Solms-Baruth was a Lower Lusatian state country, from the 16th century until 1945.
History
The House of Solms had its origins at Solms, Hesse, and ruled several of the many minor states of the Holy Roman Empire. These lost their independence in the German Mediatization of 1806.
In 1537 Philip, Count of Solms-Lich, ruling count at Lich, purchased the Herrschaft Sonnewalde in Lower Lusatia which he left to his younger son Otto of Solms-Laubach (1496–1522), together with the county of Laubach. While Lich and Laubach were counties with imperial immediacy, Sonnewalde remained a semi-independent state country within the March of Lusatia (the latter being an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire). A later Count Otto (1550–1612) moved to Sonnewalde and built the castle in 1582. In 1596 he also purchased the nearby Herrschaft of Baruth which was also elevated to a state country within the March of Lusatia. The branch then was divided into the twigs of Solms-Laubach, Solms-Sonnewalde and Solms-Baruth.
Later the Baruth branch also purchased the estates of Golßen and Casel in the March of Lusatia and, in 1767, Kliczków Castle (Klitschdorf) in Silesia which became their main seat. They owned Baruth and the other estates from 1615 to 1945 (when they were expropriated in communist East Germany), including the manor houses, ten villages, and about 15,000 hectares of agriculture and forestry land.
In 1635, the March passed from the Kingdom of Bohemia to the Electorate of Saxony which in 1806 became the Kingdom of Saxony, with the counts of Solms-Baruth occupying a hereditary seat in the Saxonian Landtag. In 1815, when Saxony was punished at the Congress of Vienna for its loyalty to Napoleon by the confiscation of a significant part of its territory, the March of Lusatia, including Solms-Baruth, was transferred to the Kingdom of Prussia. The Prussian representative at the Congress was Prince Karl August von Hardenberg and his assistant, Count of Solms-Sonnewalde. The Counts of Solms-Baruth were granted a seat in the Prussian House of Lords, until the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Count Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth (1821–1904) was elevated to the hereditary rank of a Fürst (Prince) by the King of Prussia in 1888. Prince Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth (1886–1951) was a member of the Kreisau Circle, dissidents who opposed Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Lords
References
- ^ Marek, Miroslav. “solms/solms12.html”. genealogy.euweb.cz.