House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld

The inheritance passed to Christian II, a son of Georg Wilhelm's younger brother, who had previously received the Lordship of Bischweiler from the holdings of Zweibrücken and thus founded the Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler line.

It was agreed that of the two joint rulers, the Margrave of Baden was to make the division and then the Count Palatine by Rhine was to choose his share.

Possibly the hope on the Baden side was that Karl III August would decide on the portion in which Birkenfeld and the family seat were located; nonetheless, Karl III August decided upon the Mosel region around Trarbach, so that after 1776 the Birkenfeld region became the exclusive possession of Baden.

As a result of the wars of succession of the French Revolution he was the last Duke of Zweibrücken, becoming in 1799 Palatine and Bavarian Elector and in 1806 the first King of Bavaria.

Prior to this, in 1645, John Charles, a younger brother of Christian II, had founded the collateral line of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen.