 Their traceable history begins around 1600 in the former Counties (Grafschaften) of Wittgenstein, immediately west of Hesse.A suggested ancestor was from the Riedesel zu Josbach line and settled in Wittgenstein perhaps a century earlier.No member of the Wittgenstein Riedesels is better known than the master builder Mannus Riedesel (1662–1726).