Minden-Ravensberg was a Prussian administrative unit consisting of the Principality of Minden and the

County of Ravensberg The County of Ravensberg (german: Grafschaft Ravensberg) was a historical county of the Holy Roman Empire. Its territory was in present-day eastern Westphalia, Germany at the foot of the Osning or Teutoburg Forest. History Ravensberg was f ...

from 1719–1807. The capital was

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of De ...

. In 1807 the region became part of the

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 ...

, a client state of

Napoleonic France The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental ...

. The territory was restored to Prussia after the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

and became part of the Minden Region within the new Prussian

Province of Westphalia The Province of Westphalia () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar Republic and from 191 ...

in 1815.

Geography

The province consisted of what is now the Ravensberg Land, between the Teutoburg Forest and the

Wiehen Hills The Wiehen Hills (german: Wiehengebirge, , also locally, just ''Wiehen'') are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany. The hills run from west to east like a long finger away from the main upland area of the Lower Saxon ...

, and the Minden Land, north of the Wiehengebirge to the North German lowlands. Minden-Ravensberg was bounded to the east by the

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

, while other important rivers were the Westphalian Aa and the Else. Minden was the regional capital in that time, whith other cities such as

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

and

Herford Herford (; nds, Hiarwede) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is the capital of the district of Herford. Geography Geographic locat ...

being of lower importance. Minden-Ravensberg had a population of 160,301 in 1800 and an area of 2,113 km² in 1806.Alwin Hanschmidt: ''Das 18. Jahrhundert (1702–1803)''. In: Wilhelm Kohl (Hrsg.), Geschichte Westfalens, Bd.1., S. 605–686, Monika Lahrkamp: ''Die französische Zeit''. In: Wilhelm Kohl (ed.), Geschichte Westfalens, Bd.2, S. 1–44.

Present-day

The territory of Minden-Ravensberg is now within northeastern

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

and part of

Ostwestfalen-Lippe Ostwestfalen-Lippe (, literally ''East(ern) Westphalia-Lippe'', abbreviation OWL) is the eastern region of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, congruent with the administrative region of Detmold and containing the eastern part of Westph ...

. It roughly encompasses the districts of Minden-Lübbecke,

, northern

Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 peo ...

, and Bielefeld, as greatest town and economic center. Because it belonged to

Brandenburg-Prussia Brandenburg-Prussia (german: Brandenburg-Preußen; ) is the historiographic denomination for the early modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohe ...

for centuries, Minden-Ravensberg is today regarded as a cultural region differing from its neighbors by its

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

and special economic development.

References

{{Coord, 52, 10, 14.03, N, 8, 40, 05.57, E, dim:150000_scale:1500000_region:DE-NW_type:adm2nd_source:dewiki, display=title 1807 disestablishments Minden Former states and territories of North Rhine-Westphalia Subdivisions of Prussia States and territories established in 1719 1719 establishments in Prussia