House of Mecklenburg - Modern States in Mecklenburg

Modern States in Mecklenburg

Around 1711, a treaty was made between Dukes of Mecklenburg and the Elector of Brandenburg through which the elector was recognized as the next heir of Mecklenburg after the male lines of the genealogical house of Mecklenburg. Whereby the electors, later kings of Prussia, regarded themselves as having become members of the House of Mecklenburg and started to use its titles, e.g. Duke of Mecklenburg, among their own titulary.

The legality of that treaty concession has been and is under discussion, because not each of the then agnates of the House participated in the deed, and at least one of them was then underage.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the duchy was divided several times between agnates of the ducal house. Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Werle, Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Mecklenburg-Strelitz were typical partition principalities. Until the late 18th century, most parts had returned to the senior branch (Schwerin), after which the patrimony was divided in two states until the very end of monarchy in Germany:

• Mecklenburg-Schwerin
• Mecklenburg-Strelitz

These were elevated to grand duchies by recognition of the Congress of Vienna. In 1918, less than a year before the elimination of monarchy, the main line of Strelitz went extinct and the then Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin stepped in as regent, but succession unclarities (there was a junior Strelitz branch yet living in Russia) were not solved until the small monarchies both were dissolved to republics.