Von Schmidt auf Altenstadt

Von Schmidt auf Altenstadt, (also von) was a German noble family whose seat was at Schloss Gattendorf outside Hof, Bavaria near the Czech border. Also known as Schmidt von Altenstadt, it had branches in other countries including the Netherlands, and Russia, where its members also distinguished themselves. In 1861, one branch received a baronial title from the King of Württemberg.

Johann Fabricius, originally surnamed Schmidt, had altered his name to the Latin form "Fabricius", in order to attract the attention of the Emperor. He served Maximilian II against the Turks and was given a coat of arms by the imperial Letters Patent of 2 November 1564.^[1] His son Martin was ennobled on 10 December 1577. They were granted a swan coat-of-arms where the swan is in an attack position on the shield; this is repeated in miniature "above the crown".^[2]

In 1638 the Fabricius family reverted to their former surname of Schmidt and on 23 February 1713 were granted the additive "auf Altenstadt". The native city of the family was Hof but they had a village called Schmidt where there was a castle called Burg Hengebach^[3] four miles away from the town of Heimbach.

On 18 October 1712/23 February 1713 the Emperor Charles VI granted augmentation of a knight's arm holding a sword to the swan coat-of-arms, to heirs Anton Johann Christoph, Johann Georg, and Christopher Wolf (successive lords of Gattendorf). The three brothers succeeded each other, one after the other, as lords of Gattendorf; the first two died without heirs. The third brother had children and the line continued.

Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt (21 August 1904 − 25 July 1944) was the last baron von Altenstadt of the castle Schloss Gattendorf and the last in life of the aristocratic family Von Schmidt auf Altenstadt. He reached the rank of Generalmajor 1 July 1944.^[4] Although the family is officially extinct, genetic connections to the family are still to be found in the United States. A direct descendant from Johann Schmidt/Fabricius exists within the UK.

Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt was the author of the book Unser Weg zur Meer.^[5][6]

The family's Schloss castle is now a hotel^[7] The swan coat-of-arms can still be seen carved above the stone entryway to the castle;^[8] it is run by the city of Gattendorf.

The Dutch branch

• Johann George Otto Stuart von Schmidt auf Altenstadt (born 1806 Sint-Oedenrode, died 1857 the Hague), was a Governor-General of Surinam in 1852-55.^[9]

The Russian branch

Christoph August von Schmidt was ennobled by Tsar Aleksandr I of Russia. He erected the Hof memorial stone^[10] and was created "Baron of the Russian Empire" and awarded knighthoods in the orders of Sts. Ann-and-Vladimir and the Order of St. Stanislaus, Russia's highest order, after serving as Kollegianrat (Provost) of the University of St. Petersburg. His daughter by his second marriage (1824) to Eudoxia Bruce, Eudoxia Schmidt von Altenstadt (born 1825, a goddaughter of Czar Alexander I shortly before his death), married a Russian nobleman (Alexander Gordon) and his grandsons, Peter and Paul Gordon lived at Neva Beach, St. Petersburg, Russia. Theresien Schmidts Gedenkstein^[10] is an important monument in the city of Hof, Bavaria.

The municipality of Gattendorf elected to adopt a version of the coat of arms posthumously in 1974 to commemorate the family.

In 1937, as his wife Lillian Thordsen was barren, von Altenstadt did as many German men did during the Third Reich with both pagan ceremonies and the Lebensborn programme, and contracted an additional pagan marriage with a priestess in the Vril Temple in order to propagate children for the race. As he married the niece and namesake of his patroness, Princess Franziska of Oettingen-Spielberg, Hitler offered to make Schloss Gattendorf the seat of a new Fuerstetum of Altenstadt-Oettingen, extending to the border of Heydrich's principality in Bohemia. Costa Rica was promised by the Fuehrer to subsidise its development, which von Altenstadt deferred pending Germany's conquest of Costa Rica, as well as in deference to Lillian Thordsen.

References