Eutin

Eutin, a town of Germany, capital of the principality oi Lübeck, which is an enclave in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein and belongs to the grand-duchy of Oldenburg, picturesquely situated on the Lake Eutin, 20 m. N. from Lübeck by the railway to Kiel. Pop. (1905) 5204. It possesses a Roman Catholic and two Protestant churches, a palace with a fine park, and a monument to Weber, the composer, who was born here. Towards the end of the 18th century Eutin acquired some fame as the residence of a group of poets and writers, of whom the best-known were Johann Heinrich Voss, the brothers Stolberg, and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. In the neighbourhood is a beautiful tract of country, rich in beech forests and fjords, known as “the Holstein Switzerland,” largely frequented in summer by the Hamburgers.

Eutin was, according to tradition, founded by Count Adolf II. of Holstein. In 1155 it fell to the bishopric of Lübeck and was often the residence of the prelates of that see. After some vicissitudes of fortune during the middle ages and the Thirty Years’ War, it came into the possession of the house of Holstein, and hence to Prussia in 1866.