The von Borries family association was founded at a meeting in Magdeburg on January 17, 1886, convened by the senior member of the family, pensioner Carl Borries of Hanover, and District Administrator Count Wilhelm von Borries of Hildesheim.
The following 15 members of the widely scattered von Borries family gathered at the Hotel Zum Weissen Schwan in Magdeburg:
- Colonel Hans von Borries, Halle at the river Saale
- District Administrator Count Wilhelm von Borries from Hildesheim
- District Administrator Rudolf von Borries from Steinlacke
- Captain Hermann von Borries from Düsseldorf
- District Administrator Georg v. Borries from the city of Norden
- Second Lieutenant Albert von Borries from Dessau
- Second-Lieutenant Rudolf v. Borries from Erfurt
- Second-Lieutenant Hans v. Borries from Brandenburg
- Manor owner Wilhelm von Borries from Eckendorf
- Major Richard v. Borries from Magdeburg
- Major Max v. Borries from Berlin
- Royal Government – Machine Inspector August v. Borries from Hanover
- Government assessor Arthur v. Borries from Magdeburg
- Second Lieutenant Fritz von Borries from Hanover
- Second-Lieutenant Wilhelm v. Borries from Gardelegen
At this meeting, the association’s statutes were also established and the board of directors was elected.
The association’s chairman was Wilhelm von Borries, a landowner from Eckendorf, who held the office until his death on November 25, 1890. The founders thus realized an idea that has clearly lost none of its appeal to this day. Looking back, it is clear that it was mainly the so-called “prominent figures” who gathered in Magdeburg at that time. The project was remarkable when one considers that, although people generally knew their immediate relatives quite well and maintained friendly relations with cousins up to the fourth degree, for example, beyond that there was hardly any desirable overview of the entire clan.
So how did the Magdeburg meeting of 1886 come about? The answer is simple: more and more people were becoming irritated when they were asked about someone with the same name without being able to provide information about the degree of kinship. In Hanover, for example, there was a young lieutenant named Friedrich who was constantly asked:
“Oh, are you perhaps a relative of His Royal Majesty’s Minister of State, Count von Borries? Then you certainly have a brilliant career ahead of you.”
And time and again, Friedrich could only reply, “Yes, of course,” without being able to answer the follow-up question precisely. “A brother of your father’s?” “No, not exactly, but that’s about right.”
It was Friedrich von Borries who, in a laborious and time-consuming effort, set about compiling the first family tree. This family tree was completed in 1884. It formed the basis for the Magdeburg reunion and thus for the founding of the family association.
Further family reunions took place at regular intervals, interrupted by both world wars, with the 22nd family reunion before World War II taking place in its former glory on November 26/27, 1938. During the catastrophic years, holding family reunions was out of the question.
It is thanks to the initiative of the then chairman, cousin Fritz (N 125), that after an interruption of almost 14 years, the 23rd Family Day was finally able to take place on May 24/25, 1952, in Herford and Steinlake (20 participants).
Meanwhile, the 64th Family Day and 140th anniversary of the founding of the family association will take place from June 4 to 7, 2026, at Burg Wanzleben near Magdeburg.