Schaffgotsch family
The Schaffgotsch family is the name of an old and influential
History
Around 1240, the first Schaffgotsch appears in a Silesian document as Sibotho de nobili Familia Ovium (ovium is the Latin word for "sheep", the translation of the German word Schaf(f)). According to tradition, Sibotho came in the entourage of Duke
One of Sibotho's successors, the knight Gotsche II Schoff (†1420), bought extensive possessions in the foreland of the
Gotsche II's son Hans (†1469) was the first of the family to be chancellor, court judge, and governor (German: Landeshauptmann) of the Principality of Świdnica-Jawor (Schweidnitz-Jauer). With his sons Anton, Kaspar, and Ulrich, the Schaffgotsch family split into three branches.
Anton (†1508) established the Bohemian branch, whose Seifersdorf and Kreppelhof-Reußendorf-Ullersdorf lines died out in the seventeenth century. This branch became Bohemian barons in 1674 and counts (Czech: hrabě) in 1681. The most notable members of the branch were:
- Christoph Wilhelm (1687–1768), who was Landeshauptmann (provincial governor) of Silesia
- Johann Ernst Anton (1685–1768), Supreme Burgrave of Bohemia
- Bishop of Budweis
- Anton Ernst (1804–70), Bishop of Brünn
The branch, which until 1945 resided chiefly in eastern Bohemia, died out in 1993.
The branch established by Hans's son Ulrich (1453–1543) ceased to exist in 1661; Christoph (1552–1601), grandson of Kaspar (1476–1534), had already succeeded to Ulrich's domain of Greiffenstein as early as 1578. Christoph, a Protestant, was the first ancestor of the Silesian branch of the family, which in 1766 split into the lines of Kynast-Warmbrunn and Wildschütz; Wildschütz line, which resided in Austrian Silesia (later Czechoslovakia), died out in the first half of the twentieth century.
Christoph's son,
His son Christoph Leopold (1632–1703) converted to
After Kynast Castle had burnt down, struck by lightning in 1675, the family moved to nearby
After the Prussian capture of Silesia,
In the following generation, Johann Nepomuk Gotthard (1732–1808) received the title of "Erblandhofmeister". The family gained a seat in the Prussian House of Lords. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the family again split, into the Lower Silesian line of Warmbrunn-Kynast and the Upper Silesian of Koppitz. Due to the hot springs at Warmbrunn, the counts built a spa house and a theater in the early 19th century which became a fashionable retreat. When the Cistercian provost that Gotsche II Schoff had founded at Warmbrunn in 1381 was secularized in 1810, it became owned by the comital family and housed their library with abour 80,000 volumes and other collections.
Count Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch (1831–1915) had married Johanna Gryczik von Schomberg-Godulla in 1858, the adopted daughter and sole heir of zinc mine industrialist Karl Godulla and thus became one of the most important industrialists in Prussia. Their descendants, the Upper Silesian line, or Koppitz branch of the family, owned this huge business empire until 1945.
The Lower Silesian line, with its large possessions in and around the Giant and Jizera Mountains, was considered the second wealthiest family of the region before World War I. In the 1930s, the last lord of the Warmbrunn-Kynast estate, Friedrich (1883–1947), owned 27,668 hectares, the sixth largest enterprise in Prussia. In 1923 Anna Schaffgotsch inherited Niederleis Castle in Lower Austria, which is still owned by her descendants.
In 1935, Averell Harriman, chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, tasked Felix von Schaffgotsch (of Austria) with finding a location for a Union Pacific "resort investment" in the western United States. In January 1936, Felix notified Harriman that he had found a location outside Ketchum, Idaho, that would soon become the site of Union Pacific's
After World War II, most members of the Schaffgotsch family were
Family castles
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Stara Kamienica Castle
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Kynast (Chojnik) Castle
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Greiffenstein Castle at Gryfów Śląski (c. 1870)
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Trachenberg Castle
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WarmbrunnPalace
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Warmbrunn Monastery
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Hermsdorf unterm Kynast Castle
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Koppitz Palace
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Schaffgotsch palace inBreslau
Notes
- ^ A descendant of the House of Ascania through her mother, Princess Anna Marie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who was the daughter of Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt; through her father, Barbara Agnes descended from dukes of Silesia and from Władysław II the Exile.[1]
References
- ^ Duchess Barbara Agnes von Schlesien-Liegnitz
- ^ "Sun Valley Guide". www.svguide.com. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
Further reading
- U. Schmilewski, Schaffgotsch, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie, Bd 22 (Rohmer-Schinkel), München 2005, p.536-538 (German)
- Das schlesische Elysium, Arne Franke, Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europa e. V., p. 16–19 (German)
- A. Kuzio-Podrucki, Das Haus Schaffgotsch. Das wechselvolle Schicksal einer schlesischen Adelsdynastie, Tarnowskie Góry 2009, ISBN 978-83-61458-32-6(German)
- A. Kuzio-Podrucki, Schaffgotschowie. Zmienne losy śląskiej arystokracji, Bytom 2007, ISBN 978-83-923733-1-5, (Polish)
- A. Kuzio-Podrucki, Schaffgotschowie. Dzieje wielkiego rodu z Europy Środkowej, Katowice 2024, ISBN 978-8367152-61-7, (polish)