This is handy for the Emperor, as a Reichsritter has nothing to gain by being involved in plots and intrigues against the Emperor and takes no orders from anyone except His Imperial Majesty. A Reichsritter owes his allegience only to the Emporer, not to some other aristocrat above him. An exception to this would be a "Reichsritter' (Imperial Knight), which is a hereditary postition. Lorenz von Stransky's name is interesting, as "Ritter" is a form of Knighthood and in this usage has the same general meaning as the British "Sir", except that generally German knighthoods weren't handed out as freely and liberally as British knighthoods, and thus commands a lot more respect and dignity than the "Sir" in front of some British actor or singer's name.Ī knight, ie., "Ritter" is the lowest level of nobility, and while the "von" in front of the last name become hereditary, the actual position of knighthood isn't - so if someone was knighted by a German king or emporer, his children would keep the von in front of their names but the oldest son would not be a knight. If you have a copy of "Mein Kampf" handy, you can see this in the list of names of those who fell in front of the Feldherrnhalle in the dedication at the front of the book:
So in an alphabetized, last name first, followed by first name German listing, my name would be "Weigert, Marcus von" and not "von Weigert, Marcus". Interestingly, a German would alphabetize our last names under W - Wagner or Weigert as the "von" is a title and while part of the name, in correct German usage it does not go under V. My last name is von Weigert, and correct German spelling is with a small v.
Sounds like one of us German aristocrats - von Wagner. No American would put a name on something and do it like that. I'd guess a German name since the first letter is lower case.
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