Austrian Silesia, nobility, nobility privilege, ennoblement, inkolat, Habsburg Monarchy

The aim of the study is to introduce a group of individuals who received a noble title between 1780 and 1804 or who were conferred inkolat in an independent procedure and, at the same time, they were connected with Austrian Silesia. The paper starts with chapters which compare and evaluate the socio-professional structure of a collection of these individuals. Further we map their marriage and property strategies and their ties to Austrian Silesia. The main task of the paper is to shed light on motives behind ennoblement requests. In a more complex, way we will introduce relevant phenomena in research of noble society not only in the Austrian part of Silesia. Also, we will follow up the already known facts and knowledge from the second half of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.