Duchy of Brunswick


The Duchy of Brunswick was a historical German state that ceased to exist in 1918. Its capital was the city of Brunswick. It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the course of the 19th-century history of Germany, the duchy was part of the German Confederation, the North German Confederation and from 1871 the German Empire. It was disestablished after the end of World War I, its territory incorporated into the Weimar Republic as the Free State of Brunswick.

History

Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

The title "Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg" was held, from 1235 on, by various members of the Welf family who ruled several small territories in northwest Germany. These holdings did not have all of the formal characteristics of a modern unitary state, being neither compact nor indivisible. When several sons of a duke competed for power, the lands often became divided between them; when a branch of the family lost power or became extinct, the lands were reallocated among surviving members of the family; different dukes might also exchange territories. The unifying element of all these territories was that they were ruled by male-line descendants of Duke Otto I.
After several early divisions, Brunswick-Lüneburg re-unified under Duke Magnus II. Following his death, his three sons jointly ruled the duchy. After the murder of their brother Frederick I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, brothers Bernard and Henry redivided the land, Henry receiving the territory of Wolfenbüttel.
From 1432 forward the Principality of Wolfenbuettel became the capital of the Duchy of Brunswick and Luneburg. It is widely understood and confirmed that from the year 1546 forward there became two dynastic lines of the house of Este-Guelph Brunswick: "the senior", from Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel, and one called "the younger branch" from Calenburg-Hanover.
The ruling monarchs of Brunswick and Lunenburg continued to govern the greater Duchy from the Wolfenbuettel principality till 1754, when temporarily the Brunswick principality was used as a capital to mitigate while the Brunswick wished to become an Imperial free city.

Duchy of Brunswick

Formal sovereignty confirmed

The territory of Wolfenbüttel was recognized as a sovereign state by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It had been a portion of the medieval Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The northern principality known as Lüneburg remained fragmented and largely under control of Wolfenbuettel. However, in 1702, the Prince of Calenberg and Celle averted the extinction of the line through a marriage with the low-born Eleonore d'Esmier d'Olbreuse, who from 1705 passed to her successors a united Lüneburg to said princes, later i.e. the Elector of Hanover. The princes of Wolfenbüttel maintained their supremacy over the subject vassal state of Lüneburg, but recognized its semi-sovereignty.
The Wolfenbüttel principality had from 1807 to 1813 been held as part of the Kingdom of Westphalia. The Congress turned it into an independent country as the Duchy of Brunswick. These acts were protested by the de facto and de jure Duke Charles II in annual protests until his death. His grandson Ulric de Civry continued in full ducal regalia and claim maintaining these protests until his assassination in 1935 at Geneva Switzerland.

Charles II (1815–1830)

The underage Duke Charles, the eldest son of Duke Frederick William, was put under the guardianship of George IV, the Prince Regent of the United Kingdom and Hanover.
First, the young duke had a dispute over the date of his majority. Then, in 1827, Charles declared some of the laws made during his minority invalid, which caused conflicts. After the German Confederation intervened, Charles was forced to accept those laws. His administration was considered corrupt and misguided.
In the aftermath of the July Revolution in 1830, Charles had to leave the country. His absolutist governing style had alienated the nobility and bourgeoisie, while the lower classes were disaffected by the bad economic situation. During the night of 7–8 September 1830, the ducal palace in Braunschweig was stormed by an angry mob, set on fire and destroyed completely. Charles fled the country, but without abdicating.

William VIII (1830–1884)

When Charles' brother William VIII arrived in Brunswick on 10 September, he was received joyfully by the people. William originally considered himself only his brother's regent, but after a year declared himself ruling duke. Charles made several desperate attempts, unsuccessfully, to depose him.
William left most government business to his ministers, and spent most of his time outside of his state at his possessions in Oels. After the revolution of 1830, liberal reforms were made and a new constitution was adopted on 12 October 1832. While the number of voters was limited by a system of census suffrage to about 40% of Brunswick's male population, the parliament of Brunswick was granted more rights than in most other German states at the time and the duke's budget and powers were significantly limited.
While William joined the Prussian-led North German Confederation in 1866, his relationship to Prussia was strained, since Prussia refused to recognize Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, his nearest male-line relative, as his heir.
While the Kingdom of Hanover was annexed by Prussia in 1866, the Duchy of Brunswick remained sovereign and independent. It joined first the North German Confederation and in 1871 the German Empire.
In the 1870s, it became obvious that the then-senior branch of the ruling House of Welf would die with Duke William. By house law, a member of the House of Hanover would have ascended the ducal throne. However, the Hanoverians still refused to accept the Prussian annexation of their kingdom. As a result, Prussia was unwilling to let George V of Hanover or his son, Ernest Augustus, succeed to Brunswick. Berlin would only agree to the Hanoverians becoming dukes of Brunswick under severe conditions, including swearing allegiance to the German constitution and renouncing all claim to Hanover.
By a law of 1879, the Duchy of Brunswick established a temporary council of regency to take over at the duke's death. If Ernest Augustus–who had been created the Duke of Cumberland in the British peerage–were unable to succeed, the council would also be empowered to appoint a regent. With William's death in 1884, the Wolfenbüttel line came to an end. The Duke of Cumberland then proclaimed himself Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick. However, since he still claimed to be the rightful King of Hanover, the Federal Council ruled that he would violate the peace of the German Empire if he succeeded to Brunswick. Lengthy negotiations ensued, but were never resolved.

Regency (1884–1913)

Two regents were appointed: first, Prince Albert of Prussia until his death in 1906, and then Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg.

Ernest Augustus (1913–1918)

The need for a regent ended in 1913. The Duke of Cumberland's eldest son George William having died in 1912, the elderly duke renounced Brunswick in favor of his youngest son, Ernest Augustus, who married Emperor Wilhelm II's daughter, swore allegiance to the German Empire and renounced all claims to Hanover. Accordingly, he was allowed to ascend the throne of the duchy in November 1913.
In the midst of the German revolutions of 1918, the duke had to abdicate, and the Free State of Brunswick was founded as a member state of the Weimar Republic.

Dukes and Regents of Brunswick

House of Brunswick-Dannenberg

  1. 1815–1830: Charles II, son of Frederick William. Forced to flee Brunswick in 1830 and succeeded by his brother.
  2. 1830–1884: William VIII. Brother of Charles II. Last of the Brunswick line, following which the legal succession passed to the Hanoverian royal family, which had been dispossessed by Prussia following the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.

    Regency

  3. 1885–1906: Albert, Prince of Prussia, regent. The German government prevented the succession of the Hanoverian Duke of Cumberland to the throne of Brunswick and substituted a Prussian regent for the duke.
  4. 1907–1913: Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg, regent

    House of Hanover

  5. 1913–1918: Ernest Augustus

    Geography

The Duchy of Brunswick consisted of several non-connected parts - three larger and seven smaller ones. The biggest and most populous of those was the area surrounding the cities of Braunschweig, Wolfenbüttel and Helmstedt as well as the Elm, which extended from the river Aller in the north to the Harz mountains in the south. The western part with the town of Holzminden extended from the river Weser in the east to the Harz Foreland in the west. The southern part with the town of Blankenburg was located in the Harz mountains. The Duchy's smaller exclaves were Thedinghausen near Bremen, Harzburg, Calvörde, Bodenburg and Östrum, Ostharingen near Goslar, Ölsburg near Peine and a small woodland near the Fallstein. The Duchy of Brunswick was almost entirely surrounded by the Prussian Provinces of Hanover and Saxony, in the south-east it also bordered the Duchy of Anhalt and in the west the Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont and the Prussian Province of Westphalia.
The western part of the Duchy lay in the Weser Uplands, the central and southern parts in the northern Harz Foreland and the Harz mountains. The northern part was located on the border between the North German Plain and the Central Uplands of Germany. The Duchy's highest peak was the Wurmberg at 971 metres. The major rivers that ran through Brunswick were the Weser, Aller, Leine, Oker, Bode and Innerste.

Main parts and exclaves of Brunswick by size

Districts

The Duchy of Brunswick was subdivided into six districts in 1833. The districts were further subdivided into cities or towns and more rural townships.
DistrictArea in square kilometers
Population
Cities and Ämter
District of Blankenburg474,6735,989Blankenburg, Hasselfelde and Walkenried
District of Braunschweig543,87191,112Braunschweig, Riddagshausen, Thedinghausen and Vechelde
District of Gandersheim533,9250,435Gandersheim, Seesen, Lutter am Barenberge and Greene
District of Helmstedt799,5678,514Helmstedt, Schöningen, Königslutter, Vorsfelde and Calvörde
District of Holzminden584,1151,756Holzminden, Stadtoldendorf, Eschershausen, Ottenstein and Thedinghausen
District of Wolfenbüttel735,9286,533Wolfenbüttel, Salder, Schöppenstedt and Harzburg