Hochwohlgeboren

German: Hochwohlgeboren, literally translated "High Well Born", is a honorific and manner of address for members of the nobility in some parts of Europe. The latin version of this term is "magnificus".

This form of address originally had connections with the ability of a Freiherr (Baron) to bequeath a family coat of arms and to hold landed property as allodial instead of a fief. The actual address is Euer Hochwohlgeboren ("Your High Well-born") and is the correct form of address not only German Freiherren but also Ritter and Edle.

The title should not be confused with (Euer) Hochgeboren. This title ranks higher than Hochwohlgeboren and is the style of mediate Grafen (mediate Counts; immediate counts or Reichsgrafen are entitled to the address Erlaucht) and those Freiherren descending from the mediæval Uradel.

Another honorific title was (Euer) Wohlgeboren which ranked lower than Hochwohlgeboren and was claimed by Bourgeois notables.

In the 19th century it became customary to address academic and other civil honoraries by this title, e.g. a number of letters to Sigmund Freud are addressed to "Hochwohlgeboren Prof. Dr. Sigmund Freud".

Commonly abbreviated in correspondence as: “I.I.H.H.” for married couples “I.H.” (= Ihre Hochwohlgeboren) for women. “S.H.” (= Seine Hochwohlgeboren) for men.

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