Ancient history

Schwarzburg | historical state, Germany

Black Castle , one of two sovereign states in Germany before 1918, came from the Thuringian lands, which were medieval Counts of Schwarzburg. Over the centuries, the Schwarzburg lands were divided, redistributed or consolidated until 1584 when the Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt lines came into existence. The Counts of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen became 1697 as the princes of Holy Roman Empire and those of Schwarzburg. Rudolstadt in 1710. Both principalities, as sovereign states, entered into den Rheinbund in 1807 and the German Confederation in 1815. Both states declared themselves for Prussia in the Seven Weeks War and entered the North German Confederation (1866) and the German Empire (1871). After the death of the childless Charles Günther von Sondershausen in 1909, both states came under the rule of Günther Victor von Rudolstadt in personal union. At the German Revolution of 1918 thanks the prince ab , and both states became republics before merging into the new federal state in 1920 Thuringia (Thuringia).