Sir: We can perhaps be grateful to Sarah Gainham for
her letter in your edition of 8 February since it promoted the Schlieffen correspondence in your columns, but her views on -German noble titles which you published on 6 September do not reflect correct usage.
I am once again in the debt of Graf Strachwitz of the Deutsches Adelsarchiv in `He "sold out" years ago.' Marburg for the authoritative judgment that German families of the lower nobility have no official head. It is only the former reigning houses of the Holy Roman Empire (mainly bearing the title 'Furst' or 'Her- zog') who have such a ranking. For families such as that of Graf Alfred von Schlieffen all members bear the title.
The late Graf Otto von Abensperg and Traun would indeed answer the telephone Traun', but so would the other members of his family. The German rules are not like those in the United Kingdom, where only one person holds a title so that a Christian name is not necessary to distinguish him from another member of the family, as it is in Germany.
David Damant
Agar House, 12 Agar Street, London WC2
Previous page
