The German Question, Part Fifteen

One of the most important families in German history is that of the Habsburgs. The family, or at least the part of the family that came to be such durable rulers, arose in the southwestern German lands, specifically a region known as Swabia. There they built a castle called "Habsburg" (Burg in German means "castle," and more specifically "fortified castle," as opposed to a palace-type castle, which in German is a "Schloss"). While there is some disagreement over how the name came into existence, the traditional view of historians and linguists has been that the "Habs" part came from a contraction of, or a dialect pronunciation of, the German word for "hawk," which is "Habicht," with the "s" showing possession; and thus we have "Hawk's Castle." The castle was built circa 1025 A.D., and "supposedly" had a hawk frequently perched atop its walls, thus spawning the name. From what is known, the family didn't begin to associate the name of their castle with their actual family until the early 1100s, but it is quite understandable that such would happen, as in those times, when not everyone had a family name, it was not uncustomary for people to take on the name of the place they were connected with in the public mind. So we have the "von Habsburg" family, with "von" meaning "of/from" in German, just as in England there is the "Duke of Edinburgh," "Robin of Locksley/Sherwood," etc. "Von" came to denote "noble" status in German when used as part of a family name.

By the 1400s, the area of the castle was taken over by the Swiss Confederation, and it remains a part of Switzerland to this day (the castle still stands in the village of "Habsburg," which only has a few hundred residents). Remember, in those times, the area of present-day Switzerland was part of the old German ("Holy Roman") Empire. Habsburg Castle lies close to the present-day border with Germany, and to its former owner, and to the area of Swabia (Schwaben in German), home of "Mercedes" vehicles. The Habsburgs eventually ruled from Vienna ("Wien" in German), and indeed, Vienna was essentially the capital of the German Empire for many, many years.

Over time, the Habsburgs expanded the family holdings from that small area to much of that part of the southwestern German lands (including Alsace and the area around present-day Freiburg), and then they proceeded to acquire lands further eastward to the border of the Empire, including much of present-day Austria. The history of all of these acquisitions is complicated, but the lands were not always "seized" by force,* but often were acquired through negotiations or through marriages, sometimes "strategic marriages."**

With the prestige of having so many lands, the Habsburgs became THE important German noble family of those times, with titles like "duke" and "archduke," and the family leaders were often elected as German emperors (and kings of Germany), the first being Rudolf von Habsburg (usually with the Roman numeral "I" included in his name, as Rudolf I von Habsburg) in 1273.*** In fact, over a period of nearly 600 years, a Habsburg occupied the imperial throne much of the time, and in the last 368 years of the empire, a Habsburg was German emperor for all but 3 to 4 years.****

So, this is one of the powerful German families that ruled German lands, and the Habsburgs were based in the southern area of German territory. A bit later, another family, based in the north, rose to prominence and challenged the Habsburgs for the right to rule Germany. (A "Word History" follows the notes)

* With the loose organization of the German Empire, the German states frequently fought with each other, often resulting in transfers of territory.

** "Strategic marriages" were those where Habsburgs deliberately married into families that owned lands they wanted (what's all this "love" stuff, anyway?); thus bringing some of those lands into the Habsburg domain upon marriage, or eventually all of the lands due to heredity. I should note, this was NOT a practice exclusive to the Habsburgs, but they could have taught classes in it, as they were masters at it.

*** Technically, Rudolf I was not the German emperor, but rather carried the title "King Of Germany" due to much political turmoil in Germany with the decline of the Hohenstaufen family dynasty and because of battles with the Papacy. In order to get the "blessing" of the Pope as German king, Rudolf had to renounce certain possessions of the empire in Italy. He is counted as a German emperor, as he was indeed elected by the German electors in Frankfurt in 1273.

**** Later, Maria Theresa of the Habsburg family married Franz Stephan, the Duke of Lorraine (German: Lothringen), a territory that is about to become very important in the, "who is a German," question. So there will be much more on Lorraine. Maria Theresa's marriage to Franz Stephan altered the name of the dynasty to, "Habsburg-Lorraine," but the long connection of the Habsburgs to the German imperial throne still remained. 

WORD HISTORY:
Kaiser-This word goes back to Julius "Caesar," who became Roman Emperor. His personality was so strong, his name became associated with his position as emperor, which was "Imperator" in Latin. The Germanic peoples picked up the word "Caesar" in their own various forms, as did the Slavic peoples (thus we have "Tsar" or "Czar," which is simply "Caesar" in Slavic form). Old English had "casere," but from what I can find, the word seems to have died out (maybe it was stabbed to death, like its namesake, ah, for those unaware, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in Rome in 44 B.C. Okay, don't laugh too much!) During the mid 1800s, English borrowed "Kaiser" from German, as it was the German word for "emperor." This went back to Old High German "keisar," which had been borrowed from Latin, noted above. The modern German spelling of "Kaiser," comes from south German dialect ("Bavarian," or as some now call it, "Austro-Bavarian"), which tends to use "ai" in place of "ei" in some spelling, but with the same pronunciation. When many Americans hear the word, they most likely think of "Kaiser Wilhelm," who was German emperor during World War I (he was actually "Kaiser Wilhelm II), but "Kaiser" was the title of other previous German/Austrian emperors.