Schmettau (noble family)

The House of Schmettau, or Schmettow, is the name of an old and  influential Silesian noble family, which belonged to German nobility.

History 
The family first appeared in Hungary and Serbia under the name Szmettay in the 14th century. The first records of the lineage of the family begin with Georg Smete, documented from 1562 to 1579, citizen and farmer in Neisse. Under King Matthias Corvinus, the family initially spread to Silesia, from which individual members of the family settled in Mecklenburg, Brandenburg and Denmark.

Titles 
On September 28, 1668, the family received a renewal diploma for her nobility and coat of arms from the Emperor Leopold I, and in 1701 was promoted to the status of "free lord". On February 17, 1717, Emperor Charles VI gave the family a baron diploma and on February 24, 1742, Emperor Charles VII elevated the family to the rank of count / earl, which King Frederick the Great recognized on July 2 of the same year. In 1822 another Prussian nobility diploma was awarded.

Members 
 Wolfgang von Schmettau (1648–1711), minister and diplomat
 Gottlieb von Schmettau (1665–1722), Saxonian general
 Samuel von Schmettau (1684–1751), Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, since 1742 Graf
 Karl Christoph von Schmettau (1696–1775), Prussian officer, generalleutnant
 Johann Ernst von Schmettow (1703–1774), Prussian officer, generalmajor
 Gottfried Heinrich von Schmettau (1710–1762), Prussian minister 
 Bernhard Alexander Gottfried von Schmettau (1748–1816), Prussian officer, generalmajor
 Hermann Woldemar von Schmettau (1719–1785), general gouverneur of Norway
 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schmettau (1734–1798), prussian officer, generalleutnant
 Amalie von Schmettau, (1748–1806), salonnist
 Woldemar Friedrich von Schmettau (1749–1794), writer and diplomat
 Friedrich Wilhelm von Schmettau (1743–1806), Prussian generalleutnant, cartograph and owner of castle Köpenick
 Bernhard von Schmettow (1787–1872), Prussian politician and member of the Prussian House of Lords (1866–1872)
 Ferdinande von Schmettau (1798–1875), 
 Bernhard Gottfried Emil von Schmettow (1818–1889), Prussian politician, member of the Prussian House of Lords
 Bernhard Gottfried Karl von Schmettow (1846–1912), Prussian politician, member of the Prussian House of Lords
 Willibald Bernhard Gottfried von Schmettow (1848–1927), German generalleutnant
 Egon von Schmettow (1856–1942), Prussian General of the Cavalry in the First World War 
 Max Philipp von Schmettau (1857–1929), German generalleutnant
 Eberhard von Schmettow (1861–1935), German generalleutnant in the First World War and generaladjutant of the Emperor
 Richard von Schmettow (1865–1938), German generalleutnant
 Rudolf von Schmettow (1891–1970), German generalleutnant
 Johannes Graf von Schmettow, Egon Zehnder International
 Bernhard Graf von Schmettow (1930–2012), social worker in Essen
 Carola Gräfin von Schmettow, CEO of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt
 Leontine Gräfin von Schmettow (* 1962), german journalist and filmauthour 
 Mechthild Reichsgräfin von Schmettau (* 1965), judge at Bundesgerichtshof

Prussian nobility
Silesian nobility
Military families of Germany
German noble families
Hungarian noble families