Ok, here is a real German noble's article about German noblilty

A google result of German nobles found:
First:

“In northern and eastern Germany there are a substantial number of families (such as the von Kranichfelds) that use the "von" as designations of the towns where they come from (as is the case with most older noble families) but have never been noble and make no pretense to be so.”

and: "German nobles, especially the Uradel, have a particular class consciousness and consider themselves interrelated and cousins even if they don't know exactly how."... That's why if a Chinese woman married a German noble, that's really something! We have to get the chinese meida into it.

http://worldroots.com/brigitte/royal/germannobility.htm