Basdahl is a municipality in the district of Rotenburg, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

Basdahl belonged to the

Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (german: Fürsterzbistum Bremen) — not to be confused with the modern Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1994 — was an ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic ...

, established in 1180. Its parliament, the Bremian Estates (german: Stiftsstände), convened in

diets The Low Countries comprise the coastal Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta region in Western Europe, whose definition usually includes the modern countries of Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Both Belgium and the Netherlands derived their ...

(Tohopesaten or Landtage) usually in Basdahl, with

Bremervörde Bremervörde () is a town in the north of the district (''Landkreis'') of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the Oste river near the centre of the "triangle" formed by the rivers Weser and Elbe, roughly equidistant from the cit ...

serving as capital with the prince-archiepiscopal residence and seat of government (as of 1219). The Bremian chapter had its seat in the city of Bremen. In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the

Duchy of Bremen ), which is a public-law corporation established in 1865 succeeding the estates of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (established in 1397), now providing the local fire insurance in the shown area and supporting with its surplusses cultural effor ...

, which was first ruled in

personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlink ...

by the Swedish Crown - interrupted by a Danish occupation (1712–1715) - and from 1715 on by the Hanoverian Crown. The estates met then much less frequent, because the Swedish rulers tried to discard the estates influence in legislation. In 1807 the ephemeric

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a kingdom in Germany, with a population of 2.6 million, that existed from 1807 to 1813. It included territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the ...

annexed the Duchy, before

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

annexed it in 1810. In 1813 the Duchy was restored to the Electorate of Hanover, which - after its upgrade to the

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Ha ...

in 1814 - incorporated the Duchy in a

real union Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions in contrast to personal unions; however, they are not as unified as states in a political union. It is a development from personal union and has historically be ...

and the Ducal territory, including Basdahl, became part of the new Stade Region, established in 1823. Basdahl's historical role in the prince-archbishopric is commemorated in its coat-of-arms showing on the left side the crisscrossed keys, the coat-of-arms of the prince-archbishopric.

References

Municipalities in Lower Saxony Rotenburg (district) {{Rotenburg-geo-stub