Sensburg district

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The Sensburg district was a Prussian district in East Prussia that existed from 1818 to 1945.

structure

The Sensburg district included the cities on January 1, 1945

and 121 municipalities with fewer than 2000 inhabitants and two manor districts (forests).

history

For a long time the "Great Wilderness" at the edge of the Teutonic Order sparsely populated. The administration of the order state was based on commanderies, which were divided into chamber offices. One of them was built in the middle of the 14th century in Seehesten ( Szestno ), where the governor resided. In 1723 the "War and Domain Chambers" were set up in East Prussia as part of an administrative reform, including the chamber in Gumbinnen, to which the Seehesten district belonged. Appointed district administrators took the place of the official governors.

The reorganization of ownership in the countryside (separation), which ended in the 1830s, led to the emergence of large estates and independent villages. In the 19th century, the district saw an increase in population thanks to building activity, amelioration and road construction. At that time there were 13 windmills, 14 water mills, 19 schnapps distilleries, six breweries, numerous brickworks, tar ovens and the like in the city and in the district.

In the second half of the 19th century, roads connected Sensburg with the Rhine (now Ryn), Rastenburg (now Kętrzyn ) and Bischofsburg (now Biskupiec ). In May 1897, the Rastenburg – Sensburg narrow-gauge railway that no longer exists was inaugurated. Further railway lines to Rothfließ (Czerwonka), Bischofsburg (Biskupiec), Sensburg (Mrągowo) and Arys (Orzysz) were opened later.

The district was occupied by Russian troops during World War I, who invaded the Sensburg district near Lucknainen on August 22, 1914. In 1915, the district was regained by German troops in the winter battle near Gurkel, Schmidtsdorf (Töpferberg), Erlenau, Julienhöfen and Lucknainen, and on May 20, 1915, the Westphalian administrative district of Arnsberg took over the war aid for the reconstruction of the Sensburg district. After the end of the First World War , the population voted in the referendums in East and West Prussia on July 11, 1920 about whether the district should remain in East Prussia or join Poland . In the Sensburg district, 34,334 votes were cast to remain in East Prussia and 25 to join Poland.

During the Second World War, the district was taken by Soviet troops between January 25 and January 30, 1945. The evacuation of the district did not succeed, because in 1946 (according to Polish sources) 18,607 German residents lived in the Sensburg district.

Administrative history

Kingdom of Prussia

With the Prussian administrative reforms after the Congress of Vienna , the district of Sensburg was created in the administrative district of Gumbinnen in the province of Prussia ( not : East Prussia) on September 1, 1818 .

Manor of the Bosem manor (1902),
owner: Ferdinand Rogalla von Bieberstein (1857–1945)

This included the parishes:

The district office was in Sensburg. The first district administrator was the retired Captain August Lysniewski.

Since December 3, 1829 the district - after the merger of the previous provinces of Prussia ( not : East Prussia) and West Prussia - belonged to the new province of Prussia with the seat in Königsberg i. Pr.

North German Confederation and German Empire

Since July 1, 1867, the district belonged to the North German Confederation and from January 1, 1871 to the German Empire . After the founding of the empire in 1871, an administrative reform was carried out. According to an ordinance of 1872, the district council was to be elected by all residents of the district entitled to vote.

On July 21, 1875, the Dietrichswalde rural community was incorporated from the Johannisburg district into the Sensburg district.

After the province of Prussia was divided into the new provinces of East Prussia and West Prussia, the Sensburg district became part of East Prussia on April 1, 1878. On November 1, 1905, the Sensburg district joined the newly formed Allenstein district .

On September 30, 1929, a regional reform took place in the Sensburg district, as in the rest of the Free State of Prussia , in which all previously independent manor districts were dissolved except for two and assigned to neighboring rural communities. At the same time, the manor districts of Borken, Groß Salzig-See and Klein Hensel-See from the Sensburg district were incorporated into the Lötzen district.

In the spring of 1945 the district was occupied by the Red Army . After the end of the war , the district was placed under Polish administration by the Soviet occupying power in the summer of 1945 in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement . As far as the German population had not fled, she was largely in the aftermath of the circle area sold .

The territory of today's powiat Mrągowski ( Sensburger Kreis ) corresponds roughly to the former district area.

Local constitution

The Sensburg district was initially divided into town communities, rural communities and - until they were almost completely eliminated - in independent manor districts.

With the introduction of the Prussian Municipal Constitution Act of December 15, 1933, there was a uniform municipal constitution for all municipalities from January 1, 1934. The previous municipalities of Nikolaiken and Sensburg now carried the name city .

With the introduction of the German municipal code of January 30, 1935, the leader principle was enforced on April 1, 1935 at the municipal level .

A new district constitution was no longer created; The district regulations for the provinces of East and West Prussia, Brandenburg, Pomerania, Silesia and Saxony from March 19, 1881 continued to apply .

District administrators

Place names

In 1938, extensive changes to place names took place in the Sensburg district. Since mostly "not German enough", these were phonetic adjustments, translations or free inventions, for example:

Sponsored city

literature

  • Gustav Neumann : Geography of the Prussian State. 2nd edition, Volume 2, Berlin 1874, p. 33, item 13.
  • Karl Templin: Our Masurian homeland. For the centenary of the Sensburg district 1818–1918. Self-published by the district of Sensburg, 2nd edition 1926.
  • E. Titius: The Philipponen in the Sensburg district . In: New Prussian Provincial Papers . Third episode. Volume 9, Koenigsberg 1864, pp. 192-215 ; Volume 10, Koenigsberg 1865, pp. 1-50 , pp. 281-320 and pp. 385-421 ; Volume 11, Koenigsberg 1866, pp. 449-484

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Kossert: Prussia, Germans or Poles? The Masurians in the field of tension of ethnic nationalism 1870–1956 . Ed .: German Historical Institute Warsaw . Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-447-04415-2 , p. 157 .