FURSTENBERG, the name of two noble houses of Germany. The most important is in possession of a mediatized principality in the district of the Black Forest and the Upper Danube, which comprises the countship of Heillgenberg, the landgravates of Stillilingen and Baar, and the lordships Of Jungnau, Trochelfingen, JIausen, and M6s kirch or Messkirch. The territory is discontinuous, partly in Baden, partly in WUr temberg, and partly in the Prussian province of Sigmaringen, The head of the family is an hereditary member of the first chamber of Baden, and of the chamber of peers in Wiirtemberg and in Prussia. The relations of the principality with Baden are defined by the treaty of May, 1852, and its relations with Whrtemberg by the royal declaration of -1839. The Stammort or ancestral scat of the family is Ffirstenberg, in the Black Forest, about 13 m, n. of Schaffhausen, but the principal residence of the present rep resentative of the main line is at Donaue.schingen. The Ffirstenbergs are descended
from the counts Urachs, in the valley of the Ems, to the e. of Thbimten,—Henry I., the youngest son of Egon VI. of Urach, ranking as the founder of the family.
The second Furstenberg family has its possessions in Westphalia and the country of the Rhine, and takes its name from the Castle of Ftirstenberg on the Ruhr, which is said to have been built by count Dietrich- or Theocoric of Oldenbero. in the 11th cen tury. The two most remarkable men whom it has produced are Francis Frederick William, and Francis Egon. The former (1729-1811) became ultimately minister of the prince-bishop of Minster, and effected a great number of important reforms in the administration of the country; and the latter (1797-1859) was an enthusiastic patron of art, zealously advocating the completion of the Cologne cathedral, and erecting the beautiful church of Apollinaris, near Remagen, on the Rhine.