Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen

Territory of the Holy Roman Empire

The Archbishopric of Bremen, since the 1648 Peace of Westphalia Duchy of Bremen, was a state entity in today's northern Lower Saxony and Bremen. It emerged from the worldly possessions of the Archbishopric of Bremen. At the time when the archbishopric was very often inaccurate as " Archbishopric of Bremen " means, latin ARCHIEPISCOPATVS BREMENSIS, not unlike the other bishoprics.

Archbishopric of Bremen

From the 11th century that the archbishops of Bremen to establish a territory called archbishopric, which about a third of Bremen's diocesan territory and about 10% of the neighboring diocese of Verden included (3rd mile of the old country and Buxtehude and its hinterland ).

Until 1180 the diocese was part of the tribal duchy of Saxony. 1180, after the fall of Henry the Lion, Duke it came to division of the Duchy by the Gelnhäuser document from Emperor Friedrich I. Since then there was the bishopric of Bremen as imperial immediacy territory. Archbishop was 1180 Ascanians Siegfried I of Anhalt. Since 1500 the Archbishopric of Bremen was part of the Lower Saxon kingdom Circle within the Holy Roman Empire.

Even before Bremen in 1646 officially became a free imperial city, the Archbishops lingered increasingly outside the city. As a residence, first served stooping, then VOERDE (now Bremervörde ). Within the city of Bremen was only the precincts under archbishop's jurisdiction. Due to the increasing economic difficulties of the archbishops, there was a strengthening of the pen stands, so that 1540 was the territory under a management levels. In these years, summed up the Reformation foot, which was reinforced by the influence of the Protestant -dominated Bremen Cathedral chapter. Archbishop George of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel tolerated this development. Since 1567 the Bremen cathedral chapter elected Lutheran bishops, whom the pope of course refused to recognize. Thus, the archbishopric was remained Lutheran, and remained so when the imperial city of Bremen end of the 16th century überrtat from Lutheranism to Calvinism.

Duchy of Bremen

The archbishopric was secularised by the Peace of Westphalia. The now newly created Duchy of Bremen came together with the also secularized Duchy of Verden as a territory of Bremen - Verden with administrative headquarters in Stade to Sweden.

In the Swedish -Brandenburg War 1675-1676 the Swedish Duchy of Bremen was conquered in a campaign by several States of the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark, and remained until the war ended in 1679 in Allied possession. As part of the Treaty of Saint- Germain in 1679, the Duchy fell again to Sweden.

In 1712 it came to Denmark in 1715 and was sold to the electorate of Brunswick- Lüneburg. The Duchy of Bremen announced henceforth the history of the country and the later Prussian Province of Hanover and in 1946 part of Lower Saxony, where it first formed the district of Stade, together with the former Duchy of Verden and the Hadeln. Cultural Policy tasks on the territory of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden today perceives among others, the Regional Association of Stade.