The County of Blankenburg (German: Grafschaft Blankenburg) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Blankenburg, it was located in and near the Harz mountains.
History
County of Blankenburg
About 1123 Lothair of Supplinburg, then Duke of Saxony, had Blankenburg Castle erected in the Eastphalian Harzgau region. His vassal Poppo I of Blankenburg, a relative of Lothair's wife Richenza of Northeim, is documented as count over the Eastern Harzgau since 1128. He later also appeared as a ministerialis of the Welf duke Henry the Lion. After Poppo's death around 1161, his sons divided their heritage: Conrad took his residence at Regenstein Castle, 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Blankenburg, and became the ancestor of the noble House of Regenstein, while his brother Siegfried I retained Blankenburg Castle.
In 1180 Henry the Lion was deposed by an intervention of his Hohenstaufen cousin Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, allied with many Saxon vassals and former supporters of Duke Henry. However, the then ruling Counts of Blankenburg, Henry and Siegfried II, remained true liensmen of their liege lord, until Prince-Bishop Dietrich of Halberstadt, newly raised to Imperial immediacy by the emperor, besieged Blankenburg Castle and defeated them with his troops in 1182. After swearing allegiance to Dietrich, the brothers could maintain their county, their descendants laid out the Blankenburg settlement beneath the castle about 1200. The estates remained under suzerainty of the Halberstadt prince-bishops, strongly contested by the Welf dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
Duchy of Brunswick (1914), with southeastern Blankenburg district
In 1815 the principalities of Wolfenbüttel and Blankenburg were de jure united as Duchy of Brunswick, with the former Principality of Blankenburg becoming an administrative district within the new duchy. The duchy became the Free State of Brunswick after the abdication of the dukes in 1918. After the apportionment of assets and liabilities between the states of the Weimar Republic and the abdicated regnal houses in 1924 the ducal family maintained - among other estates - its castle in Blankenburg am Harz and Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, and his family returned from their Austrian exile in 1930 in order to live there. In 1942 the District of Blankenburg, until then a Brunswickian exclave between the Free State of Anhalt and the Prussian provinces of Hanover and Saxony became territorially connected with mainland Brunswick in the course of a territorial redeployment between the Free State of Brunswick and the Free State of Prussia.
According to the London Protocol (September 1944) all of the Free State of Brunswick was supposed to become part of the future British zone of occupation in Germany. So after US forces had conquered the region in April 1945 the District of Blankenburg was handed over to the Britons on 1 July. However, on July 22 the Britons put into effect a territorial redeployment between their zone and the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, shortening the zonal border by assigning exclaves and salients along the border to the respective other zone (mostly) surrounding them. Thus the District of Blankenburg was divided at its narrowest section into a western third, remaining with the British zone and the eastern two thirds, including the eponymous capital, becoming part of the Soviet zone to the dismay of the population there. The British army helped the ducal family to evacuate their chattels with 30 army trucks, a favour which other unfortunate families, not related to the British royal family, could not enjoy.
At uniting the Free State of Brunswick, except of the seized eastern exclaves and salients, and further German states to become Lower Saxony in 1946, the western third of the former Principality or District of Blankenburg, respectively, became part of that state. Until 1 July 1972 it formed a district of its own, named District of Blankenburg (German: Kreis Blankenburg), with the capital in Braunlage. Then - by an administrative redeployment - the western district was divided between the districts of Goslar and Osterode.
1 until 1648.2 until 1701.3 from 1648.4 until 1731.5 until 1705.6 until 1596.7 from 1708.8 until 1773.9 until 1640.10 until 1695.11 from 1701.12 until 1734.
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