SCHWARZBURG-SONDERSHAUSEN, a small Thuringian principality and an independent member of the German empire, shares the old Schwarzburg lands with Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, as explained in the preceding article. Its total area is 333 square miles, of which 133 are in the upper and 200 in the lower barony. The chief towns are Arnstadt (10,516 inhabitants), which at one time gave name to a line of counts, in the latter district, and Sondershausen (6110), the capital, in the former. The general description of the nature and resources of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt applies also to this principality, except that 58 per cent. of the whole is devoted to agriculture and 30 per cent. to forests, only about two-fifths of which are coniferous trees. The chief crops are oats, barley, wheat, and rye; but here also by far the most land is planted with potatoes. In 1883 the principality contained 21,205 cattle, 54,276 sheep, 22,884 pigs, 11,372 goats, and 4283 horses. About 39 per cent. of the population are supported by agriculture and forestry, and about 5 per cent. by mining. In 1880 the population was 71,107 (an increase of 3627 since 1875), or about 213 to the square mile. Of these 70,450 were Protestants....
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen is a limited hereditary sovereignty, its constitution resting on a law of 1857. The diet consists of five representatives elected by the highest taxpayers, five by general election, and not more than five nominated for life by the prince. The first ten members are elected for four years, which is also the financial period. There is a ministry with five departments—for the prince’s household, domestic affairs, finance, churches and schools, and justice. The budget for each year in the period 1884-87 estimated the income at £112,475 and the expenditure at £1000 less. The public debt in 1885 was £199,625. The troops of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen have been incorporated with the Prussian army by convention since 1867. The principality has one vote in the Reichstag and one in the federal council.
The house of Schwarzburg is one of the oldest and noblest in Germany; and tradition traces its descent from Witikind and the kings of the Franks. Its historical ancestors were the counts of Käfernburg, from whom the counts of Schwarzburg sprang about the beginning of the 13th century. The name Giinther became the distinctive name for the members of this house (corresponding to Heinrich in the Reuss family), the various Günthers being at first distinguished by numbers and afterwards by prefixed names. Various subdivisions and collateral lines were formed, but by 1599 all were extinct but the present two. Count Günther XL., who died in 1552, was the last common ancestor of both lines. Schwarzburg-Sondershausen is the senior line, although its possessions are the smaller. In 1697 the count was raised to the dignity of imperial prince by the emperor Leopold I. The prince had to pay 7000 thalers to the elector of Saxony and 3500 to the duke of Saxe-Weimar, and numerous disputes arose in connexion with the superiorities thus indicated. In 1807 Schwarzburg-Sondershausen entered the Confederation of the Rhine and became a sovereign state. In 1816 it joined the German League, and redeemed with portions of its territory all rights of superiority claimed by Prussia, Its domestic government has gradually, though not very quickly, improved since that time,—the oppressive game-laws in particular having been abolished. A treaty of mutual succession was made between the two families in 1713.
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