In 1417, during the time of the Council of Constance, the Holy Roman Emperor and Hungarian King, Sigismund of Luxembourg, granted a coat of arms to the three brothers Peter, Jakob and Nicholas.

[1] In 1697, the Henckels' inheritance of a Freie Standesherrschaft (Free Lordship), under the Bohemian crown, obtained Imperial confirmation as a hereditary Fideicommis, a family trust heritable by masculine primogeniture.

The head of the Henckel von Donnersmarck family was even condemned to death personally by Frederick II of Prussia for staying loyal to the Emperors of Austria and was stripped of his entire estate.

Count Wilhelm Ludwig Victor Henckel von Donnersmarck was a Prussian general who fought with Blücher to defeat Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo.

[1] Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck (1811–1890), head of the main (Catholic) branch of the family, became one of the central figures of the 2nd Industrial Revolution, spearheading technological innovations like mild steel puddling metal factories, three-high rolling mills and soda-pulping in Germany.

In 1958, Count Karl Josef Henckel von Donnersmarck married Princess Marie-Adélaïde, daughter of the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and her consort, Felix of Bourbon-Parma, in what was the first televised royal wedding.

In 1964, George Cukor asked Countess Veronika Henckel von Donnersmarck (married to a Rothschild) to play the fictitious Queen of Transylvania opposite Audrey Hepburn in his production of My Fair Lady.

In 1997, Karl Josef's first cousin, Count Leo-Ferdinand Henckel von Donnersmarck, was elected President of the German Knights of Malta, a multi-billion dollar Catholic charity organization.

In 1999, Leo Ferdinand's brother, Count Gregor Ulrich Henckel von Donnersmarck, was elected the 67th Abbot of Stift Heiligenkreuz, the famous 12th-century Cistercian monastery in the Vienna Woods.

On 18 January 1901, Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck received the Prussian title of Prince from German Emperor Wilhelm II, heritable by masculine primogeniture.