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From: "Detlefsen" <>
Subject: "von" and Baron
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 17:18:03 -0800

BettyAnn, you write:

>>Literally translated - according to all sources we have
>>found - "von" means "Baron".

"von" means "from" or "of" in German. However, when used in a name it indeed
"designates nobility and was usually awarded, with a coat of arms, for
exemplary service to a ruling monarch". In that context it often loses
its meaning of "from" or "of" yet it does not acquire the literal meaning of
"baron".

You might find many example of "von" in names of "non-Barons":

Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck, Prinz Bismarck und Herzog von
Lauenburg --- he was a prince and a duke (Herzog) but not a baron.
Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Baron von Muenchhausen --- he *was* a baron.
Julius Lothar von Meyer, a German chemist, or Herbert von Karajan, the
eminent conductor --- neither was a baron though both were enobled.
Karl von Habsburg --- King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria, but no baron
he!

Princes, dukes, barons, kings, emperors and plain folk - all "von"s, all
nobles, though not all barons.

This thread:

• "von" and Baron by "Detlefsen" <>