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 raised 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 raised to principalities.

 

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 with 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.
  • 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 1609, Lippe gave up its claim of sovereignty and Mark (by then in personal union with Brandenburg and part of Hohenzollern Germany) 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
  • Schwalenburg & Stoppelberg-Hagedorn (adm. shared with Paderborn)
    • Lordship/County of Lippe (1365-1535-1558)
    • County of Lippe-Spiegelberg-Pyrmont (1558-1583)
    • County of Lippe (1583-1613)
    • County of Lippe-Schwalenberg (1613-1620)
    • County of Lippe-Detmold (1620-1667)
    • County of Lippe-Biesterfeld (1667-1762)
    • County/Principality of Lippe(-Detmold) (1762-1802)
  • Oldenburg & Stoppelberg-Rolfzen–see Ecclesiastical Germany (same Lippian administrators as Schwalenberg)
  • Lippstadt (50% interest, adm. Mark/Brandenburg)—see Jointly-Ruled Germany (1376-1528-1850)