Livonian Wolffs
Historical Development of the Barons von Wolff in Greater Livonia
A Lutheran, Orthodox, and Catholic family of councilors from Sagan (Lower Silesia), which settled in the village of Sagan and first appears in documents in 1427.
The family coat of arms corresponds to that of the family of the same name, which lived between Priebus and Sagan from 1427 to 1572 in Hausdorf, Wolfsdorf, and Klein-Selden.
The reliable lineage begins with Hans Wolff, citizen in 1515 and councilor in 1520 in Sagan. With Sigismund Adam Wolff ( Sagan, 15.10.1646; † 25.02.1720), secretary of the lower court and jurist in 1671, council secretary in 1677, councilor in 1687, and mayor of Narva in 1704, the family appears in the Baltic regions.
The title Baron was recognized for the entire family by Senate decree on February 15, 1857; the imperial baronial status with the predicate “well-born” has existed since September 22, 1747.
Priebus & Sagan, Lower Silesia
The history of Silesia is also the history of struggles among princes with one another and with powerful neighbors, between town and countryside, between the estates on the one hand and the princes and the crown on the other, and later the struggle for confessional freedom.
When the branch of the Wolff family immigrated and settled in the Principality of Sagan cannot be determined. There is also a lack of verifiable documentation concerning the exact history of the Wolff family prior to the period in Sagan; however, historical references to the Wolff family exist that suggest a much older lineage.
The first mention of a member of the family dates from 1427; at that time, during a period of peace, Heinrich Wolff of Hausdorf is said to have had all his livestock taken from him and his poor people. In 1450, the Duchy of Sagan was divided among the three brothers, who soon fell into dispute over the partition. Arbitration was entrusted in 1452 to the city of Görlitz, with eleven Sagan noblemen appointed as negotiators, among them Jorge Wolff of Wolfsdorf."
In 1463, Hans Wolff was appointed captain of Sagan and was referred to by Duke Hans as ‘our dear and faithful one.’
Between 1463 and 1465, Hans Wolff is more frequently mentioned as a witness in sales, and in 1474 he appears as the duke’s confidant in a judicial dispute.
When Balthasar of Sagan obtained a ban against his brother Hans of Sagan in 1466, he was able to expel him from Sagan in 1463. However, Hans of Sagan recaptured Sagan as early as 1464. When Pope Paul II placed the supporters of Poděbrady under ban in 1466, Duke Heinrich of Freistadt and the people of Görlitz turned against him and his supporter Duke Hans. In 1467, Duke Hans consequently issued a letter of feud to the six towns: Bautzen, Görlitz, Zittau, Lauban, Kamenz, and Löbau. Among the sixty-two Sagan noblemen who co-signed the letter of feud were also Jorge Wolff, Hans Wolff, and Caspar Wolff.
In 1474, the dukes granted Jorge Wolff a letter of fief over Hausdorf, Wolfsdorf, and Klein-Selten ‘with all graces, rights, supreme and lower courts.’ For these fiefs, Jorge Wolff was required, according to the register of knightly services of 1480, to provide: 1 horse, 1 wagon, 6 foot soldiers.
In 1543, Elector Maurice of Saxony confirmed the estates to the descendants of Jorge Wolff. Even after the transfer of Sagan in 1553 to the Elector of Brandenburg, the estates were confirmed once again in 1558. In 1572, however, the Wolff possessions in Silesia came to an end due to disputes with Bishop Balthasar of Breslau. From the proceeds of the estates, the Wolffs settled in the city of Sagan.
In 1403, Nickel Wolff is mentioned as mayor of Sagan; however, there is no proof that he belonged to the ancestral founders of the family.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the fortunes of the family were closely linked to those of the city of Sagan. In his Chronica of the Principalities of Sagan, Priebus, and Naumburg, published in print in 1601, the author reports: ‘the most distinguished old families in the city of Sagan are the Neumanns. … Thereafter the …, Wolffs and many others.’
Sagan experienced an economic flourishing until the Thirty Years’ War. The almost entirely Protestant Duchy of Sagan joined the Counter-Reformation and provided 1,500 soldiers. After the defeat at White Mountain, the city was forced to pay homage to Emperor Ferdinand, and as punishment for defection, part of Wallenstein’s army was quartered in the duchy, which demanded contributions upon its withdrawal. In 1627, the emperor sold Sagan to Wallenstein, who in 1638 had himself enfeoffed with it.
Despite the times of war, Adam Wolff III was nevertheless able to have his son Sigismund Adam educated, and after following his son Sigismund Adam to Narva, he was able in 1681 to distribute a not insignificant fortune to the children remaining in Sagan.
From the very first moment of the Reformation, the Wolffs became adherents of this church. Hans II Wolff had at that time obtained from Duke Heinrich the transfer of the Barefoot Friars’ Church to the Protestants. His descendants remained faithful to this confession. The Edict of 1668 struck them hard.
Sagan Today
Hausdorf, Wolfsdorf, and Klein-Selten were small rural settlements in historical Lower Silesia until 1945. With the reorganization of Europe after the Second World War, they became part of Polish state territory, received new names such as Domachowo, Wilczków, and Małe Selno, and were incorporated into Polish administrative structures. These villages stand as representative examples of the complex heritage of Lower Silesia, in which shifting borders, cultural change, and historical continuity remain visible to this day.
Hanseatic City of Narva
Due to the difficult conditions for Protestants in Sagan, Sigismund Adam Wolff, the progenitor of the family in Livonia and southern Russia, left Sagan in 1669, traveling via Danzig to Sweden and from there to Narva.
After 23 years of Russian occupation, the city of Narva had become part of the Swedish Empire in 1581, but was recaptured again in 1581 by the White Muscovites. Through the Peace of Oliva in 1660 and from 1676 onward the permission granted to Russians to engage in crafts in Narva and to participate in trade with the Hanse, Narva experienced renewed prosperity.
At the invitation of the burgrave of Narva, Jürgen Tunder, to settle in Narva, Sigismund Adam Wolff accepted the offer, having left his homeland and seeking to establish a new existence for himself and possibly his family.
Sigismund Adam Wolff initially became preceptor to the children of the mayor of Narva, Lorenz Nummens, who belonged to the most influential and at the same time wealthiest citizens of Narva. In 1671 he married a niece of the mayor, thus gaining admission into the inner circle of the urban patriciate. In the same year he became secretary of the lower court, in 1677 council secretary, in 1687 councilor, and in 1704 judicial mayor. Thus his fate became most closely intertwined with the city of Narva.
Alongside his official functions as councilor, Sigismund Adam Wolff very successfully conducted a trading business with the German Hanse together with his cousin Kehrwieder and was pledge holder of several estates in Estonia. The Hanse and thus primarily German merchants from Lübeck, Hamburg, Rostock, etc., strongly shaped this trading activity.
In 1704, the city of Narva was taken after a prolonged siege and bombardment by Peter the Great in person. Sigismund Adam Wolff lost two of his children during the attacks. Sigismund Adam had lived in Burggasse in Narva since 1684.
After two days of plundering by the Russians, Peter the Great personally intervened, ended the bloodshed, guaranteed the inhabitants of Narva continued possession of their houses, and called upon them to render homage.
Coming to terms with the new regime became the task of Sigismund Adam Wolff. After the completion of the oath of homage, Sigismund Adam Wolff was still in 1704 appointed judicial mayor in the name of His Tsarist Majesty as the senior council relative, and the citizenry was admonished to accord him all due honor and respect. It was also the task of Sigismund Adam Wolff to present the sword of capitulation to Peter the Great and thus symbolically the city of Narva. At the same time, his eldest son of the same name was appointed court bailiff.
In the years that followed, Peter the Great stayed in Narva several times, and a personal friendship with Sigismund Adam Wolff was attributed to him. In 1708, however, the announcement followed that all citizens of Narva who had been in Narva during the Swedish period were to be deported to Russia. The resettlement of 1,700 inhabitants of Narva to Vologda took place in 1708 and also affected Sigismund Adam Wolff and his son.
After the conquest of Livonia by Peter the Great had been completed, the mayor of Narva traveled to court in 1710 with the request to be allowed to bring the resettled inhabitants back. This request was not granted until 1714.
In the years that followed, Peter the Great stayed in Narva several times, and a personal friendship with Sigismund Adam Wolff was attributed to him. In 1708, however, the announcement followed that all citizens of Narva who had been in Narva during the Swedish period were to be deported to Russia. The resettlement of 1,700 inhabitants of Narva to Vologda took place in 1708 and also affected Sigismund Adam Wolff and his son.
After the conquest of Livonia by Peter the Great had been completed, the mayor of Narva traveled to court in 1710 with the request to be allowed to bring the resettled inhabitants back. This request was not granted until 1714.
Peter the Great at the handover of the sword of capitulation by Sigismund Adam Wolff in Narva: painting by John Trumbull, 1704
Also in 1714, Peter the Great concluded a treaty with the Dorpat Knighthood, by which he transferred to it the administration and governance of the district, with the right to elect all officials and judges. The German translation of this treaty is certified as correct by the handwritten signature of Sigismund Adam Wolff.
In 1715, Sigismund Adam Wolff was appointed secretary of the knighthood of the Dorpat district. In consideration of his age, he requested his dismissal in 1718, which was refused, so that he held the office until 1720. In the same year, the progenitor of the Livonian and Russian Wolffs died of a stroke with paralysis.
His son Sigismund Adam Wolff had followed his father to Dorpat and had served since 1715 as assessor for all officials of the court of order, the guardianship authority, and the police authority. In 1718, however, he declared his intention to go to Saint Petersburg.
Afterword on the Progenitor Sigismund Adam Wolff
‘The handling of all matters concerning the knighthood, “…”, the consultation on all legal questions, the keeping of the Landtag records and the signing thereof together with the Land Marshal belonged to the duties of the knighthood secretary. That this task fell to Sigismund Adam Wolff may be regarded as a worthy conclusion to his life, in which, as his funeral oration states, he had been a diligent man, accomplished great work, and had not spared himself in doing so.’
Saint Petersburg
As early as 1718, the son Sigismund Adam Wolff declared that he wished to go to Saint Petersburg; from there he had received an appointment as councillor to the Imperial College of Justice, which had been newly organized by Peter the Great as part of his comprehensive reform of the Russian state system.
Peter the Great had already shown himself impressed by Sigismund Adam Wolff in 1704 and appointed him Narva court bailiff. Peter the Great was very impressed by the German Balts and by the highly progressive administration of the knighthoods for the conditions of the time, as well as by their sense for structure, organization, and in particular incorruptibility, so that he summoned Sigismund Adam Wolff and other German Balts to various collegia. Sigismund Adam set about ‘diligently’ giving structure to the new authorities and paid particular attention to the selection of officials.
Sigismund Adam Wolff was soon appointed vice president and thus became the second most important member of the council. In 1725, his extraordinary services to the Russian Empire were recognized and he was granted the estates of Lusitfer, Kurrista, Kalliküll, and Tappik in Livonia. In 1726, Sigismund Adam Wolff was admitted to the Livonian Knighthood. In 1729, admission to the Estonian register of nobility followed; by diploma in 1747 he was elevated to the rank of ‘Banner and Baron of the Holy Roman Empire.’
A particular merit of Sigismund Adam Wolff was that he succeeded in ensuring that the Estonian and Livonian courts and courts of revision conducted proceedings in the German language, and that Estonian and Livonian matters were handled in a special ministry directly subordinate to the Ministry of Justice. In 1735, civil legal disputes were explicitly subordinated to this special ministry. Further special privileges for Estonia and Livonia followed.
Sigismund Adam Wolff had his brother Jacob Wolff come to Saint Petersburg, who had already amassed great wealth through trade at an early stage and was even mentioned in the memoirs of Poniatowski, in the letters of Count Vorontsov, and among the elders of the cabinet of the empress. His country house and gardens on the road between Strelna and Peterhof, as well as a second country house on the Great Nevka in Saint Petersburg, were distinguished by size, beauty, and the careful maintenance of the gardens. Even today, the two streets that led to the entrance of this country house by the river are called Great and Little Wulff Street. In 1748, he was elevated to the status of ‘Banner and Imperial Baron of the Holy Roman Empire.’
Through the granting of the estates located in the Oberpahlen parish to Sigismund Adam Wolff, inner Livonia became the homeland of his descendants. They devoted themselves to their estates and to service to the land. For more than one century, there is not a single one among these descendants who did not make state service his life’s task.
At the end of the 19th century, further members of the family appear in Petersburg:
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Otto Wolff war Generalleutnant und dem Kriegsminister zu besonderen Aufträgen attachiert, der ihn mit Revisionen betraute, für die er durch seine
Gradlinigkeit und Unbestechlichkeit bei großer Herzensgüte besonders geeignet war. - Paul Wolff, colonel of the ‘Garde-à-cheval,’ became an official for special assignments at the court ministry.
- Friedrich Wolff, colonel of the cuirassiers of the emperor, became adjutant to the commander-in-chief during the World War of 1914/1918, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich.
- Arist Wolff worked from 1895 to 1905 in the chancery of the minister of foreign affairs, the central authority of the foreign office.
Boris Wolff was cabinet secretary to Queen Olga of Württemberg, Grand Duchess of Russia, from 1879 to 1892. From 1908 to 1910, he was in the personal service of Queen Olga, responsible for all charitable and philanthropic purposes in Württemberg, which included, for example, the Olgastift in Stuttgart, hospitals, and children’s homes.
Nicolas Wolff managed the assets of the empress and the imperial children as an official of a chancery of Empress Alexandra from 1895 to 1900 and supervised the personal expenditures of the emperor. In 1900, Nicolas Wolff assumed the management of the Imperial Manufactories, which he directed until 1912. From 1912 to 1917, Nicolas Wolff served in the Fourth Imperial Duma as a representative of the large landowners of Livonia. The session records of the Duma for the years 1913/1914 contain the name of Nicolas Wolff more frequently in connection with reports than that of any other member of the Duma.
University of Dorpat
The Livonian Knighthood has always devoted intense interest to the care of education. Thus, the Landtag decided in 1737 to make the establishment of elementary schools compulsory. The same interest was shown by the Landtag in the establishment of a provincial university. The university founded in Dorpat in 1632 by Gustavus Adolphus was continually threatened in its existence. In 1653, the university approached the Livonian Knighthood and demanded its preservation and financial support. In 1665, the Swedish government sought an opinion regarding the university, which had practically ceased to exist in 1656. In 1687, the Livonian Knighthood took the initiative and urged King Charles XI to reopen the university, with the result that the university was reopened in 1690. The Livonian Knighthood assumed the patronage of the University of Dorpat until the capitulation of 1710. Only in 1798, upon the petition of the Livonian Knighthood, did a decree of Emperor Paul I order the founding of a Baltic provincial university.
On 24 February 1802, the University of Dorpat was opened, and § 7 of the founding charter stipulated that the university was intended as an institution of the Livonian Knighthood, but increasingly emancipated itself from it.
For the Wolff family, the University of Dorpat became a place of attraction. In addition to the 26 members of the family who were admitted to the ‘Corporation Livonia,’ the following 14 relatives also studied in Dorpat:
1813 – 1814 Heinrich Wolff
1821 – 1824 Gottlieb Wolff
1829 – 1830 Rudolf Wolff
1830 Sigismund Wolff
1835 Leonhard Wolff
1843 – 1844 Paul Wolff
1846 – 1854 Ferdinand Wolff
1849 – 1853 Boris Wolff
1853 – 1855 Ludwig Wolff
1868 – 1869 Arel Wolff
1874 – 1876 Paul Wolff
1979 – 1884 Richard Wolff
1881 – 1882 Joseph Wolff
1885 Maximilian Wolff
„Corporation Livonia“ at Dorpat
Coats of arms of the German student fraternities in Dorpat,
Riga, and St. Petersburg (1931)
- Gustav von Bunge (1844–1920), physician and physiologist in Basel, key member of the abstinence movement
- Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer (1808–1887), jurist, First Mayor of Hamburg
- Walter von Engelhardt (1864–1940), landscape architect, director of the municipal garden office of Düsseldorf
- Axel Freiherr von Freytagh-Loringhoven (1878–1942), jurist, member of the Reichstag
- Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), theologian, rector of the University of Marburg and of the Royal Prussian State Library
- Friedrich Hollmann (1833–1900), General Superintendent of Livonia, poet of the color song of Livonia
- Jakob Hurt (1839–1907), pastor, founder of the Estonian National Museum
- Erhard Kroeger (1905–1987), commander of Einsatzkommando 6, excluded from the corporation in 1935 due to a matter of honor
- Walter Masing (1915–2004), physicist, founding president of the German Society for Quality
- Siegfried von Vegesack (1888–1974), translator and writer
1837–1839 Bernhard Wolff
1840–1842 Max Wolff
1843–1846 Gottlieb Wolff
1844–1847 Richard Wolff
1846–1850 Alexander Wolff
1848–1853 Ernst Wolff
1861–1862 Heinrich Wolff
1871 Boris Wolff
1873–1877 Conrad Wolff
1874–1877 James Wolff
1876–1878 Haarn Wolff
1877–1878 Gaston Wolff
1879–1883 Arved Wolff
1879 – 1883 Arist Wolff
1879 – 1884 Friedrich Wolff
1882 – 1886 Emil Wolff
1884 – 1888 René Wolff
1885–1886 Leon Wolff
1885–1888 Otto Wolff
1885–1889 Nicolas Wolff
1887–1891 Joseph Wolff
1892–1893 Werner Wolff
1900–1901 Kurt Wolff
1907–1910 Egon Wolff
1907–1911 Sigismund Wolff
1907–1909 Ralph Wolff
The "Livonian Noble Estates Credit Society"
Based on the experiences of the revolutionary year 1789, the Livonian nobility raised the question of creating a credit society based on mutual liability of large landed property. The society was founded following the model of the Prussian credit institution.
The extensive landholdings of the family resulted in a lasting interest in the development of the credit society and in solving its principal tasks: ‘consolidation of rural large landed property, creation of a viable peasant property.
As members of the supreme directorate councils, the following from the family contributed to the development of the credit society:
1818 – 1821 Adam Sigismund Wolff
1857 – 1859 Max Wolff
1875 – 1883 Ludwig Wolff
1883 – 1895 Paul Wolff
1901 – 1920 Arved Wolff
„For a long, undisturbed flourishing for the benefit of Livonia“—this was the wording of the congratulatory address of the Livonian Knighthood to the Livonian Noble Estates Credit Society, which the knighthood conveyed in 1902 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the society.
Die "Kaiserliche Livländische Gemeinnützige und Ökonomische Sozietät"
In 1765, the ‘Free Economic Society’ was founded in Saint Petersburg by Empress Catherine II, of which the emperor was a member and at whose meetings she personally took part. Friedrich Wolff belonged to the society from its founding and subsequently rendered notable service to it.
In 1792, the ‘Livonian Charitable and Economic Society’ was founded, to which, subsequently, on 14 March 1855, the predicate ‘Imperial’ was conferred. The number of honorary members was unlimited, while the number of ordinary members was limited to 13. This ensured goal-oriented work, and the society possessed a particular attraction for candidates and enjoyed generally high esteem.
From the family, Ordinary Members of the society were:
1800 – 1815 Johann Gottlieb II Wolff
1828 – 1838 Otto Wolff
1829 – 1851 Johann Gottlieb Wolff
1841 – 1856 Gottlieb Wolff
1858 – 1863 Bernhard Wolff
1863 – 1867 Ferdinand Wolff
1871 – 1897 Joseph Wolff
1902 – 1912 Joseph Wolff
Honorary Members elected were:
22.01.1851 Gottlieb Wolff
25.01.1851 Joseph Wolff
17.01.1856 Gottlieb Wolff
15.01.1867 Ferdinand Wolff
17.07.1874 Richard Wolff
18.10.1892 Alexander Wolff
In 1813, the seat of the society was relocated to Dorpat. The society increasingly became a representative of North Livonian interests, which subsequently led to the creation of a similarly structured charitable and agricultural society in South Livonia.
Der Sozietät war maßgeblich an der landwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung Livlands beteiligt. Um die Ziele der Sozietät besser verfolgen zu können, initiierte die Sozietät bis 1903 insgesamt 29 Vereine. Darunter waren unter anderem:
1841 ‘Sheep Breeders’ Association’
1844 ‘Livonian Association for the Promotion of Industry and Agriculture’
1853 ‘Dorpat Naturalists’ Society’
1859 Agricultural ‘Managers’ School’ until 1916
1861 ‘Livonian Mutual Fire Insurance,’ which continued until 1920
1867 ‘Baltic Forestry Association’
1895 ‘Association for the Promotion of Livonian Horse Breeding’
1897 Establishment of meteorological stations, which continued until 1915
1897 ‘Livonian-Estonian Office for Regional Culture’
1900 Founding of a surveying office
1904 Founding of a road construction department
1907 Founding of the forestry office with the department of forest utilization
1912 Founding of the ‘Economic Calculation Office and Central Accounting Office’
1908 ‘Peat Association’
The society also initiated the manufacture of glazed bricks, roof shingles, flax-breaking and threshing machines, and cement production."
The family, however, showed particularly strong interest in livestock breeding and the issues associated with it.
With the increasing emancipation of the peasants, it became the task of large landed property to assist the peasants in their newly gained freedom. The family assumed a pioneering role in this regard and used the circumstances to create small enterprises and manufactories.
Thus, on the following ‘Wolff’ estates, water power was developed for wood and wool processing: Alsweig, Dickeln, Korwenhof, Neu-Laitzen, Lettin, Lindenberg, Lindenhof, Lysohn, Mahlup, Metzküll, Paltemal, Rehsack, Schluckum, Alt-Schwanenburg, Stomersee, Suddenbach, and Waldenrode.
Ziegelein wurden errichtet in Alswig, Dickeln, Finanden, Friedrichswalde, Ilsen, Kalnemoise, Groß-Rangern, Lindenberg, Lubahn, Lysohn, Mahlup, Metzküll, Meiran, Paltemal, Alt-Schwanenburg und Semershof.
Spirits production and marketing emerged on the estates of Fianden, Ilsen, Kragenhof, Lindenhof, Lysohn, Mahlup, Alt-Schwanenburg, Semershof, and Stomersee.
The family of the Barons von Wolff held retail licenses for Saint Petersburg (1847), Moscow, Kiev (1855), and the Moscow Railway.
Merits for Livonia and Estonia
It is a peculiar fate of the Wolffs that, having had to fear for their existence for 2.5 centuries in their former homeland of Sagan under difficult political, confessional, and economic conditions, they so successfully established their new existence in Livonia and Estonia.
They devoted their heart and skills to the development of their new homeland. The number of family members who rendered distinguished service to the country are in particular:
District Councillors:
- Johann Gottlieb Wolff II
- Johann Gottlieb Wolff III
- Richard Wolff
- Friedrich Wolff
- James Wolff
- Nicolas Wolff
- Joseph Wolff
District Deputies:
- Otto Sigismund Wolff
- Sigismund Adam Wolff
- Heinrich Wolff
- Gottlieb Wolff
- Max Wolff
- Viktor Wolff Eduard
- Wolff
- Manfred Wolff
- Heinrich Wolff
Treasury Deputies:
- Max Wolff
- Ferdinand Wolff
Knighthood Secretaries:
- Johann Gottlieb I Wolff
- Otto Sigismund Wolff
Knighthood Notary:
- Richard Wolff
President of the Consistory:
- Richard Wolff
Vice President of the Court of Justice:
- Sigismund Adam III Wolff
Assessor of the Court of Justice:
Sigismund Adam Wolff
Councillors of the Livonian Noble Estates Credit Society:
- Sigismund Adam Wolff
- Max Wolff
- Paul Wolff
- Ludwig Wolff
- Arved Wolff
District Judge and 6 Assessors of the District Court:
- Johann Gottlieb III Wolff
- Johann Gottlieb II Wolff
- Sigismund Adam Wolff
- Gottlieb Wolff
- Gottlieb Wolff
- James Wolff
- Arthur Wolff
2 Circuit Judges and 6 Assessors of the Circuit Court:
- Sigismund Adam IV Wolff
- Johann Gottlieb III Wolff
- Richard Wolff
Judges of Order and 2 Substitutes and Adjuncts:
- Friedrich Wolff
- Arved Wolff
- Gaston Wolff
Among the other Wolffs, most served in military service or, mostly unpaid, in the chanceries of the district courts, the credit society, as parish judges, church wardens, parish heads, and the like.
The family had a highly significant share in the economic success of Livonia and the development of rural areas. Through the familial networking of the ‘Livonian Noble Estates Credit Society’ with the ‘Imperial Livonian Charitable and Economic Society’ and through their influence within the Livonian Knighthood, important decisions could be brought about and reforms implemented.
Sources: See Imprint