History
The Lippe district nearly covers the same area as the historic county of Lippe. The first mention of this country was in 1123; it grew in power slowly in the following centuries. In 1528 it became a county, in 1789 it was elevated to a principality.
Unlike many other countries of the Holy Roman Empire in the area, Lippe kept its independence in the Napoleonic era, and thus wasn't incorporated into Prussia afterwards. It was one of the smaller member states of the German empire.
After the death of Prince Woldemar in 1895, the two lines of the House of Lippe fought over the regency for over a decade.
The last prince of Lippe was forced to abdicate in 1918 after the end of World War I when Germany became a republic; his country became a Freistaat in the German republic. In 1932 the Free State of Lippe was subdivided into two districts, Detmold and Lemgo. These continued to exist when in 1947 Lippe lost its status as a state of Germany and by order of the British military government was incorporated into the new federal state North Rhine-Westphalia; in 1949 this change was approved by the parliament. In 1969/70 the 168 cities and municipalities were merged to 16; and as the second part of the administrative reform in 1973 the two districts Lemgo and Detmold were merged to the district Lippe.
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