The Ländchen is an historic area east of Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It consisted of the ten villages Breckenheim, Delkenheim, Diedenbergen, Igstadt, Langenhain, Massenheim, Medenbach, Nordenstadt, Wallau, and Wildsachsen, as well as Domäne Mechtildshausen. For three centuries, it was a Hessian

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

 owned territory between the Countship of Nassau

Nassau (state)

Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later in the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct in male line, was the House of Nassau.-Origins:...

 in the west and the territory of the Archbishopric of Mainz

Archbishopric of Mainz

The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...

 in the east. It should not be confused with the Blue Ländchen at Nastätten

Nastätten

Nastätten is a municipality in the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Taunus, approx. 25 km southeast of Koblenz, and 35 km northwest of Wiesbaden....

.

Breckenheim, Delkenheim, Igstadt

Wiesbaden-Igstadt

Igstadt is an eastern borough of Wiesbaden, capital of the state of Hesse, Germany. It was incorporated into Wiesbaden on April 1, 1928 and currently has about 2100 residents....

, Medenbach, and Nordenstadt are now borough

Borough

A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

s of Wiesbaden. Domäne Mechtildshausen is also part of the borough of Wiesbaden-Erbenheim. Diedenbergen, Langenhain

Langenhain

Langenhain is a village and a district in the town of Hofheim, Hesse, near Frankfurt, Germany. The village was incorporated into Hofheim in 1972, and it is in the north part of the city. The district currently has a population of around 3,200....

, Wallau

Wallau

right|thumb|The Coat of Arms of Wallau‎Wallau im Taunus is a quarter of Hofheim in Main-Taunus-Kreis in Hesse, Germany, and has a population of 4,650....

, and Wildsachsen are now boroughs of Hofheim am Taunus

Hofheim, Hesse

Hofheim is a Frankfurt suburb and the administrative center of the Main-Taunus district, in the south of the state of Hesse. The population of the town at the end of 2006 was 41,737; its geographical position is...

. Massenheim is a borough of Hochheim am Main

Hochheim am Main

Hochheim am Main is a town in the Main-Taunus district of the state of Hessen, Germany. It is located near the right bank of the Main River three miles above the branch into the Rhine, as well as on the German Framework Road....

. The Ländchen gives its name to a railway line, the Ländchesbahn

Ländchesbahn

The Ländchesbahn is a single non-electrified branch railway line between Wiesbaden and Niedernhausen, Germany. The long line was opened in July 1879 by the Hessian Ludwig Railway...

, which traverses its territory.

History

The Ländchen was sold by Count Gottfried IX (X) of Eppstein-Münzenberg

Lords of Eppstein

The Lords of Eppstein were a family of German nobility in the Middle Ages. From the 12th century they ruled extensive territories in the Rhine Main area from their castle in Eppstein, northwest of Frankfurt, Germany.-History:...

 in 1492 to the Landgrave William III "The Younger"

William III, Landgrave of Hesse

William III "the Younger", Landgrave of Hesse ruled on the part of the county known as Upper Hesse, with residence in Marburg....

 of Hesse. In 1526, Landgrave Philipp I "the Magnanimous"

Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse

Philip I of Hesse, , nicknamed der Großmütige was a leading champion of the Protestant Reformation and one of the most important of the early Protestant rulers in Germany....

 led the population to Protestantism

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

. Until the 20th century, the Ländchen was a purely Protestant territory. Thus, the census of December 1, 1910 counted only 248 Catholics and 133 Jews among its 7818 inhabitants.

In the Thirty Years War, the population fell to just 400 citizens in 1630. By 1821, the population was up to 4805.

As a result of the Secularization of 1803

German Mediatisation

The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....

, the Ländchen, as well as the adjacent territories of the Archbishopric of Mainz, were given to the Principality of Nassau-Usingen (which would become the Duchy of Nassau in 1806).

Source

• H. Diefenbach: Das Ländchen, in Karl Jacobi (Hrsg.): Nassauisches Heimatbuch. Gebrüder Petmecky, Wiesbaden, 1913.