Five branches of the House of
Sayn were extant by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, each having inherited its own
appanage while the family enjoyed
Imperial immediacy as
vassals of the
Holy Roman Empire. In order of seniority of legitimate descent from their progenitor,
Ludwig I, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1532-1605), they were the: • Princes (
Fürsten) zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, descended from Count Georg (1565-1631) • Counts (
Grafen) zu
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Karlsburg, descended from Count Karl Wilhelm (1693-1749) • Princes (
Fürsten) zu
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, descended from Count Christian Ludwig (1725-1797) • Counts (
Grafen) zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, descended from Count Georg Ernst (1735-1792) • Princes (
Fürsten) zu
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, descended from Count Ludwig (1571-1634) Some of these lines further splintered into
cadet branches, both
dynastic and non-dynastic, the latter including families whose right to the princely title was recognized by the Russian,
Prussian or
Bavarian monarchies, whereas other
morganatic branches used lesser titles in Germany. On the death of Ludwig, 3rd Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein in 1912, the eldest of his three sons, Hereditary Prince August (1868-1947), became 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein and head of the third branch of the House of Sayn. Being a childless bachelor, the elder of whose two younger brothers, Georg (1873-1960), had
married morganatically, while the younger, Wilhelm (1877-1958), was 49 and yet unmarried, August preserved the name and heritage of his branch of the House of Sayn by adopting Prince Christian Heinrich {
Christian Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg} (1908-1953) of the Berleburg line. He was the second son of the late head of the entire House of Sayn,
Richard, 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1882-1925), whose eldest son
Gustav Albrecht, 5th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1907-1944), had inherited the senior line's fortune and position. In November 1960, Christian Heinrich, being the divorced father of three daughters by his dynastic marriage to Countess Beatrix von
Bismarck-Schönhausen {Beatrix
Grafin von Bismarck-Schönhausen} (1921-2006), married Princess Dagmar zu
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1919-2002), elder daughter of his adopted father's younger brother, Georg, who died seven months before the wedding. As Georg's children by his morganatic wife, Marie Rühm, (created Baroness von Freusburg by the reigning
Prince of Lippe in 1916) had been de-morganatized by declaration of their uncle August on 11 February 1947, her marriage to Christian Heinrich was deemed a dynastic match, ensuring that their son Bernhart would be born in compliance with the
house laws of his adoptive ancestors, the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohensteins, while also being a grandson of the last dynastic male of that family, Prince Georg. == Members ==