Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel
The town was legally recognised as a settlement in 1250, and in 1615 as a town by Ernest, Count of Schaumburg. The line of Counts of Schaumburg was extinguished in 1640 on the death of Count Otto V, and in 1647 the town was absorbed by the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) - a position that was formally consolidated by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.