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The Douglas family in Germany
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By a 1848 closed marriage with Louise Countess of Langenstein and
Gondelsheim, an illegitimate daughter of the Baden Grand Duke Ludwig I,
the Swedish count Carl Israel Wilhelm Douglas (1824-1898) 1872 in the
possession of the castle Langenstein (municipality Orsingen-Nenzingen)
not far of Lake Constance. Her children achieved important political
offices in both Sweden and Germany. The grandson Karl Robert then
founded the existing until today Baden Counts Douglas-Langenstein,
as he relocated in 1906 his main residence to
Langenstein Castle.
Castle Gondelsheim remained until 2010 in the possession of the family, which
has extensive possessions, especially in Hegau, in the Upper Danube
Valley and in Gondelsheim.
Important members of the sex were the German Reichstag deputy Wilhelm
Graf Douglas (1849-1908), whose brother, the Swedish Reichsmarschall and
Foreign Minister Ludvig Douglas (1849-1916), whose son, the landowner
Karl Robert Count Douglas (1880-1955), whose son and successor Wilhelm
Graf von Douglas-Langenstein (1907-1987) and his uncle, the Swedish army
chief Count Archibald Douglas (1883-1960). The current head of the
family of the German branch is Axel Count Douglas (* 1943). His cousin,
Patrick Count Douglas (1938-2010) was by adoption heir of the sex of the
barons of Reischach and thus owner of Schlatt Castle and the Hohenkrähen
Castle, later also the Nellenburg. Also known is the art broker and
longtime head of Germany of Sotheby's,
Christoph Graf Douglas
(1948-2016).
Prussia
A bourgeois member of the Douglas clan moved to Aschersleben in 1772,
where he and his descendants worked as Calvinist preachers in the
Reformed congregations and also farmed. Wilhelm Douglas discovered in
1795 at Aschersleben a brown coal deposit and founded with his sons in
1828 a pit. His grandson Hugo Sholto Oskar Georg von Douglas was raised
in 1884 in the baron and in 1888 in the rank of count. He built the
castle Ralswiek on Rügen, which belonged to the family until 1945.
Field Marshal Robert Douglas was firstly created baron, and then count,
in Sweden. His main fief was the town of Skänninge, and his wife brought
in the estate where they had the manor of Stjernorp erected. His
descendants generally continued to reside in Sweden, some offshoots to
Russia, Germany etc. The head of the house received in 1848 the title of
Count (count of the entail of Mühlhausen) also in peerage of the Grand
Duchy of Baden. The main lineage did not produce long-lasting branches
(except the Russian branch, a few generations), until the riksmarskalk
of Sweden (High Marshal), Count Ludvig Douglas, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, in the late 1800s, had several sons and yet more grandsons.
Branches starting from his sons and so:
• von Douglas-Langenstein, descendants of count Robert, eldest son of
the High Marshal Ludvig. They hold the castle of Langenstein in
Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• von Reischach-Douglas, a cadet grandson of said count Robert
• Douglas-Stjernorp, the branch descending from the Swedish general
Archibald Douglas, second son of the High Marshal Ludvig. In this
branch, there's the castle of Stjärnorp, reacquired to the family in c.
1875
• Countess Dagmar Rosita Astrid Libertas Douglas-Stjernorp (born
1943), British artist and former wife the 11th Duke of Marlborough.
• Princess Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria (born 1940), heir
presumptive to both the former Bavarian Royal House and the Jacobite
Succession
• Douglas-Kolfall, the branch descending from Oscar, youngest son
of the High Marshal Ludvig.
See also:
• Chicago
Tribune article of 1911 on the Douglas family in Germany
•
Douglas descendants of Grand Duke Ludwig I of Baden
• The Douglas family in
Aschersleben [527 kb pdf] or read the full magazine
here>>> [4.7mb
pdf]
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Sources
Sources for this article include:
•
Deutsche Grafen-Haeuser der Gegenwart. In heraldischer, historischer und
genealogischer Beziehung. Band 3: A – Z. Weigel, Leipzig 1854; Ernst
Heinrich Kneschke
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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