Count Christian Ludwig

zu Sayn und Wittgenstein

(3 Jul 1725, Ludwigsburg - 6 May 1797, Rheda)

Lieutenant General of Imperial Russian Army

Countess Amalie Ludowika Finck von Finckenstein

(3 Feb 1740, Reichertswalde/East Prussia - 15 Dec 1771, Pereyaslavl/Gov't Perm)

Prince Ludwig Adolf Peter (Pyotr Khristianovich)

zu Sayn und Wittgenstein

Antonia Stanislavovna Snarska

bd. 6 Jan 1769, Pereyaslavl (Gov't Perm)
dd. 11 Jun 1843, Lemberg

General Field Marshal of Imperial Russian Army; lost several important battles

Landowner: estates of Druzhnoselie (Gov’t St.Petersburg) and Kamenka (Province Kamyanets-Podolskyi, SW Russia)

Graf (Count) Peter zu Sayn und Wittgenstein received title of Fürst (Prince) from the King of Prussia in 1834. Russia accorded him the corresponding title Kniaz (Prince) the same year; his descendants were to bear the name Prince/Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein. However, Russian and Prussian titles of nobility in this family did not always coincide. It seems that after 1861 the non-Russian members bore the full German name of this branch, Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn.

The Soviet Union abolished all titles of nobility. In Germany, no more titles have been conferred since 1919. However, existing titles have not been deleted but made part of the surname. So 'Gräfin Marion Dönhoff' became 'Marion Gräfin Dönhoff'. The exception were  titles of ruling nobles like 'Fürst' which disappeared with the death of their last bearers. Instead, former Fürsten and Fürstinnen up to this day may add the component 'Prinz' or 'Prinzessin' to their surnames. As it is not known who in the later generations of the Sayn-Wittgenstein family actually made and is making use of this stipulation, the titles of all descendants born after 1919 here are left away. The special form of address becoming German Fürsten or Prinzen, "Durchlaucht" (Serene Highness), was completely abolished in 1919.

Authoritative genealogical information on the Sayn-Wittgenstein family is to be found in various "Gotha" volumes (Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels - Fürstliche Häuser). The most recent information on the Russian section is in vol. 15, 1997, p.628-634). Within the old and extremely ramified family, it is in Line 1 (Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg), Main Branch 2 (Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn), Sub-Branch 1, Section IIIA (Sayn u. Wittgenstein in Russia).

Condensed genealogical information from the Russian viewpoint in Nabokovskii Vestnik, 2, p.64-76

››Internet genealogy (Paul Thereoff's Online Gotha)

››   #6 Sayn-Wittgenstein

bd. 23 Mar 1774
dd. 27 Jul 1856

Prince Ludwig (Lev Petrovich) Sayn-Wittgenstein (*8 Jun 1799, Kovno)

Count Stanislaus Sayn-Wittgenstein (*9 Jun 1800)

Princess Emilie Sayn-Wittgenstein (*24 Jun 1801, Riga)

Count Alexander Sayn-Wittgenstein (*5 Aug 1803, Riga)

Count Nikolaus Sayn-Wittgenstein (*10 Mar 1812, Mitau)