Lords of Thannhausen

The Lords of Thannhausen are an old and still existing German noble family with the rank of Freiherr (Baron). They were members of the German nobility and achieved the status of Imperial Knights. Their ancestral seat is in the Swabian municipality of Tannhausen near Ellwangen.

The family's descendance dates back to the Carolingian dynasty, when their Frankish ancestors settled the Nördlinger Ries area in northeastern Alamannia. Their residence Tannhausen (not to be confused with Thannhausen near Günzburg or Thannhausen, Styria) was first mentioned in a 1100 deed. In the Duchy of Swabia, the Thannhausens held large estates and important offices, as it was documented under the rule of the Hohenstaufen duke Frederick II in 1112 and 1115.

Following the writings of Felix Fabri (1438/39–1502), it is also assumed that the medieval minnesinger and poet Tannhäuser (d. after 1265) was an offspring of this family and that he may be identical with Lupoldus Danhäuser mentioned in a 1246 deed issued by the Franconian counts of Hohenlohe. More likely, however, the poet descended of a de Tanhusen dynasty of Imperial ministeriales from the Bavarian Nordgau.

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