Schiffdorf is a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven

Cuxhaven (district)

Cuxhaven is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stade, Rotenburg, Osterholz and Wesermarsch, the city of Bremerhaven and the North Sea.- History :...

, in Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated at the eastern boundary of the Bremian

Bremen (state)

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...

 city of Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...

, and 35 km south of Cuxhaven.

History

Schiffdorf belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (est. as principality of imperial immediacy in 1180). In 1380, under the reign of Prince-Archbishop Albert II

Albert of Brunswick and Lunenburg-Wolfenbüttel

Duke Albert of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Wolfenbüttel line was as Albert II Prince-Archbishop of Bremen in the years 1361–1395.-Before ascending to the See of Bremen:...

, knights of the family von Mandelsloh and other Verdian and Bremian robber baron

Robber baron

A robber baron or robber knight was an unscrupulous and despotic nobility of the medieval period in Europe, for example, Berlichingen. It has slightly different meanings in different countries. In modern US parlance, the term is also used to describe unscrupulous industrialists...

s ravaged burghers of Bremen and people in the entire Prince-Archbishopric. In 1381 the city's troops successfully ended the brigandage

Brigandage

Brigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder, and a brigand is a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery....

 and captured the castle of Bederkesa

Bederkesa

Bad Bederkesa is a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 20 km northeast of Bremerhaven, and 30 km southeast of Cuxhaven...

 and pertaining bailiwicks, including Schiffdorf. In 1386 the city of Bremen made the noble family, holding the estates of Altluneburg (a part of today's Schiffdorf), its vassal.

In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen, which was first ruled in personal union

Personal union

A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...

 by the Swedish Crown. In November 1654, after the Second Bremian War, Bremen had to cede the bailiwicks of Bederkesa and Lehe (a part of today's Bremerhaven), including Schiffdorf, to the Duchy of Bremen. After the Danish occupation (1712–1715) the Duchy became a fief to the House of Hanover

House of Hanover

The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

. In 1807 the ephemeric Kingdom of Westphalia

Kingdom of Westphalia

The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2.6 million Germans that existed from 1807-1813. It included of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte...

 annexed the Duchy, before France

First French Empire

The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

 annexed it in 1810. In 1813 the Duchy was restored to the Electorate of Hanover

Electorate of Hanover

The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation...

, which, after its upgrade to the Kingdom of Hanover

Kingdom of Hanover

The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...

 in 1814, incorporated the Duchy in a real union

Real union

Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions as in contrast to personal unions; however they are not as unified as states in a political union...

 and the Ducal territory, including Schiffdorf, became part of the new Stade Region

Stade (region)

The Stade Region emerged in 1823 by an administrative reorganisation of the dominions of the Kingdom of Hanover, a sovereign state, whose then territory is almost completely part of today's German federal state of Lower Saxony...

, established in 1823.