Solms-Baruth was a Lower Lusatian state country, from 16th century until 1945.
The House of Solms[1] 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.
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 not a member of the Kreisau Circle, dissidents who opposed Hitler's Nazi regime.
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