Lippian Germany

The House of Lippe arose in the 12th century around Lippstadt. By the 15th century, however, its base had moved to the northeast on the Werre River. By 1528, when Lippe was promoted to a county, the house exercised sovereignty over that entire region. In 1647, Lippians also gained sovereignty over the County of Schaumburg-Lippe even further to the northeast across the Weser River. Both of those counties spawned at least one nonsovereign spin-off country and both were eventually promoted to principalities.

 

In 1558, the Count’s brother inherited Spiegelberg-Pyrmont and was simultaneously given administrative rights over certain territory within the County of Lippe. I treat that as an outsourcing, because the administrator was the sovereign over a country other than the one he was administering. Otherwise, there was only one instance of administration of Lippian territory being outsourced to foreigners. That occurred between 1733 and 1781 when Amt Sternburg was administered by the Electorate of Hannover.

 

Lippians participated in four condominia–three with the Bishopric of Paderborn and one with the County of Mark.

 

  • Of the three condominia between the core county and Paderborn, Lippe was sovereign over one (Schwalenberg), Paderborn was sovereign over one (Oldenburg) and sovereignty over the third (Stoppelberg) was divided, with Lippe getting the village of Hagedorn and Paderborn getting the village of Rolfzen. In all three cases, administrative responsibilities were shared between a Lippian entity (not always the core county/principality) and the Bishopric. After 1802, administration of Schwalenberg fell solely to Lippe and administration of Oldenburg and Stoppelberg fell solely to Paderborn.
  • Between 1558 and 1583, the County of Spiegelberg-Pyrmont was part of Lippian Germany. However, the Bishop of Paderborn claimed sovereignty over the Pyrmont portion and although his claim failed, he was able to assert enough administrative rights over the subdivision of Gogericht Lügde to justify classifying it as a condominium. That arrangement had been in place since 1494 and lasted until 1668, but was a Lippian concern only for that 25-year period.
  • Sovereignty over Lippstadt was shared equally between the County of Lippe(-Detmold) and the County of Mark. Administrative responsibilities, however, fell overwhelmingly to Mark. In 1850, Lippe gave up its claim of sovereignty and Mark (by then part of the Kingdom of Prussia) became the sole sovereign.

 

In the following list of countries in Lippian Germany, countries and dates outside the chronological scope of the database are shown in italics.

 

Core Lippian territory (with spin-offs/outsourcings)

 

Lippian administrators of condominia