Lippe

Statistics
State:	North Rhine-Westphalia
Capital:	Detmold
Adm. Region:	Detmold
Area:	1,246.398 km²
Inhabitants:	364,931 (2002)
pop. density:	293 inh./km²
Car identification:	LIP
Homepage:	http://www.lippe.de
Map

This article is about the district Lippe. For the same-named river see Lippe river.

Lippe is a Kreis (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Schaumburg, Hamelin-Pyrmont, Holzminden, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld.

Contents

1 History 2 Geography 3 Coat of arms 4 Towns and municipalities 5 Culinary Art 6 External link

History

The Lippe district nearly covers the same area as the historic country Lippe. The first mention of this country was in 1123 and which grow in power slowly in the following centuries. In 1528 it became a dukedom, in 1789 it was elevated to a principality.

Unlike many other countries of the Holy Roman Empire in the area Lippe kept its independence in the Napoleonic times, and thus wasn't incorporated into Prussia afterwards. It was one of the smaller member states of the German empire.

The last prince of Lippe had to resign in 1918 after the end of World War I when Germany became republic, his country became a Freistaat in the German republic. In 1932 the state was subdivided into two districts, Detmold and Lemgo. These continued to exist when in 1947 Lippe lost its status as a state of Germany and by order of the British military government was incorporated into the new federal state North Rhine-Westphalia; in 1949 it was approved by the parliament. In 1969/70 the 168 cities and municipalities were merged to 16; and as the second part of the administrative reform in 1973 the two districts Lemgo and Detmold were merged to the district Lippe.

Geography

The Lippe district covers the northern part of the Teutoburg Forest, which also contain the highest elevation of the district, the 496 meter high Köterberg near Lügde. The lowest elevation is at the Weser river with 45.5 m. The main river is the Werre, and at the northern border of the district the Weser.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms show the traditional symbol of the state of Lippe, the rose, as the district covers nearly the same area as the historic country. In the middle of the rose 16 stamen symbolize the 16 cities and municipalities of the district. The coat of arms was granted in 1973. Despite the relatively small size of Lippe, the Lippish rose is also one of only three symbols included in the coat of arms of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Towns and municipalities

Towns	Municipalities
Bad Salzuflen Barntrup Blomberg Detmold Horn-Bad Meinberg Lage Lemgo Lügde Oerlinghausen Schieder-Schwalenberg	Augustdorf Dörentrup Extertal Kalletal Leopoldshöhe Schlangen

Culinary Art

The most famous dish served in Lippe is the Pickert. In the past it was known as a meal for poor people. The main ingredients are potatoes, flour and raisins.

External link

• Official website (http://www.lippe.de) (German)

Rural and urban districts in North Rhine-Westphalia

Aachen (town) | Aachen (district) | Bielefeld | Bochum | Bonn | Borken | Bottrop | Cleves (Kleve) | Coesfeld | Cologne (Köln) | Dortmund | Duisburg | Düren | Düsseldorf | Ennepe-Ruhr | Essen | Euskirchen | Gelsenkirchen | Gütersloh | Hagen | Hamm | Heinsberg | Herford | Herne | Hochsauerland | Höxter | Krefeld | Leverkusen | Lippe | Märkischer Kreis | Mettmann | Minden-Lübbecke | Mönchengladbach | Mülheim | Münster | Neuss | Oberbergischer Kreis | Oberhausen | Olpe | Paderborn | Recklinghausen | Remscheid | Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis | Rhein-Erft-Kreis | Rhein-Sieg | Siegen-Wittgenstein | Soest | Solingen | Steinfurt | Unna | Viersen | Warendorf | Wesel | Wuppertal edit  (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Template:Germany_districts_north_rhine-westphalia)

de:Kreis Lippe