Draft:The Hildprandt Family

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The Hildprandt Family
The south facade of Castle Blatna
Founded	1530
Motto	per angusta ad augusta (Latin for through anguish to glory)
Estate(s)	Castle Blatna

The Hildprandts are a Tyrolean noble family originally from the Upper-Austrian township of Ottenhausen. They received their title of nobility from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530, and were later given an Imperial Knighthood by Rudolf II in 1579. The family settled in Bohemia in the early seventeenth century, and in 1799 they moved to Blatna, where they still reside today.

History

The origin of the Hildprandt family is currently disputed amongst experts. Most historians believe that the family hail from Tyrol, in modern day Austria. A few scholars, Milan Buben and Michal Filia amongst them, however, suggest that the Upper Bavarian township of Landsberg may be a more accurate location.

In 1530, brothers Jíří and Jošt Hildprandt received emblem privileges from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, allowing them to bear a coat of arms. The oldest surviving records of the Hildrpandt family date back to 1579, which mention brothers Šimon and Jáchym. They are likely descended from either Jíří or Jošt; which brother they are descended from, however, remains unclear. Šimon served as mayor of Landsberg.

Two other brothers of Jíří also appear in historical records, however due to military commitment abroad, they were never awarded official titles. It was not until 1620, when Šimon’s son, Jan Reinhard, petitioned Emperor Ferdinand II, that the family was made noble.

In 1628, a year after Ferdinand II issued the Verneuere Landesordnung, the Hildprandt family were given an inkolat. This allowed them, as a noble family, to settle in The Czech Republic. Jan Reinhard Hildprandt von Ottenhausen was the first member of the family to come to Bohemia. He served under Emperor Rudolf II as the overseer of the Royal Lion House. Later, he served Emperor Matthias, and then Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. In 1756, the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa promoted the Hildprandt family, then headed by Karel Josef Hildprandt, to the title of free lords.

In 1794, Wenzel Karel Baron Hildprandt von Ottenhausenu and his wife Countess Anna Kavanegh de Borries purchased Castle Blatna. They settled in Blatna in 1799. Wenzel Karel greatly increased agricultural and industrial production in the town. They established iron mills, a sugar factory, and worked to modernise existing farming methods. Thus began a long Hildprandt tradition of investment in the local community. Wenzel Karel also enjoyed engagement with the lavish social circles centred in Prague. He spent time with a great many prominent aristocrats and politicians, including the future president of the United States of America, John Quincy Adams.

Wenzel Karel’s son, František de Paula, inherited the Blatna estate in 1803. Like his father, he enjoyed a rich social life. He showed particular interest in the sciences and thus co-founded the National Museum in Prague. He hired the young Jan Evangelista Purkyně as the personal tutor to his son Ferdinand between 1810 and 1813. A room dedicated to this influential scientist can be found inside Castle Blatna today.

After Ferdinand's death, the Hildprandt estate was managed for some time by his widow Karolina. In 1849, she passed the administration onto her son Robert. Before assuming control of his family’s estate, Robert Hildprandt developed his interests in politics. He was a part of the Prague Slavonic Congress and fought on the barricades in Prague with his tutor Antonín Jaroslav Vrátko during the Revolution. He returned to Blatna after the uprising’s defeat. Later in life as head of the Hildprandt estate, he began a formal political career. He served, on and off, as Blatna’s district mayor from 1865 to 1888. He also served as both a Member of the Czech Parliament and of the Imperial Council during his lifetime. Robert’s son, Ferdinand, carried forward the Hildprandt tradition of community development. Graduating from Hranice Cadet School in 1879, Ferdinand served as a lieutenant until 1888. After his father’s death in 1889, he oversaw the family estate. In 1892, he married Countess Josefina Thun-Hohenstein, a marriage which joined the Hildprandts with one of the most powerful noble families in the region. Ferdinand served as Blatna’s mayor during the First World War and was responsible for significant infrastructural developments in the region, including a school in Blatna and the Strakonice – Blatna – Breznice railway line. In 1913, he was formally recognized for his sustained and significant contribution to the town. Ferdinand was also a keen marksman and hunter. He was a close friend of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. It was with Ferdinand Hildprandt that the Arch-Duke infamously killed a white stag in 1913. According to Austrian folklore, it was the killing of this white stag that doomed the Arch-Duke to his disastrous fate the next year. Ferdinand Hildprandt was assassinated in 1936, an event which sparked the First World War, and he was survived by his four children: Robert, Karel, Jindrich, and Friedrich. The latter took over from Ferdinand as administrator of the estate. Ferdinand’s decision to bequeath the family estate to his youngest son provoked great conflict within the family, which culminated in a legal trial. Eventually, the dispute was dismissed, but the relationship between the brothers never fully recovered. Robert, Karel, Jindrich, and Friedrich all demonstrated great courage by signing the Declaration of the Czech and Moravian Nobility in 1939, in the face of Nazi Occupation.

Modern day

In 1948, Castle Blatna was formally confiscated from Friedrich by the National Monuments Commission, although he and his family were permitted to live on the property until 1953, when they were eventually evicted entirely. The family lived in the neighbouring town of Rojice until 1959, when Emperor Haile Selasie I of Ethiopia Haile Selassie invited the family to emigrate to Ethiopia. He knew the family due to the diplomatic connections of Friedrich’s father-in-law. Friedrich had married Cornelia Hildprandt (née Veverka) in 1936. She came from a diplomatic family and her father once served as Czechoslovakian ambassador to the United States of America.

In Ethiopia, Friedrich was made supervisor of the imperial stud farm in Addis Ababa, and Cornelia, worked as an interpreter at the UN Centre in the city. In 1974, the Hildpandts were forced out of Ethiopia following the Provisional Military Administrative Council’s Derg coup d'état. They travelled first to Spain and then to Germany. Baron Friedrich died in Gauting, Germany in 1981.

Castle Blatna was returned to the Hildprandts as part of the Czech government’s restitution Programme in 1992. Baroness Cornelia moved back to the estate with her two daughters, Josefiná and Jana, as well as Jana’s husband, Greek architect Spyridon Germenis. After the death of both Baroness Cornelia and Spyridon Germenis in 2014, Jana and her son, Stephanos Germenis-Hildprandt, took over the management of the castle, and have been running it ever since.