Stauffenberg

The Schenk von Stauffenberg family is a noble (see Uradel) Roman Catholic family from Swabia in Germany, whose best-known member was Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – the key figure in the 1944 "20 July plot" to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

The recorded history of the Schenk von Stauffenberg family begins in Swabia in the 13th century, when the family, who belonged to the Reichsrittern (Imperial Knights), originated from the settlement Cell, where they owned extensive estates surrounding the village and the Zollerberg long before the Counts of Zollern (Hohenzollern family/dynasty) took possession of the mountain and acquired lands there.

Its first known member is mentioned in 1251 as Wernherus Pincerna de Celle, who in 1255 was appointed to the ceremonial court office of Schenk (cupbearer, sommelier, butler) with the Counts of Zollern. The officeholder was in charge of his lord’s wine cellars and vineyards, and when the office of Schenk later became hereditary within the family, the title was adopted into the family name.

Surnames were appended according to the officeholder's place of residence, and so the family name varied between Schenk von Zell, Schenk von Neuenzell, Schenk von Andeck, Schenk von Erpfingen and Schenk von Stauffenberg. By the end of the 15th century, the family’s permanent name was Schenk von Stauffenberg, which refers to Burg Stauffenberg, a former castle situated by a small cone-shaped mountain of the same name between the small town of Hechingen and its suburb Rangendingen in Land Württemberg. A tradition in the family also associates it with the Staufen dynasty.

...
Wikipedia