von Oertzen
Mecklenburg · Slavic roots
Arms: Wikipedia (de), nach GHdA-Adelslexikon Bd. 116 (1998), gemeinfrei
Auguste died after only a few months of marriage; forty-nine letters from her, written in 1824 and 1825, lie in the family archive. In 1828 Ernst Ludwig married Luise von Blanckenburg, a cousin of Auguste, as his second wife on 14 July 1829. The bridegroom had known the family for years through his brother Otto, whose closest friend from their Göttingen days was Jasper von Oertzen, later minister of state in Mecklenburg-Strelitz; Auguste was related to him in the third degree. The wedding at Trieglaff points to the circle around Adolf von Thadden-Trieglaff and the Pomeranian revival movement. That placed the family at its centre: Auguste’s sister Ida had married Ernst Senfft von Pilsach on 7 March 1825, and Thadden’s first wife Henriette was likewise born a von Oertzen.
An old Mecklenburg noble family with Slavic roots, first documented in 1260 with Thidericus de Oerdessen. The family belonged to the leading estates of Mecklenburg and signed the Landständische Union in 1523. The ancestral estate of Roggow remained in family ownership from the 14th century until 1945.
Sources: Degener Verlag, Deutsches Familienarchiv vol. 160 »von Gerlach – Lebensbilder einer Familie« (in German); Wikipedia articles on the families named; Wikimedia Commons (coat-of-arms images). Given to the best of our knowledge. Jürgen von Gerlach: von Gerlach. Lebensbilder einer Familie in sechs Jahrhunderten (Deutsches Familienarchiv 160), Insingen 2015 (in German). All sources. For corrections or additions, please contact the family administration.