The northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire and, after 1815, a member of the German Confederation — yet ruled for its whole existence by the Danish House of Oldenburg in personal union with the Danish fief of Schleswig. Its German status inside a Danish monarchy is the hinge of the Schleswig-Holstein Question.
Danish rights renounced at the Treaty of Vienna, 30 October 1864; administered by Austria under the 1865 Gastein Convention and annexed by Prussia after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, becoming the southern half of the Province of Schleswig-Holstein.
The standard English monograph on Holstein's dual German-Danish status and its 1864-66 extinction (Harvard University Press).
Holstein as the Empire's northernmost estate and the Gottorp dukes' place in imperial politics.
As a Bookshop.org affiliate, this site earns a commission on qualifying purchases.