Von der Osten family


The von der Osten family is an ancient and distinguished aristocratic family from Pomerania that has been established in Pomerania since 1248, originally from Stift Bremen. The family's ancestral home is in Lower Saxony, near the Oste River. The family acquired numerous properties in Western and Eastern Pomerania, becoming one of the largest landowners in Pomerania. In 1854, the von der Ostens were one of the first ten families to hold the hereditary right of presentation to the Prussian House of Lords.
Von der Osten-Sacken is the name of a German-Baltic noble family that has been settled in the Baltic region since the 13th century. Arnoldus dictus Lyndale was enfeoffed with Sacken by Bishop Otto of Courland in 1386 and appeared as Arnoldus de Sacken in 1395. Sander von Sacken, known as von der Oest, first appeared with the combined name in 1544, which later became Osten-Sacken and led to the unification of the coats of arms with the von der Ostens, although no evidence of a common ancestry between the two families has been found. The Osten-Sackens produced numerous officers and diplomats of the Russian tsarist empire. In 1762, one branch was granted the title of Imperial Count, and in 1786, the title of Prussian Prince. In 1821, another branch was granted the title of Russian Count and in 1832, the title of Prince.

History

Von der Osten

Origins

The actual origin of the von der Osten family is said to be the area around Paderborn in Westphalia. However, the family appears in records for the first time in 1219 with Egehard de Oste and the presumed brother pairs Bertold de Oste, Theodericus de Oste, Walther de Oste, and Hizel de Oste as ministeriales of Archbishop Gebhard II of Bremen or more specifically the county of Stade, which in turn was granted as a fief by the Archbishop and fell back to him in 1236. The family name is derived from the near to Cuxhaven church village of Osten on the left bank of the Oste, a navigable tributary of the Lower Elbe in Lower Saxony, where the Ostens held the knight's estate as a fief from the Archbishopric of Bremen in the 13th and 14th centuries. They were last mentioned in their original homeland in 1426 with Hermann III., Burgmann of Horneburg.
The noble family from Lower Saxony spread to Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and the Principality of Rügen. Between 1285 and 1456, the Ostens held the office of Landvogt of Rügen, the highest office of the principality, seven times. The brothers Ulrich and Friedrich appear in a document in November 1248 in Demmin.

Vogts of Demmin

Sir Ulricus de Osten was documented from 1243 to 1255 as the princely Pomeranian bailiff in Demmin. In his capacity as such, he transferred four hides in Wittenwerder to the Dargun monastery. His sons Arnold, Hermann, and Otto were also mentioned as knights and castle men at the princely Castle Haus Demmin between 1271 and 1322. The ducal line of Pomerania-Demmin had already died out in 1264 and the rule had fallen to the Dukes of Pomerania-Stettin, which is why the bailiffs now acted alone on the castle. Hennecke, Arnold's son, was referred to as the ducal-Pomeranian castle man at Lindenberg Castle near Upost from 1319 to 1363. Arnold Jr., Otto's son, was also a knight and castle man in Demmin from 1303 to 1315. Wedige, Hermann's son, was referred to as the bailiff in Demmin, sitting on the Osten Castle near Demmin. He was thus the first of the Ostens on this castle, from which he probably gave his name. The Osten Castle was probably built in the early 13th century. It passed to the Winterfeld in the early 14th century and to the Maltzahn in 1330, but the Ostens were still landed in the area after 1363. After the Thirty Years War, the castle was demolished.

Landed nobility in Pomerania

In 1303, Hynricus and Bernardus de Osten were referred to as vassals of the prince of Werle. This suggests that they had moved from Pomerania to Mecklenburg to serve Werle.
Later, Fredericus de Osten miles dictus de Woldenborch, sat in Pyritz on Woldenburg, in the Regenwalde district. With both brothers and their descendants, the Ostens belonged to the castle- or manor-sitted families in the Duchy of Pomerania. The family continued to spread to the Neumark, Poland and Denmark, later to Prussia and Bavaria.
In 1367, the Ostens bought the lordship of Plathe in Hinterpommern from the Wedells. In 1577, Wedige von der Osten was forced to sell the old family castle and a part of the city to Hermann von Blücher. The Ostens then built a new castle a few hundred meters away, which belonged to the family until they were expelled in 1945. However, the current "New Castle" is only a building from the early 20th century, except for a side wing. From the 17th century to 1817, there was the Osten- and Blücher circle around Plathe, so named because of the two families with the largest property. The divided lordship over Plathe ended when Matthias Conrad von der Osten, Chief Financial Advisor and Chief President of the Kurmark War and Domains Chamber in Berlin, married the last heir of the Plathener line of the Blüchers in 1731, thus reunifying the two properties. The circle was now called the "Osten Circle" and covered 37,750 hectares.In addition to other holdings, the von der Osten family also had larger holdings on the island of Rügen, including Gut Kapelle near Gingst and Gut Lipsitz near Bergen on Rügen. In 1615, Henning von der Osten bought Penkun with the castle in Vorpommern. After being sold in 1756, it was re-acquired by August Wilhelm von der Osten in 1817 and remained in the family's possession until it was seized during the land reform in 1945.
In 1763, Heinrich Karl von der Osten acquired Gut Blumberg from his father-in-law and uncle from the von Sydow family. His son Karl von der Osten built the manor house in 1792. In 1898, the 2,500-hectare estate passed to Friedrich Wilhelm von der Osten on Penkun. Henning von der Osten was expropriated in 1945 during land reform. In 1996, his three sons were able to regain the estate house with courtyard and park, and in 1997, the majority of the Blumberger forest from the state and take over its management.
Other branches became landowners through marriage in West Germany, such as in 1974 at Bassenheim Castle, and in 1978 at the Edelhof Ricklingen in Hanover.In the registration book of the Dobbertin monastery, there are six entries from daughters of the von der Osten families from Karstorf and Plathe from 1713 to 1866 for admission to the noble ladies' convent.

Von der Osten-Sacken

The family of von der Osten, also known as Sacken, spread in the Baltic region since the 13th century. It belongs to the Baltic nobility and traces its roots back to Arnoldus dictus Lyndale, who was granted Haus and Gebiet Sacken by Bishop Otto of Kurland in 1386. In 1395, he is documented as Arnoldus de Sacken with the granting of Erkuln and Goldingen. The Sackens were wealthy large landowners, primarily in the Livonian and Courland Knighthood.
Sander von Sacken, also known as von der Oest, first appears with the combined name in 1544, which later led to the name and coat of arms unification of the two families as von der Osten gen. Sacken, without a tribal connection being able to be proven. As the Osten-Sackens had a well-known name in Russia, for example, Ludwig von der Osten from Pomerania, who served as an officer in Russian services, made use of their name.
The Osten-Sacken holdings included Appricken and Paddern in the Hasenpoth district; Dondangen, Groß- and Klein-Bathen, Lehnen, Pilten, Sareicken and Sackenmünde in the Duchy of Kurland and Semgallen; Schnepeln, Suhr, Seemuppen, Pewicken, Pelzen.
Dondangen was initially owned by Diedrich von Maydell, who was married to Anna Sibylla von der Osten-Sacken. As the marriage was childless, the widow passed on the estate to her nephew Prince Carl Prince von der Osten gen. Sacken.
As a result of the collapse of the Russian Empire, the independent republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania emerged in 1918. The Latvian War of Independence against Soviet Russia was supported by Estonians and German-Baltics, followed by a failed coup attempt by the German-Baltic minority, and then a Latvian government, which expropriated the German-Baltic large landowners through the Latvian land reform of 1919/1920, leading to the emigration of many German-Baltics, including many members of the Osten-Sacken family, to the Reich. Paul Freiherr von der Osten-Sacken returned to Kurland in 1924. 70 family members joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party in the Third Reich, including 20 before the rise to power.

Noble elevation

Several elevations have taken place, including the elevation to the rank of baron, Reichgraf, Prussian, Polish, and Russian count, and prince. The following probands are merely selected individual examples:
  • Adolph Siegfried von der Osten was granted a Polish count's diploma on 29 October 1768.
  • Carl von der Osten-Sacken was elevated to the rank of count by Emperor Franz I in 1762 and to the rank of prince by King Friedrich Wilhelm II in 1786.
  • Fabian Gottlieb von der Osten-Sacken was elevated to the rank of Russian count in 1821 and to the rank of prince in 1832.
  • Karl Ludwig August Franz von der Osten was elevated to the rank of Prussian count in 1888 in connection with the ownership of Plathe.

    Right to present to the Prussian House of Lords

King Friedrich Wilhelm IV granted the family the right to present themselves to the Prussian House of Lords in 1855. The family was thus one of the ten families that received this right during the early phase of the House of Lords in 1854/1855.
On presentation of the association of the Pomeranian noble family of von der Osten, members of the family sat in the House of Lords:
  • 1856-1878: Julius von der Osten, owner of a manor
  • 1878-1898: Alexander von der Osten, owner of a manor and director general of the general countryside
  • 1899-1916: Leopold Count von der Osten, owner of a fideicommiss.