Editing Imperial County of Reuss (section)

===Main partition===
[[File:Reuss Karte.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The Reuss territories in the 18th century: {{unbulleted list|style=margin-top:0.5em
| Green: [[Reuss Elder Line|Reuss elder line]] (Greiz, Burgk)
| Red: [[Reuss-Gera]] (with Saalburg)
| Yellow: [[Reuss-Schleiz]]
| Brown: [[Reuss-Lobenstein]]}}]]
In 1564 the sons of Henry XIII of Reuss at Greiz divided the estates into
*Reuss at Lower Greiz, descendants of Henry XIV the Elder
*Reuss at Upper Greiz, descendants of Henry XV the Middle
*Reuss at Gera, descendants of Henry XVI the Younger.
While the Middle Reuss became extinct in 1616, the Older and Younger lines were divided again several times until in 1778 Count Henry XI united the possessions of Upper and Lower Greiz to the [[Reuss Elder Line|Principality of Reuss Elder Line]]. In return the remaining estates of Gera, considerably larger though, became the [[Reuss Younger Line|Principality of Reuss Younger Line]] in 1806. The two remaining Reuss principalities joined the [[German Confederation]] in 1815. Several subdivisions of the Younger Line merged into a unified state by 1848.

[[Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz|Henry XXII of Reuss Elder line]] is notable among the modern princes of this house for his enmity to [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], which he opposed in the [[Austro-Prussian War]] of 1866, when the Prussian troops occupied his domain. Henry joined the [[North German Confederation]] and the new [[German Empire]] in 1871. He alone of all the confederate princes remained until his death in 1902 an implacable enemy of [[Prince Bismarck]] and of the conditions created in Germany by the foundation of the empire. Despite his views, his daughter [[Hermine Reuss of Greiz]] later became the second wife of the exiled German Emperor [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]]. Other daughters of the house also made important marriages: [[Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf]], by marriage the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was the maternal grandmother of [[Queen Victoria]] and the paternal grandmother of [[Albert, Prince Consort]]. [[Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz]] married the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1849 and [[Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz]] became queen consort of Bulgaria in 1908.

[[Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz]] (1878–1927), was incapable of ruling and therefore the regency passed to the ruling prince of the younger line of Reuss.<ref name=Catholic>{{Catholic|wstitle=Reuss|inline=1}}</ref> Since the childless Heinrich XXIV was the last of his line, it was to be expected that the principality of the elder line would fall to the younger line after his death, and that a united state of Reuss would emerge as a result. However, both lines lost their thrones in the [[German Revolution of 1918–19]] and a united, albeit republican state, the [[People's State of Reuss]], emerged in 1919, only to merge with the larger state of [[Thuringia]] in 1920. The unified state of Reuss had a non-contiguous area of 1,143 square kilometers and 211,324 inhabitants (1919).

A (non-governing) side branch of the younger line had emerged in 1692 when [[Heinrich XXIV, Count Reuss of Köstritz]], a younger son of the ruling count Heinrich I. Reuss of Schleiz, received a number of landed estates as a [[paréage]] within his eldest brother's county, with his main seat at [[Köstritz]] Castle. This branch connected through marriages with important ruling houses, did however not govern their own territory, but lived as landowners in the county of the Schleiz Line. Henry XLIII., count Reuss of Köstritz, was elevated to hereditary [[Fürst]] (prince) by [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Francis II]] in 1806 (however without governmental power); the paréage of Köstritz remained within the principality of the younger line.

When the elder line died out with Heinrich XXIV in 1927 and the younger one when Heinrich XLV, son of the last ruler, died childless in 1945 as a prisoner of the communists, thus both main branches having become extinct, the dynastic succession (and the theoretical claims to their thrones) passed to the princely House ''Reuss of Köstritz''. This side line of the Younger Line is therefore the only branch of the entire house that still exists today, but has over 30 male members, all named Heinrich. The family council decided on June 5, 1930, that all members of the remaining family should henceforth omit any line addition (Younger Line or Köstritz) from their names and call themselves ''Prince'' or ''Princess Reuss''. This name (as well as the Heinrichs' count) was retained by a court order even in the [[Weimar republic]]. The current head of the family, Heinrich XIV, dynastic actually ''the Fürst (Prince) Reuss of Köstritz'' (b. 1952), is also styled ''The Fürst (Prince) Reuss'', as Köstritz is no longer a side line but the only branch of the house.<ref>See German article: ''[[:de:Reuß-Köstritz|Reuß-Köstritz]]''.</ref>  His main seat is [[Ernstbrunn]] Castle in Austria which his family had inherited in 1822, while Köstritz Castle was expropriated by communist [[East Germany]] in 1945 and demolished in the 1970s. In 1945, the Princes Reuss lost all of their extended possessions and castles in their ancestral homeland through expropriation. Heinrich XIV and some of his relatives regained some properties in the former Reuss states following [[German Reunification]] in 1990.