Hohnstein

The counts of Hohnstein, often spelled Honstein, were a noble house of the southern Harz, first documented in 1154 as the lords of Ilfeld. Their county grew around Hohnstein Castle above Neustadt.

The house split into three lines from 1315: the Sondershausen line died out in 1356 and passed to Schwarzburg, while the remaining branches divided in 1373 into Kelbra-Heringen and Lohra-Klettenberg. The flail war of 1412 wrecked part of their domain and forced sales to Stolberg.

The Lohra-Klettenberg line issued a mining charter at Sankt Andreasberg in 1521. The ruling house became extinct in 1593; after rival claims and long suits, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 gave the former lands to the Elector of Brandenburg as part of the secularised bishopric of Halberstadt.