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County (Principality) of Schwarzburg-RudolstadtGrafschaft (Fürstentum) Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (German)
1599–1918
Flag Coat of arms
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt within the German Empire
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt within Thuringia
Status	State of the Holy Roman Empire (until 1806), State of the Confederation of the Rhine, State of the German Confederation, State of the North German Confederation, State of the German Empire, State of the Weimar Republic
Capital	Rudolstadt
Government	Principality
Prince
• 1710–1718	Louis Frederick I (first)
• 1890–1918	Günther Victor (last)
Legislature	Landtag
Historical era	Early modern period
• Emerged from     Schwarzburg	1599
• Raised to Principality	1711
• German Revolution	1918
• Merged into Thuringia	1920
Population
• 1835	58,000
• 1848	62,000
Preceded by Succeeded by County of Schwarzburg Thuringia
Today part of	Germany

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 counts of the Holy Roman Empire. Count Albert Anton (1662–1710) was elevated to the rank of a prince by Emperor Leopold I; it was however his son Louis Frederick I (1710–1718) who first bore the princely title, whereby Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in 1711 became a principality under the same entity. It withstood 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 km (360 sq mi) and a population of 97,000.

On 23 November 1918, during the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the fall of all 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.

• The castle at Schwarzburg
• Aerial view of Schwarzburg
• Heidecksburg residence at Rudolstadt

Rulers of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

Counts of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

• 1574–1605: Count Albrecht VII (1537–1605), son of Count Günther XL of Schwarzburg, founder of the county (state) of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
• 1605–1630: Count Charles Günther I (1576–1630), succeeded by younger brother Louis Günther I
• 1612–1634 Count Albrecht Günther (1582–1634)
• 1630–1646: Count Louis Günther I (1581–1646)
• 1646–1662: Regent Emilie of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst (1614–70)
• 1662–1710: Count Albert Anton (1641–1710)

Princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

• 1710–1718: Prince Louis Frederick I (1667–1718)
• 1718–1744: Prince Frederick Anton (1692–1744)
• 1744–1767: Prince John Frederick (1721–67)
• 1767–1790: Prince Louis Günther II (1708–90)
• 1790–1793: Prince Frederick Charles (1736–93)
• 1793–1807: Prince Louis Frederick II (1767–1807)
• 1807–1814: Regent Caroline Louise of Hesse-Homburg (1771–1854)
• 1814–1867: Prince Frederick Günther (1793–1867)
• 1867–1869: Prince Albert (1798–1869)
• 1869–1890: Prince Georg Albert (1838–90)
• 1890–1918: Prince Günther Victor (1852–1925), also succeeded as Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen in 1909 upon the death of Prince Karl Günther.

See also

• House of Schwarzburg

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

• House laws of Schwarzburg
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

v t e Upper Saxon Circle (1512–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire
Electorates	Brandenburg Saxony
Ecclesiastical	Cammin
Secular	Anhalt Bernburg Dessau Köthen Zerbst Barby Hatzfeld-Gleichen Pomerania Further Hither Querfurt Reuss Elder Junior Saxe-Altenburg Saxe-Coburg Saxe-Eisenach Saxe-Gotha Saxe-Weimar Schwarzburg Rudolstadt Sondershausen
Prelates	Gernrode Quedlinburg Abbey Walkenried Abbey
Counts / Lords	Hohnstein Lohra / Klettenberg Mansfeld Schönburg (Saale) Stolberg Stolberg Wernigerode Rossla
Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512: Austrian, Burgundian, Upper Saxon, Electoral Rhenish     ·     Unencircled territories See also: Ernestine duchies

v t e States of the Confederation of the Rhine (1806–1813)
Rank elevated by Napoleon	Kingdoms Bavaria Saxony Württemberg Grand Duchies Baden Hesse Duchies Nassau
States created	Kingdoms Westphalia Grand Duchies Berg Frankfurt Würzburg Principalities Aschaffenburg Leyen Regensburg
Pre-existing states	Saxon duchies Coburg-Saalfeld Gotha-Altenburg Hildburghausen Meiningen Weimar Eisenach Weimar-Eisenach Other duchies Anhalt Bernburg Dessau Köthen Arenberg Mecklenburg-Schwerin Mecklenburg-Strelitz Oldenburg Principalities Hohenzollern Hechingen Sigmaringen Isenburg Liechtenstein Lippe-Detmold Reuss Ebersdorf Greiz Lobenstein Schleiz Salm Schaumburg-Lippe Schwarzburg Rudolstadt Sondershausen Waldeck
from 1810 until 1810 until 1809 from 1809 until 1811

v t e States of the German Confederation (1815–1866)
Empires	Austria
Kingdoms	Prussia Bavaria Saxony Hanover Württemberg
Electorates	Hesse-Kassel
Grand duchies	Baden Hesse-Darmstadt Luxembourg Mecklenburg-Schwerin Mecklenburg-Strelitz Oldenburg Weimar-Eisenach
Duchies	Brunswick Holstein Limburg (from 1839) Nassau Lauenburg Anhalt (Ascania) Anhalt (from 1863) Bernburg (until 1863) Dessau (until 1863) Köthen (until 1847) Ernestine duchies Altenburg (from 1826) Coburg-Saalfeld (until 1826) Coburg-Gotha (from 1826) Gotha-Altenburg (until 1826) Hildburghausen (until 1826) Meiningen
Principalities	Hesse-Homburg Liechtenstein Lippe Schaumburg-Lippe Waldeck and Pyrmont Reuss Reuss-Ebersdorf (until 1824) Reuss-Lobenstein (until 1824) Reuß-Lobenstein und Ebersdorf (1824-1848) Reuss-Gera (Junior Line) (from 1848) Reuss-Greiz (Elder Line) Reuss-Schleiz (until 1848) Hohenzollern Hechingen (until 1850) Sigmaringen (until 1850) Schwarzburg Rudolstadt Sondershausen
Free cities	Bremen Frankfurt Hamburg Lübeck
partially

v t e States of the North German Confederation (1866–1871)
Kingdoms	Prussia Saxony
Grand Duchies	Hesse-Darmstadt Mecklenburg-Schwerin Mecklenburg-Strelitz Oldenburg Weimar-Eisenach
Duchies	Anhalt Brunswick Altenburg Coburg-Gotha Lauenburg Meiningen
Principalities	Lippe Reuss-Gera (Junior Line) Reuss-Greiz (Elder Line) Schaumburg-Lippe Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Waldeck and Pyrmont
City-states	Bremen Hamburg Lübeck

v t e States of the German Empire (1871–1918)
Kingdoms	Bavaria Prussia as a whole (Berlin, Brandenburg, East Prussia, Hanover, Hesse-Nassau, Hohenzollern, Pomerania (including the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the former Starostwo of Draheim), Posen, Rhineland, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Silesia, Westphalia, West Prussia) Saxony Württemberg
Grand Duchies	Baden Hesse-Darmstadt Mecklenburg-Schwerin Mecklenburg-Strelitz Oldenburg Weimar-Eisenach
Duchies	Anhalt Brunswick Altenburg Coburg-Gotha Lauenburg (until 1876) Meiningen
Principalities	Lippe Reuss-Gera (Junior Line) Reuss-Greiz (Elder Line) Schaumburg-Lippe Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Waldeck and Pyrmont
City-states	Bremen Hamburg Lübeck
Imperial Territories	Alsace–Lorraine
Other	German colonial empire Mittelafrika Mitteleuropa

v t e States of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
States	Anhalt Baden Bavaria Brunswick Hesse Lippe Mecklenburg-Schwerin Mecklenburg-Strelitz Oldenburg Prussia Saxony Schaumburg-Lippe Thuringia (from 1920) Waldeck (until 1929) Württemberg
City-states	Bremen Hamburg Lübeck
Until 1920	Ernest Altenburg Coburg Gotha Meiningen Saxe-Gotha Weimar-Eisenach (until 1920) Reuss Reuss Schwarzburg Rudolstadt Sondershausen
Unrecognized separatist movements	Bavarian SR Bremen SR Bottleneck Bavaria Rhenish Würzburg SR

• 1599 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
• 1919 disestablishments in Germany
• Rudolstadt
• States and territories disestablished in 1919
• States and territories established in 1599
• States of the Confederation of the Rhine
• States of the German Confederation
• States of the German Empire
• States of the North German Confederation
• States of the Weimar Republic