HOHENSTAUFEN, a German princely house, which kept possession of the imperial throne from 1138 to 1254. The founder of the family was FREDERICK TON BUREN, who lived about the middle of the 11th c., and assumed the name of Hohenstaufen from a castle of that name, the ruins of which are still to be seen on the summit of the Hohenstaufen berg (2,240 ft.), a hill on the left bank of the Danube, about 30 m. below Stuttgart. A son of his was the chevalier Frederick von Staufen, lord of Hohenstaufen, who steadfastly supported the emperor Henry IV., and in return received the duchy of Swabia. Duke Frederick, at his death in 1105, left two sons—Frederick II., the one-eyed, and Konrad; the former was immediately confirmed in Swabia by Henry V.; and in 1112 the latter received the duchy of Franconia. After the death of Henry V., his family estates fell to the house of Hohenstaufen; and Lothaire of Saxony was elected as his successor in the empire.
Lothaire's accession, he revoked the grants made by previous emperors to the house of Hohenstaufen, and thus gave rise to a furious war, in which duke Frederick (his brother Konrad being absent in the Holy Land) had to encounter, single-handed, the whole power of the emperor, the house of Zithringen, and Henry the proud, duke of Bavaria and Saxony. After Konrad's return, fortune at first seemed to favor the brothers, but in 1135 they were compelled to implore the emperor's forgiveness. They were then put in possession of all their estates. Konrad, in 1138, was elected emperor of Germany, as Konrad III. The succeeding emperors of this family were Frederick I. (q.v.) (1152-90), Henry VI. (1190-97), Philip I. (1198-1208), Frederick II. (q.v.) (1212 51), and Konrad IV. (1251-54).