Counts of Manderscheid

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The family Manderscheid was the most powerful family in the Eifel region of Germany for a long time. In 1457 Dietrich III. von Manderscheid was made a Count of the empire (Reichsgraf) by the Kaiser (probably Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor). Dietrich, who died on February 20, 1498, had appointed his sons Johann, Konrad and Wilhelm as new rulers. In 1488 the properties of the family were shared out. Johann formed the lineage Manderscheid Blankenheim Gerolstein, William the lineage Manderscheid Kail, and Konrad (Cuno) the lineage Manderscheid Schleiden. Augusta von Manderscheid-Blankenheim was the last countess. She was married to the count of Sternberg, a bohemian noble.

[edit] The line Manderscheid Kail

The ancestral seat was the castle in Oberkail. By this moated castle Oberkail became for some hundred years an important Eifel place. Today moated palace is hardly still something remaining of that once pompoesen. When the last Oberkailer count without descendants died, the county fell in the year 1762 to the house one-the-separates - bright home. The moated castle was destroyed and Oberkail later became again a normal boring Eifel village.

[edit] Driven out by the Frenchmen

The region the Eifel applied in 17. Century as backward and was geueraegt of plague, Hexenverfolgungen und feuds. Thus e.g. in the Manderscheider counties Gerolstein, Blankenheim and Kail were executed between 1528 and 1641 mindestens 260 humans as witches.^source? In addition the body characteristic of the farmers came. In other regions of Germany reformation and technical inventions had led long to large progress. In 1794 French revolutionary troops occupied the linksrheinische Rhine country and the Eifel without much fighting. The principle of the French revolution following the aristocracy was entmachtet and the Feudalismus was eliminated. Frondienste as well as tenth deliveries and Binnenzölle were abolished. To all from now on same rights, French applied became the office language. Also the up to then valid medieval Rechtwsesen was updated. The economy in the Eifel experienced an upswing.

[edit] Archives situation

Originals of the certificates and documents (such as deed of ownership and commercial documents) that the family had taken with them on their flight to Bohemia, are stored in the National Museum (Prague). After these documents were copied on Microfilm in the 1970s, a copy was stored in an archive in Brauweiler near Cologne. As of today these documents are still waiting for a scientific evaluation.