Von Schmidt auf Altenstadt

Johann Fabricius served Maximilian II against the Turks and was given a coat of arms by the imperial Letters Patent of 2 November 1564.[1] His son Martin was ennobled on 10 December 1577. They were granted a swan coat-of-arms where the swan is in an attack position on the shield; this is repeated in miniature "above the crown".[2]

The Fabricius family reverted around 1638 to the surname of Schmidt and on 23 February 1713, were granted the additive "auf Altenstadt".

On 18 October 1712/23 February 1713 the Emperor Charles VI granted augmentation of a knight's arm holding a sword to the swan coat-of-arms, to heirs Anton Johann Christoph, Johann Georg, and Christopher Wolf (successive lords of Gattendorf). The three brothers succeeded each other, one after the other, as lords of Gattendorf; the first two died without heirs. The third brother had children and the line continued.

Family members are still to be found in the Netherlands, the United States and England.

• Johann George Otto Stuart von Schmidt auf Altenstadt (born 1806 Sint-Oedenrode, died 1857 the Hague), was a Governor-General of Surinam in 1852–55.[3] This branch counts the head of the family: jhr. Johan Erik Arthur von Schmidt auf Altenstadt (1937), born in The Hague but residing, like his descendants, in Great Britain.

A direct descendant from Johann Schmidt/Fabricius was Hans-Georg who grew up in Danzig, West Prussia. Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt (21 August 1904 − 25 July 1944) was Generalmajor of the Wehrmacht on 1 July 1944.[4] He was married to the former Lillian Thordsen with whom he had three daughters. His father, Ulrich Friedrich Philipp, (born 1872) was a major and adjutant to Field-marshal von Mackensen, Commander of life Hussar Brigade in Danzig-Langfur. His grandfather Eduard von Altenstadt married in Gross-Medunischken with Anna Theodora von Bujack (1848-1910) married on 28 June 1868 and his elder son Sigismund was born in 1869 and his younger son Ulrich (Hans-Georg's father) was born in 1872. Grandfather Eduard was a Major General whose full name was Johann Georg Eduard Schmidt von Altenstadt (1796-1850) who married Johanna Friedericke Auguste Ernestin née Homann (1797-1864).

Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt was the author of the book Unser Weg zur Meer.[5]

• Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels 135 (2004), p. 431-435.
• Nederland's Adelsboek 92 (2006-2007), p. 412-449.