german Houses: The Princely House of Hohenzollern

The Princely House of Hohenzollern

House of Hohenzollern

Today all present members of the Princely  Family bear the title Prince/Princess of Hohenzollern and when in accordance with the House Law with the style of Serene Highness (HSH). The Head of the House and his spouse bear the stle of Highness (HH). 

The Zollern are among the oldest and most important Swabian noble families. The county Zollern was the ancestral homeland of the Hohenzollern's. The name was for many centuries Zollern. In the middle of the 14th Century, the Hohenzollern family name was first detectable written. In medieval writings spelling was Hohenzolr Hohenzolre respectively. The composite name was from 16 Century used consistently.Zollern could be derived from Söller which means as much as height and refers to the 855-meter high cone-shaped mountain castlehill near Hechingen, on which the ancestral Hohenzollern Castle is located. On a seal of 1246, the name is also written once Solre; Söller means mountain height. In the first known source of 1061 "de Zolorin" (Zollern) was formulated. Another and less favored interpretation is that the name has to do with Customs in terms of output and acted at once to the nobles inch counts. The Hohenzollern Castle is today collectively owned by the Brandenburg-Prussian line and the Swabian line. The lines maintain close contact and view themselves as a family. The monk Berthold of Reichenau wrote in his 1061 chronicle of two killed whilst nobleman named Burchardus Wezil et de Zolorin. The wording means the nobles came from the castle .. Zoller To determine the ancestors and relatives of those named relationship to each other, it is not possible for historians. Documents about family members are from the end of the 11th Century ago. Adelbert von Zollern founded in 1095 on his estate the convent Alpirsbach. Frederick I of Zollern called Maute, where he worked first as a bailiff. Many old scholars have come far declining inaccurate theories with large inertia in the study of the origin of Hohenzollern in the past.

Friedrich I ((† before 1125), called Maute, lobbied for Emperor Heinrich V.  of the family of a Salian. The Hohenzollerns were perceived at the imperial level. The Count remained at the court of the regent and took part in the affairs of government Empire. Friedrich I was also active in the Investiture Controversy of Heinrich V., the Hohenzollern was in 1111 in the wake of the coronation of Heinrich V. at this time Paschal II was the Pope.
During the reign of Friedrich I, the county consisted of the areas around the castles Zollern Hohenberg, Haigerloch, Schalksburg and Rotenburg. The sub-regions were united in one hand and territorially separated. After the death of Maute his son Friedrich II.  received the castles Zollern Schalksburg and a castle not far from Mülheim. The other son Burkhard, henceforth Count of Zollern Hohenberg, inherited the castle Hohenberg, Haigerloch and Rotenburg. Founded by Burkhard this line became extinct in 1486 This branch is often considered as a separate gender with the noble name of Hohenberg. The line of the elder brother endures to this day and is historically significant.

Count Friedrich III of Zollern was a loyal retainer of the Holy Roman Emperors Friedrich Barbarossa and Heinrich VI, and around 1185 he married Sophia of Raabs, the daughter of Conrad II, Burgrave of Nuremberg. After the death of Conrad II, often referred to as Kurt II who left no male heirs, Friedrich III was granted the burgraviate of Nuremberg in 1192 as Burgrave Friedrich I of Nuremberg-Zollern. Since then the family name has been Hohenzollern. 

After the death of Friedrich III./I. his his sons partitioned the family lands between themselves

Ancestor of the swabian line is Friedrich IV. Count of Zollern. After the death of Friedrich III./I. Count of Zollern, Burgrave of Nuremberg his his sons partitioned the family lands between themselves

• The younger brother, Friedrich IV, received the county of Zollern and burgraviate of Nuremberg in 1200 from his father, thereby founding the Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollerns. The Swabian line remained Catholic
• The older brother, Conrad III, received the burgraviate of Nuremberg from his older brother Friedrich IV in 1218, thereby founding the Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. The Franconian line later converted to Protestantism  

After Count Friedrich II. of Zollern (Burgrave Friedrich IV. of Nuremberg) gave the Burggraviate of Nuremberg to his older brother Conrad in 1218 he took over the ancestral territories in Swabia and became as Count Friedrich IV. the founder of the swabian line. After his death in 1255 he was succeeded by his oldest son Count Friedrich V.  Friedrich V. earned the advocacy of the monastery Beuron in 1259 and was the founder of the monastery Stetten in the Gnadental. The Foundation was expanded in 1267 with his wife again. In the same year the monastery Stetten was also intended to became the anecestral burial site of the family. The grave lay was probably connected by an underground passage with the Hohenzollern Castle. According to legend, Friedrich is said to have founded the monastery to vote the the Emperor Friedrich II. conciliatory  because he had failed his military service. With the  related swabian Counts of Hohenberg Friedrich V. was in constant conflict which where only resolved in 1286  through mediation by King Rudolf of Habsburg. The dispute with the chief salvors had a long past, particularly in 1267, the situation escalated. The possessions of the Swabian Hohenzollerns formed a fairly closed territory. Distant possessions had been sold anyway mostly. Friedrich ruled the territory of the later Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, later Württemberg Oberamt Balingen, the rule of Mülheim and land between Hechingen and Tübingen. Balingen was lost by the Hohenzollern in 1403 through sale to Württemberg. Not a closed area was present in the direction of the sphere of influence of the Counts of Hohenberg. Here, the mixed possessions. Under Friedrich , who was described as a pious and respected, Zoller count reached a peak of power. After the death of Count Friedrich V. in 1288 his sons Friedrich VI. and Friedrich I. the younger who got the  territories Schalksburg and Mühlheim. This line became extinct in 1408. The older brother Friedrich VI. got Hohenzollern Castle and the territories around it. His oldest son and successor Friedrich VII. was married to Euphemia of Hohenberg, daughter of Count Albrecht II. of Hohenberg which ended the rivalry between the 2 families. After his death in 1309 his younger rother Friedrich VIII. (called Ostertag) appeared as Count and after the death of his nephew Fritzli in 1313 he alone ruled Zollern. At the divison of the country with his brother he had founded the Hohenzollern line. In 1339 Friedrich IX. followed his older brother Fritzli II. as Count of Hohenzollern. He made for Zollern-Zollern on 27.07.1342 a contract with the line Schalksburg. Here it was determined that the elder of the two lines Zollern-Zollern and Zollern-Schalksburg should decide on the allocation of zollerischen man fiefdom. Friedrich commanded a greater military power and, therefore, was captain of the Lions Federal, an important aristocratic connection. In 1344 he shared with his younger brother Friedrich, called the Strasbourg, the country and founded the Black Count's line.  The line died already out in 1412 with Friedrich X. The younger brother Friedrich the Straßbourg was the founder of the more important Straßbourg line. His oldest son Count Friedrich XI. became after the death of his uncle Friedrich IX. the Senior of the House. He held the seigniory and provided the Bailiwick Office about the monastery Stetten. He obtained in 1388 the city Hechingen back that had Bishop Friedrich von Strasbourg appropriated. Friedrich was a member of the Federal lion in 1382 and joined the Swabian cities with this collar on. This he succeeded in his service promise to Count Eberhard of Württemberg to solve the Greiner when he came into conflict with the Association of Cities. In 1401 he gave the city a city fire Hechingen to a charter of freedom. After the death of his childless brother-in-law count Johann of Fürstenberg-Haslach (the brother of his wife Adelheid)  in the Battle of Sempach the House of Hohenzollern acquired from its heritage Bräunlingen.  With the main line of Fürstenberg he was therefore still in a long dispute. 
After the death of Count Friedrich XI. the country was in 1402  divided between his sons Fredrich X II. called the Öttinger and Eitel Friedrich I.  The ancestral castle of the family  Hohenzollern Castle, the city Hechingen and a mill remained in common ownership. The brothers lived in permanent inheritance disputes. Friedrich's economic situation was tense. Sales of areas to the Counts of Württemberg could not establish the financial equilibrium. The house Württemberg was the largest competitor for power, and it was necessary to preserve the zollernsche independence .Dealing with Eitel Friedrich I about Hohenzollern Castle escalated when Friedrich overlaid the imperial citiy of Rottweil  with feud. Thus in 1422 the cities of the Swabian Cities alliated with Eitel Friedrich I. and the Count of Württemberg. Friedrich had to capitulate in 1423 after a ten-month-long siege of the castle by Zoller his opponents. King Sigismund had the castle and destroy as punishment ban, this build again.
About the Öttinger 1418 was the eight imposed by the imperial court of justice to Rottweil, whereupon he fled. 1426 to Eitel Friedrich I of reconciled with Friedrich , but this has been held prisoner by the Countess Henriette of Montbéliard in the years 1428/29 until 1440 After Eitel Friedrich I. had died in 1439, the Öttinger once again came to the government before he died in 1443 childless on a trip to Palestine. From 1429 his brother Eitel Friedrich reigned. Large parts of the property had been sold by Friedrich XII.  to the Count of Württemberg, the main rivals to the zollernsche independence. So it was mainly to avoid the conflict with these counts and to consolidate the country's domination inside. For this purpose, a succession agreement was concluded in 1429 with the house Württemberg. This thing, however risky, because if the Swabian Hohenzollern became extinct in the male line, the county would fall to  Württemberg. Eitel Friedrich was born in 1433 a son of Jobst Nikolaus I. who became after the death of his father under guidande the ruler.  In 1471 Emperor Friedrich III. awared to the Count and later generations rights to be allowed to operate mines and to mint coins. In 1488 Jobst Nikoaus I. 1488 could gain control of Haigerloch. He also built the castle of Hohenzollern, the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern again. The castle served since then as the residence of the Counts of Zollern. In the previous generation was the political situation makes under Friedrich XII., called the Oettinger, highly problematic. The family was in an almost hopeless financial situation and threatened with extinction. Eitel Friedrich I, the father of Jobst Nicholas, helped to improve the situation. Now significant area enlargements could be made by Jobst Nicholas. The power position of the family was restored. Also Eitel Friedrich II, the  son of Jobst Nicholas was able to continue the positive development. He approached, following the course of the father, the franconian line of the Hohenzollern. He lived during the reign of his father's long at the court of the Elector Albrecht Achilles. For Brandenburg he was active since 1481 as a captain in the reign Krusty. In 1483 he became Brandenburg Council, and later acting head of Kottbus Züllichau. In 1482 he married Magdalena of Brandenburg in Berlin. So were the various lines of the Hohenzollern family at this time a certain unity. Elector Albrecht Achilles, who himself had possessions in Swabia, Swabian Hohenzollern also offered protection against the powerful Counts of Württemberg, which had long been a threat to the Swabian branch of the family. Eitel Friedrich II, a friend of Maximilian I, leaned toward the House of Habsburg and thus gained great influence on national politics. So he made diplomatic service for his king and fought for him in the Netherlands. Thus he was able to excel in the 1479 Battle of Guinegate and 1488 he led the vanguard against Bruges as rebellious citizens the Emperor there captors. Since he had served the king as well as chamber judge, he was elected president of the newly established Imperial Supreme Court in 1495. 1497/98 was appointed Eitel Friedrich II in the Austrian councilor. In 1499 he led with Dietrich Blumeneck of a small army against the Swiss and conquered Rorschach on Lake Constance. 1500 he occupied the county of Gorizia for Austria. In 1501 he was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece. On 12 September 1504 he fought in the Landshut War of Succession in Regensburg, opposite the Palatinate and Bohemia, where he commanded the right wing of cavalry and so contributed to the victory. Already in 1488 the Habsburgs had Eitel Friedrich II pledged the county Haigerloch, 1497, she went completely in the hereditary possession of practice. After his death in 1512 his son Eitel Friedrich III. became the new Regent. Eitel Friedrich was top secret advice and great tutor of Emperor Maximilian I, who ike his father, had good relations with the Habsburgs in front of him. He also held the office of Reichserbkämmerers, and he was the captain of the country rule Hohenberg. Eitel Freidrich II. died in 1525 in Pavia, where he served as captain of the German mercenaries. Cause of death as poisoning by a jealous Spanish officer will be accepted.His successor was his oldest son Karl. Emperor Karl V. was a personal friend of his father and his godfather, so he was named Karl. Likewise was Eleanor of Castile, Queen of Portugal, Spain, respectively his godmother. The good relations with Karl V. allowed Karl to advance hold high positions in the kingdom later. Karl V. financed Karl's 12th Life years his  training in Madrid. The count was Reichserbkämmerer and later Reichshofrat President. The Reichshofrat in Vienna was one of the two highest courts in the Holy Roman Empire. The office of the President became Karl shortly after he came of age. He received in 1534 by Emperor Karl V, the county Sigmaringen and the county Veringen as an imperial fief. Sigmaringen was previously owned by the Count of Werdenberg. In Pfullendorfer agreement dated 15.02.1540 compared with Karl Friedrich Count von Furstenberg, the heirs of Allodialbesitzes. of Sigmaringen, Laiz Inzigkofen and sold him parts of Allods.
Karl still possessed the undivided possessions. The family possessions was from 1558 with the death of the Hohenberger cousin Jobst Nicholas undivided in his hand. The possessions included the counties Zollern, Sigmaringen, Veringen, Böhringen, Haigerloch and also Wehrstein. After Karl's death in 1576 the property was divided among his sons, and there arose four lines.

• The oldest son Eitel Friedrich IV. got Hohenzollern-Hechingen and was the founder of the line Hohenzollern-Hechingen
• The second son Karl II. got Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen with Böhringen and was the founder of the line Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
• The third son Christoph got Hohenzollern-Haigerloch
• The fourth and youngest son Joachim found a line Hohenzollern-Haigerloch who became ectinct in 1634 and the territories of it fell to Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

 

 The County from 1623 Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen

In the partition of 1576 the oldest son of Karl I., Eitel Friedrich IV. received the  actual county Zollern, the ancestral home, with the city Hechingen and the monasteries Rangendingen, Saint Luzen and Stetten. Count  Eitel Friedrich IV. ordered the administration of the county new which had been neglected by his predecessors and adopted a new and strict hunting and forest rules which subsequently led to several uprisings time. Hechingen was determined as Residence, where he had a palace built in the Renaissance style and later the New Castle emerged from it. ogether with his second wife Sybville, née Countess of Zimmern   founded in 1585 the Franciscan monastery St. Lucas near Hechingen.  He initiated Hechingen other buildings, including St Lucerne monastery church, hospital and the lower tower. He made his residence into a center of culture and music of care, which earned him the nickname the Magnificent. After his death in 1605 he was succeeded by his only surviving son Johann Georg. Count  Johann Georg was faithful as a Catholic at the Emperor's side and held from 1603 to 1605 the office of the Imperial Chamber President and later the Office of Reichshofrat president.  The latter feature proved helpful after he unjustified had entered the territory of Württembergin in a military conflict with Georg Dietrich of Westerstetten . He represented the Empire days the austrian house and tried together with Johannes Pistorius Margrave Georg Friedrich of Baden recover for the Catholic Church. 1609 Johann Georg was special envoy of the Emperor of the French court, on his return he met in Brussels with Archduke Albert, with whom he remained in close epistolary contact. Because of its low content and discussions with Cardinal Khlesl handed Johann Georg 1612/13 three times in his resignation, which, however, was not met. In 1614 he was sent again into successful mission as ambassador to France. Since 1620 a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, John George was raised on 23 March 1623  by Emperor Ferdinand II.  in the to the rank of Imperial Prince (Fürst). Johann Georg's reign was so ennobled and raised to Allodium. Unlike a fief meant free ownership of a princely county of independence from the emperor and empire. Fürst Johann Georg died on 28.09.1623 and was succeeded by his oldest son Eitel Friedrich II. Fürst Eitel Friedrich II. was first colonel of an infantry regiment in the service of Emperor Ferdinand II. Under the Habsburgs, the Thirty Years War began. Eitel Friedrich was loyal to the Catholic Church and also faithfully as imperial general. The Hohenzollern Castle, the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern, was militarily most strategically significant. The principality was surrounded by Protestant neighbors. During the war, the fort became the focal point and was besieged and destroyed by the Swedes and Württembergers. The castle was recaptured in 1635 by the imperial troops. The Austrians kept for a payment of 5,000 florins annually, the law of occupation at the castle, they gave up only in 1798. During the Thirty Years' War, the people impoverished in Hohenzollern knitting,. Eitel Friedrich II. was confronted with clearly communicated financial requirements of family members. His brothers had been pledged to pay now, but were hardly raise appanages. So Eitel Friedrich was forced to sell several attractive financing feud with his efforts. The Fürst  was recorded in 1653 in Regensburg in the Imperial Prince College of the Reichstag. Fürst Eitel Friedrich died in 1661 of a wound received in Ceske Budejovice, leaving no male heir. When Prince was succeeded by his youngest brother Philip. As a younger son Philip had been destined for holy orders and was canon in Cologne and Strasbourg Pope Alexander VII allowed for a payment of 4,000 scudi Philip's return to the lay state. AS the Princely rank was actually granted only to the firstborn son in the collection of the line in Prince of the Empire, Emperor Leopold I extended because of the merits of the house of Hohenzollern Hechingen to the imperial family the rights to Philip. Likewise with papal dispensation, the now 50-year-old married in  1662  Princess Marie Sidonie of Baden-Rodemachernm,  daughter of Margrave Hermann of Baden-Rodemachern. The Fürst  was frail in the last years of his reign and completely paralyzed. The economically and financially ruined by the Thirty Years War Country recovered as a result of Philip modest royal household and the funds from the dowry of his wife. At Philip's death in 1671 industrial, agricultural, commercial and churches and schools were back in bloom. As his son Friedrich Wilhelm was still  a minor, his mother first took over the guardianship. She sent Friedrich Wilhelm to Baden, where he was further educated. He completed his military training at increasingly later in Vienna. End of 1681, he took on himself the government of Hohenzollern-Hechingen Frierich Wilhelm was in the imperial service General fieldmarshall lieutnant and owner of a Cuirassier Regiment in his own name. In 1682 he was involved in the suppression of a popular uprising in Hungary and took in 1692 glorious part in the Battle of Slankamen. In the same year the Princely title was granted by the Emperor Leopold I, for Fürst Friedrich Wilhelm and all his heirs and descendants. He came in 1702 at Friedlingen in captivity, from which he was able to free himself. Two years later, he fought victoriously in the battle of Blenheim, and was then under Field Marshal Heister turn rebellious against Hungary in use. The Fürst  compared with imperial confirmation because of the Burgraviate Nuremberg  with the Electorate of Brandenburg, and was among the first carriers of the Prussian Black Eagle Order. After his death in 1730 he was succeeded by his son Friedrich Ludwig from his first marriage to Coutness marie Ludovika of Sinzendorf. Fürst Friedrich Ludwig was a passionate soldier and hunter. He was an imperial field marshal and commander in chief of the Austrian troops on the Upper Rhine. Under Prince Eugene, he fought in the Austrian Venetian-Turkish War (1714-1718) and rebel against Hungary. After the took over the goverment of the principality after the death of his father he was tied to the region, and his  enthusiasm for hunting caused the construction of a hunting lodge and summer palace, despite an awkward financial position. From 1739 to 1741 out of three kilometers west of Hechingen,  the architecturally outstanding.castle Lindich was build. After it's after its completion it aklso became the princely summer residence. Also the hunting lodge Friedrichstal southeast of Boll was build. This financial burden took the pressure on the population and clashes with the subjects intensified. Fürst Friedrich Ludwig died in 1750 unmarried and without issue at Castle Lindich. His successor was his cousin Josef Freidrich Wilhelm, whose father Hermann Freidrich was the second son of Fürst Philipp. Fürst Josef Friedrich Wilhelm was a friend of representation of court life, hunting and traveling. On 25.06.1750, he married the rich Spanish heiress Maria Theresa of Folch Cardona and Sylva,  Countess of Castelnuovo and Villalva del Alcor. The later Hechinger Rabbi Dr. Samuel Mayer wrote in 1844 in his book, the young princess had then demanded as a condition of marriage, the expulsion of all Jews from the Principality. The Jews are - to come before the expulsion - have already made arrangements before the news arrived, was the Princess 25 September drowned in Vienna. Later, he is said to have proved against Protestants and Jews as tolerant. An example of this is that in the same year he took over the sponsorship of a baptized in the name of Joseph Wilhelm Jews. On 07.02.1751 Fürst Josef Friedrich Wilhelm married again. This time  with Princess Maria Theresa of Waldburg-Zeil-Zurzack. In May, the princely couple undertook a pilgrimage to Einsiedeln. In the first years of his reign, he took up the wine publishing, so "like to get an honest drink wine with cheap price our subjects." In addition, he built a allee from castle Lindich to the Martin's Hill  and built the stables south of the Friedrichsburg. In 1764, during a stay in Wildbad, the Fürst made the acquaintance of an  army staff captain who was  discharged after the war from the Prussian Army. The officer to whom he offered a Hofcharge, was Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794), who spent the next twelve years as a marshal in the immediate vicinity of Josef Friedrich Wilhelm before he at George Washington's side as Inspector General of the U.S. Army and organizer of a successful role played in the American War of Independence. He promoted the agricultural economy in the country, renewed derelict farm buildings and wasteland who converted to new cropland. From 1766 Josef Friedrich Wilhelm sought the introduction of potato cultivation. In 1768 he released the convicted to life imprisonment Count Oswald von Hohenzollern-Berg, who was proprietor of a rule in the Netherlands, on probation to freedom. One of the requirements was one that he would not leave his newly assigned residence Haigerloch. In the same year he submitted a second Tiergarten district across to between Rangendingen Grosselfingen, Owingen and Lindich Castle. Steuben was one of the party, when the prince concocted his adventurous projects in order to get money or to save money. This included, among other things, in 1772 the idea of ​​dissolving the royal household for reasons of economy and incognito to go with the Fürstin, accompanied by Steuben traveling. In Strasbourg, Montpellier and Lyon has taken longer stay. In societies with Diners, at the table, in the comedy, the Carnival and on the hunt Josef Wilhelm brought by his time and his money. It took three full years to this unsettled life before the Fürstin succeeded  with the help of Steuben to move the Fürst to end the masquerade. In later years the Fürst did well in the role of an enlightened country's father, presented to model farms, introduced compulsory education, founded in 1775, a school, a grammar school in the Old Castle and decreed against the continued resistance of the population, the reduction of church holidays. His wife founded a hospital.  His need for representation that the new collegiate church in Hechingen their formation. 1764 she joined the then resident in Strasbourg famous French architect Pierre Michel d'Ixnard, the future builders of the Collegiate Church, as Planning Director in royal service. Although the Fürst was trying to appear nationwide fatherly and jovial, he remained adamant in subjects conflict and suspicion against the government of his successor intermediary course. On 09.04 1798 Fürst Josef Friedrich Wilhelm died after 48 years in power. Since he left no male heirs, the government passed to his nephew, Hermann. Fürst  Hermann was familiar with the situation in the country when he came to power. He was raised in Belgium, where his father was an imperial officer. From his his mother, the Countess Anna Maria of Hoensbroech-Geulle, Fürst Hermann inherited her dutch possessions from his second wife  the dutch Princess of Gavre, Marquise d'Aysseau he had inherited a million francs. His first wife, Countess Louise de Merode, Marquess of Westerlo, he had lost after just one year of marriage, and was since 1779  married to Countess Maria Antonia of Waldburg-Zeil-Wurzach. He tried, after the assignment of the left bank of the Rhine to France, to be considered in the compensation negotiations. Fürst Hermann eventually received from the Imperial Deputation Committee to replace the lost belgian possessions of his mother the rule Hirschlatt in Tettnang and the monastery Gnadenthal in Stetten.  He used money for the beautification of Hechingen and the improvement of rural roads. All his activities were aimed outward, to improve the fortunes of his house. Fürst  Hermann was Empire Marshal Lieutenant and Prussian lieutenant general. As difficult as presented itself to the external situation of the Principality in the period between the Congress of Rastatt and the end of the Empire, so relaxing is the cost of the Fürst inside. Immediately after his accession he took on the peace negotiations with the villages, concluded on the basis of the comparison city from 1795 on 26 June Hechingen the country comparison and dismissed on that day ..... today's gratifying tribute celebrations from our own free motion all subjects of bondage, but of which grace the village Bisingen because it is not a party to the comparison, did not appear even when the homage excluded was (since the Bisinger are nicknamed "Nichthuldiger"). The Fürst limited his hunting three animal parks, there could be shot outside of town shooters unlimited hunting and Hagfronen were transformed into "measured" or money. Serfdom was abolished as a legal function that loads arising from them remained. The main event was set at five percent of the estate. The subjects were given the right to determine in a general election twelve deputies, which had the right to control the taxes and make suggestions opposition. The Jews gave the Fürst , on the advice of his court factor Jacob Kaulla (see also Caroline Kaulla) "for appropriate Remuneration to the exchequer," a new letter of protection to 40 years. The Fürst succeeded as the settlement of the conflict subjects within a few weeks. Fürst Hermann was not generally a man of compromise, he was a rather bizarre personality by nature suspicious, petty, and he took care of extremely pedantic about the details of the administration. He loved the time according to taste, the seclusion in nature, preferably in the hunting lodge Friedrichstal. He was always busy, vigilanter patriarch, under which the small princely absolutism reached a final climax. The Act of Confederation saved the independent existence of the Hechinger Fürst, but there was no increase, neither ownership nor rights of sovereignty bestowed. He felt this was blatant discrimination and its reset, the elder line of the house. Greatly afflicted by the humiliation of Prussia and AustriaFürst Hermann died on 02.11.1810. His scucessor became his son Friedrich. Already as hereditary Prince Friedrich le many difficult diplomatic negotations for the Principality. So he reached in 1800 with the Emperor in  Vienna, that the also the hereditary prince and his decendatns should be entitlted to the rank of Imperial Prince.  And despite the close links to the House of Habsburg, he reached in negotiations with France, the Principality was freed from high Kontributionsleistungen. In 1801 his father sent him to Paris to negotiate a substitute for the lost possessions in the Netherlands. His in-laws, the Fürstin Amalie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, introduced him to the then Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, with his wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand. At the Reichsdeputationsasschuss  in 1803, the Principality then actually received as a substitute for the lost possessions in the revolutionary wars, the monasteries Stetten, St. Luzen and Rangendingen and the rule Hirschlatt.  After the accession of the Principality of the Rhine Confederation 1806 Friedrich fought as an officer of Napoleon. First, he was adjutant of Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. In 1806 he captured the fortress of Glogau and later also the hometown of his wife Żagań. His father, Fürst Hermann arranged celebrations thanks "for the progress of the Napoleonic weapons" to. 1809 friedrich was the adjutant of the King of Naples, Joachim Murat, who was married to Napoleon's sister, Caroline Bonaparte. In the Russian campaign he contracted severe war injuries from which he never fully recovered..Just in time, he could in 1810 secede from the Confederation of the Rhine and switch on the side of the Allies after the Battle of Leipzig. At the Vienna Congress in 1815, the principality was thus on the winning side and received reparations from France, which the Fürst used to build the new castle in Hechingen. Hohenzollern-Hechingen joined the German Confederation and was carefully managed by FürstFrederick despite the high debt, and his son Konstantinalready during his lifetime had to grow because of the poor health of his father in the government.
On 16.07.1819 met Fürst Friedrich with the later Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on the ruins of Hohenzollern Castle. In a letter dated 17.03.1820 he spoke of the request, Friedrich Wilhelm IV may talk to his father, the reigning King Friedrich Wighelm III., n the reconstruction of the castle. Initially only a romantic ruin was prepared. Friedrich Wilhelm IV realized the idea of a complete reconstruction even then only two decades later. The Fürst suffered from his war injuries and the unfortunate marriage to Pauline, who was only on paper.  In 1833 Fürst Friedrich issued  General school rules. 1835 he granted the new city ordinance the communities of the Principality of a self-government. Town Clerk office man  and Town Clerk writers were appointed by the Fürst, mayors and councilors were elected and determined from their center, the tax collectors and the city architect. A little later, a new electoral law governed the country deputation, the first parliament in the Principality. Fürst Friedrich  was considered "extremely simple in its entire life, humanity and of excellent high scientific education" . The health of the Fürst was always worse in the last years of life.He had marreid in 1800 the wealthly Princess Pauline Biron of Curland but she had left him in 1805 but there as never a divorce. After his death on 13.09.1838 his only son Konstantin became the new Fürst who had because of his fathers illness  already since  1834 headed the Government. Through the the death of Dorothea von Sagan, his mother's sister, in 1842 he alsobecame  Duke of Sagan. Together with the related line of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he renounced as a result of the riots of 1848 by agreement of 07.12.1849 the government and left, subject to the rights of a sovereign Head, his principality to the head of the Hohenzollern House, the King of Prussia, against an annuity of 10,000 thalers. Since then he has lived with the prerogatives of a posthumous Prince of the Prussian royal family to Lowenberg in Silesia, where he particularly cared for the music and held a noble chapel. As financial sponsor, he was instrumental in the founding of the General German Music Association. He had to bring the purpose, newer and seldom heard older and larger Tonwerke performed as a way for the living composer to be what are the exhibitions of paintings for the living painter. The Association held in 1859 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in Leipzig its first general meeting. Fürst Konstantin had married in 1826 Eugenie de Beauharnis, Princess of Leuchtenberg but the marriage remained without Issue. After he death in 1850 he mad in 1850 a second morgantic marriage Barnoess Amelie Schenk of Geyern who was created Countess of Rothebeurg by the King of Prussia. From his second marriage he had several children.  Fürst Konstantin died on 03.09.1869. As his son from his second marriage was not entitled to inherit the pricnely line of Hohenzollern-Hechingen became with Konstantin's death, extinct in the male line  and was succeeded by Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

The County from 1623 Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

In the partition of 1576 the second son of Karl I., Karl II.received the county Sigmaringen with the monasteries Hedingen and Veringen and the county Veringen. Hohenzollern had to pay Lehnslasten of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, on the other hand had high Zollern Hechingen not to carry such loads. This was taken into account in the division of the  inheritance. A judgment of the Imperial Supreme Court from 1588 noted the county Sigmaringen was an imperial fief. However, this assessment was until 1806 called into question. As his residence Count Karl II. choose Sigmaringen as residence and rebuild Sigmarignen Castle. Between 1576 and 1606 he had the vaulting of the castle entrance build and ordered the construction of the church next to the castle. In 1589 he acquired the Castle Ratzenhofen in Sigmaringen village. In 1595 he bought the town Krauchenwies since then  was closely connected with the county Sigmaringen. Count Karl II. died in 1605 and was succeeded by his oldest son Johann from his first marriage to Countess Euphrosine of Oettingen-Wallerstein.  Count Johann had studied at the universities of Freiburg and Ingolstad In Ingolstadt, he became friends with Maximilian I of Bavaria. He also became ​​friends with the future Emperor Ferdinand II . Unlike the Electorate of Brandenburg, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen had remained catholic, but were in the immediate vicinity of the Protestant Duchy of Württemberg and were thus in a prominent place in the escalating dispute denomination. Johann is therefore closely tied to the Duchy of Bavaria, the leader of the Catholic League. He also worked on administrative reform in Bavaria in Munich. Count Johann  was a member of the secret Council and later its president. He also tried to positively influence the attitudes of the Pope and Emperor against Bavaria. Good in these efforts was, that his brother Eitel Friedrich represented Catholic League and the German bishops in Rome. The alliance with the  Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria and Emperor Ferdinand II paid off. 1623 after Bavaria was raised from Duchy to an Electorate also Johann was rewarded with a higher rank: The Reichstag in Regensburg approved in 1623 the raise of  Count Johann to an  Heriditary Prince. Similarly, Count Johann Georg of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, his cousin from the line founded by Eitel Friedrich IV was raised to Fürst of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. With the extinction of the line of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch their territory in 1634 came under the rule of Johann. His brother Ernst Johann Georg was set off financially because of these alleged, among other things, claims to Krauchenwies. The excellent financial position of his country allowed John to make church and monasteries significant monetary donations as well as to expand the residential palace in Sigmaringen. A change brought the events of the Thirty Years War. Fürst Johann accompanied the Emperor Maximilian I. in Regensburg in 1630, which aimed at the military command of the imperial army there. Ravages of war also took place in Sigmaringen, whose castle was captured by the Swedes in 1632 and freed from the Imperial again in the following year, however, came up in the fighting in flames. Together with Maximilian of Bavaria, he fled as his receding President before the chaos of war to Braunau am Inn. After the withdrawal of the services Maximilian Johann received from him the  rule Schwabegg. John himself lived in Bavaria, where he then died at the age of 60 years, in 1638, four years after his wife. Shortly before, he had been included in the College of the Imperial Princes (Reichsfürstenkollegium), which meant the elevation of the land to an Imperial Principality. Primogeniture in the male line was set. His successor was his only son Meinrad I. who took over a country that was Bled and  devastated by war. 1646 were the French under Henri de Turenne and the Swedes under Carl Gustav Wrangel in Swabia and Bavaria a. The war was only ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia treaties. Meinrad I. had inherited from his father a greater personal wealth, and his wife was also found economic good. The destruction threw back the country economically strong, but fell construction efforts with existing resources more easily. Despite the long reign of the Fürst Meinrad I. , the negative economic impact of the war could not be completely eliminated. He had the Castles in Sigmaringen and Haigerloch rebuild and modenized from Vorarlberg renowned architect Michael Beer. After 1632 the Swedes had occupied the Sigmaringen Castle and it came in 1633 with the reconquest of General Gustav Horn to the destruction of the eastern part of the castle by fire. Meinrad let the burnt down  parts of the Castle from 1658 and 1659  rebuild and connect the two mountainous east buildings under one roof. Whein Fürst Meinrad I. died on 30.01.1681, his son Maximilian I took the Sigmaringer part of the principality. The Haigerlocher area, which was co-ruled by this time of Meinrad I. took over, so it's testament certain his son Franz Anton. His oldest son Maximilian had been named after Maximilian I. of Bavaria. he had together with his brother served in imperial austrian where he took part in the 4. austrian Turk War. In 1681 he beame after the death of his father ruler of a smaller Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and because his brother Franz Anton got Haigerloch he ruled over a country which was as big as the former county Sigmaringen. In 1666 he had married Maria Clara of Berg 'sHeerenberg, daughter of Count Albert. After the death of her brother Count Oswald III. in 1702 she inherited the counts s'Heerenberg. To the inheritance belonge the dominions Boxmeer, Bergh, Diksmuide Gendringen, Etten, Wisch, Pannerden and Millingen. Fürst Maximilian died in 1689 and was succeeded by his son meinrad II. who was still a minor and was initially under the guaerdianship  of his mother and his uncle Count Franz Anton of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch. Meinrad II.  studied 1678-1679 at the University of Ingolstadt and struck like  his father, a military career in the Imperial Austrian Service. In 1683 he fought in the Battle of Kahlenberg at the Second Siege of Vienna, the Hungarian Revolution in 1697 the Nine Years War and the war against France. The latter war was significant because of the location of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen also out of personal interest. Meinrad served in the War of Spanish Succession in 1702  in the Netherlands. Then followed, among other missions in Bavaria in 1703 and 1704 in Hungary. The children of princes lived at that time in Sigmaringen. Since the French penetrated to Swabia, the children were taken for safety reasons to Vienna and returned to Sigmaringen after the peace treaty of Rastatt in 1714 again.In 1692, Emperor Leopold I increased the princely rank of the Swabian Hohenzollern on primogeniture out. In other words, the first ceremony, lordship was bound only by the law of primogeniture, respectively direct successor. The Prince graduated in 1695 with the electoral House of Brandenburg the Hohenzollern-Brandenburg inheritance contract. Thereafter, the country should fall to Brandenburg in the case of extinction of the Swabian line. The agreement also was agreed by Emperor Leopold I..In 1702 his uncle Count Franz Anton of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch fell  at the Battle of Friedlingen so the Haigerlocher area fell to Meinrad II. In 1708 he built the iron melt in Laucherthal Meinrad, the present company based in Sigmaringen. Fürst Meinrad II. was married to Coutness Johanna Katharina von Montfort-Tettnang.

• Joseph, followed his father as Fürst
• Maria Anna, unmarried
• Franz Wilhelm, he was in 1712 adopted by Count Oswald III. of Bergs'Heereberg, the brohter of his grandmother Maria Clara and became his solo Heir.

 When Fürst Meinrad II. died in 1715 his oldest son Joseph was still a minor and was therfore until 1720 under the guardianship of his mother. Shortly before his accession Joseph had entered Austrian military service, where he achieved the rank of general of cavalry, and finally the position of the General field Marshall lieutnant of the Swabian Circle. Under Joseph Hohenhuollern-Sigmaringen again became closer to the Electotate of Bavaria  and after the election of Karl VII: he apponted Joseph as his Privy Councesllor.  Joseph was an avid hunter and in 1727 he led create the wildlife park Josefslust at Sigmaringen. In 1736, he modernized the Sigmaringen Castle and rebuild it. He also cnahged the Ridder Hall there to the ancestral hall. The so-called Prince Joseph's building is reminiscent of that time. Joseph was known as Art patron. He built the parish church of St. Johann, the  Joseph's Chapel, the hunting lodge in Josefslust and in Haigerloch, which he preferred to his residence in Sigmaringen, the Church of St. Anne. Fürst Joseph ran the canonization of Father Fidelis of Sigmaringen and is regarded as promoters of school and church being. Fürst Jopseph was married three times. first he married in 1727 Princess marie Franziska zu Oettingen-Speileberg and had several children with her. After her death he married in 1738 Countess Judith of Closen but the three children of this marriage died very young. In 1743 he married again with Coutness Maria theresia of Waldburg zu Zeil and Trauchburg. After his death his only durving son Karl Friedrich took over the reign of the Principlity. He had in 17490 married his cousin Countess Jphann of Hohenzollern-Berg the daughter of his uncle, Count Franz Wilhelm and heiress of the lucrative dutch county Bergh s'Heerenberg, After the marriage he lived more on frequently on the estates of his dutch father-in-law  than in the Principality of his family. Karl Friedrich experienced the Seven Years War on the side of Maria Theresa of Austria against Prussia. He served until 1763 in a cavalry regiment as part of the troops of the Swabian kingdom circle. The troops fought with much use against the prussian cavalriy whioch was run by Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz. On Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen the  military conflict had virtually no effect, thus favoring the development of the economy. Karl Friedrich was heriditary trreasur the Holy Roman Empire and Field Marshal Lieutenant of the Empire Swabian Circle. Otherwise Fürst Karl Friedrich was very enthusiastic for hunting. After his death in 1785 his successor became his oldest son Anton Aloys who inherited two years later  after the death of his mother with the county Bergh s'Heerenberg and it's rich Dutch possessions. In 1789, the Brabant Revolution took place in the Austrian Netherlands, which was closely followed by Anton Aloys because his possessions there. At the coronation of Emperor Leopold II in 1790 was the herditiary  treasur of the empire. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Anton Aloys fled to Vienna  and returned in 1796 back again. France received from Germany the territories on the left bank of the Rhine. So in 1802  Anton Aloys lost all his dutch possessions. He received as compensation rule Glatt in the northern Black Forest and the secularized monasteries Inzigkofen, Beuron and Lumber. In 1806 Fürst Anton Aloys under the guarantee of complete sovereignty over its land he joined the Confederation of the Rhine. Politics in southern Germany was determined by the French. But the ratio of Napoleon Bonaparte proved profitable for the Swabian Hohenzollern, although they had to accept the hegemony of Napoleon. There were some matrimonial alliances of his family with the imperial France. Anton Aloys received from Napoleon the reigns oh Achberg and Hohenfels and full sovereignty over all knights economic areas of the country. At the Congress of Vienna, where Anton Aloys participated in 1814, its sovereignty was recognized, and he also received his earlier possessions in Bavaria and the Netherlands back for his house. In 1815, the principality became a member of the German Confederation. Overall, Anton Aloys always had a rather provincial view. His grandson Karl Anton of Hohenzollern described this by saying that the Fürst"did not overlook a vast horizon". Under Anton Aloys was 1815-1817 the so-called "fruit box" of the castle Sigmaringen rebuild to the Cavllierssbulding the, the so-called "Wilhelmsbau". He had in 1781 married Princess Amalie Zephyrine zu Salm-Kyrburg (her brother Fürst Friedrich III. zu Salm-Kyrburg was married to Anton Aloys sister, Princess Johanna Franziska). GHaving spend the first years of the marriage in Paris she di not feel not at home in the small Sigmarignen and soon after the bvirth of the son Karl in 1784 she left it und moved again to Paris. In the years 1800 to 1806, she used her relations with Napoleon's court to advocate in favor of her son Karl for the preservation of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and its full sovereignty. She could finally turn the threat of mediatization  in favor of Baden or Württemberg for both Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen.. In 1806 she arranged  for political reasons the marriage of Hohenzollern house with the French nobility ahead. It closed in February 1808 with the marriage of her son Karl  with Antoinette Murat, realitve of Joachim Murat, a brother-in-law of Napoleon I. In 1808 after 20 years Amaly Zephyrine finally retunred to Sigmaringen. After the death of Fürst Anton Aloys in 1831 his only son Karl became the new Fürst. Fürst Karl had already before a significant share of government business. In 1833 convened a constituent parliament and a Charlemagne proclaimed it a Bill of Rights as the fundamental law of the Principality. In 1838 Fürst Karl  appointed l Ludwig Hassenpflug to the top of the internal administration of the principality. He founded the state hospital and let the House of the Estates, a government and chamber of commerce building, build at the Leöopold Place in Sigmaringen (now seat of the Hohenzollern Landesbank). Karl's merit was also the abolition of serfdom and various basic loads, the system of Anton and Charles Street in Sigmaringen and of the local Princesbuilduing. He was considered a well-read and was in correspondence with Alexander von Humboldt. During the revolution of 1848 in Sigmaringen Charles abdicated on 27.08.1848 in favor of his son liberal set son Karl Anton. 
In 1808 Karl had married Caroline Murat, daughter of Pierre Murat, a brother of Joachim Murat, King of neapel and Grand duke of Berg. This marriage had been arranged by his mother. The not equal marriage was signed in a contract by the prussian House to legitimize the children and their noble claims. After the death of his first wife fürst Karl made a second marriage to Princess Katharina zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, widowed Countess of Ingelheim.
children from the first marriage:

• Karoline, married first to Count Friedrich Franz Anton of Hohentzollern-Hechingen.   she made a second marriage to Johann Stäger von Waldburg
• Karl Anton, who succeeded his father as Fürst
• Amalie, married to Prince Eduard of Saxe-Altenburg
• Friederike, married to Marchese Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli

After the abdication of Fürst Karl on 27.08.-1848 his only son Karl Anton succeded him. He had  originally intended to dispense entirely with the sovereignty of the country. To this end, he negotiated with the Provisional Central Power in Frankfurt. These negotiations led to no results.In the Principality itself, the revolutionary movement radicalized. It came to battle with the estates to the royal domains. These conflicts forced Karl Anton to temporarily leave the Principality. Of the counter-revolution in the summer of 1849 the country was occupied by Prussian troops. Karl Anton stepped on 07.12.1849 into a treaty with the Principality of compensation to the Prussian crown. After his abdication as sovereign in favor of Prussia, Karl Anton became division commander in Dusseldorf. He and his family resided there in Jägerhof castle. At the beginning of the Crimean War, he was sent as an envoy to Paris. He should prevent an anti-Russian coalition of France and Britain. Politically Karl Anton moderate liberalism of the weekly party close. He also had good relations to Prince Wilhelm. After he had assumed the regency, Karl Anton was appointed in 1858 to Prussian prime minister. This office he held until 1862. He was thus head of government in the time of the New Era. Inside, he attempted to carry out a liberal point of these reforms. In appearance it was aimed at unification of the German states. In particular, the European crisis as a result of the war in Italy was Germany's political plans fail. Domestically, there was initially a collaboration with liberalism, which provided the majority of the Prussian House of Representatives. However, the conflict led to the military structure for military conflict. Karl Anton supported the plan of Albrecht von Roon, but pleaded for a greater opening up next to the officer's career also for commoners. The federal election of 1861 ended with the victory of the Progressive Party, which ruled the military refused plans. So lost in the chamber Karl Anton political support. Within the Cabinet he had difficulty to maintain itself by Roon between the liberal members around August von der Heydt and the Conservatives. On 12 March 1862 his time as Prime Minister ended.  In 1866, his son Charles was elected as Prince of Romania. After the death of Fürst Konstantin of Hohenzollern-Hechingen on 03.09.1869 Karl Anton without legitmate male Issue this line of the House became ectinct and the Sigmaringen branch was now the only line of the older line of the House of Hohenzollern.

The county of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch

The third son of Karl I., Christoph  got in the partiction of 1576 the county Haigerloch.  His county at that time consisted of 10,000 inhabitants and was much smaller than that of Christoph's  brothers. Christoph was the progenitor of the Haigerlocher line who became extinct in 1634 with his younger son again. In 1577 he married in Sigmaringen Catherine, daughter of Christoph Barons of Welsperg. He cared intensely about the management of his country and soon began extensive construction work at his residence Haigerloch. The medieval castle was not a modern representative system for him. However, he did not live to see the completion of his premature death. Together with his wife he founded the Holy Trinity Church in Haigerloch.After the death of Count Christoph of Stanislaus Nellenburg 1591, whose brother was married to a Countess of Hohenzollern, Christoph received from the heritage of the rule Wehrstein with castle and town, and the village Dettensee. A a contestant for the heritage, Anna Maria von Wolfenstein, which was made ​​with the Bregenz citizens Fezenn a failure marriage, was turned off by Christopher and his brothers successfully writing appealed to the chivalry and nobility of Swabia and Anna Maria discredited as a prostitute. After his death in 1592 he was succeeded by his son Johann Christoph who was at the time still a minor. Therefore his uncles Eitel Friedrich of Hohenzollern-Haigerloch and Karl II. of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen took over the guardianship. In imperial military service he lived mainly in Vienna. Johann Christoph married in 1608 in Sigmaringen Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringem,d daughter of his uncle,  Count Karl II.  of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The marriage remained childless. Johann Christoph acquired in 1612, the Haag Castle in Haigerloch later his widow lived in it. With the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, he was elected commander of the Hohenzollern Castle. In 1623 he was succeeded by his brother Karl. In January 1633 Karl  fled from his castle in Haigerloch before the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War, with an entourage of 21 people to the Hohenzollern Castle, which was soon filled out by the Swedes. Count Karl was granted free outlet and he went to the imperial camp to Überlingen to ask for help without success for the relief of the castle. He died on 9 March 1634 at the local Gasthaus zur Krone. As his marriage to Countess Rosamunde of Ortenberg weas childless, he died without leaving  heirs, and the line Hohenzollern-Haigerloch became extinct. According to the inheritance contract of 1575 Hohenzollern-Haigerloch fell now to the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

Principality of Hohenzollern

After the line of Hohenzollern-hechingen had become extinct after the death of Fürst Konstantin of Hohenzollern-Hchingen on 03.09.1869 Fürst Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen  dropped the Sigmaringen part of his title and became now the Fürst of Hohenzollerbn. In February 1870 his other son Leopold was offered the Spanish throne. Karl Anton was forced by Otto von Bismarck to accept the offer. Only after a hesitation, he went out. Given the relationship with the French houses Murat and Bonaparte seemed to him an approval by Napoleon III. to be possible. As a European crisis threatened to ignite the candidacy, Karl Anton pulled the nomination on back on 12.07.1870. This step was not sufficient to the Franco-German War of 1870/71 to prevent, for only a day later it came to the Ems telegram. During the war, Karl Anton held no front command but practiced with the rank of Commanding General of the position of Militärgouveneurs for the Rhine Province and the province of Westphalia. From 1871, Sigmaringen became again his permanent residence, where the avid cigar smoker, loaded by a paralysis of the legs,  spent his last years. Fürst Karl Anton  was an avid art collector and even then offered his subjects the opportunity to visit its art treasures.
In 1834 he had married  Princess Josephine of baden a daughter of Grand Duke Karl and his french wife Stephanie née de Beauharnis.

• Leopold, who succeeded his father as Fürst
• Stephanie, married to King Pedro V. of Portugal
• Karl who became in 1866 as Carol I. sovereign Prince of Romania, In 1881 he was proclaimed King of Romania
• Anton who fell in the battle of Königgrätz
• Friedrich, married to Princess Luise of Thurn and Taxis
• Marie, married to Prince Philippe of Belgium, Count of Flandes

After the death of Fürst Karl Anton on 02.06.1885 his oldest son Leopold succeeded him as Fürst of Hohenzollern. After the revolution in Spain he had in 1868 by Marshal Juan Prim, head of the provisional government, the Spanish crown. First, Leopold refused, but the Spanish government asked Prussia to influence him. This offer has now been supported by the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, who had previously dismissed as a family affair. From the French Emperor Napoleon III. Leopold's candidacy was rejected.
Leopold, who was related through his grandmother Stéphanie de Beauharnais indirectly closely with the Bonaparte's as with  the prussian Hohenzollern, wrote to King Wilhelm I, "I am down to the innermost fiber of my Prussian and German." After the acceptance of the offer by Leopold on 02.07.870 abandoned shortly after Leopold's father Fürst Karl Anton to the Spanish throne. Nevertheless, there was, in particular by not accepted in German lands demand of the French Government, German should avoid getting on a throne candidacy in Spain, the Franco-German War. On 18.01.1871 he took part in the imperial proclamation in Versailles. As Fürst he went after the recconstruction of Sigmaringen Castle which had partially burnt down in 1893. 

Fürst leopold married in 1861 Infanta Antonia of Portugal, a daughter of Queen Maria II. da Gloria and her husband King Fernando II., née Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. 

They had 3 sons:

• Wilhelm, who succeded his father as Fürst
• Ferdinad, he adopted by his childless uncle King Carol I. of Romania and succeded him in 1914. He was married to Princess Marie of Great Britain and Ireland, Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
  • Carol II. King of Rmonai 1930-1940, he married 3 times, first morganatic to Joana (Zizi) Lambrino, secnd from 1921-1928 to pricness helen of Greece and Denmark and third to Elena Lupescu
    • Michael I. King of Romania from 1927-1930 and from 1940-1947, married to Princess Anne of Borbon of Parma, They have 5 daughters
  • Elisabeth, married  from 1821-1935 to King Eorg II. of the Hellenes
  • Maria married to King Alexander II. of Yougoslavia
  • Nicholas, married first to Joanna Dumitrescu-Doletti, second to Thereza Lisboa Figueria de Mell. No Issue. 
  • Ileana, married to Archduke Anton of Austria, second to Stefan Issarescu
  • Mircea
• Karl Anton, married to his cousin  Princess Josephine of Belgium. In 1909 he bought Namedy Castle at Andernach which is still in the posession of his descendants.
  • Stephanie, married from 1920 to 1943 to Fürst Ernst Fugger of Glött
  • Marie Antoinette, married to Baron Egony Eyrl von und zu Waldgries and Liebenaich
  • Albrecht married to Ilse-Margot von Friedeburg

    

    Prince Carlos

    • Josephine, married to Count Harald of Posadowsky-Wehner
    • Luise-Dorothea married to Count Edgar of Plettenberg
    • Rose-Margarethe married to Edgar Pfersdorf
    • Godehard-Friedrich married to Heide Hansen
      • Carlos
      • Anna, married to Roman Goldschmidt

Fürst Leopold died on 08,.06.1905 and his oldest son Wilhelm succeeded him as new Fürst. During his time as Fürst the final break of the previously Francophile aligned Princely House House with France took place and an orientation towards Prussia was taken, which among other things also it showed that you hired from now on mainly Prussian officials (marshals, staff, etc.).After the First World War and tjhe procvlmation of the Republic in November 1918 began in Hohenzollern politically a whole new time. Riots occurred in the course of the revolution only a few cases, however, the fear of radical attacks was massive. So on 13.11.1918 a delegation of the Centre and the Democrats moved Fürst  Wilhelm of Hohenzollern to waive privileges and financial benefits to prevent  a possible armed assault on the castle of Sigmaringen.
Fürst Wilhelm had married in 1889 Princess Maria Theresia of Bourbon Two-Sicilies. Because of a Spineal cord disease she often spend the summers in Bad Tölz and the winter in Cannes. After along illnes she died in 1909. 6 years later in 1915 Fürst Wilhelm made a second marriage to Pricness Adelgunde of Bavaria one of the daughters of King Ludwig III. of Bavaria.
children from the first marriage:

• Auguste Viktoria, married to King Manoel II. of Porugal. After his death she made a second marriage with Count Robert Douglas
• Friedrich who succeeded his father as Fürst
• Franz Joseph,  adopted the name Prince of Hohenzollern-Emden in 1933. He was married to Princess Maria Alix of Saxony, a daughther of King Friedrich August III. of Saxony.
  • Karl Anton, married to Alexandra Afif
  • Meinrad, married to Baroness Edina of Kap-Herr
    • Stephanie, married to Sebastian Exner
  • Maria Marigarethe, married to Duke Carl Gregor of Hohenzollern
  • Emanuel Joseph. married to Princess Katharine of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, later divorced
    • Eugenia, married to Alexander Sautter
    • Carl Alexander he had several short not equal marriages, first to Angela Stölzle, later 2 times more

 Fürst Leopold died on 27.101.1927 and his the older of this twin-sons Friedrich succeeded him as Fürst and Head of the Princely House. He took part in the First World War to the campaigns in the West and East, in Italy and in the Carpathians and led the fifth reserve mountain infantry battalion. In 1919 he retired from active military service.  Well, he managed until his father's death in 1927, the Hohenzollern ppsession Umkirch in Freiburg im Breisgau. This he had inherited from King Carol I of Romania. Fürst Friedrich was opposed to the Weimar Republic  from the beginning. He was inclined to the traditional Catholicism and the imperial ideology of the Catholic conservatives. With the death of his father in 1927, he took according to the House laws  the name Fürst of Hohenzollern, which from 1927 to 1931 led to a name and title dispute with the Prussian authorities. President of the Government of Hohenzollern country, Alfonso Scherer, sat in a circular of 9 July 1928, the authorities informed that Prince Friedrich of Hohenzollern after the death of his father, neither had the right to the title Fürst of Hohenzollern nor the style of Highness.  Further emphasized Scherer in the letter that the name is Prince of Hohenzollern and the name Fürst of Hohenzollern in 1927 was extinguished with the death of Fürst Wilhelm of Hohenzollern, and therefore could not pass to his son Friedrich. He particularly emphasized also that the name Fürst Friedrich of Hohenzollern was forbidden. He pointed specifically to Article 109, paragraph 3 of the constitution and the Prussian aristocracy law   of 23.06.1920. It was the Prussian state and local authorities in general forbidden to use the words Fürst and Court. Therefore, Fürst Friedrich was now officially treated as Mr. Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern. This resulted in a year-long political battle of the Princely House with the regional council, because Friedrich wanted the astyle of Highness and the title of fürst. He threatened the town of Sigmaringen with the transfer of its management to Munich. This prompted the city fathers to work towards the replacement of the President of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior Government in Berlin. The Minister of the Interior Carl Severing (SPD), the placed on 31.08.1931 the  Government President Scherer into temporary retirement. The Princely House had won the political battle for name and style. The new government President Heinrich Brand made no further resistance to Friedrich's  claim to be adressed as Highness and Fürst. Despite the adverse conditions during the Great Depression, Friedrich succeeded to secure the possession of the house and its operations, in particular the extensive forest ownership in eastern Germany. He managed to acquire parts of the already divested of his father treasures again and so to save the Hohenzollern art collection. Friedrich was honorary chairman of the Association of Silesian Maltese law knight and chief of the steel helmet in Württemberg and Baden. Friedrich affinity for military nursing tradition led to the approach of Nazism. His younger twin brother of Prince Franz Joseph of Hohenzollern joined the SS. 1935 gave the Nazi state Friedrich the style of  Royal Highness. The desired of him entering the army he was denied due to the later so-called Prince decree. In the beginning of September 1944 he had to leave with his family the castle in Sigmaringen because it was needed for the billeting of the Vichy regime. With the Romanian King Michael I related royal family was interned because of the waste of Romania from the Axis powers in Unterwilflingen Castle in Langenenslingen. With the end of World War II two-thirds of the former possessions of the Princely House of Hohenzollern went lost. The well-known aristocrat Fürst Friedrich was very popular in the Hohenzollern lands. He was far beyond the home region beyond use and helpfulness. He supported, for example, many religious and cultural institutions. To the monasteries Beuron and Habsthal he gave a larger scale plots. He was also active for the expellees and social housing. At Castle Krauchenwies he set up a Maltese orphanage for refugee children and war orphans.
Fürst Friedrich had married in 1921 Princess Margarethe of Saxony, the oldest daughter of King Friedrich August III. of Saxony.  
They had 7 children:

• Maria Antonia, married to Count Heinrich of Waldburg zu Wolfegg and Waldsee
• Maria Adelgunde, maried first to Prince Konstantin of Bavaria from whom she was later divorced. She married again to Werner Hess from which she was also divorced and a third marriage to Hans Huber
• Maria Theresia
• Friedrich Wilhelm, who succeeded his father as Head of the Princely House
• Franz Joseph, married first to Princess Maria Fernanda of Thurn and Taxis, but the marriage was divorced after 1 year. He made a  second marriage to Princess Diena of Bourbon of Parma but it was also divroced some years later.
• Johann Georg, married to Princess Birgitta of Sweden, one of the sisters of King Carl XVI. Gustaf of Sweden
  • Carl Chrstian, married to Nicole Neschitsch
    • Nicolas
  • Désirée, married from 1990-2002 to Count Heinrich zu Ortenburg. She later made a second marriage to Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach
  • Hubertus, married to Ute Maria König
• Ferfried, he made in 1968 a not equal marriage to Angela von Morgen which was divorced in 1973, he made a second not equal marriage to Eliane Etter which lasted from 1977-1987 and finally a third not equal marriage (1999-2007) to Maja Meinert
  from the first marriage
  • Valerie, married to Peter Brenske
  • Stephanie, married from 1996-1999 to Count Hieronymus Wolff Metternich zur Gracht. She later married Martin Haag
  from the second marriage
  • Henriette
  • Moritz

HSH Prince Johann Georg

HSH Prince Ferfried

When Fürst Friedrich died on 06.02.1965 his oldest son Friedrich Wilhelm succeeded him as Head of the Princely House who was born in 1924. In 1943 he been called to the Empire Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), but then as a result of the so-called Prince's  Decree of 1940, explained unfit for military service and therefore not called for military service. From September 1944 to April 1945, he experienced the forced eviction of the family and interned at Castle Wilflingen. During this time the Sigmaringen Castle was the seat of the Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain. After graduating from Frederick High School in Freiburg in 1944, he studied business administration in 1945 at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and the University of Geneva. In 1948, he completed his studies. As the former Princely smelters were in debt in the late 1970s with DM 100 million, he separated himself from private ownership to rehabilitate the company.  He was Honour and Devotion-Bailiff of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta [5] and the 1972 to 1992, President of the Order of Malta in Germany as well as a great patron of the Malteser in Baden-Wuerttemberg. He had done great service particularly to the construction of Malteser eV.  Fürst Friedrich Wilhelm  was the owner of the group Prince of Hohenzollern, which was in  in 2006 formed new from from the Court chamber, the management of the entire possessions of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringenf. Among others, these include Sigmaringen Castle, the Arber mountain railway Ski Area, Big Arber in the Bavarian Forest and investments in the industry operating ZOLLERN GmbH & Co. KG and the wine and champagne corporate Prince of Hohenzollern GmbH. Fürst Friedrich Wilhelm died on 16.09. 2010. The Requiem for the late Fürst took place on 23.09.2010 in the Hedinger Church at Sigmaringen where he was buried afterwards.
Fürst Friedrich Wihlem married on 03.02.1951 Princess Margarita zu Leiningen, a daughter of Fürst Karl zu Leriningen and his wife Maria, née Grand Duchess of Russia.
The couple had 3 sons:

• Karl Friedrich,  who succeeded his father as head of the Princely House
• Albrecht, maried to Nathalie Rocabado de Viets
  
  • Josephine
  • Eugenia
• Ferdinand married to Countess Ilona Kalnoky de Köröspatak
  • Aloys
  • Fidelis
  • Victoria
   
  

  

  HSH Prince Albrecht

  
  
  

TH Fürst Karl Friedrich and
Fürstin Katharina

After the death of Fürst Friedrich Wilhelm his oldest son succeeded him as Fürst Karl Friedrich. He completed an apprenticeship as a banker and earned a Licentiate (lic rer.) of the University of Bern. Aleady since 1984 he has worked in the family business and took over before the death of his father in 2010 as an agent the business of the house. Fürst Karl Friedrich  is General Manager of the Group Prince of Hohenzollern, formerly Court Chamber, located in Sigmaringen and shareholder of Zollern GmbH and Co. KG, one of the largest employers in the district of Sigmaringen. As the sole shareholder and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Prince of Hohenzollern Capital GmbH & Co. KG, he currently owns (October 2009) seven equity investments and holds silent stakes in three companies from southern Germany. He is also on the Arber mountain railway is an important person in the tourism concept of the Bavarian Forest. Between 01.12.2005 and 29.02.2008 he was a member of the Economic Advisory Board of BayernLB.  In 2008, he had a seat on the board of the West Bank.  In addition, he was a member of the business advisory board of the Gotha insurance VVaG. Since 2007 he is member of the Advisory Board of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), since 2006, the Baden-Württemberg Bank (BW-Bank)  and since 2008 member of the Regional Advisory Board of Commerzbank Southwest. 

Fürst Karl Friedrich aka Charly is an avid jazz musician (singer, saxophonist and guitarist). Even during the economic studies in Switzerland he visited once a week the Swiss Jazz School in Berne. With his band "Charlie and the Jivemates" he has regular regional gigs, with Frieder Berlin, he has recorded several albums.

On 17.05.1985 he married at the Abbey church of Beuron monastery Countess Alexandra Schenk of Stauffenberg and lived with her at Krauchenwies Castle until the separation in the year 2006. The marriage was divorced in 2010. On 17.06.2010 he made a second marriage to the Hamburger business woman Katharina de Zomer.

From his first marriage he has 4 children:

• Alexander
• Philippa
• Flaminia
• Antonia