The House of Manderscheid was the name of the most powerful family in the

Eifel The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

region of Germany for a considerable period of time in the 15th century. In 1457, Dietrich III von Manderscheid was made a ' (Imperial count) by the Emperor (probably Frederick III). When Dietrich died on 20 February 1498, he had appointed his sons Johann, Konrad and Wilhelm as new rulers – the family property had been distributed in 1488. Each of the sons founded a powerful lineage: Johann started the Manderscheid-Blankenheim-Gerolstein line, William the Manderscheid-Kail line, and Konrad (Cuno) the Manderscheid-Schleiden line. Augusta von Manderscheid-Blankenheim was the last countess. She was married to a member of the Bohemian nobility, Count Philipp Christian von Sternberg (1732–1811).

The Manderscheid-Kail lineage

The ancestral seat was the former moated castle in

Oberkail Oberkail is a municipality in the rural area of Eifel in Rhineland-Palatinate in the administrative district Bitburg-Prüm and is part of Verbandsgemeinde ("collective municipality") Bitburger Land. Geography The municipality is surrounded by g ...

, and because of this, Oberkail gained and maintained considerable importance in the Eifel region for several centuries. The moated palace is no longer standing – the last count of Oberkail died without descendants in 1762, the moated castle was destroyed and Oberkail returned to the status of a non-notable Eifel village.

Witch-hunts and French takeover

The

was underdeveloped and troubled by plagues,

witch-hunt A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern pe ...

s and feuds in the 17th century. Within the area of the Manderscheider counties, approximately 260 people were executed as witches between 1528 and 1641. In other regions of Germany, reformation and technical inventions had led to great progress. In 1794, French revolutionary troops took control of the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...

country and the Eifel region without great bloodshed and eliminated the aristocracy and the feudal system. Taxes such as

socage Socage () was one of the feudal duties and land tenure forms in the English feudal system. It eventually evolved into the freehold tenure called "free and common socage", which did not involve feudal duties. Farmers held land in exchange for cle ...

duty, tithes and local customs duties were abolished. French became the official language, the judiciary system was updated and the economy in the Eifel experienced a boost.

Archives

The originals of certificates and documents (such as deeds of ownership and commercial documents) that the family had taken with them on their flight to

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

are stored in the National Museum in Prague. After these documents were copied onto

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. ...

in the 1970s, a copy was stored in an archive in

Brauweiler Brauweiler is a part of Pulheim, west of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The former Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , ...

near

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

. The documents are still awaiting a scientific evaluation. File:BurgManderscheid.jpg , Lower castle at Manderscheid, with the ruin of the upper castle in the background {{DEFAULTSORT:Manderscheid, County 1480s disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1488 disestablishments in Europe German noble families States and territories established in the 18th century Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle History of the Rhineland Former states and territories of Rhineland-Palatinate Counties of the Holy Roman Empire Eifel in the Middle Ages