The von Gloeden Family's View of
Wilhelm the Taormina photographer,
who called himself Baron von Gloeden
The Barony von Gloeden continued uninterupted from the year 1272, when Weichmann von Gloeden, son of Rambertus Gloeden became the first Baron von Gloeden, until 15 JUL 1935 when the Baroness Anna Ulrike von Gloeden died.

She handed down the seal, the von Gloeden Family Bible, the Gloedenhoff estate book and all other remaining von Gloeden documentation to her son Falko Wilhelm Schilling, who handed it down to his son Falko Max Schilling, and so on to his son Falko Allan Schilling.

The estate book contains not only financial account of the Griebow estate, but also family births and deaths and the notation of the passing of the von Gloeden Barony.

A gentleman born in 1856, called himself Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden. He was widely noted for his photography in Taormina, Italy. Family members have made the contention for the last 125 years that this "baron" was an impostor.
 Many suggest that it is unlikely that he is even "von Gloeden," but more possibly "Kloethe," "Klothe" or "Gloethe." Great uncle Georg contended that Wilhelm, the Taormina photographer, was actually adopted, called himself a baron and made up his lineage. I do not know if this is the case.

Unless a second Barony von Gloeden was established in Mecklenburg, he can not lay claim to the title of "Baron von Gloeden," established in 1272, since the line through his lifetime is very clearly delineated in Dr. Carl Gesterding's Genealogien und beziehungsweise Familienstiftungen Pommerscer, in the von Gloeden Family Bible record (1773 to 1935), and in the Gloedhoff estate book from Griebow.

From before the time of ( the Taormina photographer) Wilhelm Klothe's birth on 16 SEP 1856 until after his death on 16 FEB 1931, the line of the Barony von Gloeden was as follows:

Baron Carl Gustav von Gloeden (b.1733)(Baron 1755-1810),
husband of Countess Elenora Ernestina Louise von Eickstedt

to son--
Baron Hans Felix Conradt von Gloeden 
(b.1771)(Baron 1810-1840),
husband of Ulrica Johanna Friederica von Neetzow

to son--
Baron Carl Felix Wilhelm von Gloeden 
(b.1798)(Baron 1840-1870),
husband of Augusta Carolina Dorothea von Eickstedt

to son--
Baron Carl Gustav von Gloeden 
(b.1821)(Baron 1870-1868),
husband of Louise Ulrike Carolina Wallenius

to son--
Baron Falko von Gloeden 
(b.1847)(Baron 1868-1885),
who died with his ship the HMS Augustus in the Indian Ocean in 1885.
(He had no offspring and all brothers had died either from disease
or from the Franco-Prussian War.)

to Baron Falko's sister--

Baroness Anna Ulrike von Gloeden, my great grandmother. 
(b.1852)(Baroness 1885-1935).