Brunswick-L�neburg (original) (raw)

Brunswick-L�neburg was a historical state within the Holy Roman Empire. As the name implies, the main cities of this state were Brunswick and L�neburg.

The state emerged from the inheritance of the first Saxon state of Henry the Lion. Shortly after Henry's death the duchy of Saxony began to decline. Several mini-states came into being, among them Brunswick and L�neburg.

The first duke of Brunswick-L�neburg was Otto the child, who reigned from 1235 on. After 1267 the duchy was split into two partial states (which later became a multitude of partial states), but all of them were ruled by the Welfen dynasty and still formed a common state. The centres of power moved in the meantime from Brunswick and L�neburg to Celle and Wolfenb�ttel.

One of the collateral lines was the line of the dukes of Calenberg, who managed to gain all the territory of the former duchy except for the Wolfenb�ttel line. The city of Hanover was the residence of the Calenberg line. Calenberg (sometimes also called Calenberg-Celle) was made an electorate by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1692. It was then known under many different names (Brunswick-L�neburg, Calenberg, Hanover), but eventually became the state of Hanover.

The Wolfenb�ttel line retained its independence from Hanover. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 turned it into an independent country under the name Duchy of Brunswick, with Wolfenb�ttel as its capital. The Duchy of Brunswick joined the German Empire in 1871 and became a part of the Weimar Republic in 1919. In 1946, it was made a part of the newly founded state of Lower Saxony. Brunswick had an area of 3690 km� and 580,000 inhabitants (1939).