The House of Auersperg is an Austrian princely family, which once held estates in the Holy Roman Empire. The princely family of Auersperg originated as a junior branch of the comital line of Auersperg from Carniola, one of the hereditary Habsburg duchies in what is now Slovenia. The Auerspergs were raised to princely status in 1653, and they became "immediate" princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1664. The princes of Auersperg also held at various times the duchies of Münsterberg and Gottschee. Their territories were mediatised by Austria and Baden in 1806, and the family is counted as high nobility.

Fürst is a German word for a ruler as well as a princely title. Fürsten were, starting in the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ruled over states of the Holy Roman Empire and later its former territories, below the ruling Kaiser (emperor) or König (king).