County/Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe

County of Schaumburg-Lippe-Alverdissen

When the County of Schaumburg was partitioned in 1647, a portion was inherited by the Count of Lippe-Alverdissen—ruler of a nonsovereign spin-off from the County of Lippe consisting of the Ämter of Alverdissen and Lipperode. The count successfully incorporated the Alverdissen lands into his new country—over which he had full sovereignty—and called it Schaumburg-Lippe to distinguish it from its Hessian neighbor. I assign it to Lippian Germany. Schaumburg-Lippe lost a few villages to Schaumburg-Kassel during the 18th century, but otherwise, the boundary between the two remained very stable.

 

In contrast, the boundary with Lippe-Detmold was highly unstable. In 1681, Schaumburg-Lippe spun off the subordinate county of Schaumburg-Lippe-Alverdissen consisting of the territory of the former Lippe-Alverdissen. In 1709, both Schaumburg-Lippe and Lippe-Detmold claimed the territory of the former County of Lippe-Brake after the Brake line died out. That dispute was not settled until 1748, with Schaumburg-Lippe receiving the Ämter of Blomberg and Schieder, but returning Amt Lipperode to Lippe-Detmold. In 1756, Schieder was assign to Schaumburg-Lippe-Alverdissen to replace Lipperode. In 1777, Schaumburg-Lippe-Alverdissen was terminated. Alverdissen reverted to the core county, but Schieder was returned to Lippe-Detmold.

 

After the county was raised to a principality in 1807, the remaining territory that had once belonged to Lippe-Detmold  was returned—Amt Alverdissen in 1812 and Amt Blomberg in 1838. That left Schaumburg-Lippe with only territory that had been in the original County of Schaumburg. There were no other boundary changes until Schaumburg-Lippe became a state in the German Empire in 1871.