Sir: The Schlieffen family were granted Danish coats of arms
in 1444 and noble sta- tus in Poland in 1555. Three brothers were granted the rank of count in the kingdom of Prussia in 1812.
Alfred (1833-1913) was a grandson of the youngest of these three brothers, and so he was actually Graf Alfred von Schlieffen, and not just Alfred von Schlieffen (if you want to get technical). You can find Alfred's ancestry in your copy of Ausgewahlte Ahnentafeln der EDDA (Eisemes Buch Deutschen Adds Deutscher Art), as Alfred's sister Katherine appears in Vol. II, Table 61, no. 3. For those who'd like a preview, Alfred's maternal grand- mother was Luise Gratin von Stolberg- Wemigerode (1771-1856, ES IV, 56).
There's an article on the early history of the von Schlieffen family in Genealogisches Handbuch des Adds, Vol. XXVI (1961), and the most recent appearance of the Grafen von Schlieffen in GHdA is in Vol. LXXXII (1983), pp 359-372. By the way, one will search those volumes in vain for any men- tion of an 'Alice von Schlieffen'.
Alfred actually had two daughters: Eliza- beth, who married Friedrich Wilhelm von Hahnke, and Marie, who died unmarried. Alfred had no sons.
By the way, Elizabeth von Hahnke, née Grafin von Schlieffen, had only one child, a daughter named Anna Josepha von Hahnke, who married a Friedrich von Boetticher when she was almost 60, and had no children. In other words, the last descendant of General von Schlieffen, in all lines, died in 1971.
William Addams Reitwiesner
E-mail address: wrei@erols.com
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