Duchy of Anhalt

The Duchy of Anhalt was a German duchy between the Harz in the west and the Elbe and the Fläming Heath in the east, ruled by the House of Ascania and now part of Saxony-Anhalt. Its roots lie in the Principality of Anhalt of the Holy Roman Empire: in the twelfth century Albert the Bear, descended from the counts of Ballenstedt, united it with Brandenburg, and on Albert's death in 1170 his son Bernard, made duke of Saxony in 1180, became count of Anhalt; when Bernard died in 1212, Anhalt passed to his son Henry I, who took the princely title in 1218 and founded the house. Over six centuries the land was repeatedly split among younger sons, producing Bernburg, Dessau, Köthen, Plötzkau and Zerbst in shifting combinations. In 1806 Napoleon raised the surviving Bernburg, Dessau and Köthen lines to duchies, and in 1863, on the extinction of Köthen and Bernburg, they were reunited into one Anhalt, in two large blocks divided by Prussian Saxony plus five Prussian-surrounded exclaves. The duchy joined the German Empire in 1871 and ended with the monarchies in 1918.