Family history Count of Ziegenhain

The Counts of Ziegenhain – The Star over the Schwalm

The counts of Ziegenhain came from the Hessian countship of Reichenbach and Gosmar. At a crossing over the Schwalm, their ancestors probably built a round castle around 1000. In 1144, Gottfried and Poppo first appear in documents as counts „de Cigenhagen“. The name henceforth linked the family and the landscape together.

From the Schwalm, the counts built a territorial area that extended between the territories of the Hessian counts and separated their lower and upper countships. In the early 13th century, the county of Nidda was added through inheritance. Ziegenhain, Treysa and Nidda became strongholds; Ziegenhain appears securely as a walled city in 1274. The Coat of arms six-pointed star became the visible symbol of the house.

The counts promoted monasteries and cities, regulated markets, fiefs and taxes, and relied on their castle garrisons. Close ties existed with the monasteries of Haina and Hersfeld. Inheritance created separate lines in Ziegenhain and Nidda, but in the 14th century the possessions were reunited.

Their position put the family in competition with Hesse. In the Sternerkrieg of 1371 to 1374, Count Gottfried VIII led a union of counts, lords, and about two thousand knights and peasants against Landgrave Hermann II. The Ziegenhainer Stern gave the alliance its name. After turbulent battles, Hesse prevailed, but the county preserved its independence.

Johann II., the last ruling Count, sought reconciliation with Hesse in the 1427 protection agreement. Financial burdens forced him to cede rights. When he died in 1450 without children, the county passed to the Hessian Landgrafen by inheritance agreements; other relatives raised claims. Hesse continued to preserve the title of Count and the star in historical memory. Today, the records in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg, the Ziegenhainer Schlossbezirk and the townscape of Schwalmstadt preserve the history of a house that shaped the center of Hesse over the centuries.

Sources: LAGIS Hessen, Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, City of Schwalmstadt

Family coat of arms Count of Ziegenhain

This has been held Coat of arms by the Count of Ziegenhain since the mid-14th century.

Divided into black and gold, with a silver six-pointed star above. On the helmet, with black and gold panels, a growing, silver-armored black goat between a flight divided similarly to the shield, with black upper wing halves each adorned with a silver six-pointed star.

The Counts of Ziegenhain initially led a zeppelin squadron. Around the middle of the 14th century, they were joined by a squadron of zeppelins.

Sources: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen, Stadt Schwalmstadt, about the six-pointed star of the Counts, Siebmacher's Coat of armsbook 1701, as conveyed in the description of the black-golden divided shield with a silver six-pointed star; Heraldic Documentation „Welt der Coat of arms“, description of the goat horn ornament in the Hessian coat of arms