Blankenburg

The County of Blankenburg was a Harz principality centred on Blankenburg Castle. From 1182 it was a fief of the prince-bishops of Halberstadt.

The comital line died out in 1599 and the fief reverted to Halberstadt. After Halberstadt was secularised in 1648, the Welfs retained Blankenburg as a Wolfenbüttel exclave. Joseph I made it an imperial principality in 1707. Napoleon incorporated it into Westphalia in 1807; after its restoration, it became a Brunswick district in 1815.