Principality of Birkenfeld
During negotiations at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Kingdom of Prussia agreed that, in view of its territorial gains in the Saar region, it would hand over an area of the former Sarre department of France with 69,000 inhabitants as compensation to Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Oldenburg, Hesse-Homburg, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and the Counts of Pappenheim.
Only after the territorial division was finalised in 1816, was the regent convinced by his civil service to send the legation secretary Ludwig Starklof [de] to evaluate the region.
In the neighbouring Principality of Lichtenberg, there were popular revolts in 1832 during the Hambach Festival, which led to Prussian troops being dispatched to deal with the rebels, especially in Sankt Wendel.
As a result, the Saxe-Coburg rulers of Lichtenberg lost all popular support among the people and therefore sold the principality and its unruly population to Prussia.
Revolutionary uprisings only came to the Principality in March 1848, prompted in large part by Government-President Fischer's [de] authoritarianism and opposition to the popular will.
This group was composed of both Idar and Oberstein's bourgeoise (jewellery merchants and industrialists)[2] and the proletariat, since the outdated state machinery represented a major hindrance for businessman with a regional or international perspective and for the workers who were dependent on them.
Finally, the protestors won the dismissal of the hated Government-President Fischer and the establishment of a Provinzialrat ("Provincial Council," renamed the Landesausschuss, "Regional Committee" in 1900), which however had only an advisory function.
Birkenfeld was initially dubbed a Provinz ("province") and then a Landesteil (region), as was Oldenburg's other exclave, the Principality of Lübeck [de].
As a result of massive pressure from the population, elections had to be held, which delivered a decisive defeat for supporters of the new Republic, thus sealing its fate.
The Landesausschuss (parliament, the former Provinzialrat) unanimously chose Walther Dörr [de], a lawyer from Idar, who had sat in the Oldenburg Landtag for several years as a left-liberal, as the new Government-President.
A second separatist attempt took place in 1923, during the Occupation of the Ruhr, with the establishment of the Rhenish Republic, which was carried out in Birkenfeld mainly by foreigners under the protection of the French troops, who had declared a strict state of emergency.
In Idar, citizens stormed the Rathaus, which had been occupied by the separatists, on 11 November 1923 and multiple people were killed or wounded on both sides.
Although Oberstein mostly voted for social democrats or communists and the Catholic areas in the north and west favoured the Centre Party, the Nazis found wide support.
The Nazi party won clear majorities in Birkenfeld and Adolf Hitler addressed a crowd at the Klotz sportsground in Idar on 20 May 1932.
Under the Greater Hamburg Act, which came into effect on 1 April 1937, Birkenfeld became a Landkreis of Koblenz region in Rhine Province of Prussia and ceased to be part of Oldenburg.
As a member of the German Confederation from 1815, Oldenburg was obliged to maintain soldiers, but initially no one in the Principality of Birkenfeld was required to perform military service.
As the possibility of war with France increased following the July Revolution in 1830, the Federal Convention of the Confederation reminded Oldenburg and the other German states of their obligation to maintain a set number of troops.
This resulted in an outright mutiny and the local population supported the soldiers with a petition, composed at an assembly in Niederbrombach on 9 March 1848, which called on the Grand Duke to cancel the order to fight.
He formed a fifth light line infantry battalion with a strength of 600 men, divided into four companies, and stationed this force in Birkenfeld.
As a result, it was incorporated into the Prussian postal system [de] after the treaty with Thurn und Taxis expired on 1 November 1837.
The Oldenburg bureaucracy made the education system of Birkenfeld one of the most outstanding in Germany between 1840 and 1848, in terms of student/teacher ratios, curriculum content, teachers' salaries, and school attendance.
