Schauenburg

The Schauenburg were named for Schauenburg Castle on the Weser, built or enlarged by Adolf I around 1100. In 1110 Duke Lothair of Saxony enfeoffed him with Holstein and Stormarn, including Hamburg, making the family dominant between the Elbe and Denmark. Adolf II rebuilt Segeberg's Siegesburg, founded Lübeck in 1143 and settled colonists in Slavic lands.

Adolf III lost Holstein at Stellau in 1201; Adolf IV recovered it at Bornhöved in 1227 and took the title count of Holstein. The house split from 1261; several counts ruled in 1337 while the ancestral county stayed with Pinneberg. Gerhard III of Rendsburg defeated Christopher II in 1326, set his nephew Waldemar III on the Danish throne and was regent until killed in 1340; his line held Schleswig from 1375.

The Rendsburg line died out in 1459; in 1460 the nobility elected Christian I of Denmark. The Pinneberg line introduced the Reformation in 1559 and ended with childless Otto V in 1640; Schaumburg passed to Hesse-Cassel and its neighbours.