Almanach de Saxe Gotha - The Princely House of Schaumburg-Lippe - Lippe Dynasty

Schaumburg-Lippe was until 1946 a small state in Germany, located in the present day state of Lower Saxony, with its capital at Bückeburg. Schaumburg-Lippe was formed in 1647 through the division by treaties of the County of Schaumburg between the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and the Count of Lippe. The division occurred because Count Otto V of Holstein-Schaumburg had died in 1640 leaving no male heir. Initially Schaumburg-Lippe's position was somewhat precarious: it had to share a wide variety of institutions and facilities with the County of Schaumburg (which belonged to Hesse-Kassel), including the representative assembly and the highly productive Bückeberg mines, and the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel retained some feudal rights over it. It was further threatened by the headstrong policies of ruling Count Friedrich Christian. To counter these threats, Friedrich's grandson Count Wilhelm (who reigned 1748-1777) retained a standing army of up to 1000 troops - quite a lot for such a small territory.

With Wilhelm's death in 1777 the junior Schaumburg-Lippe-Alverdissen inherited the County thereby reuniting Schaumburg-Lippe with Lippe-Alverdissen. Schaumburg-Lippe was a county until 1807 when it became a principality; from 1871 it was a state within the German Empire. In 1913, it was the smallest state in the German Empire in terms of population. The capital was Bückeburg, and Stadthagen was the only other town. Under the constitution of 1868, there was a legislative diet of 15 members, 10 elected by the towns and rural districts and 1 each by the nobility, clergy and educated classes, the remaining 2 nominated by the prince. Schaumburg-Lippe sent one member to the Bundesrat (federal council) and one deputy to the Reichstag. It lasted until the end of the German monarchies in 1918, when it became a free state as the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe. In November 1918, Prince Adolf was the second last reigning German monarch to abdicate.

The House of Lippe (German: Haus Lippe) is a German Royal House. The House of Lippe descends from Jobst Herman, Count of Lippe (died ca. 1056) whose son Bernhard I was the founder of the state of Lippe in 1123. In 1613, the House's territory was split into Lippe-Detmold, Lippe-Brake and Lippe-Alverdissen. In 1643 Count Philipp of Lippe-Alverdissen founded the Schaumburg-Lippe line of the House of Lippe. In 1905 with the death of Prince Alexander the senior Lippe-Detmold branch of the family became extinct with Count Leopold of Lippe-Biesterfeld succeeding him as Prince.

With the German Revolution of 1918, the Princes of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe were forced to abdicate, ending the family's 795-year rule in Lippe. The princely family still ownes the estate and castle at Detmold, currently Armin, Prince of Lippe.
In 1937, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld married Princess Juliana of the Netherlands. With the ascension of their daughter Beatrix in 1980, the name of the Royal House remained known as the House of Orange-Nassau, although Beatrix and her sisters are agnatically members of the House of Lippe.

The Family Titles and Styles - The members of this family bear the title Prince or Princess zu Schaumburg-Lippe, together with the formal appellation of His or Her Serene Highness, except those who have been granted the style "Hochfürstlich Durchlaucht", who will be marked with an HD; these latter are those who spring from House-approved marriages.

The Website of the Princely House of Schaumburg-Lippe:
http://www.schloss-bueckeburg.de/

Almanach de Saxe Gotha Page:
http://www.almanachdegotha.org/id35.html