Minden-Ravensberg was a Prussian administrative unit consisting of the Principality of Minden and the

County of Ravensberg The County of Ravensberg () was a historical county of the Holy Roman Empire. Its territory was in present-day eastern Westphalia, Germany, at the foot of the Osning or Teutoburg Forest. History Ravensberg was first mentioned in the 12th c ...

from 1719–1807. The capital was

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...

. In 1807 the region became part of the

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a client state of First French Empire, France in present-day Germany that existed from 1807 to 1813. While formally independent, it was ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. It was named after Westphalia, ...

, a client state of

Napoleonic France The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

. The territory was restored to Prussia after the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

and became part of the Minden Region within the new Prussian

Province of Westphalia The Province of Westphalia () was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar ...

in 1815.

Geography

The province consisted of what is now the Ravensberg Land, between the

Teutoburg Forest The Teutoburg Forest ( ; ) is a range of low, forested hills in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Until the 17th century, the official name of the hill ridge was Osning. It was first renamed the ''Teutoburg Forest'' ...

and the

Wiehen Hills The Wiehen HillsElkins, T.H. (1972). ''Germany'' (3rd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, 1972. . (, , also locally, just ''Wiehen'') are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany. The hills run from west to east like a long f ...

, and the Minden Land, north of the Wiehengebirge to the North German lowlands. Minden-Ravensberg was bounded to the east by the

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

, while other important rivers were the Westphalian Aa and the Else. Minden was the regional capital in that time, with other cities such as

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

and

Herford Herford (; ) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is situated in the cultural region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and the Detmold (administrat ...

being of lower importance. Minden-Ravensberg had a population of 160,301 in 1800 and an area of 2,113 km² in 1806.Alwin Hanschmidt: ''Das 18. Jahrhundert (1702–1803)''. In: Wilhelm Kohl (Hrsg.), Geschichte Westfalens, Bd.1., S. 605–686, Monika Lahrkamp: ''Die französische Zeit''. In: Wilhelm Kohl (ed.), Geschichte Westfalens, Bd.2, S. 1–44.

Present-day

The territory of Minden-Ravensberg is now within northeastern

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

and part of Ostwestfalen-Lippe. It roughly encompasses the districts of

Minden-Lübbecke Minden-Lübbecke is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the northeastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Diepholz (district), Diepholz, Nienburg (district), Nienburg, Schaumburg, Lippe, Herford (district), Herford, Osnabr ...

, northern

Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the administrative region of Detmold (administrative region), Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a Gütersloh (distric ...

, and Bielefeld, as greatest town and economic center. Because it belonged to Brandenburg-Prussia for centuries, Minden-Ravensberg is today regarded as a cultural region differing from its neighbors by its

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

and special economic development.

References

{{Coord, 52, 10, 14.03, N, 8, 40, 05.57, E, dim:150000_scale:1500000_region:DE-NW_type:adm2nd_source:dewiki, display=title 1807 disestablishments Minden Former states and territories of North Rhine-Westphalia Subdivisions of Prussia States and territories established in 1719 1719 establishments in Prussia