Mats Norrman wrote:

>In the debate of these van and von that occurred under this thread, I would
>like to ask if anybody could bring me soem information wether Carl Maria
>von Weber was a nobleman or not.  I became a little doubtful as I thought
>a von would cause the following word to decline, here to Webern.  I notice
>that Anton Webern originally had the noblemans name Anton von Webern, but
>he scratched out his von.

I think the German "von" is alway a sign of elevation above the common
folk, which may or may not be the same as nobility.  It need not be
hereditary, however.  Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was enobled in his
lifetime.  While, in its ordinary usage, "von" is a preposition meaning
"of" of "from", and always takes the dative case, when it precedes a name,
it does not require that name to be inflected.  In any event, only plural
nouns and "weak" masculine nouns (usually ending in a mute "e") form the
dative case by adding an "n".  Von Goethe; von Weber; von Dittersdorf;
and...er...von Karajan.

Walter Meyer