Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was a county and later principality between Hesse-Darmstadt and

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

History

The county with

imperial immediacy In the Holy Roman Empire, imperial immediacy ( or ) was the status of an individual or a territory which was defined as 'immediate' () to Emperor and Empire () and not to any other intermediate authorities, while one that did not possess that stat ...

was formed by the 1657 partition of

Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein was a county of the Sauerland of Germany. Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein was a partition of Sayn-Wittgenstein, comprising the southern portion of the Wittgenstein County. In 1657, it was partitioned into Sayn-Wittge ...

and raised from a county to a

principality A principality (or sometimes princedom) is a type of monarchy, monarchical state or feudalism, feudal territory ruled by a prince or princess. It can be either a sovereign state or a constituent part of a larger political entity. The term "prin ...

of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

in 1801. It belonged from 1806 to 1815 to the

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...

and after 1816 to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. The capital was Laasphe. The family line belongs to the house of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.

Current Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein

The current head of this branch of the House of

Sayn Sayn was a small Germany, German county of the Holy Roman Empire which, during the Middle Ages, existed within what is today Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz. There have been two Counties of Sayn. The first emerged in 1139 and became closel ...

is Bernhart, 6th Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein. He is the son of Christian Heinrich, 5th Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1908-1983) and of Princess Dagmar zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1919-2002)

Succession to the Hohenstein secundogeniture

Four dynastic branches of the House of Sayn were extant at the beginning of the 20th century, each possessing its own secundogeniture.''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' Band XIX. "Sayn-Wittgenstein". C.A. Starke Verlag, 2011, pp.314-338. German. . Almanach de Gotha ''Sayn und Wittgenstein''.

Justus Perthes Johann Georg Justus Perthes (11 September 1749 – 2 May 1816) was a Germans, German publisher and founder of Justus Perthes (publishing company), the publishing house that bears his name. Life He was born in the Thuringian town of Rudolstadt, t ...

, 1944, pp.284-291. French. In order of seniority of legitimate descent from their progenitor, Ludwig I, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1532-1605), they were the: #Princes (''

Fürst ' (, female form ', plural '; from Old High German ', "the first", a translation of the Latin ') is a German language, German word for a ruler as well as a princely title. ' were, starting in the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ...

en'') zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, descended from Count Georg (1565-1631) #Princes (''Fürsten'') zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, descended from Count Christian Ludwig (1725-1797) #Counts zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, descended from Count Georg Ernst (1735-1792) #Princes (''Fürsten'') zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, descended from Count Ludwig (1571-1634) Some of these lines had junior branches, both dynastic and non-dynastic, the latter including families whose right to the princely title was recognized by the Russian, Prussian and Bavarian monarchies, whereas other

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

branches used lesser titles in Germany. On the death of Ludwig, 3rd Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein in 1912, the eldest of his three sons, Hereditary Prince August (1868-1947), became 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein and head of the third branch of the House of Sayn. Being a childless bachelor, the elder of whose two younger brothers, Georg (1873-1960), had married morganatically, while the younger, Wilhelm (1877-1958), was 49 and yet unmarried, August preserved the name and heritage of his branch of the House of Sayn by adopting Christian Heinrich ''Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg'' (1908-1953). He was the second son of the late head of the entire House of Sayn, Richard, 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1882-1925), whose eldest son, Gustav Albrecht (1907-1944) had inherited the senior line's fortune and position. In November 1960, Christian Heinrich, being the divorced father of three daughters by his dynastic marriage to Beatrix '' Gräfin'' von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1921-2006), married Dagmar ''Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein'' (1919-2002), elder daughter of his adopted father's younger brother, Georg, who died seven months before the wedding. As Georg's children by his morganatic wife, Marie Rühm, (created Baroness von Freusburg by the reigning Prince of Lippe in 1916) had been de-morganatized by declaration of their uncle August on 11 February 1947, her marriage to Christian Heinrich was deemed a dynastic match, ensuring that their son Bernhart would be born in compliance with the house laws of his adoptive ancestors, the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohensteins, as well as being a grandson of the last dynastic male of that family, Prince Georg.

Counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1657–1801)

* Gustav (1657–1701) * Heinrich Albert (1701–23) *

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

(1723–35) * Friedrich I (1735–56) * Johann Ludwig (1756–96) * Friedrich II (1796–1801)

Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1801–1806)

* Friedrich II (1801–06) * Wilhelm Ludwig (1804-1806) File:Schloss Wittgenstein (Ludorff).png, Wittgenstein Castle near Bad Laasphe, until 1950 seat of the princes of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein File:012 Jagdschloß Schwarzenau.jpg, Schwarzenau Castle, actual family seat

References

{{Authority control 1806 disestablishments States and territories established in 1657 1657 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire