The Notthafft family (also ''Nothafft, Notthaft, Nothaft'') was an old German noble family.

History

The history of the family started in the

Egerland The Egerland (; ; Egerland German dialect: ''Eghalånd'') is a historical region in the far north west of Bohemia in what is today the Czech Republic, at the border with Germany. It is named after the German name ''Eger'' for the town of Cheb an ...

, with castles in Wildstein (now

Skalná Skalná (; until 1950 Vildštejn, ) is a town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,900 inhabitants. Administrative division Skalná consists of five municipal parts (in brackets population according to ...

), Falkenau (now Sokolov) and Thierstein at the end of the 12th century. Up to the 18th century three lines existed, named by the most important castles,

Wernberg Wernberg () is a municipality in the district of Villach-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Geography Wernberg lies on the Drava River at the foot of the Ossiach Tauern range, east of Villach, and between Lake Ossiach on the north, Wörthe ...

, Weißenstein near Friedenfels and Bodenstein near

Nittenau Nittenau () is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Regen, 18 km southeast of Schwandorf, and 24 km northeast of Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ra ...

. The family is directly related with the

House of Sparneck The Sparneck family was an old German nobility, German noble family from Franconia. History The family is known to exist from 1223 to 1744 and was named after the market village of Sparneck. One of their first castles was the Waldsteinburg; fur ...

. It became

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...

en. A prominent member of the family is Cajetan Anton von Notthaft. The last male descendant died in 1952. Beginning with the 14th century there was a

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

n family in the region of

Remseck Remseck am Neckar () is a swabian town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Rems and Neckar, about 12 km northeast of Stuttgart, and 7 km southeast of Ludwigsburg. ...

, carrying a different coat of arms. Though there is no familiar link found, the two families are regarded to be related.

References

* Harald Stark:
Die Familie Notthafft - auf Spurensuche im Egerland, in Bayern und Schwaben
', Weißenstadt 2006, (German) {{Authority control Bavarian noble families Franconian nobility Swabian nobility