German Nobility - Divisions of Nobility

Divisions of Nobility

• Uradel (“ancient nobility”): Nobility that dates back to at least the 14th century. 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 (“high nobility”): 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 (Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wurttemberg, Hanover), grand dukes (Baden, Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt, Luxembourg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, Saxe-Weimar) reigning dukes (Anhalt, Brunswick, Nassau, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg and Saxe-Coburg-and-Gotha, Holstein), and reigning princes (Liechtenstein, Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe, Reuss, Waldeck-and-Pyrmont, Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen).

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 (Ebenburtigkeit). 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 and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen,(Schleswig-)Holstein and Nassau. In addition, the Hohenzollerns were accorded the royal rights of a cadet branch of the kings 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 ("lower nobility"): Nobility that held legal privileges until 1918 greater than those enjoyed by commoners, but less than those enjoyed by the Hochadel. 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 they were accounted members of the lower nobility (e.g., Bismarck, Blücher, Wrede).