The Hohenzollerns and Where They Came From

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1164, 3 November 1917, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Hohenzollerns and Where They Came From

<{%f| r W)IS> OHENZOLLERN is the family name of the House of Prussia, in which has been vested since 1871 the name is derived from the ancestral castle Zollern, or Hohenzollern, in Swabia. The origin of the house is involved in obscurity, and the story of its descent from Count Thassilo, Swabian noble of the time of Charles the Great, is a fiction of the sixteenth century. The family name occurs as early as the eleventh century in the persons of Burchard and Wezel of Zoire, who were killed in 1061, but whether there is any relationship between these and the succeeding Hohenzollern family is a matter of doubt.

The house of Hohenzollern occupied a prominent position among the petty princely families of Swabia as early as the first half of the twelfth century, and we find Count Friedrich of Zoire invested with the Burggraviate of Nuremberg, an imperial office, which descended to his posterity. His sons, Frederick and Conrad, divided the possessions of the house in 1237, founding the Swabian and Franconian lines. From the close of the sixteenth century the elder, or Swabian, branch existed in the two lines of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzol-lern-Sigmaringen. In 1095 these two branches of the family entered conjointly into an agreement with Brandenburg, which provided that in case of the extinction of either of the Swabian branches the remaining branch should inherit its lands; and if both branches became extinct the principalities should revert to Brandenburg. In 1821 a new covenant was drawn up and confirmed by the King of Prussia, as the head of the Hohenzollern family. In consequence of the political troubles of 1848 the princes of the two branches resigned, and their principalities fell to the King of Prussia, who took possession on March 12, 1850.