House of Franckenstein

Franckenstein (also Frankenstein) is the name of a Franconian, noble family in Germany, descendants from the Lords of Lützelbach from Höchst im Odenwald, respectively their offspring, the Dynasts of Breuberg.

In 948 an Arbogast von Franckenstein confirmed to the abbot of Lorsch Abbey in two contracts to "grant defense and shield the carriages travelling on the Bergstraße and passing through Frankenstein realm". In the same year, this knight Arbogast is supposed to have won the Tournament of Cologne, thanks to an invitation of the Archbishop Bruno the Great, who was said to have been the former abbot of Lorsch Abbey.

Arbogast von Franckenstein is mentioned in Georg Rüxners Turnierbuch, a tournament book, but is probably legendary as Rüxners's statements, especially when citing "earlier centuries", are often deemed. One has to add, that the contracts are not to be found in the Lorsch Abbey archives, but are appearing in secondary literature.

As a matter of fact, it is certified that the Franckenstein clan is directly originating from Lord Konrad II. Reiz von Breuberg and therefore starting to exist in the 13th century.

Conradus, Reis de Lucelenbach, was the first ancestor of the Frankenstein dynasty and is documented in the year 1189 for the first time

Conrad I. and his offspring build the homonymous Breuberg Castle around 1200 and named themselves after it. In 1239, owing to his son's Eberhard I. Reiz von Breuberg marriage with Mechtild (Elisabeth?), one of the five heiresses of Gerlach II. von Büdingen, imperial bailiff of the Wetteraukreis, the power, possessions and interests were also relocated into the Wetterau region, where the Breubergians Arrois, Gerlach and Eberhard III. held the bailiffship consecutively. They found their last resting-place in the monastery of Konradsdorf, where the family had made many donations.

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