The House of Sternberg (Czech: Šternberkové, German: von Sternberg) is one of the oldest and most influential Austro-Bohemian noble families with historically sovereign rank. The family played a significant role in the politics, society, and culture of the Kingdom of Bohemia and later the Habsburg Monarchy. Their ancestral seat is Český Šternberk Castle, founded in the early 13th century, and several branches of the family held extensive estates in both Bohemia and Moravia.^[1]

The family traces its origins to Diviš of Divišov, a nobleman active in the early 12th century. His descendants adopted the surname ze Sternberka (“of Sternberg”) from their castle near the modern town of Český Šternberk.^[2]

Around 1241, Zdeslav of Sternberg (also spelled Zdeslav z Divišova) constructed Český Šternberk Castle above the Sázava River and thereby established the family’s ancestral stronghold. The family name Sternberg is derived from the German words Stern (“star”) and Berg (“mountain”), which became part of the family’s heraldic symbolism.^[2]

Over the Middle Ages and into the early modern era, the Sternbergs acted as influential landowners, military leaders, and court officials within the Bohemian nobility. Different branches of the family acquired or inherited estates including Častolovice, Jemniště, Březina, and Zásmuky.^[1]

Count Philipp Christian von Sternberg married Countess Augusta von Manderscheid-Blankenheim in 1762. In 1780, when the male line of the Imperial Counts of Manderscheid-Blankenheim became extinct, Augusta became the heiress, and through this union the extensive Manderscheid family estates in the Eifel—including Blankenheim, Jünkerath, Gerolstein, and Dollendorf—passed into the Sternberg family. Thereafter, this branch of the family styled itself Sternberg-Manderscheid and exercised the sovereign rights of an immediate comital house in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire.^[3]

During the French Revolutionary Wars, the family fled the Eifel in 1794 as revolutionary troops advanced and lost its vast possessions on the left bank of the Rhine. Under the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, it was compensated with the German, former monastic territories of Schussenried and Weißenau, which were subsequently mediatised in 1806 into the Kingdom of Württemberg, thereby ending the family’s imperial immediacy. Thereafter, the family belonged to the German mediatized nobility. The Manderscheid line of the Sternberg family later died out in the male line in 1830.^[4][5]

While a mediatized Sternberg‑Manderscheid line died out in the first half of the 19th century, other branches of the Sternberg family continued to play important roles in Bohemian political, cultural, scientific, and military history.

Perhaps the most renowned non‑mandatized family member was Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761–1838), a naturalist, botanist, and lifelong supporter of scientific institutions. He studied botany in Regensburg, returned to Bohemia to establish a botanical garden at his Březina estate, and became a founder and major benefactor of the National Museum, donating extensive collections of natural specimens and financial support. He published scientific works in Latin and German.

Among later generations was Count Vojtěch Václav von Sternberg (1868–1930), youngest son of General Count Leopold von Sternberg (1811–1899), distinguished himself through both military service and adventurous travels in Africa and the Americas. He was also active in politics as a member of the Austrian Imperial Council and a supporter of Christian‑social ideas, often clashing with mainstream politics of the period.

In the 20th century, the Sternberg family’s fortunes reflected the broader upheavals of Czech history. Their properties were confiscated after World War II in 1948 under the Communist regime on the grounds of their German nationality, although one member, Jiří Douglas Sternberg (1888–1965), remained as castellan of Český Šternberk Castle. Some members emigrated to Westphalia (West Germany) and America, and after 1990 many family properties, including castles such as Jemniště, Březina, Častolovice, and Zásmuky, were restituted.^[6]

• Leopoldine von Sternberg, (1733–1809), Princess consort of Liechtenstein
• Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761–1838), Bohemian theologian and botanist

• Sternberg