Lippe

One of the smallest of the former German states, forming, since 1946 - 47, the northeastern corner of the Land (state) of North Rhine-Westphalia; the rather smaller Schaumburg-Lippe, now in the southern part of the Land of Lower Saxony, was founded in the 1640s under a separate branch of the House of Lippe. Both were until 1990 in West Germany. The Lippe lands lie north and south of the east - west