Honor, Fides et Fiducia

HONOR, LOYALTY AND TRUST

The History of the Counts Greif von Greifenstein

The History of the Counts Greif von Greifenstein For over 600 years, the Greif von Greifenstein family has accompanied German history and culture with courage, honor, and loyalty.

The last member of the von Greifenstein family, named Friedrich, fell on the side of the Habsburgs against the Confederates in the Battle of Sempach in 1386 without legitimate male heirs.
In his will, he legitimized his illegitimate son Tassilo and elevated him to the rank of count.
However, neither possessions nor financial resources were bequeathed to him.
So Tassilo decided, despite his non-knightly descent, to undergo a very rigorous and, as it would turn out, very good training in knightly combat, which he completed successfully. This greatly pleased his father at the time.
Tassilo decided to follow the call of the Teutonic Order to convert the heathens in Eastern Europe. In 1390, he then set out for Marienburg, the headquarters of the Teutonic Order in former East Prussia. 
(now Malbork in Poland)
This knightly order was surrounded by a halo of invincibility, as it was under the protection of the Virgin Mary and had so far won all battles.
Tassilo was indeed received warmly but was critically scrutinized to see if he had the necessary combat experience and the toughness that would be expected of him.
Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen, however, decided to give the young "hothead" a chance. This did not take long to happen.
Tassilo was assigned to a branch of the Teutonic Order, the Livonian Order, and was to provide flank protection against a Lithuanian raid into Livonian territory.
As history teaches, fortune often favors the diligent.
Tassilo had intuitively recognized that the battle formation had a weakness on the left flank and asked the leading knight of the order to be commanded there.
In the unfolding battle, light Lithuanian cavalry, which had been hidden and unnoticed, suddenly burst forth from the forest to the left of the front, aiming to disrupt the battle line of the Order's army.
Exactly that is what Tassilo had foreseen beforehand, owever.
So he swung in a quick tactical maneuver with some heavy armored cavalry at full gallop into the ranks of the enemies and practically overran them.
This earned him the highest recognition in the order's circles and the respect of the Grand Master of the order.
But that was not his only achievement in the service of the Teutonic Order.
Thus, after several daring and successful attacks, he was given the battle name "The Griffin" because he fought coolly, strategically, surprisingly to the opponent, unpredictably, and always successfully for the Order.
In doing so, he always upheld the chivalry of his combat and generally forbade, for example, taking advantage of or robbing wounded or fallen opponents, as long as they had fought fairly.
From this, our family name and title were formed, and the origin of Greifenstein became Greif von Greifenstein, to distinguish ourselves from the other Greifensteins.
Tassilo's last great achievement for the Order came after the lost battle at Tannenberg in 1410, when he covered the retreat and flight of the last surviving Grand Master of the Order, the Grand Hospitaler and simultaneously the Commander of Elbing, Werner von Tettlingen, as well as the Commander of Danzig, Johann von Schönfels, and the Commander of Balga, Friedrich von Zollern, with a small group of his own trained unit of Order warriors from the Livonian branch, who were sworn to him until death, to the Marienburg and united them with the forces of Heinrich von Plauen, the organizer of the subsequent defense of the Marienburg and later Grand Master, thus enabling the Marienburg to be held by the Order against the advancing Poles and Lithuanians.
Tassilo then requested to be released from the service of the Order at his own request in order to start a family.
For his great merits to the Order and Christendom, he was awarded the hereditary title of Honorary Knight of the Livonian Order by the Grand Master.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of written sources, it is not possible for us to prove that Tassilo, like his father Friedrich, was admitted to the elite Zopf Order of Duke Albrecht III of Habsburg. Based on oral traditions, however, this seems to be certain.
We must and want to acknowledge without envy, as the lineage of the Greif von Greifenstein family, that Tassilo is not only the founder of our family line but also, due to his merits, remains our greatest role model and guiding figure to this day. Over the centuries, our ancestors, as highly esteemed military leaders, were significantly involved in many battles, guided by the motto "Honor, fides et fidecitas."
Almost no one knows that Blücher's first cavalry charge against Napoleon's French at Waterloo was led by Colonel Count Greif von Greifenstein.
Many more battles followed, some costly, but in the end, victorious.
We also supported the Prussian King and later German Emperor Wilhelm I. militarily in his rise.
In the meantime, we have now existed in the male line for over 600 years and are proud to be a Greif von Greifenstein.
Since Tassilo, the Counts Greif von Greifenstein have decided no longer to build ostentatious castles or palaces as their ancestral seats, but to see themselves as a personal guard of their sovereigns and to follow them to wherever they ruled from.
After the Second World War, we moved from the Soviet-occupied zone of Berlin to Sankt Augustin.
After the reunification of Germany, we became at home in Berlin again.
We place great importance on instilling in our children the spirit of German culture and identity.
In 1891, a richly decorated golden ceremonial belt was found in the crypt of Friedrich von Greifenstein in the Königsfelden Monastery Church. The object is an impressive example of late medieval goldsmithing.
Knightly extravagance to buckle on
The valuable piece was discovered during restoration work in the monastery church when the graves of the knights who fell in Sempach were opened. In the late 19th century, when a consciousness of the importance of antiquities and historical cultural assets developed in the young Swiss Confederation, the find attracted great interest. It made its way to the Aargau Museum, The significance of the ornate belt goes beyond its purely esthetic value: The belt is simultaneously a testament to the history of the Habsburg dynasty, the former lords of Aargau.
The one-and-a-half-meter-long and one-centimeter-wide belt stands out due to its silver-gilded ornaments in the shape of hollow hemispheres and the artistically crafted buckle with strap.
The piece of clothing probably had a mainly representative function; it was even speculated whether the belt was an insignia of the exclusive Austrian knight order "Vom Zopf"?
As already mentioned above, Friedrich von Greifenstein was one of the 27 knights who fell in the costly Battle of Sempach in 1386 against the Swiss Confederation alongside the Habsburg Duke Leopold III and were buried in the church of the Königsfelden Monastery – the most important burial site of the Habsburgs since its founding in 1309. Together with knights from Swabia, Alsace, Aargau, Thurgau, and Tyrol, as well as Italian, French, and German mercenaries, the nobleman from South Tyrol had followed his liege lord into the war, in which the territorial interests of the Habsburgs and the Confederates clashed.
The defeat of Duke Leopold's army at Sempach was crucial for the expansion and consolidation of the young Confederation. 30 years later (1415), Bern conquered Aargau for the Confederation.
The House of Habsburg thereby lost the majority of its original ancestral lands on the territory of present-day Switzerland.
We Greif von Greifenstein stood firmly against the Nazis and their insidious tactics and against the dehumanization of this war.
We demanded, if at all, a fair fight against military forces and not against civilians.
That consequently brought us into the crosshairs of Hitler's henchmen.
As a result, we had to endure the loss of almost all our movable assets, documents, and records in the turmoil of World War II.
These were either stolen, confiscated, or destroyed.
We have remained true to our centuries-long commitment to the military protection of Germany and its representatives to this day.
In our centuries-old family history, alongside strategic military skills, an artistic talent in writing and painting has also developed.

        one's own weakness is a sign of great strength.