Stadion was a small state of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

, located around Thannhausen in the present-day

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

n administrative region of Swabia,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

History

According to the legend this Swabian Stadion dynasty was first mentioned in the area of Oberstadion in 1197 when "Heinricus de Lapide" was mentioned as descendant of Lords of Stein who have similar

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

as those of Stadion family. However, the first certain documented ancestor of the family can be traced back to the knight "Waltherus de Stadegun" who was mentioned first on 13 May in 1270. His descendants later built the castle in Oberstadion which served as the family seat and bears the name after the family which built it.

Titles and status

Johann Philipp of Stadion (1652–1741), high steward of the archbishops of Mainz, was elevated to the rank of a ''

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

'' (Baron) in 1686. In 1705, he acquired the immediate lordship of Thannhausen and thereby was raised to a '' Count of the Holy Roman Empire''. Upon his death in 1741, the estates were partitioned between the lines of

Stadion-Thannhausen Stadion-Thannhausen was a county located in and around Thannhausen in western Bavaria, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe af ...

and

Stadion-Warthausen Stadion-Warthausen was a county located in around Warthausen in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Stadion-Warthausen was a partition of Stadion County, and was mediatised to Austria and Württemberg in 1806. Counts of Stadion-Warthausen * A ...

. After the dissolution of the

, their immediate territories lost its sovereignty. Stadion-Thannhausen became mediatized by the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...

in 1806 and Stadion-Warthausen was mediatised to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Wür ...

in 1806. After that, as all other German mediatized houses, they kept some of its privileges, among most important ones being their equal status to all reigning families for marriage purposes. At the beginning of the 20th century, Stadions became extinct upon the death of the last male representative, Count Philipp Franz Joseph von Stadion-Thannhausen (1847-1908).

Lords of Stadion

Lords of Stadion (c. 1200–1686)

* Walter I (died c. 1230) * Walter II (died c. 1260) ''with...'' * Louis I (died c. 1260) * Louis II (died 1328) ''with...'' * Conrad (died 1309) * Walter III (died 1352) * Louis III (died 1364) * Eitel (1364–1392) * Conrad I (1392–1439) * Walter (1439–1457) ''with...'' * Pancratius (1439–1479) * Nicholas (1479–1507) * John (1507–1530) * John Ulrich (1530–1600) * John Christopher II (1600–1629) * John Christopher III (1629–1666) * John Philip (1666–1741), Baron from 1686, Count from 1705

References

Principalities of the Holy Roman Empire {{Germany-hist-stub