Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg, formerly a small German principality on the west bank of the Rhine, enclosed by the Nahe, the Blies and the Glan, now belonging to the government district of Trier, Prussian Rhine province. The principality was constructed of parts of the electorate of Trier, of Nassau-Saarbrücken and other districts, and lay between Rhenish Bavaria and the old Prussian province of the Rhine. Originally called the lordship of Baumholder, it owed the name of Lichtenberg and its elevation in 1819 to a principality to Ernest, duke of Saxe-Coburg, to whom it was ceded by Prussia, in 1816, in accordance with terms agreed upon at the congress of Vienna. The duke, however, restored it to Prussia in 1834, in return for an annual pension of £12,000 sterling. The area is about 210 sq. m.