Fürst (German pronunciation: [ˈfʏʁst] ( listen); from Old High German: furisto, "first", a translation of Latin princeps; plural Fürsten) is a German title of nobility, usually translated into English as Prince.
The term refers to the head of a principality and is distinguished from the son of a monarch, who is referred to as Prinz. English uses the term Prince for both concepts.
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The title Fürst (female form Fürstin, female plural Fürstinnen) is used for the heads of princely houses of German origin. In the Late Middle Ages it referred to any vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor ruling over an immediate estate. Unless he also holds a higher title, such as duke or king, he will be known either by the formula "Fürst von + [geographic origin of the dynasty]", or by the formula "Fürst zu + [name of the ruled territory]". These forms can be combined, as in "...von und zu Liechtenstein".
The rank of the title-holder is not determined by the title itself, but by his degree of sovereignty, the rank of his lord, or the age of the princely dynasty (note the terms Uradel, Briefadel, altfürstliche, neufürstliche; and see German nobility).
The present-day rulers of the principality of Liechtenstein bear the title of Fürst, and the title is also used in German when referring to the ruling princes of Monaco. The hereditary rulers of the one-time principalities of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania were also all referred to in German as Fürsten before they eventually assumed the title of "King" (translated in German as König).
Fürst is used more generally in German to refer to any ruler, such as a King, a Duke, or a Fürst in the narrow sense (cf. Macchiavelli's Il Principe). Before the 12th century, counts were also included in this group, in accordance with its usage in the Germany, and in some contexts, the term Fürst can extend to any lord.
The standardized child of a Fürst in the general sense is referred to as Prinz (from Latin: princeps; female Prinzessin), which therefore is not a noble rank. In some families some or all members are styled Fürst/Fürstin (Wrede) or Herzog/Herzogin (Anhalt, Bavaria, Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, Saxony, and Württemberg). [1]
Fürst is also a German, Hungarian and/or Jewish (Ashkenazi) surname.
Several titles were derived from the term Fürst:
The word Fürst designates the head (the "first") of a ruling house, or the head of a branch of such a house. The "first" originates from ancient Germanic times, when the "first" was the leader in battle.
Various cognates of the word Fürst exist in other European languages (see extensive list under Prince), sometimes only used for a princely ruler. A derivative of the Latin Princeps (ironically, a Republican title in Roman law, which never formally recognized a monarchic style for the executive head of state but nominally maintained the Consuls as collegial Chief magistrates) is used for a genealogical prince in some languages (e.g., Dutch and Frisian, where a ruler is usually called vorst (Frisian: foarst), but a prince of the blood is always styled prins (Frisian: prins); and Icelandic where fursti is a ruler, and a blood prince is prins (in these languages no capital letters are used in writing titles, unless, of course, they occur as the first word of a sentence)), while in other languages only a Princeps-derived word is used for both irrespectively (e.g., English uses prince for both). In any case the original (German or other) term may also be used.