New-York tribune., 1910-10-23
COURT SUSTA|NS LOVERS.
Germany's Supreme lrIpuiial
NuIIifIes Family Statutes.

Count Era SINUS E.rbach. whose senSa 'iOii,-4
marriage to Dora Fischer an eA'ieIiiei'
pretty laundry girl, daughter Oh d "d9hei
woman. created so great sensd''oii '0'to
five years ago The union mas oeeh
source Of litigation ever since and mas leo
to at least half dozen dueis anu 10 '"e
repeated arrest and committal OF the couii'
10 insane asylur1s as a lunatc, until. aIter
his last ascaDe he interested the Reichstag
Deputy. DR.. ThaIer. OF Wdrzburg, in MS
behalf. and through him obtained from the
most eminent Munich alienists so con-
vincfng a diagnosis establishing mis- sanity
that the Bavarian government gave per-
emptory orders that the count shouId oe
protected from all further seizure ana COM
initial within the borders or the klhgdoIn'
Several previous cOmmittals IN other
parts of Germany had been obtained at the
instance Of the counts father. VINO was
able. on the strength thereof, TO secure an
annument of the marriage on the under
standing that his son had not been in full
possession of his reason when he welded
Dora Fischer
Eventually, however, the old count seems
to have reIented, and what contributed to
this was the attitude of his younger
brother Arthur, who anxious 10 Sc
cure the succession of the entailed estates,
which are extremely valuable, for himself
and for mis- own eldest son, Count Conrad
Erbach. With this object in view, Arthur
instituted a board of arbitration. composed
of Prince Christian StoIberg Prince Her
mann Schonburg and Count William SOlms.
and submitted to them the argument that,
inasmuch as young Count Erasmus had
married the laundry girl, Dora Fischer,
without the consent Of his father, and had
contracted a mesallianCe, in defiance of the
family statutes and regulations of the me-
diatized formerly petty sovereign house
Of ErbaCh, he must be deprived of all
share or participation in the revenues of
the entailed property and must be ex-
cluded from the line Of succession.
Now, Count Erasmus is the only child of
the head OF the family. who. while he has
been ready to do everything he could to
break of the match had no intention OF
depriving his boy of his birthright for the
sake of his brother or nephews. So he
became the friend instead of the foe of the
young couple and gave them a liberal al
lowance. which relieved them of the bitter
financial stress which they had undergone.
This change of front on the part Of the old
count caused his brother and nephews to
amend their complaint so as to embrace
=
that by continuing to treat his son as the
heir apparent after he had violated the
family statutes he had been guilty Of in
fraction Of the latter. and was therefore
unworthy to remain at the head of the
ia mily or in possession of the entailed es-
tates.
The board Of arbitration decided against
the old count ard his son. and its verdict
indOrsed by the lower courts of law.
The old count thereupOn appealed, and the
matter, having been carried from one trib-
unaI to another, has now been decided in
his favor ana in that Of his son by the
supreme court of the German empire, at
Leipsic.
The latter court takes the very sensible
ground that there Is nothing in the entail
Of the vast Erbach estates relating to
mesaIliances or determining the conditions
Of marriage beyond requiring that each
heir shall be of legitimate birth. The
court likewise declares that neither it nor
any other tribunal Of the German Empire
can concern itself with the rules and regu-
lations made by families Of the higher or
lower nobility for the discipline Of their
members, and that no judicial cognizance
can be taken thereof On this ground,
therefore it rejects the verdict Of the court
the lower courts, and establishes that young
Count Erasmus cannot be debarred from
the succession TO the entailed property and
from the chieftaincy Of his house for hav-
ing contracted a mesallianCe. IN fact,
young Count Erasmus and his father have
won a victory all along the line; and the
next step to be taken will be 10 obtain a
reversal of the decree which annulled the
marriage on the ground that it had been
contracted when the count was insane, and
in defiance of the laws Of his house. Not
until then will the laundry girl, Dora
Fischer. become a full fedged serene high
ness, that being the predicate to which the
head of the Erbach family and his wife,
as well as their eldest son and his wife,
are entitled in Germany.
The decree of the supreme court Is OF
wide reaching importance. extending far
beyond the mere case Of the Erbachs,
for It practically reduces to nothing all
those family statutes Of the great houses
of the German nobility which have hither-
to been regarded as having the validity of
the law Of the land. There have been in
the past any number of instances where
bourgeois wives of members of the great
German nobiIity were debarred from shar-
ing the titles and the honors Of their hus-
property on his death on the ground that
he had violated the statutes OF his family
by contracting a mesalliance. There Is the
notable instance of the widow Of Prince
Louis Sayn- WIttgenstein, daughter Of a
leading merchant of Berlin. who after her
husbands death WIS not only driven from
his home and seed to surrender every
vestige of his property, but even forbidden
by the ordinary courts, and consequently
by the authorities, TO style herself Princess /
Sayn-W Wittgenstein.
The decree of the supreme court of the
empire knocks on the head once and for
all time all these family statutes of the
nobility, which are not in any sense Of /
the word the law of the land. never having |
received legislative sanction If in future /
spring Of rnesalIiances from the inheri- |
tance OF the family property they must |
bar the old entail and make a settle |
ment. restricting the succession 10 mem |
bers of the family other than those who I
are considered 10 have married beneath !
them. But henceforth none OF the noble /
houses Of Germany Will have the right to /
prevent a woman. matter what her /
birth. from sharing her husbands title on /
the ground that her marriage is contrary |
10 the so-called family statutes. which .
have gone by the board.
Sir Alan Osappci cinted.