House of Fürstenberg (Westphalia)

Fürstenberg is the name of a German noble family of Westphalia, descended from one Hermanus de Vorstenberg, a liegeman of the Archbishop of Cologne, who was among the prince electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Hermanus held a castle for his lord called Fürstenberg ("Prince's Hill") in Ense-Höingen in Soest; this would give the family its name. His son was Wilhelm von Vorstenberg, the Justiciar and Castellan of Werl.

Already Imperial Knights, on 26 April 1660, the family were created imperial barons (Reichsfreiherren). Matriculation to the baronial class in the Kingdom of Bavaria occurred on 22 August 1891 for Friedrich Freiherr von Fürstenberg, Rittmeister à la suite in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt and Freeholder of Egenburg by Würzburg.

Some members of the family were elevated to comital dignities during German Mediatization for their services to the Kingdom of Prussia, or given honorific titles for their twentieth-century achievements:

The baronial Fürstenberg family of Westphalia should not be confused with the princely family of the same name from Swabia.

The family's ancestral seat is Schloss Herdringen near Arnsberg. In the nineteenth century, the family also owned the following castles:

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