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33-563: Amidst the lake is an island upon which the City of Ratzeburg is located, accessible from the mainland via three isthmuses. The island is home to the Old Town, including a cathedral - one of the oldest in Germany. At the end of the 17th century, the old castle at the western end of the island was completely destroyed and the site has since been degraded to a mere parking lot. During the division of Germany ,

66-578: A Prince Bishopric , whose ruler was sovereign and as such had a vote at the Imperial Diet . The Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg was the last state in Northern Germany remaining Catholic. After the 1550 death of its ruler Prince-Bishop Georg von Blumenthal , who feuded with Thomas Aderpul , the bishopric converted to Lutheranism in 1554. Though the town of Ratzeburg was part of the Ratzeburg diocese,

99-782: A car accident in 1912; the father renounced Brunswick in favour of his younger son Ernest Augustus , who married the Kaiser's daughter Victoria Louise the same year, swore allegiance to the German Empire and was allowed to ascend the throne of the Duchy in November 1913. He was a major-general during the First World War , but he was overthrown as Duke of Brunswick in 1918. His father was also deprived of his British titles in 1919 for "bearing arms against Great Britain". After having left Brunswick Palace ,

132-621: A hitherto overlooked (and since repealed) provision of the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705 . According to the decision taken by a court of the House of Lords , all family members bear the last name Guelph in the UK and are styled Royal Highnesses in their documents. Many towns and provinces across the British Empire were named after the ruling House of Hanover and its members. They include

165-401: A principality in 1648. In 1619 Saxe-Lauenburg's capital was moved from Lauenburg upon Elbe to Ratzeburg and remained there since. The town was almost completely destroyed in 1693, when Christian V of Denmark reduced Ratzeburg to rubble by bombardment in his unsuccessful attempt to push through his succession to the dukedom against the prevailing House of Hanover . After this event Ratzeburg

198-457: A temporary council of regency to take over at the Duke's death and, if necessary, to appoint a regent. The Duke of Cumberland proclaimed himself Duke of Brunswick at the Duke's death, and lengthy negotiations ensued but were never resolved. Prince Albert of Prussia was appointed regent. After his death in 1906, Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg succeeded him. The Duke of Cumberland's eldest son died in

231-522: Is a town in Schleswig-Holstein , Germany . It is surrounded by four lakes —the resulting isthmuses between the lakes form the access lanes to the town. Ratzeburg is the capital of the district Herzogtum Lauenburg . The town was founded in the 11th century as Racisburg. The name is traditionally derived from the local Wendish ruler, Prince Ratibor of the Polabians , who was nicknamed Ratse. In

264-536: The British Empire at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. Originating as a cadet branch of the House of Welf in 1635, also known then as the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Hanoverians ascended to prominence with Hanover's elevation to an Electorate in 1692. In 1714 George I , prince-elector of Hanover and a descendant of King James VI and I , assumed the throne of Great Britain and Ireland , marking

297-447: The Duke of Cumberland . In 1901, when Queen Victoria, the last British monarch provided by the House of Hanover, died, her son and heir Edward VII became the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . Edward took his family name from that of his father, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha . After the death of William IV in 1837, the following kings of Hanover continued

330-761: The Hanoverian Army and foreign policy. From 1814, when Hanover became a kingdom following the Napoleonic Wars , the British monarch was also King of Hanover . Upon the death of William IV in 1837, the personal union of the thrones of the United Kingdom and Hanover ended. Succession to the Hanoverian throne was regulated by semi-Salic law (agnatic-cognatic), which gave priority to all male lines before female lines, and so it passed not to Queen Victoria but to her uncle,

363-525: The House of Welf became extinct. By semi-Salic law , the House of Hanover would have acceded to the Duchy of Brunswick , but there had been strong Prussian pressure against having George V of Hanover or his son, the Duke of Cumberland , succeed to a member state of the German Empire, at least without strong conditions including the swearing to the German constitution. By a law of 1879, the Duchy of Brunswick established

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396-571: The Thirty Years' War , the Peace of Westphalia (1648) awarded the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück alternately to a Catholic bishop and to a cadet branch of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Since the treaty gave cadets priority over heirs and reigning princes, Osnabrück became a form of appanage (in alternation) of the House of Hanover. Osnabrück was mediatized to Hanover in 1803. In 1884, the senior branch of

429-473: The House of Hanover have been: The family has been resident in Austria since 1866 and thus took on Austrian nationality besides their German and British. Since the later king Ernest Augustus had been created Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Earl of Armagh by his father George III in 1799, these British peerages were inherited by his descendants. In 1914 the title of a Prince of Great Britain and Ireland

462-478: The Lion became the ruler of the town in 1143 and established a bishopric in 1154. He was also responsible for the construction of the late Romanesque Cathedral ( Dom ), built in typical north German 'red-brick' style. Henry also prompted the construction of the similar-looking Lübeck Cathedral and Brunswick Collegiate Church with his remains interred in the latter. Since 1180 part of Ratzeburg diocesan area formed

495-879: The U.S. and Canada named after Queen Charlotte . Furthermore the Canadian province of New Brunswick and towns Hanover, Ontario , Guelph ; Ontario, and Victoria, British Columbia ; in South Africa the town Hanover, Northern Cape , in Australia the state Victoria and the city Adelaide , in the UK six and in the US thirteen towns named Brunswick. Furthermore one each in Australia and New Zealand, and worldwide more than fifty towns named Victoria. There are also numerous streets and squares, such as Hanover Square, Westminster , Hanover Square (Manhattan) , Hanover Square, Syracuse or Queen Street, Brisbane with its intersections named after members of

528-534: The U.S. state of Georgia , U.S. towns Hanover, Massachusetts ; Hanover, New Hampshire ; Hanover, Pennsylvania ; Hanover Township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois , counties Hanover County, Virginia ; Caroline County, Virginia ; Brunswick County, Virginia ; New Hanover County, North Carolina ; Brunswick County, North Carolina ; King George County, Virginia , places named Georgia in New Jersey (e.g. New Brunswick, NJ ), Vermont, Arkansas and South Dakota, seven towns in

561-463: The beginning of Hanoverian rule over the British Empire . At the end of his line, Queen Victoria 's death in 1901, the throne of the United Kingdom passed to her eldest son Edward VII , a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , through his father Albert, Prince Consort . The last reigning members of the House of Hanover lost the Duchy of Brunswick in 1918 when Germany became a republic and abolished royalty and nobility. The formal name of

594-486: The current head of the house, also called Ernest Augustus , continues to claim. He has the right to petition under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 for the restoration of his ancestors' suspended British peerages Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Earl of Armagh , but he has not done so. His father, another Ernest Augustus , did, however, successfully claim British nationality after World War II by virtue of

627-609: The duke and his family moved back to their exile seat Cumberland Castle at Gmunden , Austria, but in 1924 he received Blankenburg Castle and some other estates in a settlement with the Free State of Brunswick , and moved there in 1930. A few days before Blankenburg was handed over to the Red Army by British and American forces in late 1945, to become part of East Germany , the family quickly moved to Marienburg Castle (Hanover) with all their furniture, transported by British army trucks by

660-505: The dynasty: The Kingdom of Hanover ended in 1866, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia , and the King of Hanover (and Duke of Cumberland) was forced to go into exile in Austria. The 1866 rift between the houses of Hanover and Hohenzollern was settled by the 1913 marriage of Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick , the last king's grandson. At the end of

693-410: The house was the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Hanover line . The senior line of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , became extinct in 1884. The House of Hanover is now the only surviving branch of the House of Welf , which is the senior branch of the House of Este . The current head of the House of Hanover is Ernst August, Prince of Hanover . George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

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726-502: The last name. So, curiously, the British prince's title is still part of the family's last name in their German passports, while it is no longer mentioned in their British documents. On 29 August 1931, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick , as head of the House of Hanover, declared the formal resumption, for himself and his dynastic descendants, of use of his former British princely title as a secondary title of pretense , which style, "Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland", his grandson,

759-443: The most notable creative artist to have made his home in Ratzeburg, is located in one of the town's cemeteries. Ratzeburg is twinned with: House of Hanover The House of Hanover ( German : Haus Hannover German pronunciation: [haʊ̯s haˈnoːfɐ] ) is a European royal house with roots tracing back to the 17th century. Its members, known as Hanoverians , ruled Hanover , Great Britain , Ireland , and

792-571: The northeastern coast of the lake (between the Römnitz hamlet of Hohenleuchte and Groß Sarau hamlet of Rothenhusen) was part of the Inner German border . It served as a border sluice for Stasi agents to infiltrate West Germany, via motorboats. This Schleswig-Holstein location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ratzeburg Ratzeburg ( German pronunciation: [ˈʁatsəbʊɐ̯k] ; Low German : Ratzborg )

825-514: The order of King George VI . Duke Ernest Augustus died at Marienburg Castle in 1953. His Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover had been completely destroyed during World War II. His eldest son, Prince Ernest Augustus , sold his remaining property at Herrenhausen Gardens in 1961 but kept the nearby Princely House, a small palace built in 1720 by George I for his daughter Anna Louise. It is now his grandson Ernest Augustus 's private home. The later heads of

858-481: The realm offered the dukedom to the Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty in personal union, who accepted in 1865. On 1 July 1876 the Duchy of Lauenburg merged into the Kingdom of Prussia 's Province of Schleswig-Holstein , forming the still existing district Herzogtum Lauenburg (Duchy of Lauenburg) seated in Ratzeburg. The former cathedral immunity district, at last a part of Mecklenburg , finally became part of

891-594: The title of Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg . George Louis became the first British monarch of the House of Hanover as George I in 1714. The dynasty provided six British monarchs: Of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland (changed in 1801 to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ): George I, George II, and George III also served as electors and dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg , informally, Electors of Hanover (cf. personal union ). They served as dual monarchs of Britain and Hanover, maintaining control of

924-460: The town itself was not within the territory of the Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg, but formed a part of the old Duchy of Saxony and became part of its dynastic partition of Saxe-Lauenburg around 1296, remaining with this duchy under altering dynasties until 1876. The cathedral quarter again formed an immunity district ( Domfreiheit ; cf. also Liberty ) to the prince-bishopric, secularised as

957-580: The town of Ratzeburg with the 1937 Greater Hamburg Act . From 1945 to 1989 the Iron Curtain ran just east of the town, putting it on the border with the German Democratic Republic . Ratzeburg is known for its Olympic champion Ratzeburg Rowing Club , which was responsible for training, among others, the gold medalists at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. The grave of Ernst Barlach , perhaps

990-406: The year 1044 Christian missionaries under the leadership of the monk Ansverus came into the region and built a monastery. It was destroyed in a pagan rebellion in 1066 ; the monks were stoned to death. Today monuments to the missionaries in two of the town's churches commemorate these events. Ansverus was canonised in the 12th century and his relics were entombed in the Ratzeburg cathedral. Henry

1023-504: Was additionally granted to the members of the house by King George V . These peerages and titles however were suspended under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 . However, the title Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland had been entered into the family's German passports, together with the German titles, in 1914. After the German Revolution of 1918–19 , with the abolishment of nobility's privileges, titles officially became parts of

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1056-673: Was rebuilt in baroque style. The castle, however, was never reconstructed or built anew. Ratzeburg briefly was part of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars , afterwards the Duchy of (Saxe-)Lauenburg was awarded in personal union to the Danish crown in the Congress of Vienna . After the Danish crown lost Lauenburg in the Second Schleswig War (1864), Lauenburg's estates of

1089-530: Was the first member of the House of Hanover. When the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg was divided in 1635, George inherited the Principality of Calenberg and moved his residence to Hanover. His son, Christian Louis , inherited the Principality of Lüneburg from George's brother. Calenberg and Lüneburg were then shared between George's sons until united in 1705 under his grandson, also called George, who subsequently became George I of Great Britain . All members held

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