"HOFFAEHIG."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10765, 13 May 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

"HOFFAEHIG."

The German courts are especially stringent with regard to the right ot being presented to their inner circles. None hut those who can show sixteen ouarterings in a heraldic sense are permitted to come within the charged circle. This implies that not alone the person presented is of noble birth but that his parents and grandparents tor the last four generations have also been of this exalted order. Yet occasionally, bv a special grant of favor, the Emperor of Germany or of Austria may declare an outsider "Hoffaehig, or suitable for presentation at court. Ibis is very rarely done in the case ot Jews. It mav be remembered that some time ato the wife of the American Charge d'Affaires at Vienna was refused admission to court because she was a Jewess and the gentleman in question quite properly resigned his position. One ot the few exceptions that has been made bv the Emperor Francis Joseph was the late Baron Albert de Rothschild, who was a special favorite of the Emperor s, owing to the great service performed by his father and himself to the Austrian finances. Curiously enough with another generation many of the Kotlischilds will be "Hoffaehig," since they will be able to show the requisite quarterings.