County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Grafschaft Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg | |||||||||
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1607–1806 | |||||||||
Status | State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||
Capital | Berleburg | ||||||||
Common languages | Westphalian | ||||||||
Government | Principality | ||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
1607 | |||||||||
1631 | |||||||||
• Raised to Principality | 1792 | ||||||||
1806 | |||||||||
• Annexed by Prussia | 1816 | ||||||||
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Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was one of several imperial counties and later principalities ruled by the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Most of the former county is located in the present district of Siegen-Wittgenstein (in the modern state of North Rhine-Westphalia), Germany. The residence was the town and palace in Berleburg (now Bad Berleburg).
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was a partition of Sayn-Wittgenstein in the 16th century; the southern and more-developed portion was the County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein with its seat Laaspe (now Bad Laasphe) and its residence Wittgenstein Castle, whereas Berleburg is tucked away in a very rural landscape in the midst of vast forests. Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was raised from a county with Imperial immediacy to an immediate principality (Reichsfürstentum) in 1792, and was mediatised to the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1806 before being annexed to Prussia in 1816.
Five branches of the House of Sayn were extant by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, each having inherited its own appanage while the family enjoyed Imperial immediacy as vassals of the Holy Roman Empire. [3] [4] In order of seniority of legitimate descent from their progenitor, Ludwig I, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1532-1605), they were the: [3] [4]
Some of these lines further splintered into cadet branches, both dynastic and non-dynastic, the latter including families whose right to the princely title was recognized by the Russian, Prussian or Bavarian monarchies, whereas other morganatic branches used lesser titles in Germany. [4]
On the death of Ludwig, 3rd Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein in 1912, the eldest of his three sons, Hereditary Prince August (1868-1947), became 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein and head of the third branch of the House of Sayn. [3] [4] Being a childless bachelor, the elder of whose two younger brothers, Georg (1873-1960), had married morganatically, while the younger, Wilhelm (1877-1958), was 49 and yet unmarried, August preserved the name and heritage of his branch of the House of Sayn by adopting Prince Christian Heinrich {Christian Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg} (1908-1953) of the Berleburg line. [3] [4] He was the second son of the late head of the entire House of Sayn, Richard, 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1882-1925), whose eldest son Gustav Albrecht, 5th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1907-1944), had inherited the senior line's fortune and position. [3] [4]
In November 1960, Christian Heinrich, being the divorced father of three daughters by his dynastic marriage to Countess Beatrix von Bismarck-Schönhausen {Beatrix Grafin von Bismarck-Schönhausen} (1921-2006), married Princess Dagmar zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1919-2002), elder daughter of his adopted father's younger brother, Georg, who died seven months before the wedding. [3] As Georg's children by his morganatic wife, Marie Rühm, (created Baroness von Freusburg by the reigning Prince of Lippe in 1916) had been de-morganatized by declaration of their uncle August on 11 February 1947, her marriage to Christian Heinrich was deemed a dynastic match, ensuring that their son Bernhart would be born in compliance with the house laws of his adoptive ancestors, the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohensteins, while also being a grandson of the last dynastic male of that family, Prince Georg. [3]
The Danish Act of Succession, adopted on 5 June 1953, restricts the throne to those descended from Christian X and his wife, Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, through approved marriages. By a change in the law in 2009, succession is governed by absolute primogeniture.
Ludwig Adolf Friedrich, 2nd Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg-Ludwigsburg, from 1861 Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, was a Russian and German aristocrat. Among his properties were the famed Mir Castle Complex and Verkiai Palace.
Louis Adolf Peter, 1st Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg-Berleburg, better known as Peter Wittgenstein in English, was a prince of the German dynasty of Sayn-Wittgenstein and field marshal in the Imperial Russian Army during the Napoleonic Wars. He was nicknamed the Saviour of Saint-Petersburg.
Sayn-Wittgenstein was a county of medieval Germany, located in the Sauerland of eastern North Rhine-Westphalia.
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn was a county of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, comprising the lands of the region of Sayn. It was created as a partition of Sayn-Wittgenstein in 1607, although it was not until the next year that it obtained fully the Countship of Sayn. The succession was never clear, leading to the annexation of the county in 1623 by the Archbishop of Cologne. It was not until a treaty in 1648 that it was decided the county would pass to the sisters Ernestine and Johanette of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, under the regency of their mother, Countess Louise Juliane von Erbach (1603–1670). They partitioned the county into Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn-Altenkirchen and Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hachenburg soon after.
Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher.
Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was the head of the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and husband of Princess Benedikte of Denmark.
Christian Louis Casimir, 2nd Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg-Ludwigsburg was a reigning Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg-Ludwigsburg line of Sayn-Wittgenstein family from 1750 to 1796.
Gustav Albrecht, 5th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was prince and head of the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein. He was the son of Richard, 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.
Count Jefferson von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth is a German nobleman and a banker.
Gustav, 7th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, is the eldest child and only son of Princess Benedikte of Denmark and Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.
Graf August David of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was a Prussian politician. He was a member of the Cabinet of Three Counts, with Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg and Alexander Hermann, Count of Wartensleben, also known due to their heavy taxation as "the great W(oes)" of Prussia. As a favorite of Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg, he was later imprisoned at Spandau Citadel, fined 70,000 thalers and banished subsequently by Frederick William due to corruption, wastage and inefficiency.
Bernhart Otto Peter, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein is a German businessman and the current head of the Princely House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein.
Prince Robin of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg is the son of Gustav Albrecht, 5th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and his wife, Franco-Swedish noblewoman Margareta Fouché d'Otrante.
Richard, 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg from 1904 to 1918.
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was a county and later principality between Hesse-Darmstadt and Westphalia.
Prinz Ludwig Ferdinand Paul Franz Stanislaus Ulrich Otto Ludolf zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was a highly decorated Oberst in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Ludwig-Ferdinand Prinz von Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was killed on 22 November 1943 near Zhytomyr, Ukraine. He was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross on 20 January 1944 and was also promoted to Oberst.
Louis I, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein, nicknamed "the Elder", formally "Louis I of Sayn, Count at Wittgenstein" ruled the County of Wittgenstein, on the upper reaches of the rivers Lahn and Eder, from 1558 until his death. He converted his county to Calvinism and was an influential politician in the service to the Electoral Palatinate.
Leonilla Ivanovna Baryatinskaya, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, was a Russian aristocrat who married Ludwig, Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn. She was the subject of a number of portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
Prince August Fredrik zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, known professionally as August Wittgenstein, is a German-Swedish actor and member of the princely House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. Wittgenstein has appeared in English, German, and Swedish language films, starring in the 2013 German television movie Open Desert. He is known for his portrayals of Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse in The Crown and Count Alfred Eckbrecht von Dürckheim-Montmartin in Ludwig II as well as his roles as Karl Tennstedt in Das Boot and Andreas Wolf in Deadwind.