Dobeles apriņķis

Dobeles apriņķis (Kreis Doblen, Добленский уезд) was a historic county of the Courland Governorate and of the Republic of Latvia. Its capital was Dobele (Doblen).

History
The Captaincy of Doblen (Hauptmannschaft Doblen) was founded in 1617 as a subdivision of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. In 1795, the Duchy was incorporated into the Russian Empire, and in 1819 Doblen County (Kreis Doblen) became one of the ten counties of the Courland Governorate.

After the establishment of the Republic of Latvia in 1918, the Dobeles apriņķis existed until 1920, when it was renamed to Jelgavas apriņķis.

Demographics
At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Kreis Doblen had a population of 101,310. Of these, 76.8% spoke Latvian, 11.0% German, 4.8% Russian, 4.0% Yiddish, 1.2% Lithuanian, 0.9% Polish, 0.4% Tatar, 0.4% Belarusian, 0.2% Romani, 0.1% Estonian and 0.1% Ukrainian as their native language.