The Principality of Reuss-Gera (german: Fürstentum Reuß-Gera), called the Principality of the Reuss Junior Line (german: Fürstentum Reuß jüngerer Linie) after 1848, was a

sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined te ...

in modern Germany, ruled by members of the

House of Reuss Reuss (german: Reuß , ) was the name of several historical states located in present-day Thuringia, Germany. Several lordships of the Holy Roman Empire which arose after 1300 and became Imperial Counties from 1673 and Imperial Principalities in ...

. It was one of the successor states of the Imperial County of Reuss. The Counts Reuss, with their respective capitals and ''

Residenz Residenz () is a German word for "place of living", now obsolete except in the formal sense of an official residence. A related term, Residenzstadt, denotes a city where a sovereign ruler resided, therefore carrying a similar meaning as the modern ...

en'' at

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

Schleiz Schleiz is a town in the district of Saale-Orla-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The former municipality Crispendorf was merged into Schleiz in January 2019, and Burgk in December 2019. Location Schleiz is in the Thuringian Vogtland area, an ar ...

, Lobenstein, Köstritz and Ebersdorf, were all elevated to the title of prince ('' Fürst'') in 1806. Their successor branch heads shared that title, while their cadets were also each titled prince (''Prinz''). Thus all males of the family were properly "Prince Heinrich (

Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...

) Reuss, ''J.L.''", without use of a nobiliary particle, although for convenience their branch names remained in colloquial use (for example, "Prince Heinrich I Reuss of Köstritz").

Territory

The territories of four separate branches of the Junior Line amalgamated between 1824 and 1848, at which time the senior branch of Gera retained sovereignty over the surviving cadet branches, which retained succession rights to the princely throne. In 1905, the principality of Reuss Junior Line had an area of and a population of 145,000, with

as its capital. In the aftermath of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the territory of the Junior Line merged with that of the

Elder Line An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. Elder or elders may refer to: Positions Administrative * Elder (administrative title), a position of authority Cultural * North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and t ...

in 1919 as the

People's State of Reuss The People's State of Reuss (german: Volksstaat Reuß) was a short-lived state in what is now Thuringia. The state was formed on 4 April 1919 after the reigning princes of the two Reuss principalities abdicated and elections were held in both ...

, which became part of the new state of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

on 1 May 1920.

The princely house

The House of Reuss practises a unique system of naming and numbering the male members of the family, every one of whom for centuries has borne the name "Heinrich", followed by a

. While most royal and noble houses assign a

regnal number Regnal numbers are ordinal numbers used to distinguish among persons with the same name who held the same office. Most importantly, they are used to distinguish monarchs. An ''ordinal'' is the number placed after a monarch's regnal name to differ ...

only to the ruling head of the house, and that in the sequential order of their

reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-prince of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kings, the Franks, List of ...

s, the Reuss Junior Line ("Reuss, J.L.") used a numbering sequence for all male family members which began afresh with the first son born in each century. The male children within a single nuclear family need not bear sequential numbers, as all members of the larger family share the common numbering system. For example, the sons of Prince Heinrich LXVII Reuss of Schleiz, in order of their births, were named Heinrich V, Heinrich VIII, Heinrich XI, Heinrich XIV, and Heinrich XVI, with their male-line kinsmen holding the numerals in between according to the order of their births. In consequence of this naming system, certain heads of the Reuss Junior Line have had the highest numbers attached to their name of any European ruling families. The designation of "Junior Line" was dropped in 1930; the Elder Line ("Reuss, A.L.") had become extinct as its last male member, Heinrich XXIV, renounced his rights as sovereign in 1918 and died unmarried in 1927. In 1927

Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz (german: Heinrich XXIV Fürst Reuß zu Greiz; 20 March 187813 October 1927) was the last reigning Prince Reuss of Greiz from 1902 to 1918. Then he became head of the House Reuss of Greiz, which became extinct ...

died and his titles passed to Heinrich XXVII, who became the 1st Prince Reuss and died the next year. His heir Heinrich XLV was arrested in August 1945 in Ebersdorf by the Soviet military and disappeared. On 5 January 1962 he was

declared dead in absentia A presumption of death occurs when a person is thought to be dead by a group of people despite the absence of direct proof of the person's death, such as the finding of remains (e.g., a corpse or skeleton) attributable to that person. Such a pre ...

and

Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss (26 October 1919 – 20 June 2012) was the head of the German formerly noble House of Reuss. Life He was born in Ernstbrunn, Austria, the son of Prince Heinrich XXXIX Reuss and Countess Antonia of Castell-Castell. H ...

inherited his rights.

Counts of Plauen

One of the younger sub-lines of the branch which ruled the Reuss, J.L. until 1918, includes the "

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

s of

Plauen Plauen (; Czech: ''Plavno'') is, with around 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth-largest city of Saxony, Germany after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest city in the S ...

" from the late 19th century. When Prince Heinrich XXVI Reuss (1857-1913) married Countess Viktoria von Fürstenstein (1863-1949) in 1885, under the strict marriage rules then enforced by the Reuss dynasty, although he was but a younger son of a minor ruling family, their children were not allowed to bear the dynasty's princely title. They were, instead, designated "

s of

", although they remained in the line of succession to the two thrones of Reuss The Fürstensteins lacked ''

Uradel (, German: "ancient nobility"; adjective or ) is a genealogical term introduced in late 18th-century Germany to distinguish those families whose noble rank can be traced to the 14th century or earlier. The word stands opposed to '' Briefadel'', ...

'' status: Viktoria's paternal grandfather,

Pierre-Alexandre Le Camus Pierre-Alexandre Le Camus, Count of Fürstenstein (17 November 1774-30 November 1824) was a French politician. Biography Pierre-Alexandre Le Camus, a Creole from Martinique, met Jérôme Bonaparte around 1803 when the latter was forced to sta ...

(1774-1824), son of a minor noble French notary living in

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

, rose to become foreign minister in

Jerome Bonaparte Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is comm ...

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 ...

, was ennobled there in 1807 and made a count of the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period ...

in 1817). When the German Empire collapsed at the end of

, the reigning Prince Reuss lost his crown along with all the other monarchs whose realms were within Germany. In 1927, Henrich XXVI's son, known as Count Heinrich Harry of Plauen (1890-1951), was adopted by his childless uncle, Prince Heinrich XXX (1864-1939), and the now-deposed dynasty agreed to accept him as "Prince Heinrich Harry Reuß", along with those of his male-line descendants born of unions complying with the family's 1902 rules that permitted marriages to countesses (Heinrich Harry's wife, Huberta von Tiele-Winckler was only a baroness in her own right, but belonged to a family of

comital Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

rank in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

). Their son Heinrich Enzio was thus accepted by the House of Reuss as a prince, but his own marriage to Baron Gustaf Peyron's daughter in 1949 occurred before the Reuss family conference of 1957 which lowered the marital standard again, allowing dynastic inter-marriage with baronial families. In 1992, Prince Heinrich Ruzzo of Reuss, Count of Plauen, a prince of the former sovereign House of Reuss, married

Anni-Frid Lyngstad Princess Anni-Frid Synni Reuss, Countess of Plauen (born Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad on 15 November 1945), also known by her nickname "Frida", is a Norwegian-born Swedish singer, songwriter and environmentalist, who is best known as one of the foun ...

, a former lead singer of the popular 1970s Swedish musical group

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group ...

. Since her marriage to the prince, she has held the titles of Princess Reuss and Countess of Plauen with the style of Her Serene Highness. Heinrich Ruzzo died of lymphoma on October 29, 1999, leaving her the titles of Dowager Princess and Countess. She currently resides in Genolier in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. She has shared a home since 2020 with her British partner,

Henry Smith, 5th Viscount Hambleden William Henry Smith, 5th Viscount Hambleden (born 18 November 1955) is a British peer, and descendant of the founders of the stationery group WH Smith. Marriage and family Smith is the son of William Smith and Countess Maria Carmela Attolico di ...

. Since 1999 the House of Reuss has recognized

Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen Heinrich Ruzzo Prinz Reuss von Plauen (german: Heinrich Ruzzo, Prinz Reuß von Plauen; 24 May 1950 – 29 October 1999) was a Swiss-born Swedish landscape architect and a member of the formerly sovereign House of Reuss. His branch ruled the Princ ...

, (German: Heinrich Ruzzo, Prinz Reuß von Plauen) by his official title. However, without official membership in the dynasty or entitlement to the traditional style of ''

Serene Highness His/Her Serene Highness (abbreviation: HSH, second person address: Your Serene Highness) is a style used today by the reigning families of Liechtenstein, Monaco and Thailand. Over the past 400 years, it has also used as a style for senior members ...

''. However, under German law the title has only been allowed as part of the surname after 1919, thus the name "Heinrich Ruzzo Prinz Reuss."

Princes of Reuss-Gera and Counts of Plauen

* ''Heinrich I, Count of Reuss-Schleiz 1666-1692 (1639-1692)'' ** ''Heinrich XI, Count of Reuss-Schleiz 1692-1726 (1669-1726)'' *** ''Heinrich I, Count of Reuss-Schleiz 1726-1744 (1695-1744)'' *** ''Heinrich XII, Count of Reuss-Schleiz 1744-1784 (1716-1784)'' **** Heinrich XLII, 1st Prince of Reuss-Schleiz 1784-1818 (1752-1818), raised to princly status in 1806 ***** Heinrich LXII, 2nd Prince 1818-1854 (1785-1854) ***** Heinrich LXVII, 3rd Prince 1854-1867 (1789-1867) ****** Heinrich XIV, 4th Prince 1867-1913 (1832-1913) ******* Heinrich XXVII, 1st Prince Reuss 1913-1928 (1858-1928), monarchy abolished in 1918, inherited Reuss-Greiz in 1927 ******** Heinrich XLV, 2nd Prince Reuss 1928-''1962'' (1895-''1962''), went missing in 1945,

in 1962 ** ''Heinrich XXIV, Count of Reuss-Köstritz 1692-1748 (1681-1748)'' *** ''Heinrich VI, Count of Reuss-Köstritz 1748-1783 (1707-1783)'' **** ''Heinrich XLIII, 1st Prince of Reuss-Köstritz 1783-1814 (1751-1814)'' ***** Heinrich LXI, Hereditary Prince of Reuss-Köstritz (1784-

1813 Events January–March * January 18–January 23 – War of 1812: The Battle of Frenchtown is fought in modern-day Monroe, Michigan between the United States and a British and Native American alliance. * January 24 – T ...

) ***** ''Heinrich LXIV, 2nd Prince of Reuss-Köstritz 1814-1856 (1787-1856)'' **** Heinrich XLVIII, Prince of Reuss-Köstritz (1759-1825) ***** ''Heinrich LXIX, 3rd Prince of Reuss-Köstritz 1856-1878 (1792-1878)'' *** Heinrich IX, Prince of Reuss-Köstritz (1711-1780) **** Heinrich XLIV, Prince of Reuss-Köstritz (1753-1832) ***** Heinrich LXIII, Prince of Reuss-Köstritz (1786-1841) ****** ''Heinrich IV, 4th Prince of Reuss-Köstritz 1878-1894 (1821-1894)'' ******* '' Henry XXIV, 5th Prince of Reuss-Köstritz 1894-1910 (1855-1910)'' ******** ''Heinrich XXXIX, 6th Prince of Reuss-Köstritz 1910-1946 (1891-1946)'' *********

Heinrich IV Henry IV may refer to: People * Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1050–1106), King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperor * Henry IV, Duke of Limburg (1195–1247) * Henry IV, Duke of Brabant (1251/1252–1272) * Henryk IV Probus (c. 1258–1290), D ...

, 3rd Prince Reuss 1946-2012 (1919-2012), took title in 1962 ********** Heinrich XIV, 4th Prince Reuss 2012-present (born 1955) *********** (1) Heinrich XXIX, Hereditary Prince Reuss (born 1997) *********** (2) Prince Heinrich V (born 2012) ********* Prince Heinrich VII (1927-2002) **********(3) Prince Heinrich XIX of Köstritz (born 1974) **********(4) Prince Heinrich XXII of Köstritz (born 1976) ****** Heinrich VII, Lord of Trebschen (1825-1906) ******* Heinrich XXXII, Lord of Trebschen (1878-1935), died childless ******* Heinrich XXXIII, Lord of Trebschen (1879-1942) ******** Heinrich II, Lord of Trebschen (1916-1993) ******* Heinrich XXXV, Lord of Trebschen (1887-1936) ******** Heinrich V, Lord of Trebschen (1921-1980) ********* (5) Prince Heinrich XXVIII Ico of Trebschen (born 1964) ****** Heinrich XII, Lord of Stonsdorf (1829-1866) ******* Heinrich XXVIII, Lord of Stonsdorf (1859-1924) ******** Heinrich XXXIV, Lord of Stonsdorf (1887-1956), line extant (6-20) ********* Heinrich I, Lord of Stonsdorf (1910-1982), line extant (6-18) ********** (6) Heinrich VIII, Lord of Stonsdorf (born 1944), line extant (7-8) ********** (13) Heinrich XIII, line extant (14) ****** Heinrich XIII, Lord of Baschkow (1830-1897), childless ****** Heinrich XV, Lord of Klipphausen (1834-1869), died without sons ***** Heinrich LXXIV, Lord of Jänkendorf and Neuhoff (1798-1886) ****** Heinrich IX, Lord of Jänkendorf and Neuhoff (1827-1898) ******* Heinrich XXVI, Count of

(1857-1913), line extant (21-32) ****** Heinrich XXV, Lord of Groß-Krauscha (1856-1911), line extinct *** Heinrich XXIII, Prince of Reuss-Köstritz (1722-1787), line extant (33-36)

Other notable figures

Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz Princess Augusta Reuss, Junior Line (Auguste Mathilde Wilhelmine Reuß; 26 May 1822 – 3 March 1862) was Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as the first spouse of Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Early life Princess ...

(1822–1862), Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin * Princess Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz (1860–1917), Tsaritsa Consort of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

Princess Magdalena Reuss of Köstritz Magdalena Pauline (20 August 1920 – 10 October 2009) was the wife of Prince Hubertus of Prussia, and was henceforth Princess Hubertus of Prussia. By birth, she was a member of the Reuss Younger Line, House of Reuss. Early life Born on 20 Aug 19 ...

, wife of Prince Hubertus of Prussia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reuss-Gera, Principality of States and territories disestablished in 1918 Reuss States and territories established in 1806 Gera * Younger States of the Confederation of the Rhine States of the German Empire States of the German Confederation Upper Saxon Circle 1806 establishments in Europe 1918 disestablishments in Germany 19th century in Germany by state States of the North German Confederation