Changes in Bielefeld's Political Status
Written and Submitted by: Vivian M. Taylor
Added: 5 Jan 2007
Before 1614 - |
Bielefeld was a town in the County of Ravensberg, a possession of the Duke of Cleves.
John William, Duke of Cleves, died in 1609. (Ravensberg was noted for making linen.) |
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Treaty of 1614 - |
County of Ravensberg plus Duchy of Cleves and County of Mark were given to John Sigismund (a Hohenzollern), Elector of Brandenburg (1608-1619). (The Hohenzollern family had acquired the Electorate of Brandenburg plus Lusatia in 1411.)
John's wife, Anne, was a niece of Duke John William. As the oldest daughter of Albert
Frederick, Duke of East Prussia, Anne also inherited East Prussia in 1618 since she had
no brothers. George William, the son of John Sigismund and Anne, thus inherited Brandenburg, East Prussia, Cleves, Mark, and Ravensberg in 1619 and ruled until 1640. (Albert Frederick's father, Albert of Hohenzollern, had been the grand master of
the Teutonic Knights, which held East Prussia as a fief from the king of Poland.
Albert had converted to Lutheranism, dissolved the order of the Teutonic
Knights, and taken over East Prussia as a personal fief from the Polish king.) |
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1618 - |
The Hohenzollern holdings became "Brandenburg-Prussia" after the death of Albert
Frederick and the acquisition of East Prussia.
Frederick William "the Great Elector" ruled from 1640 to 1688.
In 1648, with the Peace of Westphalia, he acquired eastern Pomerania (with former
bishopric of Kammin), Halberstadt near the Elbe, Minden, and Nordhausen.
The Great Elector's oldest surviving son was Elector Frederick III, who ruled from 1688 to
1713.
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January 18, 1701 - |
Elector Frederick III crowned himself King Frederick I of East Prussia with the
emperor's approval (after Frederick had promised military support for Hapsburgs in Spain).
The royal title applied only to Prussia, which was outside the Holy Roman Empire; as
Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick still owed fealty to the emperor. Frederick, however,
began to use the title King of Prussia as his primary title throughout his territories.
King Frederick William I (1713-1740)
King Frederick II "the Great" (1740-1786) increased Prussian lands by over half and connected
Brandenburg with Prussia by annexing parts of Poland.
King Frederick William II (nephew of Frederick II) was king from 1786 to 1797, during the
French Revolution. The second and third partitions of Poland (1791 and 1795) erased
Poland from the map of Europe and added a large Slavic population to Prussian control.
This time marked the greatest eastward expansion of Prussia.
King Frederick William III (1797-1840) was a young man during the Napoleonic Wars and
mostly kept Prussia neutral. |
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1803 - |
Napoleon's first reorganization of Europe eliminated over half of the more than 300 sovereign
political entities in Germany that had been existence since 1648. Prussia lost its territories west
of the Rhine River to the French Republic, but Ravensberg stayed within the Kingdom of
Prussia. |
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1806 - |
Napoleon reorganized Germany again by establishing the Confederation of the Rhine and by
proclaiming the German states free from any loyalty to the Holy Roman emperor. Emperor
Francis II yielded to reality and officially dissolved the Holy Roman Empire. |
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1807 - |
Prussian King Frederick William III tried, too late, to resist Napoleon. Prussian forces were
routed at the battles of Jena and Auerstadt in October, 1806, and Napoleon defeated Prussia's
ally Russia at Friedland in June, 1807. In the Treaties of Tilsit, a much-reduced Kingdom of
Prussia lost its territories west and south of the Elbe River, and Ravensberg became part of the
Kingdom of Westphalia, which was part of the Confederation of the Rhine. One of
Napoleon's brothers was the King of Westphalia. |
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1815 - |
Mer the defeat of Napoleon in the "Battle of the Nations" near Leipzig in 1813, his exile on
Elba, his return to power for 100 days, and his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the Congress
of Vienna redrew the map of Europe. The German Confederation was established with
thirty-five sovereign principalities and four free cities. Prussia recovered many of its former
lands, including the area of Ravensberg, which had become part of the province of Westphalia. |
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1866 - |
During the middle part of the nineteenth century, Prussia and Austria jostled for position, each
trying to unite the German states under its own leadership. Prussian Chancellor Otto von
Bismarck directed Prussian diplomacy and successfully expanded Prussian territory and
influence. Mer the Seven Weeks' War against Austria in 1866, Prussia created the North
German Confederation (under Prussian domination) to replace the German Confederation of
18 15. Frederick William IV ruled Prussia from 1840 to 1858. His brother William became
regent in 1858 (because of Frederick William's bouts of insanity) and became king in 1861;
William I ruled until his death in 1888 at age ninety-one. |
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1871- |
Prussia defeated France (under Napoleon III) in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, and
William was crowned German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles (near
Paris) on January 18, 1871. The Second Reich (Empire) was proclaimed then also. All of the
German states except Austria were unified under the emperor. William I was succeeded by
Frederick III (Prussian enumeration) for ninety-nine days before his death from throat cancer.
William II was the Kaiser [emperor] from 1888 until the night of November 9-10, 1918, when
he fled to Holland at the end of World War I. |
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1918 - |
Germany's First Republic, called the "Weimar Republic," was the government in Germany
after World War I. Excessive demands for reparations and two ruinous periods of inflation
undermined the economy and thus popular support for the democratic government. Adolf
Hitler gained widespread support by denouncing the Treaty of Versailles and advocating
renewed German nationalism and union with Austria. Hitler's rabble-rousing speeches, Nazi
paramilitary thugs, intimidation of opponents, and election victories resulted in the appointment
of Hitler as chancellor on January 30, 1933, by German President Paul von Hindenburg. |
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1934 - |
Upon Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler combined the offices of president and chancellor and
consolidated his power. Hitler's Third Reich ended the Weimar Republic and led Germany
into World War II. |
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1945 - |
The German surrender took effect on May 9, 1945, following Hitler's suicide on April 30.
The victorious Allies-England, the United States, Russia, and France-divided Germany into
occupation zones under the Allied Military Government. The English zone included
Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, the city-state of Hamburg, and a new state named North
Rhine-Westphalia (which included Westphalia, the Ruhr, and the Lower Rhineland). Since
then, Bielefeld has been part of North Rhine-Westphalia. |
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1947 - |
Bizonia was created on January 1, 1947, to combine the English, American, and French zones
into one administrative unit, separate from the Russian zone in the east. |
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1948 - |
The German Federal Republic was organized in West Germany, including the states of
Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland Palatinate,
Wiirttemberg, Baden, and Bavaria.
The German Democratic Republic in East Germany was controlled by the Russian
communist Soviet Union. East Germany included Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt,
Saxony, and Thuringia. |
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1990 - |
The two Germanys were reunited into one nation, the Federal Republic of Germany, on
October 3, 1990. |
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