REUSS, the name of two former German principalities (Reuss Greiz and Reuss-Schleiz-Gera) which have been, since 1918, amalgamated into Thuringia (q.v.).
princes of Reuss traced their descent to Henry (d. about 1120), who was appointed by the emperor, Henry IV., imperial bailiff (Ger. Vogt, from Lat. advocates imperii) of Gera and of Weida. His descendants called themselves lords of Weida. The land under their rule gradually increased in size, and it is said that the name of Reuss was applied to it owing to the fact that one of its princes married a Russian princess, their son being called der Russe, or the Russian. In 1564 the family was divided into three branches by the sons of Henry XVI. (d. 1535). One of these died out in 1616, but those of Reuss-Greiz and Reuss Schleiz-Gera survived as sovereign houses till the revolution of 1918. The lords of Reuss took the title of count in 1673 ; and the head of the elder line became a prince of the empire in 1778, and the head of the younger line in 1806. In 1807 the two princes
joined the confederation of the Rhine, and in 1815 the German confederation. In 1866 both principalities became members of the North German confederation.
A curious custom prevailed in the house of Reuss. The male members of both branches of the family all bore the name of Henry (Heinrich), the individuals being distinguished by numbers.
See H. von Voss, Die Ahnen des reussischen Hauses (Lobenstein, 1882) ; 0. Liebmann, Das Staatsrecht des Fiirstenthums Reuss (1884) ; C. F. Collmann, Reussische Geschichte. Das Vogtland im Mittelalter (Greiz, 1892) ; B. Schmidt, Die Reussen, Genealogie des Gesamthauses Reuss (Schleiz, 1903).