Freiherr
Freiherr is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as "free lord". It is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "baron" (whose female version is "baroness"), but is not, like in the British system, the lowest title of nobility, ranking above Ritter von and von. The title was bestowed upon on a noble (von) by a lord or king of a German territory, with it's highest rank being the Reichsfreiherr, which only the Roman-German Emperor could award.[1]
- The German equivalent of baron, Freiherr, or “free lord” of the empire, originally implied a dynastic status, and many Freiherren held countships without taking the title of count (Graf). When the more important of them styled themselves counts, the Freiherren sank into an inferior class of nobility. The practice of conferring the title of Freiherr by imperial letters—begun in the 16th century by Emperor Charles V—was later exercised by all the German sovereigns.[2]
Separately, in the 19th century some families of the Baltic German nobility who had historically carried the title of Freiherr were recognized by the Tsardom of Russia as noble in the form of ukases additionally awarding the equivalent Russian title of Baron (Baltic baron, Latin equivalent of Freiherr).
Freiherr is not a first or middle name, but connected with the surname, for example WWI flying ace Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, not Freiherr Manfred von Richthofen. The female form is Freifrau if married to a Freiherr or Freiin if daughter of a Freiherr.
References
- ↑ After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Reichsfreiherren did not belong to the noble hierarchy of any realm, but by a decision of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, their titles were nonetheless officially recognised. From 1806, the then independent German monarchies, such as Bavaria, Württemberg and Lippe could create their own nobility, including Freiherren (although the Elector of Brandenburg had, as king of the originally exclusively extraterritorial Prussia even before that date, arrogated to himself the prerogative of ennoblement). Some of the older baronial families began to use Reichsfreiherr in formal contexts to distinguish themselves from the new classes of barons created by monarchs of lesser stature than the Roman-German Emperors, and this usage is far from obsolete.
- ↑ baron (title), Encyclopædia Britannica
