Maximilian Graf von Merveldt has passed away on 12 June 2025. He was 93 years old.
Gut Füchtel
Maximilian "Count" von Merveldt is from a famous German noble dynasty "House of Merveldt" with the namesake Maximilian having fought in the French Revolutionary wars and Napoleonic wars.
For the past century the Von Merveldt family has been based at Gut Füchtel in Vechta. The original manor house burned down during the Thirty Years' War. The owners subsequently converted a former servants' quarters into the main building.
For centuries, the Barons von Elmendorff lived there, and through marriage, the estate passed to the Droste-Hülshoff family. In 1898, Maria von Droste-Hülshoff married Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Graf von Merveldt in Münster. She inherited the estate. In 1908, the Merveldt family became residents there – and remains so to this day.
Maximilian Graf von Merveldt was born on 16 April 1932 and until the 1950s, the focus at the estate was on cattle and dairy farming and forestry to which horse breeding was added.
Oldenburg Breeder
The German Equestrian Federation has 106 horses registered that are bred by Maximilian Graf von Merveldt.
His breeding programme was built up on the Weissena damline, from which Gut Füchtel bred multiple generations of horses.
Maximilian's most famous bred horse in sport is probably Walkure (by Romanov - Dana van Lierop, Agnete Kirk Thinggaard, Qabil Ambak, Emma Lou Becca).
The breeding barn at Gut Füchtel is now run by his son Clemens-August Graf von Merveldt, whose daughter Patricia Seddig (née von Merveldt) is an international dressage rider. He continued the programme his father started and from it come stallions such as Floriscount and Statesman.
Committed to Breeding
Von Merveldt was committed to breeding and put his words into action.
He first served on the committee of the German Oldenburg Verband from 1969 to 1972 and was then elected president, a role he fulfilled from 1972 till 1991. In this period the Oldenburg horse changed from a working horse to a more modern sport horse.
In 2012 he became the first bearer of the Golden Pin with diamond, presented to him by the Oldenburg society.
For several years, Graf von Merveldt was also chairman of the Vechta State Riding and Driving School.
Between 1981 and 1993 he was member of the breeding department at the German Equestrian Federation. For his achievements in breeding he received the Gustav Rau medal in 1992 and the German Riders' cross in silver in 1993.
Related Links
Uwe Heckmann, Recipient of the 2022 P.S.I. Lifetime Achievement Award