Principality of Lichtenberg

The Principality of Lichtenberg on the Nahe River was an exclave of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld from 1816 to 1826 and the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1826 to 1834, when it was sold to the Kingdom of Prussia. Today its territories lie in two States of Germany – the District of St. Wendel in Saarland and the District of Birkenfeld in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Before the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, most of the future Principality of Lichtenberg was held by the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. The area of St. Wendel was held by the Prince-Bishops of Trier while the Reichsfürsten [Imperial Princes] von Salm, as the Rheingrafen [Counts of the Rhine], had Grumbach and the lands west of it. The rest of the Principality belonged to the Margraves of Baden , the Reichsgrafen [Imperial Counts] von den Leyen, and the Princes of Nassau-Usingen. But Napoleon and his Grande Armée overran all the Lichtenberger lands, added them to the First French Empire and turned them into the Département de la Sarre. The new Département lasted for 16 years, from 1798 to 1814, until the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

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