007–052 Starý

The Tunkl family, apparently of Silesian origin, left a significant mark on the history of the Margraviate of Moravia in the fifteenth century and, after acquiring new estates, adopted the predicate “of Brníčko and Zábřeh.” After the mid-fifteenth century, Emperor Frederick III recognized the Tunkls as belonging to the rank of free lords, although initially only one branch of the family could be counted among the higher nobility. The other branch did not receive confirmation of its status as higher nobility until the eighteenth century. The remarkably diverse history of the Tunkl family illustrates the tension between family tradition and pride on the one hand and the gradual but inevitable economic decline of a noble lineage on the other, whose members chose different survival strategies. Some merged into bourgeois society, with several members eventually ceasing even to identify themselves as belonging to the higher nobility, while others, by contrast, carefully guarded their social status. The marriage of Jan Adolf Tunkl († 1915) to the great-granddaughter of the former Emperor of Mexico adds a somewhat exotic touch to the family’s history.