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]

Originally Posted by 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?

Kind of, Baron and Freiherr are of equal ranks. If a familyhead 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.