Nobility of Germany

The German nobility (deutscher Adel) was a class of persons which enjoyed certain privileges relative to other members of society under the laws and customs of various regimes of what is now Germany until 1919. Governments which recognised or conferred nobility were the Holy Roman Empire (962-1806), the German Confederation (1814-1866) and the German Empire (1871-1918). All legal privileges of the nobility were officially abolished in 1919 by the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), and nobility is no longer conferred or recognised by modern Germany, former hereditary titles being allowed only as part of the surname. The system of nobility in the former German Empire was similar to the nobility of Austria, as both territories long belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, although Austria, unlike Germany, banned use of hereditary titles in any form.

Principles
In Germany, nobility and titles pertaining to it were recognised or bestowed upon individuals by emperors, kings and a few rulers of lesser rank, and were then inherited by the legitimate, male-line descendants of the ennobled person. In cases where families had been deemed noble as far back as historical records could document (i.e., the Uradel), their nobility (generally pre-dating 1400 A.D.) was usually eventually recognised by a sovereign, confirming their entitlement to whatever legal privileges nobles enjoyed in that sovereign's realm. Noble rank was usually granted to men by letters patent, whereas women were members of the nobility by descent or (sometimes) by marriage to a nobleman. Nobility was inherited equally by all legitimate descendants in the male line.

Most German titles of nobility were also inherited by all male-line descendants, although some descended by male primogeniture, especially in 19th and 20th century Prussia (e.g., Otto von Bismarck, although born a baronial Junker and elevated to the hereditary title of prince in 1871, his children and future cadets of his family were counts). Upon promulgation of the Weimar Constitution on 11 August 1919,  all Germans were declared equal before the law. On 18 March 1919 the Landtag of the Free State of Bavaria enacted the Gesetz über die Aufhebung des Adels ("Act on the Abolition of the Nobility), which eliminated (not nobility as a class or individual attribute per se, but) all noble privileges, and henceforth forbade Bavarians from accepting foreign ennoblement. Other German states enacted equivalent legislation.

The Bavarian constitution (of 1998) also bans the transfer, by way of adoption, of surnames containing formally noble attributes (§ 118, section 3). This caused an exceptional practice in surnames borne by former members of the nobility: Whereas the gender differentiation in German surnames, widespread until the 18th century – colloquially retained in some German dialects – was abolished in Germany with the introduction of officially registered invariable surnames by the late 19th century, former noble titles transformed into parts of the surname in 1919 continue to appear in female and male forms.

Altogether abolished were titles borne exclusively by German monarchs, such as emperor/empress, king/queen, grand duke/grand duchess, etc. However former titles shared and inherited by all members of the family were retained but incorporated into the surname. Members of, for instance, the former royal families of Prussia and Bavaria were allowed use of Prinz/Prinzessin; or Herzog/Herzogin in the cases of the former kings/queens of Saxony and Württemberg, the ducal title borne by non-ruling cadets of their dynasties before 1919; or Herzog/Herzogin for the six deposed grand dukes and their wives: These were the former rulers of Baden, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, and Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Any dynast who did not reign prior to 1918 but had held a specific title as heir to one of Germany's former thrones (e.g. Erbprinz (Crown Prince), along with any heir to a primogeniture title of nobility, and their wives, were permitted to incorporate those titles into elements of the personal surname. However, these titles became extinct upon their deaths, not being heritable. With the demise of all persons styled "crown prince" before 1918, the term Kronprinz no longer exists as a legal surname element. Traditional titles exclusively used for unmarried noblewomen, such as Baronesse, Freiin and Freifräulein, were also transformed into parts of the legal surname, subject to change at marriage or upon request.

All other former titles and nobiliary particles are now inherited as part of the surname, and remain protected as private names under the laws. Whereas the title often prefixed the given and surname (e.g. Graf {"Count"} Kasimir von der Recke), the legal usage moves the former title to the surname (i.e., Kasimir Graf von der Recke). However, the pre-1919 style sometimes continues in colloquial usage. In Austria, by contrast, not only were the privileges of the nobility abolished, but their titles and nobiliary particles as well.

Some states within the Holy Roman Empire had strict laws concerning proper conduct, employment, or marriage of individual nobles. Failure to comply with these laws could result in temporary or permanent Adelsverlust ("loss of the status of nobility"). Until about the early 19th century, for example, it was commonly forbidden for nobles, theoretically on pain of Adelsverlust, to marry persons "of low birth", i.e. commoners. Moreover, nobles employed in menial labour could, theoretically, lose their noble rank, as could nobles convicted of capital crimes. Adelsverlust only concerned the individual who was in violation of noble laws of conduct, meaning that their kin, spouse and living children were generally not affected.

Various organisations perpetuate the historical legacy of the former nobility, documenting genealogy, chronicling the history of noble families and sometimes declining to acknowledge persons who acquired noble surnames by ways impossible before 1919.

Nobiliary particles
Most, but not all, surnames of the German nobility were preceded by or contained the preposition von (meaning "of") or zu (meaning "at") as a nobiliary particle. The two were occasionally combined into von und zu (meaning "of and at"). In general, the von form indicates the family's place of origina, while the zu form indicates the family's continued possession of the estate from which the surname is drawn: Therefore von und zu indicates a family which is both named for and continues to own their original feudal holding or residence. Other forms also exist as combinations with the definitive article: e.g. "von der" or von dem → "vom" ("of the"), zu der → "zur" or zu dem → "zum" ("of the", "in the", "at the").

When sorting noble – as well as non-noble – names in alphabetic sequence, any prepositions or (former) title are ignored. Also name elements which have developed from honorary functions, such as Schenk (short for Mundschenk (cup-bearer), are overlooked. The prepositions are not capitalised unless they begin a sentence. In this the German language practice differs from Dutch in the Netherlands, where the particle van is usually capitalised when mentioned without preceding given names or initials, or from Dutch in Belgium, where the name particle Van is always capitalised.

Uradel
A family whose nobility dates back to at least the 14th century may be called Uradel (or Alter Adel). This contrasts with Briefadel (“patent nobility”): Nobility granted by letters patent. The first known such document is from September 30, 1360, for Wyker Frosch in Mainz.

Hochadel
Nobility that was sovereign within the Holy Roman Empire and, later, in the German Confederation or the German Empire, i.e., royalty, the heads of whose families were entitled to be addressed by some form of “Majesty” or “Highness”. These were the families of kings (Bavaria, Hanover, Prussia, Saxony, and Württemberg), grand dukes (Baden, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse and by Rhine, Luxembourg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg and Saxe-Weimar), reigning dukes (Anhalt, Brunswick, (Schleswig-)Holstein, Nassau, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-and-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen), and reigning princes (Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Liechtenstein, Lippe, Reuss, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg and Waldeck-and-Pyrmont).

The Hochadel also included the Empire's formerly quasi-sovereign families who had been mediatised within the German Confederation by 1815, yet preserved the legal right to continue royal intermarriage with still-reigning dynasties (Ebenbürtigkeit). Mostly comital and princely families, they included a few dukes of Belgian/Dutch origin (Arenberg, Croy, Looz-Corswarem). Information on these families constituted the second section of Justus Perthes’ entries on reigning, princely and ducal families in the Almanach de Gotha.

Also remaining in the Hochadel under laws adopted by the German Empire were Germany's deposed dynasties: Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, (Schleswig-)Holstein and Nassau. In addition, the Hohenzollerns were accorded the dynastic rights of a cadet branch of the Royal House of Prussia after yielding sovereignty to their royal kinsman, while the exiled heirs to Hanover and Nassau regained sovereignty by being allowed to inherit, eventually, the crowns of Brunswick (1914) and Luxembourg (1890).

Niederer Adel
Nobility that held legal privileges until 1918 greater than those enjoyed by commoners, but less than those enjoyed by the Hochadel were considered part of the lower nobility or Niederer Adel. Most were untitled, only making use of the particle von in their surnames. Higher ranking noble families of the Niederer Adel bore such hereditary titles as Ritter, Freiherr (or Baron) and Graf. Although most German counts belonged officially to the lower nobility, those who were mediatised belonged to the Hochadel, the heads of their families being entitled to be addressed as Erlaucht ("Illustrious Highness"), rather than simply as Hochgeboren ("High-born"). There were also some German noble families, especially in Austria, Prussia and Bavaria, whose head bore the titles of Fürst (Prince) or Herzog (Duke), however never having exercised a degree of sovereignty, they were accounted members of the lower nobility (e.g., Bismarck, Blücher, Pless, Wrede).

Reigning titles
The titles of Elector, Grand Duke, Archduke, Duke, Landgrave, Margrave, Count Palatine, Prince and Reichsgraf were borne by rulers who belonged to Germany's Hochadel. Other counts, as well as barons (Freiherren), lords (Herren), knights (Ritter) were borne by noble non-reigning families. The vast majority of the German nobility, however, inherited no titles, and were usually distinguishable only by the nobiliary particle von in their surnames.


 * The prefix Reichs- indicates a title granted by a past Holy Roman Emperor. These titles conferred higher precedence than that associated with other titles of the same nominal rank.
 * Freiin indicates an unmarried daughter of a baron.

Non-reigning titles
The heirs to sovereigns or to headship of mediatised families prefixed their title by Erb-, meaning Hereditary. For instance, the heir to a Grand Duke is titled Erbgroßherzog or simply Erbprinz, meaning Hereditary Grand Duke. A sovereign duke's heir was Erbprinz (Hereditary Prince) and a prince's (Fürst) heir might be titled Erbprinz or Erbgraf ("Hereditary Prince", "Hereditary Count"). The prefix distinguished the heir from similarly titled junior siblings. The heirs of emperors and kings were titled Kronprinz ("crown prince"), while the heirs of prince-electors were titled Kurprinz ("electoral prince").