Anhalt-Bernburg

Anhalt-Bernburg was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire — later a duchy of the German Confederation — ruled by the House of Ascania with its residence at Bernburg in present-day Saxony-Anhalt. It was created in 1252, when the Principality of Anhalt was partitioned among the sons of Henry I into Anhalt-Aschersleben, Anhalt-Bernburg and Anhalt-Zerbst; the Bernburg line held its share until 1468, when it fell to the Ascanian principality of Anhalt-Dessau. Recreated in 1603 when the Anhalt lands were partitioned anew, the second Anhalt-Bernburg endured for two and a half centuries — the state shown on the map, raised from principality to duchy as the Confederation succeeded the Empire, its residence at Bernburg above the Saale. Its rulers took part in the reshaping of the German world from the Thirty Years' War to the founding of the German Empire, and the line survived as the last of the Anhalt branches. Upon the extinction of the line in 1863, Anhalt-Bernburg finally merged into the re-unified Duchy of Anhalt, ending its separate existence.