Hoffman of Grünbühel and Strechau. A noble family at Court between Austria and Bohemia and its ways of representation
Abstract
The paper attempts to show how noble families close to the Court managed to establish themselves in the cultural environment of the prince and his family, at the same time contributing to its formation and adapting their self-representation in each generation, based on the case study of the economic and social advancement of the family of Hoffman of Grünbühel and Strechau in the 16th and its decline in the 17th century. The first generation of able experts in mining, politicians and diplomats made their way by cumulating landed estates and residences in Styria and holding influential offices from the Court, securing an important position even for the next generation, which shifted the family's focus of interest to Bohemia and won political and cultural fame as patrons of artists, but also of Lutheran scholars.
While this enabled them to resist the beginning couter-reformation, the following generation lost influence at court for confessional reasons, but still managed to play off its wealth as holders of honorary offices and diplomats. After 1620, most of its members preferred exile to conversion to catholicism, and hence their sepulchral monuments as a last means of representation are scattered over all of Central Europe.