Lindow-Ruppin

The counts of Lindow-Ruppin were an imperial free noble house descended from the counts of Arnstein. Around 1214 Gebhard of Arnstein, a great-grandson of Albert the Bear, acquired Ruppin, a former Slavic stronghold, and founded the line; its name combined Ruppin with the Anhalt lordship of Lindau. Gebhard rebuilt the old fort as Alt Ruppin, founded Neuruppin and endowed the Cistercian nunnery of Lindow; his son Gunther I granted Neuruppin its charter in 1256.

In 1317 the house acquired Wusterhausen and in 1319 Gransee, though it gradually accepted Brandenburg's overlordship. Family member Burchard II was bishop of Havelberg from 1348 to 1370.

When Count Wichmann died without male heirs in 1524, the line became extinct and Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg absorbed the lordship as the district of Ruppin, rejecting the relatives' claims before the Imperial Chamber Court in 1562.