Solms-Laubach was a County of southern

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

and eastern

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The House of Solms had its origins in

Solms Solms () is a town west of Wetzlar in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis, Hessen, Germany with around 13,500 inhabitants. In the constituent community of Burgsolms once stood the ancestral castle of the Counts and Princes of House of Solms, Solms. Geography Lo ...

, Hesse.

History

Solms-Laubach was originally created as a partition of Solms-Lich. In 1537 Philip, Count of Solms-Lich, ruling count at

Lich In fantasy fiction, a lich () is a type of undead creature with magical powers. Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's " The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used ''lich'' as a general term for any corpse, animat ...

, purchased the ''

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

'' Sonnewalde in

Lower Lusatia Lower Lusatia (; ; ; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the south, Lower Lusa ...

which he left to his younger son Otto of Solms-Laubach (1496–1522), together with the county of Laubach. While Lich and Laubach were counties with

imperial immediacy In the Holy Roman Empire, imperial immediacy ( or ) was the status of an individual or a territory which was defined as 'immediate' () to Emperor and Empire () and not to any other intermediate authorities, while one that did not possess that stat ...

, Sonnewalde remained a semi-independent

state country State country (; ; ) was a unit of administrative and territorial division in the Bohemian crown lands of Silesia and Upper Lusatia, existing from 15th to 18th centuries. These estates were exempt from feudal tenure by privilege of the Bohemian ...

within the

March of Lusatia The March or Margraviate of Lusatia () was an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast ''Marca Geronis''. Ruled by several Saxon margravial dy ...

(the latter being an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire). A later Count Otto (1550–1612) moved to Sonnewalde and built the castle in 1582. In 1596 he also purchased the nearby Herrschaft of Baruth which was also elevated to a state country within the March of Lusatia. The branch then was divided into the twigs of Solms-Laubach, Solms-Sonnewalde and Solms-Baruth. Solms-Laubach partitioned between itself and Solms-Sonnenwalde in 1561; between itself, Solms-Baruth and Solms-Rödelheim 1607; and between itself and Solms-Sonnenwalde 1627. Solms-Laubach inherited Solms-Sonnenwalde in 1615. With the death of Count Charles Otto in 1676, it was inherited by Solms-Baruth and recreated as a partition in 1696. Solms-Laubach was mediatised to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806. The counts of Solms-Laubach still own Laubach Castle and Arnsburg Abbey. Until 1935,

Münzenberg Castle Münzenberg Castle (German. ''Burg Münzenberg'') is a ruined hill castle in the Münzenberg, town of the same name in the Wetteraukreis, Hesse, Germany. It dates from the 12th century. It is one of the best preserved castles from the High Middle ...

also belonged to the estate. Laubach schloss ws ds 05 2008

Counts of Solms-Laubach

First creation: 1544–1676

* Frederick Magnus I (1544–61) * John George (1561–1600) * Albert Otto I (1600–10) * Albert Otto II (1610–56) * Charles Otto (1656–76)

Second creation: 1696–1806

* Frederick Ernest (1696–1723) * Christian Augustus (1723–84), ''with...'' ** Frederick Magnus II (1723–38) * Frederick Louis Christian (1784–1806)

Mediatized

* Friedrich Ludwig Christian, 5th Count 1806 (Mediatized)-1822 (1769–1822) ** Otto, 6th Count 1822-1872 (1799–1872) *** Friedrich, 7th Count 1872–1900 (1833–1900) **** Otto, 8th Count 1900–1904 (1860–1904) ***** Georg, 9th Count 1904–1969 (1899–1969) ****** Otto, 10th Count 1969–1973 (1926–1973) ******* Karl, 11th Count 1973–present (b.1963) ******** August, Hereditary Count of Solms-Laubach (b.1994) ******* Count Gustav (b.1965) ******** Count Oscar (b.2008) ******* Count Franz (b.1971) ***** '' Count Friedrich (1902-1991)'' ****** Count Ernst (b.1939) ******* Count Stefan (b.1976) **** ''Count Reinhard (1872-1937)'' ***** Count Hans (1927-2009) ****** Count Georg (b.1972) *** ''Count Ernst (1837-1908)'' **** ''Count Ernstotto (1890-1977)'' ***** Count Friedrich-Ernst (b.1940) ****** Count Moritz (b.1980) ****** Count Philipp (b.1985)https://www.genealogics.org/descendtext.php?personID=I00025908&tree=LEO&display=block&generations=8

References

Literature

* Rudolph zu Solms-Laubach: ''Geschichte des Grafen- und Fürstenhauses Solms.'' Adelmann, Frankfurt am Main 1865 1676 disestablishments States and territories established in 1696 Middle Hesse 1544 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1696 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire {{Germany-hist-stub