House of Schwarzburg

House of Schwarzburg was one of the oldest noble families of Germany. The term first comes into authentic history in the 12th century with Count Sizzo IV (the first to take the title of Schwarzburg), and in the 16th century divides into the two existing branches, the Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt - which give their names to two sovereign principalities of Central Germany wedged in between Prussia and the lesser Saxon States, the latter embracing part of the Thuringian Forest. Both were prosperous agricultural and mining regions. Sondershausen died out in 1909, and Prince Friedrich Günther of the Rudolstadt branch died in 1971, and with it the claim of headship of the House of Schwarzburg passed under Semi-Salic primogeniture to his elder sister, Princess Marie Antoinette of Schwarzburg who married Friedrich Magnus V, Count of Solms-Wildenfels.

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