The Ballestrem is the name of an influential German noble family, originally from

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. They are still extant, despite losing much of their land in 1945.

History

Originally named ''Ballestrero di Castellengo'', they are first attested to as

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

merchants in the sixteenth century. At the end of the seventeenth century, Marco Francesco Antonio Ballestrero was enfeoffed with the County of Montalenghe, near

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. His son, Count Giovanni Angelo Battista Ballestrero, moved to Germany, taking the name Johann Baptist von Ballestrem and eventually joining the Prussian officer corps. Johann married into the wealthy Stechow family, leading the German Ballestrems to eventually inherit the lucrative Plawniowitz estate in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

, then part of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

and now part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. In 1742, the family was raised to the title of

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Notable members

* Count Franz von Ballestrem (1834-1910), was the tenth President of the

Reichstag of the German Empire The Reichstag () of the German Empire was Germany's lower house of parliament from 1871 to 1918. Within the governmental structure of the Reich, it represented the national and democratic element alongside the federalism of the Bundesrat and the ...

. * Countess Eufemia von Ballestrem (1854–1941), was a German

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word's ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. * Countess Lagi von Ballestrem (31 August 1909 – 14 September 1955), was a prominent anti-Nazi who was sent to

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

in 1944.Jenkins, Tricia (May 2006). "Ballestrem-Solf, Countess Lagi (ca. 1919–1955)". ''Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present''. Volume One. ABC-CLIO. p. 52. .

References

German noble families European noble families Prussian nobility German business families Silesian nobility {{Germany-noble-stub