In 1417, during the time of the
Council of Constance, the Holy Roman Emperor and Hungarian King,
Sigismund of Luxembourg, granted a
coat of arms to the three brothers Peter, Jakob and Nicholas. During the 15th and 16th centuries, John II (1481–1539), an eminent scholar, corresponded with
Martin Luther,
Erasmus of Rotterdam and
Philipp Melanchthon. He began his career as a pastor in
Levoča and
Košice. Later, he stayed at the court of
Louis II of Hungary and his wife,
Maria of Austria. In 1531, he came to
Silesia and became a canon in Breslau (
Wrocław), Silesia. He died there eight years later and was buried in the local cathedral. Lazarus Henckel (or Lazarus the Elder; 1551–1624) was a banker and mine owner, and the main financier of the
Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II's war against the
Turkish Empire. Lazarus knew there was no way the Emperor would be able to repay him, but in return for his service, he was given a number of privileges. In 1607, he and his sons were ennobled with the surname
von Henckel von Donnersmarck. Count
Victor Amadeus Henckel von Donnersmarck became a Prussian general and governor of Königsberg. His
granddaughter Ottilie married
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's son
August, which is how Goethe's estate came to the Henckel von Donnersmarck family. and
Princess Marie-Adelaïde of Luxembourg was the first royal wedding to be televised.
Count Wilhelm Ludwig Victor Henckel von Donnersmarck was a Prussian general who fought with Blücher to defeat Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo. Finally, in 1854 and 1887, the family was given seats in the
Prussian Hereditary House of Lords. He was the first German aristocrat to expand his holdings by raising capital through offering shares in a public limited company. He invited several illustrious figures to sit on the board of his companies, among them the
Duc de Morny, the brother of
Emperor Napoleon III. He invested in many different countries, including Sweden, France, Italy, Poland and Russia. In his book
Face to Face with Kaiserism, American Ambassador to Germany
James W. Gerard describes how Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck jeopardized his wealth and position by writing an open letter to the Kaiser beseeching him not to annex Belgium. Because of Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck's marriage to
Esther Lachman (who was Jewish), and the marriage of
Countess Veronika Henckel von Donnersmarck to
Baron Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild (who was Jewish), the Henckel von Donnersmarcks were included in the Semi-Gotha by the Nazis, a Government-funded anti-semitic pamphlet attacking those aristocratic families that had married into Jewish families. When after the
Yalta Conference,
Joseph Stalin and the communists claimed ownership of Silesia for Soviet-controlled Poland, virtually all Germans, numbering over 8 million, where
driven out of Silesia, including the Henckel von Donnersmarck family, who had been there continuously since 1629. They lost their fortune, but soon re-established a position of importance. In 1958,
Count Karl Josef Henckel von Donnersmarck married
Princess Marie-Adélaïde, daughter of the
Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and her consort,
Felix of Bourbon-Parma, in what was the first televised royal wedding. In 2000, their son Count Heinrich Henckel von Donnersmarck became CEO of
SIX Swiss Exchange, a company with a 2021 market cap of 2.4 trillion
CHF. In 1964,
George Cukor asked
Countess Veronika Henckel von Donnersmarck (married to a
Rothschild) to play the fictitious Queen of Transylvania opposite
Audrey Hepburn in his production of
My Fair Lady. Art director
Cecil Beaton stated that, although she was not an actress, the Countess was the only lady in Los Angeles with the "impeccable deportment and breeding" necessary to play a queen. In 1997, Karl Josef's first cousin,
Count Leo-Ferdinand Henckel von Donnersmarck, was elected President of the German
Knights of Malta, a multi-billion dollar Catholic charity organization. In 1999, Leo Ferdinand's brother, Count
Gregor Ulrich Henckel von Donnersmarck, was elected the 67th Abbot of
Stift Heiligenkreuz, the famous 12th-century
Cistercian monastery in the
Vienna Woods. In 2007, Leo Ferdinand's son, film director
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, received the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his spy drama,
The Lives of Others. He went on to direct the 2010 blockbuster
The Tourist with
Angelina Jolie and
Johnny Depp, nominated for three
Golden Globes, and the 2018 epic drama
Never Look Away, which was nominated for two
Academy Awards. In 2013, he was named a
Young Global Leader by the
World Economic Forum.
Princes On 18 January 1901, Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck received the Prussian title of
Prince from
German Emperor Wilhelm II, heritable by masculine primogeniture. He founded the
Fürst Donnersmarck foundation in Berlin, currently endowed with 180 million euros, that employs over 600 people to help people with disabilities. His great-granddaughter,
Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, is the current curator and head of
Berlinale Shorts, the Berlin Festival's short film competition. == Notable family members ==