German Royal and Noble Titles & Protocols

[k8e86]

This is quite close to home for me I have been doing research and eberhard graf was a noble at some stage or considered one hence the reason why my great grandmother Catherine fredricka Graf called my grandfather fredrich Eberhard your highness something graf. he has now passed away I have discovered they were quite prominent family in the military however in the reign of hitler they revolted against him with the anti nazi group due to the poor treatment of their own soldiers they were not jewish and were not in prison camps to the best of my knowledge. They fled germany so that my grandfather aged 17 did not have to join hitlers army as my grandfather was in the special military school age 12. I pressume if he was to return to germany he would of been in alot of troublee and possibly killed.

I have found info linking them to politcians in that day and further back 200 years Eberhard Graf was of some noble ranking located in the wikipedia. It is very hard to decifer the exact origin and how far back it goes as I do not speak german nor understand it in written language. any finding on this would be greatly appreciated.

[David Lewis]

i wonder if anyony could explain the difference between the use of Baron and Frieherr.

I have been researching the descendents of the electress Sophia and note that there are several instances where many generations are Barons and then there is a change to Frieherr.

Are the terms interchangable?

[Saschana]

Kind of, Baron and Freiherr are of equal ranks. If a family head is Baron or Freiherr was determined by patent of nobility and the GHdA (basically same as the Gotha). But in everyday life the Freiherr was often addressed as Baron.

[kbk]

Actually, you can call a freiherr a baron, but not backwards.

[Baron Montreuil]

Hello Everyone,

I am coming to terms with German titles [forgive my ignorance] and have come across the term "Freigraf". May I ask if this is in a similar vein to "Freiherr" or is it something altogether different. GOOGLE isn't very revealing here and I wondered if a German speaker could advise?

Best wishes

Baron Montreuil

[Catherine J]

I am not a German speaker, per se, but I can tell you that broken down the word means (frei) "free" and (graf) "count". What I cannot tell you is what that means in the context of traditional German titles.

[Meraude]

According to Wikipedia:
Freigraf Free Count Frei = free (allodial?) + Graf; both a feudal title of comital rank and a more technical office
Source: Graf - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The technical office seems to have to do with being a judge at the Vehmic courts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehmic_court

[Baron Montreuil]

Yes, thank you. I have no sense of whether Freigraf is a title [peerage] or whether or not it is a designation for a position at court. There is some idea that it may be a feudal title and that is fascinating. In the UK we have feudal comital titles often found in Scotland and Freigraf may be similar. Any German speakers out there?

[victor1319]

Freigraf: The German Wikipedia claims a Freigraf was the chairman of a medieval court, the so called Femegericht. Every commoner was able to get appointed as a Freigraf too. Graf So it is no feudal title. There were other non-feudal Grafs too, for example the Graf responsible for the water dams, the Deichgraf.

[Meraude]

It seems that the Frei in Freigraf have a connection to being a Freeman, not a serf, being a member of what in England was called the Franklins, Franklin (class) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[kbk]

A freiherr or freigraf, meaning free lord and free count, was an immediate subject of the Emperor in the Holy Roman Empire and not anyone else. It was a high privilege for those who held status of a freelord. Imperial immediacy was a kind of sovereignty among the nobles of the HRE. Those houses that held imperial immediacy during the Empire were later considered equal with rulling houses of Europe. It was a case when a dynastic or morganatic nature of a marriage between a royal and a noble was considered.