LIPPE, one of the smaller of the Lander of the German Reich, bounded north-west, west and south by the Prussian province of Westphalia and north-east and east by the Prussian provinces of Hanover and Hesse-Nassau, and Waldeck-Pyrmont. It also possesses three small enclaves—Kappel, Lipperode and Grevenhagen in Westphalia. The area is 469 sq.m., and the popu lation (1933) 175,520, showing a density of 374 to the sq.m.
The state is hilly and consists chiefly of the basin of the Werre, which from Lage northwards flows in a wide valley. From here the land rises to the higher hills which encircle it on the east, south and west (the Teutoburger Wald) borders. The forests of Lippe produce abundance of excellent timber, and consist mostly of deciduous trees, beech preponderating. The valleys contain good arable land, the tillage of which employs the greater part of the inhabitants. Small farms, the larger proportion of which are under 21 ac., are numerous, and their yield shows a high degree of prosperity among the peasant farmers. The prin cipal crops are potatoes, beetroot (for sugar), hay, rye, oats, wheat and barley. Cattle, horses, sheep and swine are also reared.
The industries are small and consist mainly in the manufacture of starch, paper, sugar, tobacco, meerschaum wares, and in weaving and brewing. Salzuflen is famous for its brine-springs.
Each year, in spring, brickmakers leave the principality to return home in the late autumn. The roads are good. A railway inter sects the country from Herford (on the Cologne-Hanover main line) to Altenbeken; and another from Bielefeld to Hameln traverses it from west to east. About 95% of the population in
5925 were Protestants. The constitution was drawn up in 1920. It provided for a representative chamber (Landtag) of twenty-one members, and an executive (Landes prasidium), of three. The courts of law was centered at Detmold, whence an appeal lies to the court of appeal at Celle in the Prussian province of Hanover. Lippe has one vote in the German Reichsrat.
History.—Lippe was inhabited in early times by the Cherusii, whose leader Arminius (Hermann) annihilated in A.D. 9 the legions of Varus in the Teutoburger Wald. It was afterwards oc cupied by the Saxons and was subdued by Charlemagne. The founder of the princely family, one of the most ancient in Ger many, was Bernard I. who received a grant of the territory from the emperor Lothiar, and assumed the title of lord of Lippe (edler Herr von Lippe). From Count Simon VI. 1613) descended the Counts of Lippe-Biesterfeld and Lippe-Weis senfeld, and the Princes of Schaumburg-Lippe. On the death of Prince Woldemar of Lippe in 1895, a dispute arose as to the succession between the various branches of the Lippe family, which was only definitely settled in 1905, when Count Leopold of Lippe-Biesterfeld became Prince of Lippe. Lippe, which had been made a principality in 1720 (confirmed in 1789) became a Republic in common with the rest of Germany in Nov. 1918.