The Uexküll family (also Üxküll or Yxkull) is the name of an old and distinguished Baltic German noble family, which derived its name from the town of Uexküll, today

Ikšķile Ikšķile (, ; , or ; ; ) is a town in Ogre Municipality, in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. It was the first capital of the Roman Catholic Bishopric of Livonia, known by the List of German exonyms for places in Latvia, German name of Uexküll, ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

History

Uexküll was originally a

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

noble family von Bardewisch, first appeared in written documents on 26 July 1229, whose lineage can be traced to several places, the earliest originating in Stedingen, and later Old Livonia (modern

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

, and

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

. After obtaining domain Meyendorff, the branch of Uexkülls family was formed in the third quarter of the 15th century and since then it became known as Meyendorff von Uexküll. The family was also part of the

German nobility The German nobility () and Royal family, royalty were status groups of the Estates of the realm, medieval society in Central Europe, which enjoyed certain Privilege (law), privileges relative to other people under the laws and customs in the Ger ...

and on 9 October 1790 they were awarded with the title of

Imperial Count Imperial Count (, ) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. During the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from a prince wh ...

by Leopold II.

Coat of arms

Bardewisch

The ''Bardewisch'' coat of arms displays two upward facing battle axes, in blue and black. The helmet appears with closed blue-silver covers.

Uexküll

The Uexküll coat of arms displays a victorious red lion in a golden backdrop. On the two helmets are red-golden covers facing silver sickles with red shanks. These are adorned with natural peacock feathers.

Coat of arms since 1475

Since 1475 the coat of arms has shown the shields of both the Bardewisch and Uexküll. This is achieved by placing the two side by side with the Uexküll shield on the left and the Bardewisch shield to the right. The helmet, adorned with peacock feathers and centered between two sickles, is split in two, the left of the helmet displaying the red and gold of Uexküll, and the right the colours of Bardewisch.

Notable members

* Alexander Rudolf Karl von Uexküll (1829–1891), politician, mayor of Reval (1878–1883) * Alexandrine Gräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband (1873–1963), Matron within the German Red Cross * August Heinrich Friedrich von Uexküll-Gyllenband (1765–1822), Chamberlain, Government Councillor, Court Councilor in Stuttgart * Berend Johann von Uexküll (1671–1676), Captain within the Estonian Knighthood * Berend Johann von Uexküll (1806–1809), Captain within the Estonian Knighthood * Bernhard Graf Uxkull-Gyllenband (1899–1918), German poet * (1724–1810), District envoy, Minister of State, President of the Privy Council in Stuttgart * (1684–1768), President of the Oberhof Council within the Margrave of Baden-Durlach * Georg Detloff von Uexküll (1668–1710), Captain within the Estonian Knighthood * Gertrud Schwend-Uexküll (1867–1901), women's rights activist and education pioneer * Gösta von Uexküll (1909–1993), writer and journalist * Jakob Johann von Uexkül (1864–1944), biologist, zoologist, and philosopher * Jakob von Uexkull (born 1944), founder of Right Livelihood Award * Johann von Uexküll (died 1583), Danish Governor of

Ösel Saaremaa (; ) is the largest and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...

* Karl Friedrich Emich von Uexküll-Gyllenband (1755–1832), art critic and collector in

* Nikolaus von Üxküll-Gyllenband (1877–1944), businessman, and Colonel in the German Resistance * Jens Ole von Uexkuell (born 1978), German fencer * Ole von Uexküll (born 1978), Swedish activist * Otto von Uexküll (died 1601), Swedish

Field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

* Otto von Uexküll (died 1650), Captain within the Estonian Knighthood *

Thure von Uexküll Karl Kuno Thure Freiherr von Uexküll (March 15, 1908, Heidelberg – September 29, 2004, Freiburg) was a German scholar of psychosomatic medicine and biosemiotics. He developed the approach of his father, Jakob von Uexküll, in the study of livi ...

(1908–2004), Doctor, scholar of

psychosomatic medicine Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. The academic forebearer of the modern field o ...

and

biosemiotics Biosemiotics (from the Ancient Greek, Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and σημειωτικός ''sēmeiōtikos'', "observant of signs") is a field of semiotics (especially Neurosemiotics) and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-makin ...

* Woldemar Graf Uxkull-Gyllenband (1898–1939), German historian * Richard von Yxkull (born 1967), chairman of

Hammarby Fotboll Hammarby Fotboll, more commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish professional association football, football club from Stockholm founded in 1915. The club is based at 3Arena (Stockholm), 3 Are ...

, one of Sweden's biggest football clubs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uexkull Baltic-German noble families Lower Saxon noble families Swedish noble families Württembergian noble families