The Swabian and Brandenburg- Prussian Hohenzollerns
First mentioned in 1061, the Hohenzollern dynasty is one of the oldest and most significant Swabian noble families of Germany. The center of the territory once ruled by the Counts of Zollern – later to become counts of Hohenzollern in the 14th century - was located near the Hechingen castle, giving it its name. With the investiture of the Nuremberg castle, a Franconian line was created (1214) from which the Margraves of Brandenburg (1415), the Prussian Hohenzollern (1701) and finally the Hohenzollern imperial house evolved.
The Hohenzollern Swabian lines of Haigerloch, Hechingen and Sigmaringen were created in 1576 and raised to princedom in 1623. The princes of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen gained full sovereignty over their principalities in 1806, only to relinquish them to their related Prussian royal house a few decades later in 1850. After the Hohenzollern-Hechingen lineage died out due to the lack of a male heir, the Sigmaringen line assumed the title of Prince / Princess of Hohenzollern. The ancestral Hohenzollern castle in Hechingen is an architectural symbol of Prussian and Swabian kinship, both of which own the castle today.
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