Blumenthal family

This article relates to the von Blumenthal family of German nobility from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other, unrelated, families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families (both Jewish and non-Jewish) called "Blumenthal" without "von" are to be found worldwide. It is important to note, though, that the privileges of the German nobility as the first class of the realm were abolished on August 11, 1919 with the Weimar Constitution, when all Germans were made equal before the law.

Origin

Like the von Grabow family, the von Blumenthals were originally a branch of the von Ammendorf family, who inherited the estates of Blumenthal and Grabow from the only daughter and heiress of Nikolaus von Blumenthal. His family probably originally came from Bloemendaal in Holland, and re-located first to Blumenthal near Verden, in the diocese of Bremen, and thence to Blumenthal in the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, where they were vassals of the Wendish Counts von Plotho. The von Plothos expanded their lands in the Prignitz in the 13th century, bringing Nikolaus von Blumenthal with them. There he named the villages of Blumenthal and Grabow after his properties in the Archdiocese of Magdeburg. The family of his son-in-law, Ruthger von Amendorf, had also come from the country around Bremen.The castle of Horst, near Blumenthal in the Prignitz, was the family seat for over 600 years until 1810. They claimed a legendary descent from the Roman Emperor Florianus, as well as from the Arthurian knight Daniel von Blumenthal.

Martial History

The family had a strong military tradition. Twenty of its members died in battle; eleven fought at the Battle of Königgrätz alone, and of eighteen who served in the Franco-Prussian War eleven fought at the Battle of Gravelotte. Nineteen served in the First World War. Three of its members won the Pour le Mérite (Blue Max). The family also produced three Prussian ministers of war, a field-marshal and five generals, besides numerous regimental colonels. One member of the family became a head of state (Georg, Prince-Bishop of Ratzeburg, see below).

Prominent Members

*"Gerhard von Ammendorf" (whose nephew became Ruthger von Blumenthal-Amendorf and then just von Blumenthal), Bishop of Brandenburg 1241-51

*"Otto (II)" Magistrate in 1420, a bulwark of Frederick Count of Zollern against the Wendish nobility of the Brandenburg Mark.

*"Otto (III)" son of the above, Captain of the Prignitz 1415-22; Castellan of Lenzen 1420-22

*"Hans (II)", son of Otto (III), Vogt (=Captain) of Arneburg 1440-50

*Georg von Blumenthal (1490-1550), the last Catholic sovereign ruler in northern Germany, and the only Bishop in Brandenburg during the Protestant Reformation to die a Catholic.

*Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal (1609-1657), diplomat and politician of Brandenburg-Prussia

*"Christoph Caspar", Brandenburg's Ambassador to France, who negotiated the Peace of Oliva. He narrowly lost to Schwartzenburg the election to the Grand Mastership of the Johanniter-Orden.

*The brothers "Friedrich" (died 1745) and "Hans" (d. 1788) both commanded Frederick the Great's famous Garde du Corps, which Friedrich had founded. Hans won the Pour le Mérite at Hohenfriedberg. He had to leave the army after being wounded leading his regiment in a successful cavalry charge at the Battle of Lobositz. He was later made a Count and supervised the education of Frederick William III's brother, Prince Henry.

*"Georg (IV)" (b. at Quackenburg, Pomerania in 1722, d. 1784) won the Pour le Mérite at the Battle of Prague. He was charged with raising forces to oppose the invasion of Pomerania in the 1760s by the Russians, who put a price on his head. He became a Major General.

* "Ludwig" (died 1760) and his nephew Joachim Christian von Blumenthal were both presidents of Frederick the Great's principal ministry, the War and Domains Directory.

* "Heinrich" (died 1830) was Mayor of Magdeburg (where his statue is to be seen) and Head Chamberlain to Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, as well as governor of Jerôme's palace at Wilhelmshöhe.

* "Robert" was Regierungspresident (Regional Governor) of Danzig from 1841-1863 and of Sigmaringen from 1864-1873. He was a leading opponent of Catholicism in Prussia.

*Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal (1810-1900), field marshal and leading general of the German wars of unification

* "Albrecht" (IV) (1842-1918), son of Leonhard, (who publish his father's memoirs) became a lieutenant general.

* "Louis (Ludwig (VII))" (1811-1903), led the Prussian 52nd Infantry as Colonel into its decisive charge on the Austrian Hoch und Deutschmeister Regiment at the Battle of Nachod in 1866. He became a Major-General

* "Maximilian (I)" (1823-1914), was a major in the 1st East Prussian Grenadiers No. 1 during the Austro Prussian War, where he won the Order of the Red Eagle (IVth Class). In 1870 he commanded a battalion of the 73rd Fusilers and won the Iron Cross (II Class) at Gravelotte. After the war he commanded the 1st. Silesian Grenadier Regiment No. 10. He retired as a Major General.

* Count "Werner (V)" (1848-1928), a veteran of the Austro- and Franco-Prussian wars, and a friend of Prince Frederick von Hohenzollern of Prussia, became Chamberlain to the King of Saxony. He was a leading moderate in the Conservative Party, and at the Tivoli Congress of 1892, at which Klasing persuaded the party to adopt anti-semitism as part of its programme, he spoke out courageously. He was shouted down, and those who supported him did not dare do so publicly. His daughter Maria, a nun, was murdered in her 70s by the SS.

* "Hans (XI)" (1855-1945), youngest son of Ludwig (VII), lost his two elder brothers in the Franco-Prussian War. Most of his adult life was uneventful. He was colonel of the 13th Hussars in 1900; Commander of the 24th cavalry Brigade (13th Hussars and 9th Dragoons) stationed in Metz in 1906, and promoted to Major General, but after quarrelling with his commanding officer, General Maximilian von Prittwitz, he left the army in 1910 as a Lieutenant General. However, on the outbreak of the First World War he rejoined the army and first commanded the 60th Landwehr Brigade, then the 49th in Bois de Lord, south of the Champagne, until 1917, when health forced him to retire again. He was made a Count of the Grand Duchy of Baden, and married Lillian Steinway-Oakes (1860-1904), daughter of the celebrated co-founder of Steinway & Sons, Henry Steinway, and sister-in-law of Baden's minister of the interior, Baron Heinrich von Bodman. His end was tragic. His son Curt joined the SA and rose to be Reiterstandartführer (equivalent to a major general) in command of the 27th SA Reiterstandarte at Kyritz. On the night of May 1st 1945 Curt shot his wife, children and himself in front of his father and sister Clarissa. Shortly after that, the Russians arrived and attempted to rape the 65-year-old Clarissa. Hans, himself over ninety, drove (or shamed) them off. But the experience was a shock and he died of a heart attack a few days later on 7th May.

*"Albrecht" was a respected philologist and as a poet was a leading member of the circle of Stefan George, to whom he introduced the Stauffenberg brothers. The dissident Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer conducted an illegal seminary in 1938 from Albrecht's estate at Schlönwitz.

*Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal (1907-1944), officer who took part in Oster's 1938 conspiracy and was executed after the July 20 Plot against Adolf Hitler in 1944.

*"Werner Richard" and "Wolfgang Charles", Albrecht's sons, ceased using their first Christian name and adopted their step-father's surname, becoming, respectively, Richard and Charles Arnold-Baker, joined the British army and both served as officers in MI6. Richard (called Captain Barnes in the transcripts) was in the team of officers who interrogated Rudolf Hess, and Charles commanded Winston Churchill's bodyguard for part of the war, and in Norway arrested the Deputy Commandant of Auschwitz, Hans Aumeier.

All living members of the family are descended from "Eustachius Albrecht" von Blumenthal and "Margarethe" Gans Edle zu Puttlitz (married circa 1575). She was a descendant, via the von Gleichen and von Henneberg families from Henry I the Child, Landgrave of Hesse, himself a descendant of Albrecht the Bear, St. Elisabeth of Hungary and St. Hedwig of Silesia (Hedwig of Andechs), (patron saint of Berlin and Brandenburg) and thence of the Emperors Otto I and II and so of Charlemagne.

Principal Historical Estates

In the East Prignitz: Horst (1241-1810); Blumenthal (1263-1810); Hennekendorf (until 1318); Grabow (1274-1312); Dahlhausen (1487-1810); Brüsenhagen (mentioned in 1424); Vehlow (1486-1838; repurchased in 1930s); Wüsten-Boddin (1458-1495); Garz (1438-1541); Kyritz (Townhouse, 1315-1585);

In the West Prignitz: Pröttlin (1540-1756); Stavenow (1647-1717); Rauschendorf & Schönermark (briefly, until 1810); Abbendorf (1715-?);

In the Old Brandenburg Mark: Schloss Arneburg (1441-1463)

In the rest of the Brandenburg Mark: Bukow (1546-1556); Haselberg & Harnekop (1617-1662); Paretz (1677-1795); Flatow (1797-1810); Steinhöfel (1774 -1800); Trechwitz (1644-1650)

In the Lower Lausitz: Pretschen and Wittmannsdorf (1649 - mid 18th cent); Guhrow (briefly in the 17th cent)

In Mecklenburg: Adamsdorf (formerly Kuhschwanz; 1800-1835) and Liepen (1800-1810)

In Halberstadt: the former properties of the von Warberg family (1653-1732)

In Anhalt: Quellendorf (1871-late 19th cent)

In Silesia: Hundsfeld in Oels (late 19th cent)

In Pomerania: Quackenburg (1717-1905); Egsow & Cummerzin (1734-1833); Suckow (19th cent to 1874); Varzin, Jannewitz & Wendisch-Puddiger (1874; sold to Bismarck); Gross Schlönwitz (Słonowice (PKP station)) (1734-1773 & 1843-1945); Staffelde (1883-1945; recovered and resold in 1990s); Segenthin (1834-1945); Deutsch-Puddiger (1839-1945); Grünwalde in Rummelsburg (briefly, 19th Cent);

In West Prussia: Gottschalk & Dohnastedt (1841-after 1904)

In German New Guinea: Kurakagaul & Natava (1904-1920)

Heraldry

Arms: Party per pale, sable and or; in bend sinister, a vinestock couped, with three clusters and three leaves proper, all counterchanged. (note the illustration shows an early generic version of the arms which omits the partition of the field into sable and or);

Crest: A virgin, dressed per pale or and sable, between two eagles' wings, holding a wreath.

References

* "Geschichte des Geschlechts der Grafen und Herren von Blumenthal", Berlin 1904;

* "Genealogisches Handbuch der Adeligen Häuser" A Band XVIII - C.A. Starke Verlag, 1985

* "For He is an Englishman - Memoirs of a Prussian Nobleman" by Charles Arnold-Baker or Wolfgang von Blumenthal - Jeremy Mills Publishing Ltd, 2007 - ISBN 978-1-905217-44-1