Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small state in Thuringia, central Germany, ruled by a branch of the House of Schwarzburg. It was created in 1599, when the surviving brothers of the Schwarzburg family divided their lands by the Treaty of Stadtilm: Albert VII received the territory around Rudolstadt, while John Günther I took Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. The counts resided at Rudolstadt, where the family had moved from Schwarzburg Castle in 1571. Albert Anton was elevated to princely rank by Emperor Leopold I, and from 1711 the state was a principality. It survived the mediatisation of the Napoleonic era, joining the Confederation of the Rhine in 1807 and the German Confederation in 1815. In 1905 the principality covered about 940 square kilometres and had some 97,000 inhabitants. During the German Revolution, Prince Günther Victor abdicated on 23 November 1918; the former principality became the Free State of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in 1919 and in 1920 was merged into the new state of Thuringia. Its capital, Rudolstadt, remained a modest court and administrative town, and the Schwarzburg castles are among its best-known monuments.