The Principality of Quedlinburg, Quedlinburg, is a small constitutional monarchy in Eastern Germany and is a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It is bordered by Stolberg, Magdeburg, Anhalt and Mansfeld. The capital is Quedlinburg and the population around 30,000.
The Head of State is Princess Sophia Louise.
The official language is German.
The official currency is the Magdeburg Taler (MGT).
Founded in 936 by Emperor Otto I, at the request of his mother Queen Matilda, Quedlinburg Abbey and its ranks of cloistered nuns were to pray for the eternal soul of Henry the Fowler and the Imperial family. Soon a secular college of canonesses was attached and to this many daughters of nobility flocked.
Thanks to successive donations the abbey soon broke free of control of the Bishops of Halberstadt but was frequently at odds with them and the town of Quedlinburg itself. An outbreak of Great Pox in the abbey and monasteries in 1311 was gleefully seized upon by the townsfolk as a sign of God's displeasure at the noble-born clergy. However the abbesses were Princesses of the Holy Roman Empire and could generally get their way over the peasants thanks to their powerful connections with the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg.
In 1540 the abbey became Lutheran and was often run by the Stolberg counts like it was part of their domain. The power of abbesses waned under the Schmalkaldic Empire which did not entirely recognise ecclesiastical territories. During the Fifty Years War the abbey and town remained untouched but its many estates dotted around Germany were ruined or forcibly confiscated. The numbers of new nuns dwindled too and the Lutheran Abbess-Princesses usually did not take the veil.
The election of Princess Caroline Frederica of Hordaland in 1747 started a process of secularization made possible by the brief reformist reign of Emperor Francis. The Imperial Diet went along with the general idea however demanded that the crown be made non-hereditary, fearful that it would become a Kalmar bulwark in the region. In theory any Lutheran woman of (high) noble birth is eligible for the crown though the constitution states she must renounce all other territorial claims.
A single chambered Landtag runs the affairs of the small principality. The 23 members are elected every four years. The chamber sessions are normally chaired by the Princess, though she can appoint a chairman in her place.
The current Head of State is Princess Sophia Louise (previously of Mark) and her Chancellor is Johannes Erxleben.