Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

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County (Principality) of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Grafschaft (Fürstentum) Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
1599–1918
Flag of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Flag
Coat of arms of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Coat of arms
CapitalRudolstadt
GovernmentPrincipality
Prince 
• 1710–1718
Louis Frederick I (first)
• 1890–1918
Günther Victor (last)
Legislature
Schwarzburg
1599
• Raised to Principality
1711
1918
• Merged into Thuringia
1920
Population
• 1835
58,000[1]
• 1848
62,000[2]
Preceded by
Succeeded by
County of Schwarzburg
Thuringia

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small historic state in present-day Thuringia, Germany, with its capital at Rudolstadt.

History

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was established in 1599 in the course of a resettlement of Schwarzburg dynasty lands. Since the 11th century, the ancestral seat of the comital family had been at Schwarzburg Castle, though after 1340, for most of its existence as a polity had the capital at the larger town of Rudolstadt. In 1583 Count Günther XLI of Schwarzburg, the eldest son of Günther XL the Rich and ruler over the united Schwarzburg lands, had died without issue. He was succeeded by his younger brothers, whereby Albert VII received the territory around Rudolstadt. After their brother William I, Count of Schwarzburg-Frankenhausen had died in 1597, the surviving brothers Albert VII and John Günther I established the two counties of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen by the 1599 Treaty of Stadtilm.

Albert's descendants ruled as sovereign

mediatisation and after the empire's dissolution joined the Confederation of the Rhine in 1807 and the German Confederation
in 1815.

In 1905 Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt had an area of 940 km2 (360 sq mi) and a population of 97,000.

On 23 November 1918, during the

German monarchies, Prince Günther Victor was the last to abdicate. The former principality became a "Free State" in 1919 and joined the Weimar Republic as a constituent state. In 1920, it joined with other small states in the area to form the new state of Thuringia
.

Rulers of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

Counts of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

Princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

Prince Günther Victor, the last ruler of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

See also

References

  1. ^ The Metropolitan Magazine Volume 14. London: Saunders and Otley. 1835. p. 187.
  2. ^ A Pictorial Geography of the World: Comprising a System of Universal Geography, Popular and Scientific. Boston: C.D. Strong. 1848. p. 763.

External links