The House of Fürstenberg (German pronunciation:[ˈfʏʁstn̩ˌbɛʁk]ⓘ) is the name of a German noble family of Westphalia, which descended from Hermannus de Vorstenberg. He was a liegeman of the Archbishop of Cologne, who was among the prince electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Hermannus held a castle for his lord called Fürstenberg ("Prince's Hill") at Ense-Höingen in Soest; this castle would give the family its name. His son was Wilhelm von Vorstenberg, the Justiciar and Castellan of Werl.
Some members of the family were elevated to comital dignities during German Mediatization for their services to the Kingdom of Prussia, or given honorific titles for their twentieth-century achievements:
Stammheim Line: a Prussian graviate; the title of Graf von Fürstenberg-Stammheim, in the Demesne of Stammheim, was given on 15 October 1840 to the Royal Prussian Chamberlain, Franz Egon Freiherr von Fürstenberg of Stammheim, and the heirs of his body. This line died out in 1925.
Belgiannaturalisation as Baron de Furstenberg was granted on 18 April 1887 to Clemens Freiherr von Fürstenberg. A Belgian comté was created with the title of Comte de Furstenberg on 3 January 1964 for Wenemar Freiherr von Furstenberg, an agricultural scientist.
Former holdings
The family's ancestral seat is Schloss Herdringen near Arnsberg. In the nineteenth century, the family also owned the following castles:
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Lahrkamp, Helmut/Richtering, Helmut et al. (rev.): Fürstenbergsche Geschichte, 3rd vol., Die Geschichte des Geschlechtes von Fürstenberg im 17. Jahrhundert, Münster, 1971.
Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Freiherrliche Häuser, Vol.XV, pp. 135–177, Vol. 69 of the series, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn), 1989.
Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Adelslexikon Vol. III, p. 420, Vol. 61 of the series, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn), 1975.