History of the city of Gelnhausen
The history of the city of Gelnhausen begins in the 12th century.
Early history
The first secured written mention of Gelnhausen as Geilenhusen comes from the year 1133 . In the first half of the 12th century, a branch of the noble family of Reginbodones (previously located in Langenselbold ) named itself after Gelnhausen (" Counts of Selbold-Gelnhausen "). The ancestor of this branch of the family, Count Dietmar von Selbold-Gelnhausen, acquired property in Thuringia , especially in Camburg and other places in today's Saale-Holzland district , through his wife Adelheid , who was close to the Ludowingers and Wettins . The founding of several castles and monasteries there go back to the couple's descendants. Count Dietmar - although related to the Salians - was hostile to the emperor and probably died in 1115 in the battle of the Welfesholz . Statues by Dietmar, his wife Adelheid and his son Timo are among the famous donor figures in Naumburg Cathedral and shape the political agenda of this sculpture cycle. The remains of the family's castle in Gelnhausen are believed to be in the north of the village, between Peterskirche and Obermarkt. It has not yet been proven archaeologically .
Staufer period
Gelnhausen was founded in 1170 as a planned city complex by Emperor Friedrich I (Barbarossa) . This was done by merging three villages on the slope north of the Kinzig, one of them called "Gelnhausen". The location was chosen because it was conveniently located on the Via Regia , the trade route from Frankfurt am Main to Leipzig . Various trade routes from Wetterau and the Rhine-Main area met here, as the Kinzig valley narrows at this point between Spessart and Vogelsberg and only allows this one route in an easterly direction.
A road network was laid out for the new Gelnhausen and a surrounding wall was erected. Legally, the establishment took place through the granted city charter . The foundation was also significant because an imperial palace was built in the Kinzigniederung, on an island in the river . In 1180 a historically important Reichstag took place in this, at which Heinrich the Lion was ousted. The corresponding certificate is referred to as the Gelnhausen certificate after the venue . In the years 1186 and 1195 further farm days took place.
Imperial trade privileges, such as an exemption from customs duties, led to merchants settling there and an economic boom and expansion very quickly. The stacking right granted in this context also contributed to the flourishing of trade in Gelnhausen. A mayor was the king's representative in the city and opposite the citizens . These were:
| Mention | Surname |
|---|---|
| 1247 | Dietrich von Partenstein |
| 1261 | Hermann (I.) Fürzchen |
| 1336 | Hermann (II.) Fürzchen |
Historical forms of names
- Geylhausen (1058)
- de Geilenhusen (1133)
- Gelenhusen (1158)
- Geilnhusen (1170)
- Gelnhusen (1223)
middle Ages
Gelnhausen was thus one of the four urban bases of imperial power in the Wetterau area alongside Frankfurt am Main , Wetzlar and Friedberg . In terms of tax revenue, it was one of the richest cities in the Holy Roman Empire and became the Oberhof of 16 other cities. From 1180, an imperial coin minted Wetterau bracteates with the inscription GEILENHUS. Gelnhausen had about 3000 inhabitants in the High Middle Ages. The economic boom began when it was founded and lasted barely 150 years. The imperial palace became insignificant after the Staufer period, pledging and changes in general economic activity caused a gradual decline, which only turned into a new boom in the 20th century.
Pledging
For the first time from 1282 to 1323 and for the second time from 1326, the imperial city was mortgaged by the emperor for increasing sums. This meant that the city served as collateral for a loan that a pledgee (pledgee) granted the emperor. The loan interest was covered by a corresponding share of the taxes otherwise due to the Reich from the revenue of the city.
From the late Middle Ages onwards, the empire was no longer able - and probably no longer had any interest - to redeem the pledge. The state of the Reich pledge therefore lasted uninterrupted from 1349 until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, with which the legal and territorial relations in the old Reich were reorganized. The imperial city property became extinct and Gelnhausen became a normal part of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel through mediation .
As the pledging period progressed, the city increasingly came under the influence of the pledges, so that the original freedoms as an imperial city were severely restricted and were hardly noticeable in practice from the end of the Middle Ages.
Phases of the lien
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| Period | Lien | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| before 1282 | - | pledge-free | |
| 1282 - after 1320 | Breuberg | Pledged to Gerlach von Breuberg by Rudolf I (HRR) in 1282 . | |
| 1326 - after 1330 | Hanau | Pledged again in 1326, released again after 1330. | |
| circa 1331 to 1349 | - | pledge-free | |
| 1349 to 1431 | Half of Schwarzburg | Half mockery | Second pledge of 50% each to Schwarzburg and Hohnstein. |
| 1431 to 1435 | Schwarzburg | Schwarzburg has taken over the Hohnsteiner share. | |
| 1435 to 1496 | Half of Schwarzburg | Half of the Palatinate | Schwarzburg has sold half of his pledge to the Electoral Palatinate. |
| 1496 to 1736 | Half of Hanau | Half of the Palatinate | When Count Reinhard IV von Hanau-Münzenberg and Katharina von Schwarzburg-Blankenburg married in 1496, the Schwarzburg share was transferred to Hanau. |
| 1736 to 1746 | Half of Hessen-Kassel | Half of the Palatinate | The Hanau property was inherited by Hessen-Kassel. |
| 1746-1803 | Hessen-Kassel | Hessen Kassel has bought the share of the Electoral Palatinate and is therefore the sole pledgee. 1803 Mediatization of Gelnhausen to Hessen-Kassel. The pledge relationship became meaningless and dissolved. | |
In 1282, King Rudolf I (HRR) von Habsburg Gelnhausen pledged 100 silver marks to his royal bailiff in the Wetterau Gerlach von Breuberg , where he was supposed to restore law and order after the turmoil caused by the long interregnum. After the sex died out, triggered by the division of inheritance among the daughters.
In 1326 the imperial city of Gelnhausen was pledged to Ulrich II von Hanau by King Ludwig IV . In 1330 the citizens were released from their oath of loyalty to the emperor and referred to Hanau in this regard. Shortly afterwards, however, Gelnhausen was exchanged back from the Reich, presumably for a Rhine toll.
On May 26, 1349, King Karl IV. Gelnhausen pledged again, this time to Count Günther von Schwarzburg and the Counts of Hohnstein in return for Günther's relinquishment of the throne. This was published on June 12th. On June 15, Charles IV issued an order to pay homage to Gelnhausen in favor of Count Günther, and on June 26, 1349 the city paid homage to its new master.
On July 22nd, 1431, the Counts of Hohnstein sold their share of the pledge to the Counts of Schwarzburg. On May 26, 1435, Henry IX again sold. von Schwarzburg - initially with a right of repurchase - half of the pledge to Reinhard II. von Hanau and Elector Ludwig III. from the Palatinate , which ruled the city as a condominium . The right of repurchase was then replaced as part of the dowry on the occasion of Count Reinhard IV's marriage to Katharina von Schwarzburg-Blankenburg in 1496.
Church conditions
middle Ages
The Marienkirche is mentioned in 1223. It was a collegiate monastery of the Premonstratensian monastery Selbold ( Langenselbold ). A pastor and 11 chaplains were assigned to her. The parish church of the city was the Peterskirche , called 1238. Their church patronage also lay with the Selbold monastery. The parish belonged to the Archdiocese of Mainz , the central church authority was the Landkapitel Roßdorf , which was subordinate to the Archdiaconate of St. Maria ad Gradus in Mainz . There was also a Franciscan monastery within the city walls .
reformation
The Reformation began in the city from 1539. In 1543 the last abbot of the Selbold monastery transferred the patronage rights of both churches to the city of Gelnhausen, which exercised it until 1803. Both pledges, both the Electoral Palatinate and the County of Hanau-Münzenberg - the latter officially since 1597 - became Calvinist , so that Gelnhausen joined the Reformation without any problems. Gelnhausen formed its own deanery , called "Protestant Class Gelnhausen", to which, in addition to the city, the castle community Gelnhausen and the village of Haitz belonged.
Witch persecution in Gelnhausen
During the witch hunts between 1574 and 1634, 52 people were victims of the witch trials in Gelnhausen . 31 names have survived. There were waves of lawsuits in 1596 and 1597, when at least 15 women and one man fell victim to the persecution. From 1633 to 1634 at least 18 people were beheaded with the sword, three more died in prison. The trial of Elisabeth Strupp , wife of the Gelnhausen pastor Johannes Strupp, who was executed on August 3, 1599, became particularly well known .
In Gelnhausen there are three memorial plaques and two sculptures at different locations to deal with the injustice of the witch trials. In 1986 a memorial plaque was attached to the witch tower in Gelnhausen. With the words: Representing all those who were tortured and executed in Gelnhausen between 1574 and 1633 during the witch persecution , reference is made to 31 named victims and another 21 unnamed victims. The city council of Gelnhausen announced on June 10, 2015 a rehabilitation of the victims of the witch hunt.
Decay
In the Thirty Years' War "there was a Spanish garrison from 1620-1631 under General Spinola, who fought on the emperor's side against the Protestants". Gelnhausen was visited several times, "in 1634 the Lutheran Gelnhausen is plundered by the imperial and set on fire". Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, who was born in Gelnhausen, recorded one of these episodes in his novel The adventurous Simplicissimus . When the commander of the Swedish fortress of Hanau , James Ramsey to Gelnhausen, failed in 1634, the Gelnhausen palace was sacked and destroyed on his orders. Gelnhausen did not recover from the consequences of the war until the middle of the 19th century.
Until the dissolution of imperial directness in 1803, a quarrel between the city and the pledges of Kurpfalz and Hanau , which had been smoldering since the 16th century, lasted before the Reichshofrat and Reichskammergericht , the highest courts in the empire. It was about the rights and privileges of the city, especially the question of whether it would continue to be directly imperial despite being pledged, as the pledges tried to incorporate it into their territory. Legally, the question should be clarified whether the city was obliged to pay homage to the emperor or the pledge. There were violent attacks in the dispute. The military power was on the side of the pledge. The citizens had little to counter this.
With the death of the last Hanau count, Johann Reinhard III. , In 1736 the Hanau half of the pledge fell to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel together with the County of Hanau-Munzenberg . In 1746, Hessen-Kassel bought the Electoral Palatinate half of the pledge.
19th to 21st century
In 1803 Gelnhausen lost its status as an imperial city due to the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and became part of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel . During the Napoleonic period, Gelnhausen was initially under French military administration from 1806, belonged to the Principality of Hanau from 1807 to 1810 and then from 1810 to 1813 to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt , Department of Hanau . With the restoration of the former territories it fell back to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, which was elevated to the status of the Electorate of Hesse at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 . The administrative reform of the Electorate of Hesse in 1821 divided the state into four provinces and 22 districts. Gelnhausen was seat of the district of the same circle . With the annexation of Kurhessen by the Kingdom of Prussia after the lost war of 1866 , Gelnhausen also became Prussian.
In the 19th century, on May 1, 1867, the city was connected to a nationally important railway line with the Kinzig Valley Railway , part of what was then known as the Bebra Railway . The rubber industry settles in the city and provided for an economic boom.
In 1945 Gelnhausen came to the newly founded state of Hesse . As part of the regional reform in Hesse , Gelnhausen initially lost its status as a district town. The district of Gelnhausen became part of the Main-Kinzig district . The city of Gelnhausen remained a regional center in the Kinzig valley and received a branch office of the district administration. This was expanded into a central district office for the Main-Kinzig district and the district administration moved here from Hanau in 2005 . This means that Gelnhausen is again a district town.
Incorporations
On July 1, 1970, the formerly independent communities Haitz and Roth were incorporated. On April 1, 1971, Hailer joined them. Höchst and Meerholz followed on July 1, 1974.
The 1.03 m high menhir from Gelnhausen-Meerholz (also called the gate stone) was found in 1929 while a gas pipeline was being built.
Residents
- 1611: 479 people controlling the city, 28 in the brick house, 9 Jews
- 1895: 4496 inhabitants
- 1939: 5721 inhabitants
- 1961: 7756 inhabitants
- 1970: 10,221 inhabitants
literature
- Jürgen Ackermann: Immediate or exempt? The pledged imperial city of Gelnhausen . In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2005, pp. 3–10.
- Jürgen Ackermann: Gelnhausen. The pledged imperial city, civil liberty and ruling power = studies and materials on the constitutional and state history 22. Marburg 2006.
- Max Aschkewitz: Pastor history of the Hanau district ("Hanauer Union") until 1986 , part 2 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 33. Marburg 1984, p. 437f.
- Barbarossa city of Gelnhausen. A small town with a great history . Gelnhausen 1990.
- André Bechtold: Apud castrum Geylnhusen novam villam fundantes: City development and city promotion of Gelnhausen = Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 46 (1996), pp. 31-77.
- Ludwig Bickell : Building and art monuments in the administrative district of Cassel . Vol. I: Gelnhausen district. Marburg 1901.
- Wilhelm Dersch: Hessian monastery book. Source studies on the history of the founders, monasteries and branches of religious cooperatives founded in the administrative district of Kassel, in the Grafschaft Schaumburg district, in the province of Upper Hesse and the district of Biedenkopf = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 12th 1915, 2nd edition: 1940, ND 2000 , Pp. 57-59.
- Reinhard Dietrich : Hanauer deduction writings . In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 31 (1993), pp. 149–175 [ numerous contemporary publications on the legal disputes between the city of Gelnhausen and its pawnbrokers are listed here ].
- Regenerus Engelhard : Description of the earth of the Hessian Lands Casselischen Antheiles with notes from history and from documents explained . Part 2. Cassel 1778, ND 2004, pp. 810f.
- Adalbert Erler : Gelnhausen . In: Concise Dictionary of German Legal History , Vol. 1: Berlin 1971, Sp. 1489.
- Ludwig Heinrich Eulner: On the legal history of the imperial city of Gelnhausen = New Year's Gazette of the Association for History and Archeology in Frankfurt am Main for the year 1874.
- Franziska Haase: Ulrich I., Lord of Hanau 1281–1306 . Masch. Diss. Münster 1924, p. 40.
- Wolfgang Hartmann: From the Main to Trifels Castle - from Hirsau Monastery to Naumburg Cathedral. On the traces of the Franconian noble family of the Reginbodonen in the Middle Ages . In: Publications of the History and Art Association Aschaffenburg e. V. 52, Aschaffenburg 2004 (see information on the book ). ISSN 0433-843X
- Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt (Hrsg.): Historical municipality directory for Hessen . Issue 2: Area changes of the Hessian communities and districts from 1834 to 1967. Wiesbaden undated, pp. 17, 56.
- Gustav Wilhelm Hugo: The mediatization of the German imperial cities . Karlsruhe 1838.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Junghans: Attempt a history of the free imperial city of Gelnhausen . In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies. NF 12 (1886), pp. 103-463 online .
- Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , pp. 382-383.
- Götz Landwehr: The pledging of the German imperial cities in the Middle Ages = research on German legal history 5. Cologne 1967.
- Christian Leonhard Leucht : New European State Canzley , Vol. 38, 1-45.
- Walter Möller: The seals of the oldest Frankfurt mayors and other Reich officials . In: Quarterly sheets of the historical association for the Grand Duchy of Hesse . New series 6. Darmstadt 1922, pp. 117–122.
- Johann Jacob Moser : Teutsches Staatsrecht 39, chap. 188; 40, chap. 188-191; 41, chap. 191 (especially p. 268); 42, chap. 191; 43, chap. 193-195.
- Elsbet Orth : The imperial cities in the Wetterau . In: The history of Hesse (Ed .: U. Schultz). Stuttgart 1983, pp. 82-85.
- Heinrich Reimer : Historical local dictionary for Kurhessen . Marburg 1926. ND 1974, p. 161.
- Heinrich Reimer: Document book on the history of the Lords of Hanau and the former province of Hanau = publications from the Royal Prussian State Archives. 4 vol., Leipzig 1891–1897 Online references , ND Osnabrück 1965.
- Johann August Reuss: Hessen-Hanauischer appeal, concerning the Gelnhauser exemption and immedietation matter . In: Teutsche Staats-Canzley. Ulm 1783; 1. Theil, p. 212ff; 5. Theil, p. 348ff; 6. Theil, pp. 444ff; 7. Theil, pp. 283ff; 8. Theil, p. 341ff.
- Johann August Reuss: From the Gelnhausian exemption dispute and the appeal made to the Reichstag by the Hessen-Hanau government . In: Teutsche Staats-Canzley, 2. Part, Ulm 1783, pp. 106–130.
- Fred Schwind : imperial city and imperial palace Gelnhausen . In: castle, village, monastery, city. Contributions to the history of the Hessian state and to the medieval constitutional history 117 = Selected essays by Fred Schwind. 1999, pp. 269-294.
- Heinz Stoob: Gelnhausen = German City Atlas, Delivery I No. 4, 1973 = Publication by the Institute for Comparative Urban History, Münster, (Westphalia). Dortmund 1973.
- Thomas Weyrauch: Guild and craft documents of the free imperial city of Gelnhausen . Laufersweiler, Wettenberg 2004 (2nd edition). ISBN 3-930954-01-X
- Ernst Julius Zimmermann: Hanau city and country . 3rd edition, Hanau 1919, ND 1978.
Web links
- "Gelnhausen, Main-Kinzig-Kreis". Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- Literature on the history of the city of Gelnhausen in the Hessian Bibliography
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Möller: Siegel, p. 121.
- ↑ Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS 15.2; P. 1033 line 35, naming doubtful.
- ↑ Walter Hävernick : The older coinage of the Wetterau up to the end of the 13th century . (= Publication of the Historical Commission for Hesse and Waldeck. 18.1). Marburg 1936, 2nd edition. 2009 [with research report and biographical foreword by Niklot Klüßendorf ], p. 7f. and catalog.
- ↑ a b Aschkewitz, p. 437.
- ^ Ina Petermann: witch hunt in Gelnhausen. In: Archiv Frauenleben in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis: Hexenwahn und Teufelswerk , Hanau 2003, pp. 74–88.
- ↑ Neue Gelnhäuser Zeitung from June 11, 2016: Violent dispute over witch hunt.
- ↑ Hans Kreutzer, "About the 30-year war in the Kinzigtal", Vorsprung-Nachrichten from the Main-Kinzig region, March 12, 2020
- ↑ "Craftsmen of Death, Spiegel Wissenschaft
- ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 362 f .