Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
(1813-1871)
The Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, a German state in Thuringia since 1711, was a member state of the German Confederation from 1815 to 1866. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen originally were joined by family lines. Similar to the Reuß family, all of the male descendants had a common name, in this instance Günther, such as Günther XL, who died in 1552. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was the junior line. After the Austro-Prussian War, where they allied with Prussia, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt became a member state of the North German Confederation in 1867. The Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt military became a contingent of the Prussian army on 26 June 1867. It became a member state of the German Empire in 1871.
On the death of Charles Günther of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen in 1909, the two Schwartzberg principalities were united in a personal union under Günther Viktor of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. He still ruled two separate states inside the German Empire. Günther Viktor was fond of calling the joint principality Schwarzburg. They were not united in a constitutional sense and were always two separate states having two distinct votes in the Bundesrat. Prince Günther Viktor was the last ruler of a German state to abdicate in 1918.
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a hereditary constitutional monarchy. The parliament consisted of one chamber called the Landtag and was only summoned every three years. The parliament consisted of sixteen members, four chosen by the highest assessed taxpayers, the others by universal secret and direct elections. The principality had one vote in the Reichstag and one in the Bundesrat.
The capital was Rudolstadt; the population was 103,000 in 1914, and almost all were Lutheran. Catholics received the right of publicly exercising their religion when the principality joined the Confederation of the Rhine and later joined the German Confederation. No tithes were allowed to be collected. In both principalities all the primary schools were Lutheran. There were private Catholic primary schools. Neither the State nor the community gave any financial aid. In Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt children who had received Protestant baptism could not be taken as pupils in the Catholic private schools, even if they sprung from mixed marriages or from purely Catholic marriages.The principality was only 103 km² in size. The soldiers were concentrated in 3 Battalion 7. Thüringisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 96 of the Prussian army.