Von Blumenthal

Von Blumenthal was a noble family from Brandenburg, Prussia.

Related Topics:
Noble - Brandenburg - Prussia

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The family takes its name from Blumenthal near Magdeburg, where they were installed by the Counts of Plotho in the Prignitz in the mid 12th century. They named the village of Blumenthal after themselves but resided in the nearby castle of Horst.

Related Topics:
Magdeburg - Prignitz - 12th century

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The family had a strong military tradition, and three of its members won the Pour le Mérite (Blue Max).

Related Topics:
Military - Pour le Mérite (Blue Max)

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Prominent members of this family include:

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• Georg (1490-1550), Prince Bishop of Ratzeburg, Bishop of Lebus and Chancellor of the University of Frankfurt. He was the last Catholic sovereign ruler in northern Germany, and the only Bishop in Brandenburg during the Reformation to die a Catholic.
• Joachim Friedrich (d. 1658), founder of the Prussian Army. He was a War Commissar for the Holy Roman Empire, and then for Brandenburg. He was also Great Elector's President of the Privy Council (Prime Minister) and the first secular governor of Halberstadt.
• Christoph Caspar (d. 1689), diplomat who negotiated the Peace of Oliva.
• The brothers Friedrich (died 1745) and Hans (d. 1788) both commanded Frederick the Great's famous Garde du Korps, which Friedrich had founded. Hans was made a Count and supervised the education of the future Frederick William III and his brother, Prince Henry.
• Field Marshal Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal was, after Moltke, Prussia's greatest general of the Bismarckian period. Bismarck ascribed the victories of Wörth, Weissenburg and even Sedan to him, and he commanded the Siege of Paris. His civilised refusal to bombard Paris saved the city. However, it is also arguable that had he not got the Crown Prince's Second Army through the Riesen passes in 1866, the Austro-Prussian War would have been lost, while in the Prussian Danish War of 1863 he was responsible for the daring raid on Alsen which ended the war.
• Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal was active in the 1938 and 1944 conspiracies against Hitler, and was hanged for his part in the July Plot.
• Albrecht was a respected philologist and a leading member of the circle of Stefan George, to whom he introduced the Stauffenberg brothers.
• Werner and Wolfgang, Albrecht's sons, who changed their names respectively to Richard and Charles Arnold-Baker, joined the British army and both served as officers in MI6. Richard was the officer who interrogated Rudolf Hess. Charles commanded Churchill's bodyguard for part of the war, and in Norway arrested the Deputy Commandant of Auschwitz.