Principality of Reuss-Gera

The Principality of Reuss-Gera, officially the Principality of the Reuss Junior Line after 1848, was a sovereign German state ruled by the House of Reuss, one of the successors of the Imperial County of Reuss. The Reuss counts, seated at Gera, Schleiz, Lobenstein, Köstritz and Ebersdorf, were all raised to princely rank in 1806, and every male of the house has since borne the single name Heinrich with a Roman numeral, the branches keeping their names only in everyday speech. The four Junior Line lands were amalgamated between 1824 and 1848, with the Gera senior branch keeping sovereignty while the cadet branches kept succession rights, and in 1905 the little principality measured 827 square kilometres with 145,000 inhabitants. Like its neighbours it joined the German Confederation and then the empire in 1871. After the First World War the Junior Line merged with the Elder Line in 1919 into the People's State of Reuss, which entered the new state of Thuringia in May 1920.