Kurt von Kleefeld (born 16 October 1881 in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

as Kurt Kleefeld, died 1934 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) was a German lawyer, executive director of the House, President of the Chamber and executive director of the princely mines and industrial activities of the princely Hohenlohe family.

Biography

He was the last person in Germany to be

ennobled Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

. On the request of his employer, Prince Christian Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen, he was raised to the hereditary nobility of the

Principality of Lippe Lippe (later Lippe-Detmold and then again Lippe) was a historical state in Germany, ruled by the House of Lippe. It was located between the Weser river and the southeast part of the Teutoburg Forest. It was founded in the 1640s under a separa ...

Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe (''Leopold Julius Bernhard Adalbert Otto Karl Gustav''; 30 May 1871 – 30 December 1949) was the final sovereign of the Principality of Lippe. Succeeding to the throne in 1905 he had been governing the state since ...

, "in recognition of his loyal service" on 12 November 1918, the same day as the Sovereign Prince's abdication and the abolition of

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...

.Kurt Koszyk: Gustav Stresemann. Cologne, 1989. P.183

Personal life

He belonged to a family of industrialists. Both his parents had a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family background but were

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

by religion. His sister,

Käte Stresemann Käte Stresemann (née Kleefeld; 15 July 1883 – 23 July 1970) was the wife of the German Chancellor, Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Gustav Stresemann. Widely admired for her elegance and intelligence, she was a prominent fig ...

, was married to the German Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Gustav Stresemann. In 1919 he married Countess Gudrun von

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgisch dialect, Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Germany, second-largest city of the northeastern States of Germany, German ...

(1901–1988); they didn't have issue.

References

Literature

* Adelslexikon Vol. VI, Limburg an der Lahn 1987 * Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Adligen Häuser - Alter Adel und Briefadel, Gotha 1927 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kleefeld, Kurt Von 1881 births 1934 deaths House of Lippe German untitled nobility German people of Jewish descent