(1658–1740) to Anton Schenk von Stauffenberg by
Emperor Joseph II, 1785 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. Its first known member is mentioned in 1251 as Wernherus Pincerna de Celle, who in 1255 was appointed to the ceremonial court office of (
cup-bearer,
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. The Stauffenbergs rose in the world in 1698 when Emperor
Leopold I conferred upon the brothers Maximilian Gottfried and Johann Philipp the hereditary title of
Reichsfreiherr (Imperial Baron). The family was later split into four branches: the Katzensteiner, Bacher, Wilflinger and Amerdinger ones. The former two became extinct during the 18th century, while a member of the Wilflinger branch was raised to the rank of hereditary
Reichsgraf (Imperial Count) by Emperor
Leopold II in 1785. Since the Wilflinger branch also became extinct in 1833, only the baronial Amerdinger branch remained. All now living members of the family are descendants of the brothers Franz Ludwig and Friedrich of the Amerdinger branch. Franz Ludwig was made a hereditary
Graf (Count) in the
Kingdom of Bavaria by
King Ludwig II. Since then, there exist two sub-branches: one which holds the title of Count and one which bears the title of Imperial Baron. Both of these branches are still extant and their members reside mostly in
Baden-Württemberg and in
Bavaria. In the 16th century, the Stauffenberg family acquired the Amerdingen castle near
Nördlingen through marriage. Before that, the Stauffenbergs were owners of Wilflingen and Jettingen. Over the course of the years, further estates were added to the family's possessions, such as
Schloss Greifenstein and
Schloss Burggrub in
Heiligenstadt near
Bamberg, the
Lautlingen castle near
Ebingen on the southern slopes of the
Schwäbische Alb,
Schloss Rißtissen some twenty kilometers south of
Ulm, and the Straßberg and Wildentierberg estates in Lautlingen near
Albstadt. After 1918, when the
constitution of the
Weimar Republic abolished all
noble titles in Germany and declared them to be part of the family name, the family came to have two names in order to preserve the former titles of Schenk, Graf (Count) and Freiherr (Baron) as parts of the surnames. Since the title of Schenk is considered to be of superior rank due to being a hereditary office title, it is placed before the noble title, which in turn is placed before the surname. The correct versions of the family's surnames are thus
Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and
Schenk Freiherr von Stauffenberg respectively. Two of the family's members also served as
Prince-Bishops – of Bamberg (Marquard Sebastian), and of
Augsburg and
Konstanz (Johann Franz) – and thus they used the title of
Fürst (Prince) instead of their other noble titles, such as
Imperial Count. == Notable family members ==