German Nobility Law Committee

The Deutscher Adelsrechtsausschuss (German Nobility Law Committee, abbreviated ARA) is an association supported by the nobility associations of the German-speaking world. It was founded in 1949 and considers itself the legal successor to the German nobility adjudication bodies that existed from 1918 to 1945 within the German Nobility Association, in particular the Nobility Examination Committee founded in 1921. Its principal task is to decide whether persons living today would be considered noble under the German nobility law in force until 1919, were that law applied today. It also supervises the Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch and the German nobility archives. Its members are appointed by the Union of German Nobility Associations, from which it is organizationally independent. The ARA has no jurisdiction over legal competence or determination; because noble class privileges were abolished in Germany in 1919, its decisions have no relevance in naming law, and its opinions on the admissibility of using coats of arms likewise have no legal relevance. The main question regularly treated by the ARA concerns membership in the historical nobility — whether a person would be noble under the nobility law in force until 1918 if it were still applicable today. This is an admission condition for associations grouped in the Union of German Nobility Associations. The committee does not consider itself competent for the interests of descendants of former ruling houses and former lords of the nobility unless those approach it on their own initiative. According to the committee, nobility is transmitted exclusively through legitimate male-line descent, that is, through matrimonial descent from a noble father. It is also acquired by the marriage of a bourgeois woman to a noble man if the wife takes his noble name. Children born before or outside marriage are legitimized by a subsequent marriage of their proven natural parents (legitimatio per matrimonium subsequens), and nobility is transmitted to them in the same way as for legitimate children from the outset. A noble woman, however, loses her membership in the nobility by marrying a non-noble man, unless the recognized nobility law of a German noble territory provides otherwise. Nobility membership is not revived by divorce and resumption of the birth name, but it is revived by a subsequent marriage to a noble. The acquisition of a noble name through current naming-law organizational possibilities — for example in cases of birth outside marriage, through legal acts such as adoption, naming, or declaration of marital status, as well as the marital-name determination rules in force since 1976 (and possible transmission to third-party spouses, children, adopted children) — is not recognized by the Nobility Law Committee because it contradicts historical nobility law. This is made clear, for example, by the fact that former noble predicates are often abbreviated (e.g., Frhr. for Baron or v. for von) in the regularly published volume series of the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels and, since 2015, the successor series Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch as well as in the Deutsches Adelsblatt, whereas they are written out in full for the 'false nobility.' The latter was long mentioned 'under the line' in the Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility, that is, at the end of the article on the noble family concerned, under a heading 'bearers of names not belonging to the historical nobility.' In the meantime, the 'false nobility' is omitted, because the 'flood of titles' keeps increasing. In exceptional and particularly justified cases, the ARA may pronounce a 'nobility non-objection' to nobility membership for persons who would not be entitled to it under the principles in force until 1918. Such persons are then treated as historical nobility within the association and may become members of a nobility association.

The Deutscher Adelsrechtsausschuss (ARA) was founded in 1949. It regards itself as the legal successor to the German nobility adjudication organizations that existed from 1918 to 1945 within the German Nobility Association (Deutsche Adelsgenossenschaft), especially the Nobility Examination Committee (Adelsprüfungsausschuss) founded in 1921. However, for its decisions the ARA does not rely on the statutes of the Nobility Examination Committee in force since 1921, but on the nobility law in force until 1919, which traditionally provides for the acquisition of nobility by legitimate birth, in certain circumstances by marriage, and in certain cases by ennoblement. The committee decides within the German nobility associations on questions of nobility law, supervises the Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch and the German nobility archives. Its members are appointed by the Union of German Nobility Associations (Union der deutschen Adelsverbände), from which it is organizationally independent. The ARA has no jurisdiction over legal competence or determination. Due to the abolition of the class privileges of the nobility in Germany in 1919, its decisions are also without relevance in terms of naming law. Its opinions on the admissibility of the use of coats of arms likewise have no legal relevance. The main question of nobility law regularly treated by the ARA concerns membership in the historical nobility, that is, the question of whether a person would be noble according to the nobility law in force until 1918 if it were still applicable today. This is an admission condition for the associations grouped in the Union of German Nobility Associations. It does not consider itself competent for the interests of descendants of former ruling houses and former lords of the nobility, as long as these do not approach it on their own initiative. According to the committee, nobility is transmitted exclusively through legitimate male-line descent, that is, through matrimonial descent from a noble father. It is also acquired by the marriage of a bourgeois woman to a noble man, if the wife takes the latter's noble name. Children born before or outside marriage are legitimized by a subsequent marriage of their proven natural parents (so-called legitimatio per matrimonium subsequens) and nobility is therefore transmitted to them in the same way as for legitimate children from the outset. A noble woman, however, loses her membership in the nobility by marrying a non-noble man, unless the recognized nobility law of a German noble territory provides otherwise. Membership in the nobility is not revived by divorce and resumption of the birth name, but it is revived by a subsequent marriage to a noble. The acquisition of a noble name through the organizational possibilities of current naming law, for example in cases of birth outside marriage, through legal acts such as adoption, naming, or declaration of marital status, as well as the marital name determination rules in force since 1976 (and the possible transmission to third-party spouses, children, adopted children) are not recognized by the Nobility Law Committee because they contradict historical nobility law. This is made clear, for example, by the fact that former noble predicates are often abbreviated (e.g., Frhr. for Baron or v. for von) in the regularly published volume series of the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels and since 2015 the successor series Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch as well as in the Deutsches Adelsblatt, whereas they are written out in full for the 'false nobility.' The latter was long mentioned 'under the line' in the Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility, that is, at the end of the article on the noble family concerned, under a heading 'bearers of names not belonging to the historical nobility.' In the meantime, the 'false nobility' is omitted, because the 'flood of titles' keeps increasing. In exceptional and particularly justified cases, the ARA may pronounce a 'nobility non-objection' to nobility membership for persons who would not be entitled to it according to the principles in force until 1918. These persons are then treated as historical nobility within the association and may become members of a nobility association. This resembles an ennoblement (however without legal consequence), even if the ARA itself does not use this term, because it does not wish to arrogate the competences of a reigning monarch. The committee considers its decisions 'provisional' in the sense that they should be confirmed by the monarch in the event of a possible restoration of the monarchy. Non-objections can concern both persons born non-noble who acquire a noble name in violation of nobility law, that is, through adoption or through marriage to a noble woman, as well as cases of name change and succession within the nobility. They do not lead to admission into an existing noble family and cannot prevent the extinction of a family, but have the effect of creating a new one for the beneficiary and his descendants in the male line.

• 2015

  The Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch becomes the successor series to the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, supervised by the ARA.

• 1949

  The Deutscher Adelsrechtsausschuss is founded.

• 1921

  The Nobility Examination Committee (Adelsprüfungsausschuss), whose legal successor the ARA considers itself, is founded.

• 1919

  Abolition of the class privileges of the nobility in Germany; the nobility law in force until this year remains the basis for ARA decisions.

Non-commercial association providing authoritative (though legally non-binding) rulings on historical German nobility law and overseeing noble genealogical publications.

1. 1Willkommen beim Deutschen Adelsrechtsausschussadelsrecht.de
2. 2Deutscher Adelsrechtsausschusswikidata.org
3. 3Comité allemand pour le droit de la noblessefr.wikipedia.org