Stauffenberg

The family's best-known recent member was Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – the key figure in the 1944 "20 July plot" to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

By the end of the 15th century, the family's permanent name was Schenk von Stauffenberg, which refers to Burg Stauffenberg, a former castle situated by a small cone-shaped mountain of the same name between the small town of Hechingen and its suburb Rangendingen in Land Württemberg.

The Stauffenbergs rose in the world in 1698 when Emperor Leopold I conferred upon the brothers Maximilian Gottfried and Johann Philipp the hereditary title of Reichsfreiherr (Imperial Baron).

The former two became extinct during the 18th century, while a member of the Wilflinger branch was raised to the rank of hereditary Reichsgraf (Imperial Count) by Emperor Leopold II in 1785.

All now living members of the family are descendants of the brothers Franz Ludwig and Friedrich of the Amerdinger branch.