A history of disputes
As clear as mud! The House of Lippe is well-versed in succession challenges beginning with the death of Woldemar, Prince of Lippe in 1895. He was succeeded by his mentally ill and unmarried brother Alexander. Thence followed a struggle between the three regents, Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, Ernst of Lippe-Biesterfeld and Leopold of Lippe-Biesterfeld and the three branches of Schaumburg-Lippe, Lippe-Biesterfeld and Lippe-Weissenfeld over the succession.
The head of the Biesterfeld branch, Count Ernst, was the rightful heir, but the Kaiser favoured Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe who was married to his sister Victoria. To the Kaiser's chagrin the situation got so messy that he (the Kaiser) was bypassed and the matter was referred to the Federal Council who requested that the Chancellor of the Empire refer the question of the succession to a special court of arbitration. This court was presided over by King Albert of Saxony who determined in 1897 that Count Ernest of Lippe-Biesterfeld was the only and rightful successor and was henceforth the sole regent of the principality.
It was not over yet, and the Schaumburg-Lippes launched a counter-offensive by challenging Count Ernst's marriage with the intention of having the children of the marriage declared morganatic. Count-Regent Ernst died in 1904 and his eldest son Leopold was sworn in as regent. The Kasier refused to recognise him as regent and once again the issue of who was the legitimate regent and who was to be the reigning Prince after the death of the by now insane Alexander was referred to judicial arbitration. In 1905 Fürst Alexander died and the Court Justice of the Empire declared that the descendants of Count-Regent Ernst were entitled to the Princely crown. With the death of Alexander the line of Lippe-Detmold was extinct in the male line and the Lippe-Biesterfelds became the Princely branch.
The Kaiser, never one to forget a real or imagined slight to his dignity, got his own back in 1907. During a military review Prince Bernhard, a major in the Prussian army, was about to present his troops to the Kaiser when the Kaiser turned his head and pretended to have a conversation with his aide de camp. Responding to this direct affront, Bernhard gave the order to his men to march immedaitely to the barracks. On his death in 1934 he was lauded as one of the few men who had publicly stood up to the Kaiser.
There were other struggles within the family during WWI over the recognition of the marriage of Prince Bernhard, and between the Beisterfeld and Weissenfeld branches over the question of the right to bear the Princely title. Further disputes took place between Fürst Leopold IV and various family members over apanages which weren't resolved until 1942.
The internal peace lasted about a decade and when Fürst Armin married the commoner Traute Becker in 1953 he was forced to renounce his rights as Head of the House. Although recognised by most members of the Lippe family, the descendants of Prince Julius Ernest of Lippe, a son of Count-Regent Ernst, refused to do so and proclaimed themselves the rightful heirs. Prince Ernst August thus became 'Prince of Lippe by right of primogeniture'.
Armin had passed his rights as Head of the Princely House to his half-brother Prince Leopold Bernhard who died unmarried in 1965. In 1980 Prince Ernst August withdrew his claim to the Headship of the House. With the strong support of his cousin Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, born a Prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Armin was once again the recognised and acknowledged Fürst zur Lippe, and remains so to this day.
source: Royalty Digest #166 (April 2005)