County of Schaumburg

In 1110, Adolf I, Lord of Schauenburg was appointed by Lothair, Duke of Saxony to hold Holstein and Stormarn, including Hamburg, as fiefs.

[1] Subsequently, the House of Schaumburg were also counts of Holstein and its partitions Holstein-Itzehoe, Holstein-Kiel, Holstein-Pinneberg (until 1640), Holstein-Plön, Holstein-Segeberg and Holstein-Rendsburg (until 1460) and through the latter at times also the dukes of Schleswig.

Count Adolf IV was an active ruler and founded the cities of Stadthagen and Rinteln.

From 1500 the County of Schaumburg belonged to the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire.

Even after the Prussian annexation of both Hanover (the successor to Brunswick-Lüneburg) and Electoral Hesse (the successor to Hesse-Cassel) the Hessian part remained an exclave of the Province of Hesse-Nassau until it was transferred to the Province of Hanover in 1932.

Schaumburg Castle photographed in 2009.
Nettle leaf ancestral coat of arms of the Counts of Schaumburg
Historic map of the County of Schaumburg from 1789 – showing both the Schaumburg-Lippe and the Hessian parts.
Landkreis Schaumburg coat of arms.
Map of a large region (in white) including all the territory of modern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, plus parts of most neighbouring countries, including most of Northern Italy. Some of the northwest part region is highlighted in color, including Münster, most of the Netherlands and parts of modern Belgium.
The Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle (red) within the Holy Roman Empire (white) after 1548