Arnswald.de

The Coat of Arms

The source of the family von Arnswald and their related kin along with an interpretation of coat of arms. Abstract of " The Lords von Arnswald and their kin " by Werner Constantin von Arnswald (1877-1941), scholar, genealogist, registrar; published in issue Num.1 (1912)

Up to the 13th and 14th century the family name of a knight was not always constant. When he changed the landed property where he lived, he often changed his family name also. Therefore you can not be sure that a knight, named after a village, is related to another one with the same name who lived a hundred years later, if the derivation line has a breach. In contrast to the family name, the family coat of arms reminded the same. Therefore the heraldry is a very important auxiliary in ancestor research.

So the kinship of the present von Arnswald - family back to Hermann von Arnswald, the first representative of this name has been proven. He was born in 1163 at the castle Honstein. Only 15 km far from there, in a forest where eagles (Adler,Are) lived, he built a castle. He moved to his castle in 1217. Hermann von Arnswald and Burchard von Honstein (later von Ascherode) were the sons of Burcardus I. de Honstein and Ascherode and shared the same family coat of arms.

This coat of arms has been used by:

1. The family von Arnswald

2. The family von Ascherode

3. The family von Tütchenrode. It is assumed that Heinrich von Tütchenrode
( documented 1251 ) was the youngest son of Hermann von Arnswald
and that he was named Heinrich von Arnswald as a child.

4. The family von Geylvuz. The derivation of this small family from the family
von Arnswald has been proven. They often used the name von Arnswald
together with von Geylvuz.

The shield of the von Arnswald - family has been blue with a silver bend down to the right side, faced with three red roses. At the helmet there have been the wings of an eagle wide apart along with two silver bends also showing three red roses. One bend runs from the right down to the left side, the other vice versa. It is not sure whether the roses had a special signification. A knight who constructed his shield for a fight used skin covered boards which he fastened together by nailing a bend on to them. The head of the nails could be formed as a rosette or had a coloured rose like decoration.
While the names of the holders of our coat of arms are mostly an indication of place, only the family name von Geylfuz is valuable for ancestor research. It points to a hereditary disease in the family, the goutiness. Up to now, this disease has survived in some kin of the von Arnswald - family

For more than 500 years up to the18th century there also was a family von Arnswald named after the city Arnswalde. Their coat of arms however was different, red coloured and decorated with the heads of boars at the bend and the helmet.

Translated by Dr. Wolfgang Arnswald