House of Hohenzollern — dynasty of Brandenburg, Prussia and the German Empire

Origins and family history until around 1200

The ancestral lands of the dynasty lie in the northern part of today's Zollernalbkreis district, where Hohenzollern Castle is located not far from Hechingen near the district of Zimmern in the municipality of Bisingen. The original structure possibly dates back to the 11th century, was first mentioned in 1267 and was conquered and largely destroyed by the League of Swabian Imperial Cities in 1423. The present castle was built by Friedrich Wilhelm IV between 1850 and 1867 in the architectural style of neo-Gothic. It is called the third castle and still belongs jointly to the Brandenburg-Prussian and Swabian lines.

The earliest mention of the family is "Burchardus et Wezil de Zolorin occiduntur" in the Latin chronicle of Berthold von Reichenau, which mentions the two Hohenzollerns who died in 1061. Burchardus and Wezil (Werner) were contemporaries of the Roman-German king Henry IV from the Salian dynasty. The work of the monk chronologically follows the world chronicle of Hermann of Reichenau. Mentions in connection with the monastery of Reichenau suggest that the Hohenzollerns came into a local position of power as bailiffs of the Reichenau church estate. It is certain that in the early times there was a close connection with the monastery on Lake Constance. Ulrich von Zollern died as abbot of Reichenau in 1136 and later numerous Hohenzollerns entered there as monks.

The surviving passage of Berthold of Reichenau is not unproblematic for historians, since the source does not explain the exact circumstances of the event and, moreover, the named are not referred to as counts. The Tübingen professor Martin Crusius already remarked at the end of the 16th century: "Burckhard and Wezil of Zolorin perish. This is added in Hermann des Contract Chronik. There is nothing written below, neither the cause, nor anything else, from which one could recognize that they were Counts of Zollern" (translation). Since the middle of the 19th century, the two Hohenzollerns have been the first reliably attested ancestors at the beginning of the family history, since the non-existence of persons further back in time was scientifically proven.

• Burkhard I († 1061)
• Frederick I († before 1125), called "Maute".
• Frederick II († around 1142), son of Frederick I, around 1170 secession of the Hohenbergs
• Frederick III. (* before 1171; † around 1200), from 1192 Burgrave Frederick I of Nuremberg

Documents with naming of family members exist only since the end of the 11th century. Adalbert von Zollern from the collateral line Haigerloch, named "Adelbertus de Zolro" in the original source, owned an estate in the Black Forest together with other nobles and founded the Alpirsbach monastery there in 1095. Little is known about this time in connection with the lordship of Haigerloch.

Frederick I of Zollern († before 1125), called "Maute", was a descendant of Burkhard I, who died in 1061, and acted as the first bailiff of the Alpirsbach monastery. Through his commitment to the Salian Emperor Henry V, the Hohenzollerns were noticed at the imperial level. The count stayed at the court of the ruler and was active in government affairs of the empire and in the investiture dispute. In 1111, the Hohenzollern was in the entourage of Henry V at the coronation of the emperor by Pope Paschalis II. In this year, Frederick I was verifiably called count. Frederick also gradually became the leading name of the Hohenzollerns.

After the death of Maute around 1125, his son Frederick II received the core estate. The Counts of Zollern had a dominion with ministerials around 1125. However, little is known about the location of the possessions. In connection with possessions at donations the places Höfendorf near Haigerloch (1095), Beuren (1134), Stetten, Engstlatt, Hart, Streichen and Thanheim could be determined.

Burkhard, the other son of Maute and from then on Count of Hohenberg-Zollern, founded the Hohenberg branch of the family, which became extinct in 1486. According to another opinion, the division of the property did not occur after Maute's death, but only around 1170. The Hohenbergers built Hohenberg Castle, a hilltop castle near Schörzingen, and often did not have good relations with the Hohenzollerns, even to the point of quarrels. A well-known Hohenberger was Albrecht II of Hohenberg-Rotenburg, the Minnesinger († 1298). The secession of the Hohenbergs had as consequence the loss of the western territory for the Hohenzollerns. The Hohenbergs ruled Haigerloch from the 12th to the 14th century. In 1497, the Counts of Zollern received Haigerloch in exchange for property in Graubünden, after the dominion had already been pledged to the family in 1488.

In the 12th century, the Hohenzollerns were active at the land days of the Dukes of Swabia and likewise at the court days of the Staufers in connection with Swabian affairs. The family was furthermore present at land days of the Zähringers as well as at land days of Henry the Lion for fiefs near Ravensburg. The Hohenzollerns built up their power through the offices they held for the empire and the church and through the church property they administered.

The rise of the Hohenzollerns in the late Middle Ages was due in no small part to their loyalty to the king, first to the Staufers and later to the Luxemburgers. Frederick III of Zollern († around 1200) was a loyal follower of the Hohenzollern emperors Frederick I and Henry VI. His father or grandfather Frederick II initially distanced himself from the Hohenzollerns due to an alliance with Emperor Lothar of Süpplingenburg, but fought with them against the Guelphs after 1138. In the Tübingen feud from 1164 to 1166, the Hohenzollerns sided with the Palgraves of Tübingen and the Hohenzollerns against the Guelphs in their homeland. Frederick III married Sophia of Raabs, the daughter of the Nuremberg Burgrave Konrad II of Raabs, around 1185. The Burgraves had extensive estates in Austria, where Raabs Castle is located. After the death of his father-in-law, who left no male descendants, Frederick III was enfeoffed with the Burgraviate of Nuremberg by Emperor Henry VI in 1192. He was named Burgrave of Nuremberg for the first time on July 8 of that year in an imperial confirmation document in the capacity of a witness and is referred to as the progenitor of the Zollerisch-Nürnberg House as Frederick I. The office of Burgrave was a man fief of the empire and meant a service for the emperor.

The sons of the Burgrave divided the possessions among themselves after initially leading them together. The elder Konrad I received the Burgraviate of Nuremberg around 1218. He founded the Franconian line of the Hohenzollerns, which later became the Brandenburg-Prussian line. His younger brother Frederick IV (II) continued the Swabian line and inherited the ancestral castle near Hechingen and the property there. He became the progenitor of the present-day House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

Names and titles of the lines created

The name of the ancestral seat near Hechingen was originally not Hohenzollern, but only Zollern. Hohenzollern is also the name of the 855-meter-high cone-shaped mountain on which Hohenzollern Castle stands. In medieval writings, the spelling of the name of the dynasty can be found as "Zoler", "Zolr", "Zolrin", "Zolre" and "Zolra". From the middle of the 14th century, Hohenzollern gradually came into use for the Swabian line and was used consistently from the 16th century. The name Zollern could be derived from Söller, which is supposed to mean height and refers to the castle hill near Hechingen. Older reference books occasionally refer in this context to an ancient Germanic sun cult site called "mons solarius" by the Romans.

The line remaining in the Swabian ancestral lands at the end of the 12th century held the title Count of Zollern and later Hohenzollern until the branches Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen were elevated to the status of imperial princes in 1623, while the branch Hohenzollern-Haigerloch remained count until its extinction in 1634. The branch enfeoffed with the Burgraviate of Nuremberg in 1192 initially held the title Burgrave of Nuremberg, with the family name Zollern coming out of use with the Frankish line. Since the feud with the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1415, all members of the Franconian line henceforth bore the title Margrave of Brandenburg, unofficially supplemented in the case of the branches remaining in Franconia by the designation of origin -Kulmbach, -Ansbach or -Bayreuth, while the Margrave ruling in Brandenburg also bore the rank designation of an Elector. Only the "Great Elector" Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg adopted the title Count of Hohenzollern again in the 17th century as one of many secondary titles.

From 1525, the title Duke of Prussia was held only by the dukes ruling there, who were identical with the electors from 1618. Since the elevation of the duchy to a kingdom in 1701, the descendants of the first king Frederick I then held the titles Prince and Princess of Prussia (while his siblings and their descendants, for example, remained Margraves). In the German Empire (1871-1918), the official title of German Emperor was limited to the respective head of state, while his family members, with the exception of the Crown Prince, held only the Prussian titles.

By an inheritance treaty in 1695, the later King Frederick I was designated as head of the two main lines, the Franconian-Brandenburg and the Swabian. This arrangement no longer has any significance today; the only two branches still in existence today, the (Protestant) former Prussian royal house and the (Catholic) former ruling princely house of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen consider themselves to be two families of one noble dynasty, each with its own head, the former bearing the surname Prince and Princess of Prussia and the latter the name Prince and Princess of Hohenzollern.

Theories of origin that do not apply

There is no certain knowledge about the origin and family relations of the Hohenzollern before the 11th century. A descent from the Rhaetian Burchardingers, which Ludwig Schmid tried to prove in the 19th century, cannot be proven. The Burchardingers never owned the Zollernburg and died out already in the 10th century. The Hohenzollerns are also not descended from the fictitious Count Tassilo of Zollern, who supposedly lived around 800. The historian Johann Basilius Herold named this origin after he was entrusted with historical research by Charles I of Hohenzollern in 1560. Count Tassilo was said to be related to the Guelphs and to have been at Charlemagne's court. The fictitious ancestor can also be found in the works of Frederick the Great, among others. The opinion that the Hohenzollerns were descended from the Roman family of the Colonna is also incorrect. Pope Martin V, who himself came from the house of Colonna, expressed this view in a letter in 1424. As with many ruling dynasties, a legendary lineage was also constructed during the Renaissance period, which placed the beginnings of the family not only in the Roman Empire, but all the way back to Troy.

In the second half of the 19th century a small minority of Franconian researchers expressed the opinion that the origin of the House of Prussia should not be with the Swabian Hohenzollerns, but with the Franconian Abenbergers who died out around 1200. The Burgraves of Nuremberg of the 13th century would thus not be Hohenzollerns. The dispute among genealogists on this question lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. However, the historical connection of the Swabian, Franconian and Brandenburg Hohenzollerns can be seen, among other things, in the use of the coat of arms with the crossing in black and white (silver). The coat of arms was used by the Swabian counts of Zollern in the middle of the 13th century. The coat of arms was also used by the Burgraves of Nuremberg and the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg, who used it at princely funerals in the Kurmark from the 15th century. The new seal of the Elector of Brandenburg from 1415 also shows the Zollern coat of arms.

The Burgraves of Nuremberg

The descendants of Konrad I of Nuremberg (* around 1186; † around 1260/1261), called "the Pious" and son of Friedrich III of Zollern, were Burgraves of Nuremberg until 1427, with their seat at Burggrafenburg, an annex of the imperial castle of Nuremberg. Initially, the Burgraviate of Nuremberg included only a few estates. The family rather had usable rights through the imperial office. The affinity with the Abenbergers brought in 1236 the castle of Abenberg (sold in 1296) and the Cadolzburg, which became the headquarters from 1260. Furthermore, the Hohenzollerns took over the patronage of the monastery of Heilsbronn, which was donated by the Abenbergers and was the family burial ground between 1297 and 1625.

The territory could be expanded by acquisitions from the 13th century and was the largest territorial dominion in Franconia at the end of the 14th century. After the Staufers had lost their power, the Habsburgs were approached. Frederick III, called "the Heir", fought with Rudolf of Habsburg in Italy in 1242 and stood up for him in his election as king in 1273. Through his marriage to Elisabeth of Andechs-Merania, he came into possession of Bayreuth in 1260, which came from the inheritance of Duke Otto II of Andechs-Merania.

Subsequently, his eldest son Johann I became regent for a short time, followed by his younger son Frederick IV. Frederick IV held the influential position of Privy Councillor to King Ludwig the Bavarian. In the Battle of Mühldorf in 1322, the Burgrave strongly supported the king, was called the "savior of the empire" by him and received economically important mining and ore mining rights from him in 1324. Frederick IV was named vicar general of Tuscany in 1328. In 1331 the Hohenzollerns received Ansbach by purchase from the Counts of Oettingen. Johann II, called "the Acquirer", took over the Burgraviate first with his brother Albrecht and later alone; his brother Konrad had died early. Johann II was entitled to the inheritance of the Counts of Orlamünde and received the Plassenburg dominion with Kulmbach in 1340. Plassenburg Castle had already been built by the Andechsers around 1135. During the reign of Johann II, the Hohenzollerns came into contact with the Mark Brandenburg for the first time. He defended the Mark for Ludwig the Bavarian in 1345 and administered it for a short time as governor for his son Ludwig the Brandenburger.

Burgrave Frederick V was elevated to the rank of imperial prince by Emperor Charles IV from the dynasty of Luxembourg in 1363, together with his house, and was the holder of a fiefdom. In the imperial service he took over the office of an imperial captain at the head of a land peace alliance in Franconia; after 1363 he was active as a bailiff in Alsace and in 1371 in Upper Swabia. In 1373 the Burgraviate expanded to include Hof, which until then had belonged to the bailiffs of Weida. Frederick V first regulated the future inheritance for his two sons John III and Frederick VI in 1372 and laid down the provisions again in more detail in the Dispositio Fridericiana of 1385. He recommended joint rule for ten years, but also gave instructions in the event of separation of the property; certain castles and regalia were to remain in joint ownership. The sons first followed their father's wishes, but in 1403 they undertook a division of the property.

Johann III had previously become the first regent of the principality of Kulmbach ("above the mountains") in 1398. In 1542, Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades moved the seat of government from Kulmbach's Plassenburg Castle - which had been expanded into a fortress from 1530 - to Bayreuth. From 1604, the land was therefore called the Principality of Bayreuth. Johann's brother Friedrich VI was also the first regent of the principality of Ansbach ("below the mountains") from 1398. The margraves and members of the Brandenburg-Kulmbach and Brandenburg-Ansbach branches of the family used "Brandenburg" in their names, since it was not until the Dispositio Achillea of 1473 that a separation was determined between the Mark Brandenburg and the Frankish possessions. The two principalities were located on the territory of the previous Burgraviate and remained in the family. The Burggrafenburg was largely destroyed by Ludwig VII of Bavaria in 1420 during the Bavarian War; it was not rebuilt by the Hohenzollerns. In 1427 the Burggrafenburg was sold to the imperial city of Nuremberg.

In 1791, the childless Margrave Karl Alexander concluded a secret treaty with Prussia (under King Frederick William II ) to hand over the two Franconian principalities to Prussia and was guaranteed an annual monetary payment. This ended the era of the Franconian Hohenzollerns; the Brandenburg-Prussian line was also able to maintain its power only until 1805 in Ansbach-Bayreuth. The principality of Ansbach became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806, the principality of Bayreuth in 1810.

As burgraves of the Frankish line ruled:

• 1218-1260/61 Konrad I. (* around 1186; † around 1260/1261), called "the Pious", son of Frederick III of Zollern
• 1260/61-1297 Frederick III. (* c. 1220; † 1297), called "the heir
• 1297-1300 John I (* around 1279; † 1300)
• 1300-1332 Frederick IV (* c. 1287; † 1332), brother of John I.
• 1332-1357 Johann II (* before 1320 (1309?); † 1357), called "the Acquiring".
• 1357-1397 Frederick V. (* c. 1333; † 1398), prince-count 1363, Dispositio Fridericiana 1385
• 1397-1420 John III. (* around 1369; † 1420)
• 1397-1427 Frederick VI, also Frederick I of Brandenburg (* 1371; † 1440), brother of John III.

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach

The Principality of Ansbach was the lower mountainous part of the former Burgraviate of Nuremberg, which existed until 1427. Strictly speaking, the term margraviate would have to be used. Until 1486, the principality was in personal union with the Mark of Brandenburg, then a separation of possessions took place with Johann Cicero of Brandenburg and Frederick II of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Between 1398 and 1400, Frederick I of Brandenburg had a collegiate court expanded into a moated castle, the remains of which can still be seen in the present-day building of the Ansbach residence.

Like the principality of Bayreuth, the principality of Ansbach came to the Prussian state in 1791/1792 and was administered together with it as Ansbach-Bayreuth by Karl August von Hardenberg. Napoleon Bonaparte fundamentally reorganized the territories he occupied. Even before Prussia's defeat in the Fourth Coalition War, the territory fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806 through a forced exchange of territory.

The regents of the principality of Ansbach were:

• 1398-1440 Frederick I of Brandenburg (* c. 1371; † 1440), son of Frederick V of Nuremberg
• 1440-1486 Albrecht Achilles (* 1414; † 1486), Dispositio Achillea 1473
• 1486-1515 Frederick II (* 1460; † 1536)
• 1515-1543 George the Pious (* 1484; † 1543), called "the Confessor".
• 1543-1603 George Frederick I called "the Elder" (* 1539; † 1603)
• 1603-1625 Joachim Ernst (* 1583; † 1625), son of Johann Georg von Brandenburg
• 1625-1634 Frederick III. (* 1616; † 1634)
• 1634-1667 Albrecht II. (* 1620; † 1667), brother of Frederick III.
• 1667-1686 Johann Friedrich (* 1654; † 1686)
• 1686-1692 Christian Albrecht (* 1675; † 1692)
• 1692-1703 George Frederick II. called "the Younger" (* 1678; † 1703), brother of Christian Albrecht
• 1703-1723 Wilhelm Friedrich (* 1686; † 1723), brother of Georg Friedrich II.
• 1723-1757 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (* 1712; † 1757), called "the Wild Margrave".
• 1757-1791 Charles Alexander (* 1736; † 1806), transfer of the principality to Prussia

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (Bayreuth)

The principality of Bayreuth developed from the upper mountainous part of the Burgraviate of Nuremberg. Although the principality of Bayreuth was ruled several times in personal union with the principality of Ansbach, the principalities remained independent.

After being handed over to the Prussian state in 1791/1792 and administered by Karl August von Hardenberg, the Principality of Bayreuth was occupied by French troops in the fall of 1806 and had to be ceded to the French Empire in 1807 in the Peace of Tilsit. While retaining the Prussian administrative organization, it was placed under a military administration. In 1810, the Kingdom of Bavaria purchased the principality; on June 30 of the same year, it took possession.

The principality of Kulmbach respectively Bayreuth was ruled by:

• 1398-1420 Johann (* 1369; † 1420), also Johann III of Nuremberg, son of Frederick V of Nuremberg
• 1420-1440 Frederick I of Brandenburg (* 1371; † 1440), brother of John
• 1437-1464 John the Alchemist (* 1406; † 1464)
• 1457-1486 Albrecht Achilles (* 1414; † 1486), Dispositio Achillea 1473, brother of John the Alchemist
• 1486-1495 Siegmund (* 1468; † 1495)
• 1495-1515 Frederick II (* 1460; † 1536), brother of Siegmund
• 1515-1527 Casimir (* 1481; † 1527)
• 1515/27-1541 George the Pious (* 1484; † 1543), called "the Confessor", brother of Casimir
• 1527/41-1554 Albrecht II. Alcibiades (* 1522; † 1557), son of Casimir
• 1557-1603 George Frederick I the Elder (* 1539; † 1603), son of George the Pious
• 1603-1655 Christian (* 1581; † 1655), son of Johann Georg von Brandenburg
• 1655-1712 Christian Ernst (* 1644; † 1712), son of Erdmann August von Brandenburg-Bayreuth
• 1712-1726 George William (* 1678; † 1726)
• 1726-1735 George Frederick Charles (* 1688; † 1735), son of Christian Henry of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
• 1735-1763 Frederick III. (* 1711; † 1763)
• 1763-1769 Friedrich Christian (* 1708; † 1769), son of Christian Heinrich von Brandenburg-Kulmbach
• 1769-1791 Karl Alexander (* 1736; † 1806), transfer of the principality to Prussia, son of Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach

The Dukes of Brandenburg-Jägerndorf

George the Pious, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, acquired the Silesian Duchy of Jägerndorf in 1523, whose residence was in Jägerndorf (today: Krnov in the Czech Republic). The Hohenzollerns were replaced as regents in the Silesian duchy in 1623.

The following Hohenzollerns ruled the duchy:

• 1523-1543 George of Brandenburg-Ansbach called "the Pious" (* 1484; † 1543), son of Frederick II of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach
• 1543-1603 George Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach (* 1539; † 1603)
• 1603-1606 Joachim Friedrich of Brandenburg (* 1546; † 1608), son of Johann Georg of Brandenburg
• 1606-1623 Johann Georg von Brandenburg-Jägerndorf (* 1577; † 1624)

The Electors and Margraves of Brandenburg

Frederick VI of Nuremberg (* 1371; † 1440), later Margrave Frederick I of Brandenburg, received the Margraviate of Brandenburg from King Sigismund of the House of Luxembourg because, among other things, he provided significant financial assistance in the latter's election as Roman-German king. The count acted as captain and administrator in the Mark of Brandenburg from 1411; however, the king initially still claimed the electorate and arch chamberlaincy for himself. The Mark of Brandenburg was extremely difficult to govern when Frederick VI took over. A multitude of nobles sought power and the number of feuds was great. The Nuremberg Burgrave was disparagingly referred to as "Nuremberg Tand" by the leading families. Especially the estates of Altmark and Prignitz under the leadership of Caspar Gans von Putlitz fiercely resisted the Hohenzoller, who, however, was able to establish central power and in return became margrave at the Council ofConstance in 1415 and received the electoral dignity. The Mark of Brandenburg became hereditary property of the family. The Brandenburg estates paid homage to the Burgrave at a Diet in Berlin in October 1415. Furthermore, the Electoral College gave its approval for the rank increase.

Frederick II then took over the leadership of the country with his brother Frederick, called "the Fat One," according to the provisions of his will. Frederick II took consistent action against the rapacious nobility. His firmness in governmental action against the estates and other opponents earned him the nickname "the Iron". He also did not tolerate the autonomy aspirations of the cities and created the Berlin City Palace as a residence, which was done against the strong displeasure of the population. Particularly significant during his reign was the reclamation of the Neumark and the recovery of parts of the Uckermark. The Margrave left the government to his brother Albrecht Achilles in 1470. Albrecht Achilles had previously taken over the regency in the principality of Ansbach in 1440 and also in the principality of Bayreuth in 1464. He was on the side of King Albrecht II of the House of Habsburg from 1438 and regulated the succession of rulers for the entire and indivisible Mark in 1473 with the Dispositio Achillea.

Albrecht Achilles' son, Johann Cicero, assumed governmental responsibility in Brandenburg in 1486. As stipulated in the Dispositio Achillea, the Mark was separated from the Frankish lands. The provisions were drafted to clarify the immediate inheritance arrangements. The three sons were to use the same titles and coats of arms. Later generations understood the writing more generally as an order to divide the property into three parts. The Brandenburg Hohenzollerns also turned away from imperial politics and concentrated their efforts on the Mark. The Franconian Hohenzollerns became the spokesmen for the Brandenburgers at the imperial assemblies. Johann Cicero was the first elector to find his resting place in the Mark.

His son Joachim I Nestor and his brother Albrecht IV of Brandenburg succeeded him in 1499. Initially, the Franconian uncle Frederick brought himself into the conversation as guardian, which would have de facto completed a renewed unification of the Mark with the Franconian territories. However, Emperor Maximilian I stipulated that Joachim I Nestor should become Elector while still a minor. His brother Albrecht renounced the co-regency, became Catholic Archbishop of Magdeburg in 1513, also Elector-Archbishop of Mainz in 1514, and Cardinal in 1518. In order to finance the acquisition of his ecclesiastical benefice, he sent out the indulgence preacher Tetzel, who gave Martin Luther the occasion to post the 95 Theses, which triggered the Reformation on October 31, 1517. Joachim I Nestor stuck to Catholicism and expressed his rejection of Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 and even more committedly at the Diet of Speyer in 1529. He founded the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt/Oder, which represented the Catholic position in doctrine. It became problematic that Joachim Nestor's wife Elisabeth of Denmark accepted the new confession, left her husband and went to Saxony in 1528, where she even lived with Luther.

Joachim II Hector succeeded his father Joachim I Nestor as Elector in 1535. His younger brother Johann received the newly created margraviate of Brandenburg-Küstrin (1535 to 1571) according to his father's will. The father had also expressly ordered that the sons should retain Catholicism. With his conversion to the Protestant faith on November 1, 1539, Joachim II Hector introduced the Reformation in the Margraviate of Brandenburg; his brother had already made the change of confession the previous year. Already in his youth, Joachim II Hector had become acquainted with Luther through his mother. However, it was problematic that later his Polish wife Hedwig remained with Catholicism. The division of the inheritance with his brother with the associated reduction in income and the high private expenses made it difficult to find a financial balance.

His son Johann Georg received the Mark in 1571 and, after the death of Johann von Brandenburg-Küstrin, Brandenburg-Küstrin as well. The academically educated elector consolidated the state finances. The Diet bore part of the liabilities totaling two million talers, with domain offices pledged. Johann Georg also took action against the Jew Lippold, who had once been in the coin business; a large number of Jews were mistreated and plundered.

Johann Georg's son and successor Joachim Friedrich became administrator of the archdiocese of Magdeburg in 1567 and ruled Brandenburg from 1598. By creating a Privy Council in 1604, he established an effective counterweight to the Estates. The exploitation of metal deposits and the establishment of an iron hammer works and a glassworks characterized his economic policy. The Margrave definitively established the primogeniture and indivisibility of the Mark with the Gera House Treaty of 1599. He was the guardian of Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia, who was incapable of ruling in the Duchy of Prussia, and married his eldest son to his daughter Anna in 1594; furthermore, he himself married Anna's younger sister Eleonore in 1603 in his second marriage. Albrecht Frederick's father came from the Ansbach line and had received the secularized Order land of East Prussia as a hereditary duchy in fief from the Polish king in 1525 (see below).

Joachim Friedrich's son Johann Sigismund succeeded his father as Elector of Brandenburg in 1608 and also succeeded his father-in-law as Duke of Prussia in 1618. In 1613, Johann Sigismund converted to Calvinism for political reasons; the Hohenzollerns also had a Rhenish inheritance in prospect through the marriage. In Brandenburg they remained with the Lutheran confession. The entire dominions from 1618 onward are called Brandenburg-Prussia by historians.

The margraviate was ruled by the following Hohenzollerns:

• 1412-1440 Frederick I of Brandenburg, also Frederick VI of Nuremberg (* 1371; † 1440)
• 1440-1471 Frederick II (* 1413; † 1471), called "the iron one
• 1471-1486 Albrecht Achilles (* 1414; † 1486), Dispositio Achillea 1473, brother of Frederick II.
• 1486-1499 John Cicero (* 1455; † 1499)
• 1499-1513 Albrecht IV of Brandenburg (* 1490; † 1545), cardinal, archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz
• 1499-1535 Joachim I Nestor (* 1484; † 1535), brother of Albrecht IV.
• 1535-1571 Joachim II Hector (* 1505; † 1571)
• 1571-1598 Johann Georg (* 1525; † 1598)
• 1598-1608 Joachim Friedrich (* 1546; † 1608), guardian of Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia, Gera house contract 1599
• 1608-1619 Johann Sigismund (* 1572; † 1619/1620), from 1618 Duke in Prussia

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Küstrin

The Margraviate of Brandenburg-Küstrin existed between 1535 and 1571 and included parts of the Neumark. It was the result of a secondary nobilities in the sense of Joachim I Nestor. Since the only regent Johann left no descendants entitled to inherit, Brandenburg-Küstrin was reunited with Brandenburg.

• 1535-1571 Johann von Brandenburg-Küstrin (* 1513; † 1571), son of Joachim I Nestor von Brandenburg

Dukes in Prussia

The Duchy of Prussia was created in 1525 by transforming the Teutonic Order state into a secular principality, which was a fief of the Kingdom of Poland. The feudal relationship ended only in 1667 with the Treaty of Wehlau. Albrecht of Prussia was the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. The son of Frederick V of Brandenburg-Ansbach decided in November 1523, on Luther's advice, to resign the office of Grand Master, to transform the Teutonic Order state into a secular duchy and to introduce the Reformation there. Before King Sigismund I of Poland, Albrecht performed the Prussian Homage in 1525, by which he took the Order's land in fief as a duchy continuing in a straight male line. However, his son and successor Albrecht Friedrich died in 1618 without a male heir and the Polish king enfeoffed his son-in-law, Elector Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg, with the Duchy of Prussia. Thus the Mark of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia (East Prussia) were in the possession of a single Hohenzoller and were held in personal union.

As early as 1614, the Jülich-Klev succession dispute had ended and the Treaty of Xanten stipulated that the Elector of Brandenburg, Johann Sigismund, was to receive the Duchy of Cleves, the County of Mark and the County of Ravensberg, for which he had already converted to Calvinism the year before. Brandenburg-Prussia refers to the entire dominions between 1618 and 1701. The territories were partly within and partly outside the Holy Roman Empire.

Under the "Great Elector" Frederick William, the country flourished after the devastation of the Thirty Years' War. He introduced reforms, supported agriculture and immigration by bringing artists, craftsmen, builders, farmers and merchants into the country, especially from the homeland of his Dutch first wife Luise Henriette of Orange, later also Jews and Protestants from Austria and Huguenots from France and the Netherlands. He succeeded in keeping his scattered territories largely intact through skillful alliance policy during the Second Northern War, and he acquired Hinterpommern. In 1664, he issued an edict of tolerance to end rivalries between Lutherans and Calvinists, thus establishing the tradition of Prussian tolerance. He had the Potsdam City Palace, Oranienburg Palace, and several smaller country estates built.

Kings in and of Prussia

His son who followed in 1688, Elector Frederick III. In 1699, he had the Berlin Palace extended from a Renaissance building to a large Baroque palace and built Charlottenburg Palace for his wife. He also began to rebuild Königsberg Palace and built the armory in Berlin. The costly buildings prepared for an increase in rank: The Brandenburg elector and Prussian duke, after diplomatic negotiations with the emperor (and corresponding payments), declared his East Prussian duchy the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and placed the crown on his own head. However, he continued to rule the small remote kingdom on the Baltic Sea in personal union with the much larger and more important Electorate of Brandenburg. He now held the titles Elector of Brandenburg (as Frederick III) and King in Prussia (as Frederick I) The two territories were initially linked only by the person of the ruler. The title of king was limited to the previous Duchy of Prussia and this - unlike the Mark of Brandenburg - was not part of the Holy Roman Empire. Other German electors also acquired foreign royal crowns during this period, Augustus the Strong of Saxony in 1697 the Polish-Lithuanian and George of Hanover in 1714 the British-Irish.

In the 18th century, the numerous parts of the country were still unconnected or not very cohesive, so that a unified state could only slowly emerge, for which the name Prussia became naturalized. The institutions of the Electorate of Brandenburg became Royal Prussian institutions. Poland still had sovereignty over what later became West Prussia, which made it impossible for the regent to be named King of Prussia. Frederick William I, called "the Soldier King," took over the government in 1713 and made the Prussian state a military power by rearming it, but without making significant use of the strong army. Instead, he promoted economic development and restored the state finances, which had been ruined under his profligate father and his three-count cabinet. In 1702, the Hohenzollerns claimed the private property of the extinct House of Orange and received it in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, but Frederick William I ceded most of it to the House of Nassau-Diez in 1732.

However, after his accession to power in 1740, his son Frederick the Great took advantage of the new military potential and gained Silesia and the county of Glatz through the Silesian Wars fought between 1740 and 1763. This marked the beginning of a direct competition between the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs for supremacy. The conquests could only be held with luck, skill and effort during the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763, with great loss of life, taxation and devastation, especially in the neighboring lands. In the Battle of Kunersdorf in August 1759, Frederick almost lost his life; an enemy bullet ricocheted off his tobacco can. At the first Polish partition in 1772, Frederick the Great received parts of West Prussia and could thus call himself King of Prussia. With the land bridge between Pomerania and East Prussia, the latter was also directly connected to the ancestral lands in the empire for the first time. Frederick II purposefully continued the economic development of the country's many provinces. With the palace buildings and the park of Sanssouci, he left behind a world cultural heritage. His nephew and successor Frederick William II acquired considerable territories through the Second and Third Partition of Poland with South and New East Prussia.

The Congress of Vienna in 1815 brought further important territories to Prussia with the Rhineland, Westphalia and Saxony during the reign of Frederick William III after the Napoleonic Wars. The province of the Rhine was formed in 1822 from the province of the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine and the province of Jülich-Kleve-Berg. At this time, there were also tremendous national economic changes. In the course of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, freedom of trade was introduced in 1810, and the October Edict abolished hereditary servitude. The Industrial Revolution later took place in Prussia, with certain regions of the country becoming economically dominant.

Frederick William IV, the "romantic on the throne", enriched the park of Sanssouci, Berlin and other places with important buildings. He was forced to accept the transformation of the country into a constitutional monarchy, but refused to accept the German imperial crown from the hand of the Frankfurt National Assembly.

German emperors

Frederick William IV's brother and successor, William I, put down the revolution of 1848/49 and pursued a policy that was as conservative as it was expansionist, steered by his prime minister, Otto von Bismarck. After the German War of 1866, Prussia received Hanover, Schleswig, Holstein, Nassau and Kurhessen as provinces. Prussia had the supremacy and so in 1871 Wilhelm I became the first emperor in the newly created German Empire, of which Prussia was by far the largest part from then on. On Bismarck's advice, the name "German Emperor" was chosen instead of "Emperor of Germany". The emperor was to be regarded as primus inter pares among the German federal princes; moreover, the Kleindeutsche solution excluded the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Bohemia, which had also belonged to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (Bohemia had been one of the electorates from the beginning) and which, with their Habsburg rulers, had provided its emperor for many centuries. Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden, out of consideration for William at the imperial proclamation in Versailles, circumvented the delicate issue. At the ceremony on January 18, 1871, he called out "His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Emperor Wilhelm, long live".

After FrederickIII's brief reign, Wilhelm II succeeded him as German emperor on June 15, 1888. He was not unpopular in his day, but he aspired to a position of great power and pushed colonial expansion, sometimes with little diplomatic flair. The expansionist desires of various great powers, their lurking distrust of each other, and a series of events increasingly aggravated the situation after 1906. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, on June 28, 1914, set in motion events that would trigger World War I immediately thereafter. The monarchy ended in the German Empire on November 9, 1918, with the proclamation of the Republic in Berlin and the subsequent abdication of Wilhelm II. The emperor went to the Netherlands, opted for exile and later lived in Doorn House until his death.

Gallery

The kings in and of Prussia in chronological order:

The Margraves of Brandenburg-Schwedt

The Schwedt dominion was given in 1688 to a son of the Great Elector Frederick William, who called himself Philip William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. The manors were located in the Uckermark, Neumark and in Hinterpommern. After the line became extinct in 1788, Schwedt fell to Prussia.

• 1688-1711 Philip William (* 1669; † 1711), son of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg
• 1731-1771 Frederick William (* 1700; † 1771), between 1711 and 1731 guardianship by the Prussian kings Frederick I and Frederick William I, respectively.
• 1771-1788 Friedrich Heinrich (* 1709; † 1788), brother of Friedrich Wilhelm

Princes of Neuchâtel

In 1707, after the extinction of their ruling House of Orléans-Longueville, the estates of Neuchâtel elected his heir, Frederick I, also a Reformed, as sovereign prince of Neuchâtel and Valangin. Frederick and his successors ruled the remote, French-speaking territory, which was not integrated into the Prussian state, through governors in personal union until 1806. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna renewed the union, which had been interrupted by the Napoleonic Wars, and at the same time recognized Neuchâtel as a member of the Swiss Confederation. The fact that the canton of Neuchâtel had declared itself a republic in 1848 and deposed the king was accepted by Prussia in the Treaty of Paris in 1857 after lengthy disputes. After that, King Frederick William IV could continue to hold the title for life.

William II

Wilhelm II signed a document of abdication in exile in the Netherlands on November 28, 1918, thereby officially renouncing his rights to the crown of Prussia and the associated rights to the German imperial crown. He lived the first year and a half in exile at Amerongen Castle near Utrecht. The former enemies of the war unsuccessfully demanded his extradition.

He acquired the Doorn house as his residence in 1919. Wilhelm II never returned to Germany. He regularly received visitors from home, wrote numerous books, and considered a renewed German monarchy possible at the time. In 1921 his wife Auguste Viktoria died; in 1922 he married Hermine von Schoenaich-Carolath. Wilhelm II died in the Netherlands in 1941 and was buried in the park of the House of Doorn.

A few days after the November Revolution in 1918, the assets of the Hohenzollerns were confiscated and administered by the Prussian Ministry of Finance. In the dispute over the so-called expropriation of the princes, the family negotiated with the Prussian state until 1926. On October 26, 1926, the "Law on the Settlement of Property between the Prussian State and the Members of the Formerly Ruling Prussian Royal House" was passed. Furthermore, in 1927 the "Administration of the State Palaces and Gardens" was founded. The Prussian state retained 75 castles, the Hohenzollerns got back 39 buildings and several agricultural estates, including Cecilienhof in Potsdam, where its builder, the former Crown Prince Wilhelm, took up residence, and Oels Castle in Lower Silesia, which his family used as a country residence. Rheinsberg Palace and, in Berlin, Monbijou Palace and the Kaiser Wilhelm Palace remained in the family's possession and, as before, were open to the public as museums, except for the Dutch Palace in Berlin, where the "General Administration of the former ruling Prussian royal house" took up residence. Other branches of the former Prussian royal family continued to live at Glienicke Palace and Schwedt Palace in Brandenburg, Kamenz Palace and Seitenberg Palace in Silesia, Krojanke Manor in West Prussia, Reinhartshausen Palace on the Rhine, and Hemmelmark Manor in Schleswig.

Wilhelm

The former Crown Prince Wilhelm followed as head of the family in 1941. He was placed on the island of Wieringen by the Dutch government after the fall of the monarchy, signed a declaration of abdication on December 1, 1918, and was able to return to Germany in 1923 at the instigation of Gustav Stresemann.

Wilhelm had ties to the resistance during the Nazi period, but he also supported the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis before the war and forbade his son to become involved in the resistance. After the end of World War II in 1945, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny of the French occupation forces gave the order to take Wilhelm prisoner for three weeks. He was then placed under arrest in Hechingen for several years with the possibility of moving within a 25 kilometer radius of his home. Almost all of the buildings restituted in 1927 were either destroyed during World War II or the properties were expropriated by the Soviet occupation forces in 1945.

Louis Ferdinand

Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, the son of Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Cecilie, was head of the house from 1951. In the case of the Hohenzoller, the family still preferred the traditional nobility predicate "Imperial and Royal Highness" of the crown prince when addressing him and not just "Royal Highness" as is customary today for the head of the family (other family members then and now "Royal Highness"), which was also a commitment to the monarchy. With the Weimar Constitution in 1919, the privileges of birth or class were abolished throughout Germany. Since the abolition of the special rights and titles of the German nobility, the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollerns are called Prince or Princess of Prussia, respectively, with their civil-legal family name.

In 1952, he arranged for the ancestral castle to be furnished with historically significant objects relating to the history of Prussia. Among other things, the castle houses Frederick the Great's tobacco box, his uniform coat and the royal crown of Wilhelm II. Today, the line still owns its two-thirds share in Hohenzollern Castle as well as Prince Island southwest of Plön in Schleswig-Holstein and some smaller properties. Also in 1952, the Princess Kira of Prussia Foundation was established, with which the family is still socially involved today and enables children to stay at Hohenzollern Castle. An important event for the Hohenzollerns was the transfer of Frederick the Great's coffin from Hohenzollern Castle to Sanssouci Palace in August 1991.

George Frederick

There are currently about 50 members of the Hohenzollern family of Brandenburg-Prussia (as of 2016). The head of the family branch has been George Frederick Prince of Prussia since 1994. He was born as the son of Louis Ferdinand of Prussia junior, who had already died in 1977, and his wife Donata. George Frederick Prince of Prussia succeeded his grandfather Louis Ferdinand of Prussia and his great-grandfather William of Prussia as head of the family. Frederick William Prince of Prussia, the first-born son of the previous head Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, was excluded from succession in 1967 under the Prussian House Law because he - like the second-born Michael of Prussia a year earlier - had entered into a non-natural marriage.

George Frederick Prince of Prussia married Sophie Princess of Isenburg, whom he has known since early childhood, in August 2011. The noble family has a history that also goes back to the 11th century, as with the Hohenzollerns. The union produced twins Carl Friedrich and Louis Ferdinand in 2013, daughter Emma Marie in 2015 and son Heinrich in 2016.

As part of the celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great in 2012, George Frederick Prince of Prussia and his wife were invited to Bellevue Palace by German President Christian Wulff.

George Frederick Prince of Prussia opened an exhibition on the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace at Hohenzollern Castle in 2016. The Berlin Palace was once the royal Prussian and later imperial residence. The Humboldt Forum, which uses the new building of the palace, was officially opened in December 2020.

In 2017, the family founded Kgl. Preußische Biermanufactur, whose managing director is Georg Friedrich Prinz von Preußen. The company is headquartered in Berlin; production of the beer takes place in Braunschweig.

In 1945, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany expropriated real estate belonging to the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty. Louis Ferdinand of Prussia had been seeking compensation for the expropriations since 1991. In 1994, the Indemnification and Compensation Act (EALG) came into force, allowing financial compensation if the expropriated person had not significantly aided and abetted the National Socialist system. George Frederick Prince of Prussia continued negotiations from 1994 and also entered into negotiations with the state over expropriated art objects since circa 2014. The negotiations became known to the public in 2019, and the Hohenzollerns were criticized by scholars and others in the media, some of them quite harshly. The demands of George Frederick Prince of Prussia regarding several thousand art objects were seen as brazen. The family referred to the legal situation and relativized the demands. In November 2019, Jan Böhmermann ensured that four confidential expert opinions by Christopher Clark, Wolfram Pyta, Peter Brandt and Stephan Malinowski were published. The expert opinions examined the role of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia during the Nazi era. One expert contradicts the strengthening of the Nazi regime on the part of Crown Prince Wilhelm, another gives him an unconscious, two a very conscious responsibility for it. Furthermore, in December 2019, the Hohenzollerns' legal action against critical scientists became known to the public, which in turn led to controversy. The lawyer of the Hohenzollerns rejected the accusations against the House of Hohenzollern.

The heads of the former royal family after Wilhelm II:

The Kingdom of Romania existed from 1881 to 1947 and developed from the Principality of Romania. Charles I of Romania acted as prince from 1866 after Alexandru Ioan Cuza and was proclaimed king on March 26, 1881. He was the son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Emperor Napoleon III of France proposed Charles as regent, and the Romanian people voted in favor of the Hohenzollern.

The last king, Michael I, was forced to abdicate by the Romanian Communist Party on December 30, 1947, and had to leave the country. Michael I was significant in the royal coup d'état of 1944. The Romanian Hohenzollerns have not borne the name Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen since 2011 in accordance with a family decision. Michael was the head of the Romanian Hohenzollerns until 2017. He had several daughters with his wife Anna from the House of Bourbon-Parma; his eldest daughter Margarita (* 1949) is married to the Romanian actor Radu Duda.

The Regents of Romania:

• 1866-1914 Charles I (* 1839; † 1914), also Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, first prince, from 1881 king
• 1914-1927 Ferdinand I. (* 1865; † 1927), nephew of Charles I.
• 1927-1930 Michael I. (* 1921; † 2017), grandson of Ferdinand I, son of Charles II.
• 1930-1940 Charles II. (* 1893; † 1953)
• 1940-1947 Michael I. (* 1921; † 2017), king again

Significant buildings of the Brandenburg-Prussian branch of the family:

The ancestral coat of arms of the Hohenzollern shows a shield quartered by silver and black (Zollernvierung). On the helmet with black-silver covers is a Bracken head designated like the shield.

House of Hohenzollern (Brandenburg-Prussian line)

• Adalbert Prince of Prussia (* 1884; † 1948), son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Alexandrine Princess of Prussia (* 1915; † 1980), granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• August Wilhelm Prince of Prussia (* 1887; † 1949), son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Cecilie Princess of Prussia (* 1917; † 1975), granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Eitel Friedrich Prinz von Preußen (* 1883; † 1942), son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Franz Wilhelm Prince of Prussia (* 1943), entrepreneur
• Frederick Prince of Prussia (* 1911; † 1966), grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Prince of Prussia (* 1939; † 2015), historian
• Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia (* 1976), Head of the House of Hohenzollern
• Hubertus Prince of Prussia (* 1909; † 1950), grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Joachim Prince of Prussia (* 1890; † 1920), son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Kira Princess of Prussia (* 1943; † 2004)
• Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia (* 1907; † 1994), head of the family, grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia (* 1944; † 1977)
• Michael Prinz von Preußen (* 1940; † 2014), book author
• Oskar Prince of Prussia (* 1888; † 1958), Master of the Order of St. John, son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Oskar Prince of Prussia (* 1959), Master of the Order of Saint John
• Viktoria Luise Princess of Prussia (* 1892; † 1980), daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Wilhelm Prinz von Preußen (* 1882; † 1951), Crown Prince, son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Wilhelm Prinz von Preußen (* 1906; † 1940), grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Wilhelm Karl Prince of Prussia (* 1922; † 2007), Master of the Order of St. John, grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

House of Hohenzollern (Swabian line)

• Albrecht Prince of Hohenzollern (* 1898; † 1977)
• Auguste Victoria Princess of Hohenzollern (* 1890; † 1966), wife of Manuel II of Portugal
• Ferfried Prinz von Hohenzollern (* 1943), former touring car racing driver
• Friedrich Prinz von Hohenzollern (* 1891; † 1965), head of the princely line of the House of Hohenzollern
• Friedrich Wilhelm Prinz von Hohenzollern (* 1924; † 2010), industrialist, head of the princely line of the House of Hohenzollern
• Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern (* 1932; † 2016), art historian
• Karl Friedrich Prinz von Hohenzollern (* 1952), entrepreneur, head of the princely line of the House of Hohenzollern

• Master list of the Hohenzollern
• Master list of the House of Hohenberg
• Titulature and coat of arms of the German emperors after 1873
• Schalksburg dominion of the Hohenzollerns
• Royal House Order of Hohenzollern

After the Hohenzollerns were named in the course of time:

• Hohenzollern, barque, one of the largest sailing ships of the Greifswald merchant fleet in the 19th century, owned by the shipping company H. Odebrecht in 1864/65 (242 loads, captain: J.P. Kraeft, 12 crew)
• Hohenzollern, state yacht of the Imperial German Empire, paddle steamer
• Hohenzollern, state yacht of the Imperial German Empire, screw steamer
• Hohenzollern, state yacht of the Imperial German Empire, unfinished screw steamer
• Hohenzollern model, Dutch ship model from the 17th century
• Hohenzollern ex. Kaiser Wilhelm II. , Reichspostdampfer, (6990 BRT), see also Kaiser Wilhelm II (ship, 1889)
• Hohenzollern Canal, name still in use today for a section of the Berlin-Spandau Navigation Canal
• several Hohenzollern bridges