Hohenfeld (surname)

[1] This Alemanus Hercules was a mythical king of Germany (besides an alleged founder of Bavaria and associated with Regensburg), whose popularity increased by the works of Johannes Aventinus that were published in the late 16th century.

[Note 1] Notably, these claims were recorded in a period where the family had to prove their ancient rights in juridical efforts to reclaim their confiscated goods during the counter-reformation and their exile from Austria.

Around the year 1220, the founder of a short-lived junior branch, Heinrich von Hohenfeld zu Stiela, was mentioned as a Cammer-Juncker for the Babenberger Dukes of Styria.

Strnad (1868) theorized that the brothers or cousins Ulreich and Otto de Hohenwelden were in fact of local origin and descended from the Lords of Wasen (also known as Counts of Attersee or the Chamer/Kamer) in the Attergau region; they would simply have changed their names.

The former of these happened to be Wolfgang's closest aristocratic neighbor, and the latter was an early Protestant convert who had studied under Martin Luther and returned to Austria as a propagator of Protestantism.

[11] After Achaz' death in 1603, the Hohenfeld titles, goods, and Protestant legacy were passed on to his sons Otto, Wolfgang, Ludwig, Christoph, Michael, and Rudolph – born between 1575 and 1585.

The Hohenfeld did not sign the League of Horn [de] in 1608, but continued to be related and affiliated to many of its signers, consisting of influential Protestant nobles.

[Note 2] After the major Protestant defeat at the Battle of White Mountain and the ensuing end of the Bohemian Revolt in 1620, counter-reformation pressure began to increase in Upper Austria.

After his and his siblings' conversion to Catholicism, Markus' eldest son Ferdinand (1612-1675) was confirmed in his knighthood on 28 July 1652 with the title of Austrian Freiherr.

In July 1809, Otto Adolph Karl Johann von Hohenfeld was promoted to lieutenant field marshal after he had distinguished himself in the victorious Battle of Aspern, together with Radetzky.

His four sisters sold the lordship and domain to Johann Karl Dworzak in 1830, whose descendants would continue to own Castle Aistersheim until the second half of the 20th century.

Several arms of other noble houses claiming descent from the Babonids, as well as various castles and monasteries associated with them, also bear similarities (roses on a fess/per fess/a bend/per bend).