm III. (* 1770- † 1840) 1797-1840
Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (* 1795; † 1861) 1840-1861
Wilhelm I. (* 1797; † 1888) 1861-1871 from 1861 King of Prussia, from 1867 owner of the Federal Presidium of the North German Confederation , son of Friedrich Wilhelm III.
German emperors and kings of Prussia
regent Domination Remarks
Wilhelm I. (* 1797; † 1888) 1871-1888 from 1871 German Emperor
Friedrich III. (* 1831; † 1888) 1888
Wilhelm II (* 1859; † 1941) 1888-1918
Head of the House of Hohenzollern
boss Period Remarks
Wilhelm II (* 1859; † 1941) 1918-1941 German emperor until the November Revolution and abdication in 1918
Wilhelm (* 1882; † 1951) 1941-1951 formerly German Crown Prince
Louis Ferdinand (* 1907; † 1994) 1951-1994
Georg Friedrich (* 1976) since 1994 Son of Louis Ferdinand junior

The Swabian Hohenzollern

The Hohenzollern until the division of the estate in 1576

Counties and dominions of the Hohenzollern 1370

The family branch founded by Friedrich IV von Zollern (* around 1188; † around 1255) emerged at the same time as the Franconian line. The Franconian Hohenzollern and later the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern now developed independently of the Swabian Hohenzollern, with which the common history of the two current lines "von Prussia" and "von Hohenzollern" came to an end.

In the late 12th century, the Hohenzollern family expanded their property to the Rhine and the Lower Danube , with foothills in Alsace and the Neckar . The family belonged to the most powerful families in southern Germany in the 13th century, the county comprised a not insignificant allodial possession . There is evidence of a town court in Hechingen in 1285 and a regional court in 1542.

Stetten Abbey near Hechingen, once the hereditary burial place of the Swabian Hohenzollern

Hechingen was named in a document from Friedrich V with the nickname "the illustrious" dated December 31, 1255, which is considered evidence of city law; in addition, Balingen received city ​​rights in the same year. The Stetten Monastery in Hechingen became a house monastery in 1267 through a donation from Friedrich V and his wife Uodelhilt and for two centuries the burial place of the Swabian Hohenzollerns. The already existing Alpirsbach monastery was geographically unfavorable.

With the sons of Friedrich V, a separation into the Zollern-Zollern and Schalksburg lines was made in 1288 while the father was still alive. Friedrich VI. , called "the knight", inherited the county of Zollern with the family castle. Friedrich I von Zollern-Schalksburg founded a branch of the family that became the owner of the Schalksburg lordship with Balingen . In historical sources Friedrich I is also referred to as Friedrich I von Merkenberg because of his wife, Udilhild von Merkenberg. As a result of the division of the estate, the rule Schalksburg and also Mühlheim were separated from the core property. Mühlheim was sold to Conrad von Weitingen in 1391 by Count Friedrich V. (Fritz), known as "Mülli", the last count of the Schalksburg line, and Schalksburg in 1403 to Count Eberhard von Württemberg . The Schalksburg line was extinguished again in 1408.

In the 14th century , the Strasbourg line with Frederick the Strasbourg and the Black Counts line with Frederick IX were formed with the sons of Frederick VIII , called "Ostertag" . which, however, went out in 1412. The possession of the Strasbourg line was 1402 between Frederick XII. , called "der Öttinger", and his brother Eitel Friedrich I. split up. After the extinction of the Schwarzgräfliche line, there were inheritance disputes between the brothers, which led to a feud. The Öttinger had financial problems and therefore lost almost all of his property; the Count of Württemberg was able to take over the property. Friedrich XII. caused with his military actions in Swabia, among other things against the imperial city of Rottweil , a determined action of his opponents. The Rottweiler Hofgericht spoke 1418 against Count the imperial ban from with the consequence that the Hohenzollern castle was destroyed by the 1423 Swabian imperial cities. His brother Eitel Friedrich I also pledged possessions in Württemberg, but was able to regain most of them later. An unfavorable inheritance contract with Württemberg from 1429 did not have a negative effect. In the absence of a male heir, the entire property would have fallen to the rival. The ancestral castle was restored from 1454 by his son Jobst Nikolaus I with Brandenburg and Habsburg support.

As was lost in the 15th century property in the Black Forest and Alsace, the possessions of the Zollern presented now only small areas around Hechingen. The son of Jobst Nicholas I, Eitel Frederick II. , Was militarily for Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg in active in the Netherlands; he also took part in the Battle of Guinegate in 1497 . Due to the friendship with the emperor, great influence could be exerted on imperial politics. Eitel Friedrich II was the first president of the Reich Chamber Court, newly created in 1495 ; Maximilian I personally opened the court and took the oath of office from the count.

In the middle of the 16th century the Hohenzollern family again had larger possessions. The County of Zollern was supplemented by Charles I in 1535 with the newly added Counties of Sigmaringen and Veringen . Charles V from the House of Habsburg gave the imperial fiefdom to the Hohenzollern, which previously belonged to the Werdenbergers . The future emperor was already the godfather of Charles I in 1516; the Hohenzoller was named after Charles V and grew up in his immediate vicinity, which explains the good relationship with the ruler. After the death of Karl I's cousin Jobst Nikolaus II in 1558, the property was undivided in one hand. The family had regained significant influence and was also active at the imperial level. In the county of Zollern, the nobility was ousted as landlords in the 16th century and spiritual property was limited.

The County of Sigmaringen Charles I became the County of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in the next generation. The historian Wilfried Schöntag published on the prehistory of the county of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and stated: From 1290 King Rudolf I of Habsburg owned the Sigmaringen estate, which was often pledged. In 1399 the rule came to the Counts of Werdenberg after they had previously been with the Württemberg people. Emperor Friedrich III. made the lordship a county in 1460. When the Werdenbergs died out in 1534, the Hohenzollern were enfeoffed on December 24, 1535 with the counties of Sigmaringen and Veringen .

The possessions were divided into Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Haigerloch in 1576 due to an inheritance division . The brothers Eitel Friedrich I. (IV.) , Karl II. And Christoph received domains, the brother Joachim was compensated. A year earlier, in 1575, the first Zoller House Law established the primogeniture that applied to the three donated lines after the death of Charles I. The primacy of the firstborn prevented future partitions of property and created territorial stability. The branches of the family bore the same title "Count of Hohenzollern, Sigmaringen and Veringen, Lord of Haigerloch and Wehrstein, treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire" and the same coat of arms. Hohenzollern-Hechingen was part of the family's allodial possession, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was a fiefdom of Austria. The Haigerloch rule, which fell to the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen line in 1767, was part of the property.

The political proximity to the Habsburgs led to the elevation to the imperial prince status in 1623. In the second half of the 17th century, the Swabian and Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollerns resumed political contact. For a century and a half, the different religions were dividing anyway. The counties and principalities belonged to the Swabian Empire until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 .

The homeland of the Hohenzollern were ruled by the following counts:

County and Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen

New castle in Hechingen
St. Luzen Monastery

Hohenzollern Castle, the headquarters of the Hohenzollern family, was located within the boundaries of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. The territory first existed as the County of Zollern, from 1576 as the County of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and from 1623 as the Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. The County of Zollern initially consisted of individual, scattered possessions, which only gradually developed into a coherent area. The principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen hardly changed anymore.

Eitel Friedrich I. (IV.) Founded the Hohenzollern-Hechingen line in 1576 and continued the family branch of the original Hohenzollern. In the empire he worked as an imperial colonel and member of the imperial chamber court. The count had a castle built in the Renaissance style in Hechingen , where the New Castle stands today, and initiated the renovation of the St. Luzen monastery church . He turned the residence into a cultural center, which explains his nickname "the Magnificent".

His son and successor Johann Georg was elevated to the rank of imperial prince in 1623 by Emperor Ferdinand II for his commitment to the empire and the Catholic cause. The county was elevated to a princely county and the regent was given the title of prince. Johann Georg held the offices of President of the Reich Chamber Court in Speyer and President of the Reichshofrat in Vienna.

Vain Friedrich II ruled from 1623 after his father Johann Georg. He was introduced to the Imperial Princes College of the Reichstag in 1653. During his reign, the Thirty Years' War , which lasted from 1618 to 1648 , in which he served as general for Ferdinand II. Hohenzollern-Hechingen remained Catholic; the greater Württemberg belonged to the Protestant Union . The principality, whose Hohenzollern castle was of particular strategic importance, was occupied and devastated by Swedes and Württemberg people.

In 1661 Philip became the next prince, a brother of Eitel Friedrich II. Philip was previously canon in Cologne and Strasbourg; the spiritual activity was given up with the approval of the Pope. It was necessary to take over the regency, otherwise the princely house would have died out. Emperor Leopold I allowed him to use the title of prince, which until then only belonged to the firstborn. During his reign, Hohenzollern-Hechingen was able to recover from the negative effects of the Thirty Years' War.

Philip's son Friedrich Wilhelm succeeded his father in 1671 at the age of seven and was initially under the tutelage of his mother as a minor. He exercised the government himself from 1681. Friedrich Wilhelm was an Imperial General and Field Marshal; he fought in Hungary in 1682. In 1692, Leopold I granted the Hohenzoller the permanent right to use the title of prince for his family, even for non-firstborn children. Until now, these family members were only entitled to the title of count.

Friedrich Ludwig ruled from 1730, because his father gave up the government prematurely, and was both regent and general. In 1716 he still fought as Crown Prince against the Turks in the Venetian-Austrian Turkish War under the command of Eugene of Savoy . He also took part in the War of the Polish Succession , which broke out in 1733 , again under the orders of Eugene of Savoy.

After Friedrich Ludwig, his cousin Josef Friedrich Wilhelm , a son of Hermann Friedrich von Hohenzollern-Hechingen, ruled from 1750 . He fought militarily against the Turks in 1738 and in the War of the Austrian Succession that began in 1740 . The Principality was affected by the Seven Years' War from 1757 by providing soldiers and, like the entire empire, experienced an economic boom as a result of the war. The prince tried to improve agriculture and introduced the potato imported from Holland.

Hermann took over the reign in 1798; he was a nephew of Josef Friedrich Wilhelm. The prince abolished serfdom in the first year of his reign and reduced labor . The Hechingen State Deputation , consisting of 12 members of the various communities, was created in 1798. In 1799 the Second Coalition War raged against France, in which Hermann served on the side of Austria. As part of the secularization, the principality received compensation for the lost Belgian possessions of the family, including the Stetten monastery. On July 19, 1806, Hohenzollern-Hechingen joined the Confederation of the Rhine created by Napoleon Bonaparte .

Hermann's son Friedrich was regent from 1810 and, through the Confederation of the Rhine, a French colonel, through which he fought against Prussia, Austria and Russia. When King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria distanced himself from Napoleon Bonaparte in the Treaty of Ried in 1813 , Friedrich followed his example as one of the first princes of the Rhine Confederation. Hohenzollern-Hechingen strategically realigned itself and became a member of the German Confederation in 1814 . The principality also belonged, as far as religion was concerned, to the Archdiocese of Freiburg , which was newly founded in 1821 .

Constantine became prince in 1838 and experienced the revolution of 1848 during his reign . It was the cause of the end of the rule of the Hohenzollern in the principality. On May 16, 1848, a liberal constitution was promulgated. Fundamental rights were guaranteed and laws required the approval of the 15 elected representatives of the state representation. The ruling prince decided to abdicate and signed a contract of assignment with Prussia on December 7, 1849. The occupation by Prussia took place on April 8, 1850; the territory became part of the Hohenzollern Lands . Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia accepted the hereditary homage on August 23, 1851 and was committed to the reconstruction of the Hohenzollern family castle in its present form.

After Prince Konstantin, Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen took over family affairs. Constantine's first marriage was childless, the second was morganatic with a daughter and two sons. Since these sons (Counts of Rothenburg ) were not entitled to inheritance, the princely line of Hohenzollern-Hechingen was extinguished with Constantine's death and was inherited by Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

The most striking buildings in Hechingen are the New Palace built at the beginning of the 19th century under Prince Friedrich and the Old Palace built at the beginning of the 18th century under Prince Friedrich Wilhelm . The collection of the Hohenzollerisches Landesmuseum is now located in the premises of the Old Palace .

In 1952, Baden-Württemberg was created through the merger of the states of Württemberg-Hohenzollern , Württemberg-Baden and Baden . Württemberg-Hohenzollern consisted of the southern part of the former Kingdom of Württemberg and the two former Hohenzollern principalities.

Hohenzollern Castle was badly damaged by an earthquake on September 3, 1978. Extensive restoration work was necessary, which was not completed until the early 1990s.

The rulers of Hohenzollern-Hechingen were:

County and Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

The Sigmaringian line until 1849

Map of the Hohenzollern Lands from 1930 (part of Prussia)
Sigmaringen Castle , the residential palace of the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Parallel to Hohenzollern-Hechingen, the county of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was established in 1576. In 1623 the family branch was elevated to the rank of prince. In Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the addition Sigmaringen has been omitted from the name since Prince Karl Anton († 1885).

Charles II worked as a captain and governor in Alsace from 1570. From 1576 he ruled the county, which was larger than Hohenzollern-Hechingen. This compensated for the fact that the county, in contrast to Hohenzollern-Hechingen of his brother Eitel Friedrich I (IV.), Was a fiefdom and not his own property. Charles II had Sigmaringen Castle renovated.

Johann ruled from 1606 and became the first prince of Sigmaringen in 1623 during the Thirty Years War . He campaigned for the Catholic League and, like his son Meinrad later, was in the service of Bavaria. Since the two princes often stayed outside the country, extensive correspondence was conducted with the officials; the documents are now in the Sigmaringen State Archives . Johann's younger brother Eitel Friedrich held the position of Bishop of Osnabrück.

The next prince came to power Meinrad I , who ruled from 1638. As Crown Prince he fought against the Protestants in the Thirty Years War under the command of Johann T'Serclaes von Tilly . The whole of Swabia was affected by this war. The French-Swedish army under Henri de Turenne and Carl Gustaf Wrangel devastated the country considerably in 1646. The prince used his inherited fortune to improve the economy.

In 1681 Meinrad's son Maximilian succeeded the government. He served in the Turkish War , which took place in 1663 and 1664, as well as in the Dutch War against the French. He also took part in the Battle of Kahlenberg in 1683 at the end of the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna .

The regent Meinrad II, who followed in 1689, was an Austrian military man. He fought in 1683 in the Battle of Kahlenberg against the Turks, in the Hungarian Revolutionary War and in 1697 in the Palatine War of Succession against the French. In the War of the Spanish Succession he served in the Netherlands in 1702. In 1695 the prince concluded the Hohenzollern-Brandenburg inheritance treaty with Brandenburg-Prussia , which would have become relevant if the Swabian line had expired. With an iron smelter in Laucherthal , Meinrad II. Created a company in 1708 that is the origin of today's Zollern company . His son Franz Wilhelm worked as the ruling count of Bergh's-Heerenberg .

Joseph Friedrich Ernst , the older son of Meinrad II, became the next Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1715, with his mother Johanna Katharina ruling her son as guardian until 1720. He was in the service of both the Habsburgs and the Wittelsbachers. In 1727 the prince built the Josefslust hunting lodge, after which the Josefslust wildlife park was named, and various other buildings.

Karl Friedrich moved in the Seven Years' War on the side of Austria against Prussia in the battle. He entered a cavalry regiment as a major and returned from the war in 1763. The principality was not directly affected by the acts of war. During the reign from 1769 he stayed in the Netherlands again and again. His wife Johanna was heiress of the Bergh's-Heerenberg county.

Subsequently, from 1785, Anton Aloys ruled . Amalie Zephyrine von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , the wife of Anton Aloys, was able to prevent the loss of sovereignty of the two Hohenzollern royal houses at the beginning of the 19th century due to her good relations with the wife of Napoleon Bonapartes; a threatening mediatization could be averted. Napoleon added the Achberg and Hohenfels dominions as possessions. Hohenfels Castle, a small baroque castle in the castle style, belonged to the royal family until 1931 and was used by the Salem Castle School until 2017 .

From 1831 Charles ruled , who fought in the coalition wars both on the French side and from 1813 on the side of the Allies. The estates of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen were created in 1831 and met every three years until 1849. The German Federal Act obliged the principality to form estates that did not yet exist at the end of the Holy Roman Empire . A constitution was enacted in 1833. Karl lifted serfdom and various basic charges.

The last regent was Karl Anton from 1848 to 1849 . There were revolutionary events in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1848 as well as in Hohenzollern-Hechingen , which is why his father Karl handed over the government prematurely. The country was occupied by Prussian troops in the summer of 1849 in the course of the suppression of an uprising in Baden . Karl Anton decided to cede his principality to Prussia, which was regulated by the State Treaty of December 7, 1849. On April 6, 1850, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen fell to Prussia and became part of the Hohenzollern Lands. In 1873 the regional association of the Hohenzollern Lands was created for self-administration.

The regents of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen were:

The Sigmaring line since the abdication

The last ruling Prince Karl Anton became Prime Minister of Prussia in 1858. His eldest son Leopold was offered the Spanish throne, which ultimately triggered the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 . Leopold had withdrawn his candidacy and the real reason for the dissent no longer existed, but the Ems dispatch and press articles led to outrages in France.

In August 1944, the members of the French Vichy government were housed in Sigmaringen Castle, which was confiscated by the National Socialists. The princely family was quartered in Wilflingen Castle in Upper Swabia . The Romanian King Michael I , also a Hohenzoller, had declared war on the German Empire after the royal coup . By this time the Red Army had already invaded Romania. As a result of the Second World War , Friedrich von Hohenzollern and his family lost considerable property.

Karl Friedrich von Hohenzollern , head of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Karl Friedrich von Hohenzollern is currently the head of the Swabian Hohenzollern and is traditionally referred to as “Prince” in public. He married Alexandra Schenk Countess von Stauffenberg's first marriage in 1985 and Katharina de Zomer's second marriage in 2010. The first marriage resulted in four children; the son Alexander is planned as the successor of the current head of the family.

The Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen company concentrates its economic activities in the Fürst von Hohenzollern group of companies based in Sigmaringen. To this day Sigmaringen Castle , a third of the Hohenzollern Castle, Umkirch Castle , the Josefslust Hunting Lodge and Krauchenwies Castle are owned by the Princely House. Namedy Castle has a side branch .

The bosses of the house of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen:

County of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch

The county of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch existed from 1576. The area finally fell to Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1767; there was a short-term connection between 1634 and 1681. The Castle Haigerloch was first mentioned in 1095 and belonged to the Earl of Haigerloch -Wiesneck. The first Count of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch was Christoph , a son of Karl I. von Hohenzollern , after the division of the estate in 1576 . Christoph was handed over to Haigerloch, Wehrstein and other property. In contrast to the other two branches of the family, the line was not raised to the rank of imperial prince.

The Romanian Hohenzollern

Coat of arms of the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Romania

The Kingdom of Romania existed from 1881 to 1947 and developed from the Principality of Romania . Charles I of Romania worked as prince after Alexandru Ioan Cuza from 1866 and was proclaimed king on March 26, 1881. He was the son of Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen . Emperor Napoleon III. of France proposed Charles as regent, and the Romanian people voted in favor of the Hohenzoller.

The last King Michael I was forced to abdicate on December 30, 1947 by the Romanian Communist Party and had to leave the country. Michael I was significant in the royal coup in 1944 . According to a family decision, the Romanian Hohenzollern people no longer have the name Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen since 2011. Michael was the head of the Romanian Hohenzollern until 2017. He and his wife Anna from the Bourbon-Parma house had several daughters; his eldest daughter Margarita (* 1949) is married to the Romanian actor Radu Duda.

The regents of Romania:

  • 1866–1914 Karl I (* 1839; † 1914), also Karl von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, first prince, from 1881 king
  • 1914–1927 Ferdinand I. (* 1865; † 1927), nephew of Karl I.
  • 1927–1930 Michael I. (* 1921; † 2017), grandson of Ferdinand I, son of Karl II.
  • 1930–1940 Charles II (* 1893; † 1953)
  • 1940–1947 Michael I (* 1921; † 2017), again king

Publications and research institutes

Eminent former scientists

Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz wrote the "Monumenta Zollerana".

Gustav Schilling wrote in 1843 the work “History of the House of Hohenzollern in genealogically continuous biographies of all its rulers from the oldest to the most recent. According to documents and other authentic sources ”.

In 1847 Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz and Traugott Märker published the text "Hohenzollersche Research", which thematized the Swabian line. A continuation to the Franconian Hohenzollern was planned, but was not realized. The "Monumenta Zollerana" published from 1852 contains a large number of documents and documents and was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm IV. During the research activities, evidence was collected for years, which enabled the scientific processing of family history and uncovered genealogical fantasies of the past. The use of the Bavarian archives brought about knowledge at the time of the Hohenzollern as burgraves of Nuremberg .

Adolph Friedrich Riedel published other important works: “The ancestors of the Prussian royal house until the end of the 13th century” (1854) and the “History of the Prussian royal house” (1861).

Current research activities

The Hohenzollern Historical Society, which is still active today , has been dealing with the Swabian regional studies of Hohenzollern since 1867 and is the publisher of the magazine for Hohenzollern history. The association's chairman Volker Trugenberger also heads the Sigmaringen State Archive , which was founded in 1865 as the Prussian State Archive .

The two-volume standard work "Die Hohenzollern" by Wolfgang Neugebauer is considered to be one of the leading complete presentations of the present on the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern and their prehistory . The historian also publishes the journal “ Research on Brandenburg and Prussian History ” with Frank-Lothar Kroll . The history of the Swabian Hohenzollern is presented in accordance with the current state of research in the remarks by Wilfried Schöntag in the second volume of the "Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History".

Buildings of the Hohenzollern

Important buildings of the Brandenburg-Prussian family branch:

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the Hohenzollern family shows a shield divided into black and silver (Zollernvierung). On the helmet with black and silver covers , a brackish head can be seen like the shield .

  • Coat of arms of the Hohenzollern with the Zollernvierung in silver and black

  • Coat of arms of the Counts of Zolren in the Zurich coat of arms roll (approx. 1340)

  • Coat of arms of the Burgraves of Nürenberg in the Zurich coat of arms roll (approx. 1340)

  • Coat of arms of the Counts of Zollern in Scheibler's register of arms (1450–1480)

  • Coat of arms of the Swabian Counts of Hohenzollern (1605)

  • Current coat of arms used by the Princely House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

  • Coat of arms of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1466)

  • Coat of arms of the Electorate of Brandenburg (1686)

  • Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia

Hohenzollern of contemporary history

Royal House of Hohenzollern

Princely House of Hohenzollern

See also

Several ships and a Berlin inland waterway were named after the Hohenzollerns:

Source editions

  • Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz , Traugott Märcker: Monumenta Zollerana - document book on the history of the House of Hohenzollern . 9 volumes. Berlin, 1852-1890
    • Vol. 1: Documents of the Swabian line 1095-1418 . Berlin 1852.
    • Vol. 2: Documents of the Franconian line 1235-1332 . Berlin 1856.
    • Vol. 3: Documents of the Franconian line 1332-1363 . Berlin 1857.
    • Vol. 4: Documents of the Franconian line 1363-1378 . Berlin 1858.
    • Vol. 5: Documents of the Franconian line 1378–1398 . Berlin 1859.
    • Vol. 6: Documents of the Franconian line 1398-1411 . Berlin 1860.
    • Vol. 7: Documents of the Franconian line 1411-1417 . Berlin 1861.
    • Vol. 8: Additions and corrections to Vol. 2–7 . Edited by Jul. Grossmann and Martin Scheins. Berlin 1866.
    • (Vol. 9): Register for Vol. 2–7 of the Monumenta Zollerana . Berlin 1856.

literature

  • Henry Bogdan: Les Hohenzollern: La dynastie qui a fait l'Allemagne (1061-1918). Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris 2010, ISBN 2-262-02851-6 .
  • Christopher Clark : Iron Kingdom. The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947. Allen Lane, London et al. a. 2006, ISBN 0-7139-9466-5 . (In German: Prussia. Rise and decline. 1600–1947. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-05392-3 ).
  • Karl Friedrich Eisele: Studies on the history of the county of Zollern and its neighbors . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1956
  • Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86964-052-5 .
  • F. Herberhold: The Austrian counties Sigmaringen and Veringen. In: Vorderösterreich, ed. F. Metz, 1967.
  • Fritz Kallenberg (Ed.): Hohenzollern . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1996.
  • Uwe Klußmann: The Hohenzollern: Prussian kings, German emperors. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-421-04539-3 .
  • Hubert Krins: The Princely House of Hohenzollern. Lindenberg Kunstverlag Fink, 2nd edition 2013, ISBN 3-89870-219-7 .
  • Frank-Lothar Kroll : The Hohenzollern. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-53626-7 (review) .
  • Frank-Lothar Kroll (ed.): Prussia's rulers: from the first Hohenzollern to Wilhelm II. Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-54129-2 .
  • Michael Kroner: The Hohenzollern as kings of Romania. Life pictures of four monarchs 1866-2004 . Johannis Reeg Verlag, Heilbronn 2004, ISBN 3-937320-30-X .
  • Heinrich Frhr. v. Massenbach : The Hohenzollern then and now. The royal line in Prussia, the Swabian line in Hohenzollern . 15th edition. Schleching 1994.
  • Peter Mast: The Hohenzollern in Life Pictures , Diederichs Verlag 2000.
  • DW Mayer: The county of Sigmaringen and its borders in the 16th century (Studies on Hohenzollern Regional Studies 4), 1959.
  • Walter Henry Nelson: The Hohenzollern - Empire founders and soldier kings . Munich 1972 (2nd edition. Munich 1998, ISBN 3-424-01340-4 ).
  • Wolfgang Neugebauer : The Hohenzollern . 2 Vols. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1996-2003, Vol. 1, ISBN 3-17-012096-4 , Vol. 2, ISBN 3-17-012097-2 .
  • Wolfgang Neugebauer: The history of Prussia: from the beginnings to 1947 . Munich 2006, ISBN 3-492-24355-X .
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Prince of Prussia: The House of Hohenzollern 1918–1945 . Langen Müller, Munich / Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7844-2077-X .
  • Anton Ritthaler : The Hohenzollern , Bonn 1961.
  • Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern . In: Meinrad Schaab : Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The territories in the Old Kingdom. Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-608-91466-8 .
  • Johannes Schultze, Rudolf Seigel, Günther Schuhmann:  Hohenzollern. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , pp. 496-501 ( digitized version ).
  • Rudolf Seigel, The Origin of the Swabian and Franconian Lines of the House of Hohenzollern. A contribution to the genealogy and domiciliary rights of the older Zollern , in: Zeitschrift für Hohenzollerische Geschichte 5 (1969), 9–44.
  • Thomas Stamm-Kuhlmann : The Hohenzollern . Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-88680-485-2 .

Web links

Commons : Haus Hohenzollern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Johannes Schultze, Rudolf Seigel, Günther Schuhmann:  Hohenzollern. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , pp. 496-501 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ a b c d Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The Territories in the Old Reich, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 361
  3. ↑ a b Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 8
  4. ^ Hohenzollern Castle: History of the castle , there the first mention and prehistory
  5. ^ Website about Hohenzollern Castle: History of the Castle
  6. ^ Website about Hohenzollern Castle: Ancestral seat of the Prussian royal family
  7. ↑ a b Wilfried Schöntag, Hohenzollern , in: Meinrad Schaab and Hansmartin Schwarzmaier, Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History, Volume 2. The Territories in the Old Reich , 1995, p. 364
  8. ↑ Rudolf Seigel: Journal for Hohenzollern History, Sigmaringen 2010, p. 57
  9. ↑ Hans Jänichen: Counts of Hohenberg . New German Biography (1972)
  10. ^ Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz, Traugott Märcker: Hohenzoller research. Part 1: Schwaebische research , Reimarus, Berlin 1847, p. 108 ff.
  11. ^ Adolph Friedrich Riedel: The ancestors of the Prussian royal house until the end of the 13th century , Berlin 1854, p. 64 ff.
  12. ↑ Württembergisches document book: Ruotmann von Hausen, Adelbert von Zollern and Count Alwig von Sulz found the Alpirsbach monastery.
  13. ^ Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The Territories in the Old Reich, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 363
  14. ^ Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The Territories in the Old Reich, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 362
  15. ^ Joseph Kerkhoff: Territorial Development of Hohenzollern ; In: Historical Atlas of Baden-Württemberg, Explanations: Epilogue to Map VI, 1975, p. 1.
  16. ↑ a b Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 121
  17. ↑ a b Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 13
  18. ↑ a b Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 19
  19. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 14
  20. ↑ E. v. Cosel: History of the Prussian state and people under the Hohenzoller princes . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1869, p. 6–7 ( online at: books.google.de [accessed November 15, 2013]).
  21. ↑ preussen.de: Hohenzollern , accessed on August 7, 2015 ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ^ Carl Wilhelm von Lancizolle: History of the formation of the Prussian state. First Part , Berlin 1828, p. 109 (marked text passage)
  23. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 12
  24. ↑ Count Tassilo von Zollern (bust in armor)
  25. ↑ Who was Albrecht the Bear?
  26. ↑ Otto Borges: The origin of the Hohenzollern family. A contribution to the introduction to the controversial question: Hohenzollern or Abenberger , Leipzig 1911
  27. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 15
  28. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, Vol. 1. Beginnings, State State and Monarchist Autocracy to 1740 , 1996, p. 24
  29. ^ Günther Schuhmann:  Friedrich IV. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 522 f. ( Digitized version ).
  30. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 25
  31. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 18
  32. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 27
  33. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, Vol. 1. Beginnings, State State and Monarchist Autocracy to 1740 , 1996, p. 28
  34. ↑ a b Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 26
  35. ^ House contracts of the Zollern: Dispositio Achillea
  36. ^ University of Kassel: Ansbach Residence
  37. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 20
  38. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer: The Hohenzollern. 2 vol. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1996, vol. 1, p. 37
  39. ↑ Nuernberginfos.de: Nürnberger Tand (accessed on August 8, 2015)
  40. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer: The Hohenzollern. 2 vol. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1996, vol. 1, p. 82
  41. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 71
  42. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 73
  43. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, Vol. 1. Beginnings, State State and Monarchist Autocracy to 1740 , 1996, p. 97
  44. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 39
  45. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 53
  46. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 59
  47. ↑ Dino Heicker: The Hohenzollern: History of a Dynasty. Berlin 2012, p. 64
  48. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer: The Hohenzollern. 2 vol. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, vol. 2, p. 40
  49. ^ Tim Ostermann: The constitutional position of the German emperor. Frankfurt 2009
  50. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer: The Hohenzollern. 2 vol. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, vol. 2, p. 161
  51. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer: The Hohenzollern. 2 vol. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, vol. 2, p. 191
  52. ^ Zeit Online: The brown Crown Prince (August 2015)
  53. ↑ Kaiser Wilhelm's heirs and the Nazi dictatorship: "The Hohenzollern actively supported Hitler". Potsdamer Tagesspiegel, September 7, 2019, accessed on September 8, 2019 .
  54. ↑ Preussen.de: Information on Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia (abbreviation SKKH for "His Imperial and Royal Highness") ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.preussen.de
  55. ↑ Spiegel Special 2/1993: Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia on Prussia's role in history
  56. ^ Hohenzollern Castle: History of the Castle
  57. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel: Not Land Nor Throne (2004)
  58. ↑ preussen.de: Prince Georg Friedrich von Preussen (communication from the House of Hohenzollern) ( Memento from February 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  59. ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung: Hohenzollern offspring: Princess Sophie has daughter (April 2015)
  60. ↑ Prince Heinrich christened at www.burg-hohenzollern.com, accessed on May 19, 2019
  61. ^ Dinner in honor of Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia . bundespraesident.de
  62. ↑ Friends of the Berlin Palace: Palace exhibition opened at Hohenzollern Castle
  63. ↑ Märkische Allgemeine: Hohenzollern boss founds a "Braumanufactur" (November 24, 2017)
  64. ^ Neo Magazin Royale : Official website of btf GmbH in cooperation with the show Neo Magazin Royale on the Hohenzollern vs. Federal government ; accessed on November 23, 2019
  65. ↑ https://www.morgenpost.de/kultur/tv/article227692655/Jan-Boehmermann-veroeffentlicht-brisante-Geheim-Dokumente-und-sracht-fuer-Wirbel.html
  66. ↑ https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/jan-boehmermanns-coup-gegen-die-hohenzollern-16491683.html
  67. ↑ https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/boehmermann-hohenzollern-debatte-1.4687884
  68. ↑ Hohenzollern attorney counters accusations from historians - Is the freedom of science in danger? Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  69. ↑ Schultze, Johannes, “Joachim Friedrich” in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 10 (1974), pp. 438–439
  70. ^ Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The territories in the Old Kingdom. Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 361.
  71. ↑ a b Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The territories in the Old Kingdom. Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 368.
  72. ^ Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz, Traugott Märcker: Hohenzoller research. Part 1: Swabian research. Reimarus, Berlin 1847, p. 136.
  73. ^ Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The territories in the Old Kingdom. Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 367.
  74. ^ Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The territories in the Old Kingdom. Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 369.
  75. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, Vol. 1. Beginnings, State State and Monarchist Autocracy to 1740 , 1996, p. 17
  76. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 15
  77. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, Vol. 1. Beginnings, State State and Monarchist Autocracy to 1740 , 1996, p. 120
  78. ↑ a b c Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The Territories in the Old Reich, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 373
  79. ^ Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The Territories in the Old Reich, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 376
  80. ^ Wilfried Schöntag: Hohenzollern. In: Meinrad Schaab: Handbook of the history of Baden-Württemberg. The Territories in the Old Reich, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1995, p. 374
  81. ↑ a b Wolfgang Neugebauer, Die Hohenzollern, vol. 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchist autocracy until 1740 , 1996, p. 123
  82. ^ Eduard Schwarzmann: Karl I., Count of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Veringen . Sigmaringen 1859, p. 15
  83. ↑ Gustav Schilling: History of the House of Hohenzollern in genealogically continuous biographies of all its rulers from the oldest to the most recent times, according to documents and other authentic sources. Fleischer, Leipzig 1843, p. 243
  84. ↑ Gustav Schilling: History of the House of Hohenzollern in genealogically continuous biographies of all its rulers from the oldest to the most recent times, according to documents and other authentic sources. Fleischer, Leipzig 1843, p. 246
  85. ↑ Gustav Schilling: History of the House of Hohenzollern in genealogically continuous biographies of all its rulers from the oldest to the most recent times, according to documents and other authentic sources. Fleischer, Leipzig 1843, p. 255
  86. ^ Günter Richter:  Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Karl Anton Fürst von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 502 f. ( Digitized version ).
  87. ^ Website of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
  88. ^ Official website of the city of Mannheim; Designation as "Hereditary Prince" (successor as boss)