Von Blumenthal

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Von Blumenthal is a noble family from Brandenburg, Prussia.

The family possibly takes its name from Blumenthal near Magdeburg, from where they were brought to the Prignitz and installed there by the Counts von Plotho in the mid 12th century, or perhaps earlier still from Blomendahl in Holland or Blumenthal in Luxembourg. They named the Prignitz village of Blumenthal after themselves but resided in the nearby castle of Horst, which 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.

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

Prominent members of this family include:

• 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; Master of Lenzen 1420-22

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

• Georg (I) (1490-1550), Prince Bishop of Ratzeburg, Bishop of Lebus, Brandenburg Privy Councillor and Chancellor of the University of Frankfurt (Oder), commonly called the Viadrina. He was the last Catholic sovereign ruler in northern Germany, and the only Bishop in Brandenburg during the Reformation to die a Catholic.

• Joachim Friedrich (d. 1658), founder of the Prussian Army. He was a War Commissar for the Holy Roman Empire, and then for Brandenburg. He represented both the Empire and Brandenburg at the Peace of Westphalia and also at the Imperial Diet. He was, additionally, the Great Elector's President of the Privy Council (Prime Minister) and the first secular governor of the Principality of Halberstadt.

• Christoph Caspar, diplomat who negotiated the Peace of Oliva.

• 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 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 Siegmaringen from 1864-1873. He was a leading opponent of Catholicism in Prussia.

• Field Marshal Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal was, after Moltke, Prussia's greatest general of the Bismarckian period. The Crown Prince, later the Emperor Frederick III, stated that it was to Leonhardt that he owed his victories during the Austro-Prussian War. Bismarck ascribed the victories of Wörth, Weissenburg and even Sedan to him, and he commanded the Siege of Paris. His civilised refusal to bombard Paris saved the city. However, it is also arguable that had he not got the Crown Prince's army through the Riesen passes in 1866, the Austro-Prussian War would have been lost, while in the 1864 Prussian-Danish War he was responsible for the daring raid on Als which ended the war.

• 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

• Werner (1848-1928), a veteran of the Austro- and Franco-Prussian wars, and a friend of Prince Frederick 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 antisemitism 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 von Prittwitz, he left the army in 1910 as a Lieutenant General. However, on the outbreak of 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. His end was tragic. His son Curt joined the SA and rose to command 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.

• Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal was active in Oster's 1938 conspiracy against Hitler, where it was intended he should head the body which was to seize the Reichskanzlei, then another conspiracy in 1944, and was finally hanged in 1945 for his part in Stauffenberg's July Plot.

• 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 was the officer 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, Karl Fritsch.

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 (Henry 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.

Principle historical estates at one time owned by the family:

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); 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 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); Schlönwitz (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)

Arms: Party per pale, sable and or; in bend sinister, a vinestock couped, with three clusters and three leaves proper, all counterchanged.

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

References and sources: Geschichte des Geschlechts der Grafen und Herren von Blumenthal, Berlin 1904; Genealogisches Handbuch der Adeligen Häuser A Band XVIII - C.A. Starke Verlag, 1985