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				The Hohenzollern Dynasty

The House of Hohenzollern was for five centuries the royal house of the German state of Brandenburg, then the Kingdom of Prussia, and finally of a united German Empire. The Hohenzollerns originated from Swabia in Southern Germany. They ruled the state of Sigmaringen (just south of Stuttgart). Kaiser Wilhelm I(1871-1888) was made the first German Emperor at the urging of his Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. Upon his death his son Friedrich III(1888) became Emperor but he was stricken with Cancer of the Throat. He died within several months and Kaiser Wilhelm II (1888-1918) became the last and most famous of the modern German Emperors.

The Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Family also became Kings of Romania. King Michael was the last of the Hohenzollern Kings. There are currently no reigning Hohenzollerns left. In the late 70's a Hohenzollern Prince married the Heiress to the Romanov Throne of Russia and their son, Georgi, is a German Prince as well as a Russian Grand Duke.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Hohenzollern Dynasty

A dynasty prominent in European history, chiefly as the ruling house of Brandenburg-Prussia (1415-1918) and of imperial Germany (1871-1918). It takes its name from a castle in Swabia first mentioned as Zolorin or Zolre (the modern Hohenzollern, south of Tübingen, in the Land Baden-Württemberg). Burchard I, the first recorded ancestor of the dynasty, was count of Zollern in the 11th century. In the third and fourth generation from him two lines were formed: that of Zollern-Hohenberg, extinct in all its branches by 1486, and that of the burgraves of Nürnberg, from which all the branches surviving into modern times derived.

Frederick III of Zollern (d. c. 1200), husband of the heiress of the former burgraves of Nürnberg, himself became burgrave in 1192 as Frederick I. Between his two sons, Conrad and Frederick, the first dynastic division of lasting consequence took place: that between the line later known as Franconian (burgraves of Nürnberg, later electors of Brandenburg, kings in Prussia, kings of Prussia, German emperors) and the Swabian line (counts of Zollern, of Hohenzollern, of Zollern-Schalksburg, of Haigerloch, etc.; princes of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, princes of Hohenzollern, princes and then kings of Romania). There is some doubt about the seniority of the Franconian and of the Swabian lines: was Conrad I, burgrave of Nürnberg, the elder son, or was Frederick IV of Zollern?

The Franconian acquisitions of the burgraves of Nürnberg began when Frederick III (d. 1297) got possession of Bayreuth, and his descendants acquired Ansbach and Kulmbach. For a long time this group of territories was more important to the dynasty than Brandenburg. Then Frederick VI was appointed margrave of Brandenburg in 1411 and elector, as Frederick I, in 1415.

For the history of the rise of the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns (who became Lutheran at the Reformation but turned to Calvinism in 1613), including the account of their considerable acquisitions of territory in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, see Brandenburg. One of the most significant acquisitions was made by a junior member of the house in 1525--namely, the duchy of Prussia (see Prussia).

In 1701 the elector Frederick III of Brandenburg secured from the Holy Roman emperor Leopold I the title "king in Prussia." The change to "king of Prussia" was not formally recognized until 1772, when Frederick the Great obtained it. The kings of Prussia retained their title of electors of Brandenburg until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. In 1871 William I of Prussia became German emperor. Both Prussian and German sovereignties were lost in 1918, at the end of World War I.

The Swabian line remained Catholic at the Reformation. It was in this line that the name Hohenzollern, as distinct from Zollern, first came into use--with Frederick IX. The Hechingen and Sigmaringen branches attained princely rank in 1623 but surrendered their sovereign status to Prussia in 1849. With the extinction of the Hechingen branch 20 years later, Charles Anton, head of the Sigmaringen, received the style prince (Fürst) von Hohenzollern, without territorial qualification. His second son, Charles, became prince of Romania in 1866 and king as Carol I in 1881; the candidature of the elder son, Leopold, for the Spanish throne had been one of the immediate causes of the Franco-German War of 1870-71. Leopold's son, Ferdinand, succeeded his uncle in Romania in 1914, where his descendants, who were brought up in the Orthodox faith, ruled until 1947.

From The Encyclopedia Columbia:

Hohenzollern

Pronunciation: [hO"un-tsôl´urn]

German princely family that ruled Brandenburg (1415 -1918), Prussia (1525-1918), and Germany (1871 -1918).

Originating in S Germany and traceable to the 11th century, the family probably took its name from the German word zöller, meaning "watchtower" or "castle," and in particular from the Swabian castle of Hohenzollern, the ancestral seat in the Black Forest. Conrad of Hohenzollern, appointed (c.1170) burgrave (imperial representative) of Nuremberg by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, was succeeded (1192) by Frederick of Hohenzollern (d. c.1200), whose sons founded the Swabian and Franconian lines of the family. (For the Swabian line see Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen under Hohenzollern, province.)

The Franconian line acquired the margraviates of Ansbach (1331) and Kulmbach (1340). In 1415 Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund made Frederick VI of Hohenzollern elector of Brandenburg, and in 1417 Frederick formally received the electoral dignity as Frederick I. Brandenburg then became the center of Hohenzollern power. Frederick II (reigned 1440-70) bought New Mark from the Teutonic Knights and Lower Lusatia from the Holy Roman emperor; he made Berlin the political capital.

Elector Albert Achilles (reigned 1470-86) issued a family law that made Brandenburg indivisible. Roman law was introduced by Joachim I (1499-1535), who tried to suppress the Protestant movement. In 1525 Albert of Brandenburg, grand master of the Teutonic Knights, secularized the domains of his order as the duchy of Prussia. Joachim II (reigned 1535-71) converted to Lutheranism. When John Sigismund (reigned 1608-19) converted to Calvinism, his subjects remained Lutheran; thus religious toleration became a mark of the dynasty.

John Sigismund's acquisition (1614) of Cleves, Mark, and Ravensburg and his inheritance (1618) of the duchy of Prussia (East Prussia) marked the Hohenzollern rise as a leading German power. Frederick William, the Great Elector (reigned 1640-88), obtained E Pomerania, the secularized bishoprics of Cammin, Minden, and Halberstadt, and the expectancy to Magdeburg upon the death of its administrator. His reign brought centralization and absolutism to the Hohenzollern lands. In 1701 his son was crowned "king in Prussia" as Frederick I and at the Peace of Utrecht was recognized (1713) as king of Prussia. The royal title was a new symbol of the unity of the family holdings.

Frederick William I (reigned 1713-40), through his administrative, fiscal, and military reforms, was the real architect of Hohenzollern greatness. As a result of the Northern Wars he obtained (1721) part of W Pomerania, including Stettin. Frederick II (reigned 1740-86) seized Silesia from Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and acquired (1772) West Prussia and Ermeland from the first partition of Poland. An enlightened despot, he achieved the reform and codification (1794) of Prussian law. Frederick William II (reigned 1786-97), Frederick William III (reigned 1797-1840), and Frederick William IV (reigned 1840-61) were mediocre rulers; their ministers were more important in the history of Prussia.

William I (reigned 1861-88) entrusted his affairs to Otto von Bismarck, under whose direction Prussia triumphed over its rival Austria and over France. In 1871 William was proclaimed emperor (kaiser) of a united Germany. He was succeeded by Frederick III (1888) and by William II (reigned 1888-1918), whose instability and ambition contributed to the involvement of Germany in World War I; his abdication ended the family's rule in Germany.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition Copyright ©1993, Columbia University Press.