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Waldsassen : historical cultural center of the Stiftland
Leonberg
Falkenberg Castle
Carp pond in Stiftland
Trinity Church Kappl near Waldsassen
The Great Devil's Kitchen near Pilmersreuth

The Stiftland refers to a region in the north-east of the Upper Palatinate , which refers to the historical development in which the Waldsassen Monastery, from its foundation in 1133 until the Reformation, acquired a largely closed territory, which largely corresponded to the former Tirschenreuth district before the local reform in 1972.

Location and concept

The Stiftland is located in the northeast of Bavaria on the border with the Czech Republic , in the northeast of the Upper Palatinate in the former Nordgau and includes the area of the Tirschenreuth district before the territorial reform without the former Kemnath district and the areas around Erbendorf , Krummennaab and Reuth . The areas around Neuhaus and Wurz in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab also traditionally belonged to the Stiftland, but this has now almost been forgotten.

The term Stiftland, which is still in use today, dates from the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, during which the Waldsassen Monastery was a large landowner in the area later called northern Upper Palatinate and in the neighboring Egerland . Up until the abolition of the monastery, the farmers were only tenants of their farms, had to perform various labor services and were liable to pay ten fees . The monastery mostly delegated the management to carers , aristocratic administrators who took over a district for a limited period of time. In the parish villages this role was played by the local priests who were thus landlords. In the eastern border area the monastery was in competition with the magistrate and patriciate of the neighboring imperial city of Eger , who opened up similar sources of income.

geography

The Stiftland is now a relatively sparsely populated area. Numerous fish ponds in the valleys, surrounded by pine and spruce forests and dark, spruce-dominated forests on the heights determine the landscape. In between there are castle ruins, villages, old markets and a few towns. Almost half of the area is currently covered with forest. In the north the mountain ranges of the Steinwald , the Reichsforst and the Kohlwald rise and in the east that of the Upper Palatinate Forest . The west and the center of the Stiftland are occupied by the Naab-Wondreb Depression . In the late Middle Ages, the forests were clearly pushed back and were mainly limited to the mountain ranges of the Steinwald and Upper Palatinate Forest. In the lowlands oaks and pines dominated, on the mountain ranges spruce and beech trees. In addition, there were extensive moors and unused wasteland that gradually fell into bush. The Stiftland is drained to the south by the Waldnaab towards the Danube, to the east by the Wondreb and in the north in a small area by the Kosseine towards the Elbe.

history

In 1133 Diepold III donated . von Vohburg the Waldsassen monastery , the first abbot was Gerlach . It belonged to the filiation of the Morimond Primary Abbey and was given a privilege by King Conrad III in 1147 . From the house of the Hohenstaufen the imperial immediacy , became a prince Cistercian abbey and developed a lively colonizing and economic activity. The monastery soon began to develop land and cultivate more distant areas, including the Schönbacher Ländchen and Sechsämterland . More distant possessions went down over time, e.g. B. lost again under the abbot Franz Kübel , in the 15th century it was the abbots John VI. It is thanks to Wendel and Nikolaus IV. Peisser that the property with the Stiftland was formed into a largely closed territory.

The fortified town of Tirschenreuth, including the town castle and the castles Falkenberg , Altneuhaus , Neuhaus , Schwarzenschwall , Waldershof , Hardeck , Liebenstein and Schönficht contributed to the preservation of the autonomy of the prince abbey .

The Stiftland as property of the Waldsassen monastery, also in the so-called mixed places of the Frais , enjoyed imperial immediacy up to the 16th century . Each year, the Frais was subject to tax and robots to the Waldsassen Abbey and the city administration of Eger.

From the 16th century onwards, the political and religious developments brought about the fact that the Stiftland became subordinate to the Elector of the Palatinate as a feudal lord, as the Wittelsbach line ruling there had also been in the possession of the Upper Palatinate since the House Treaty of Pavia . The last abbot of the pre-Reformation period was George III. Agmann . From 1528 the Waldsassen monastery lost its vote in the Reichstag to the Electoral Palatinate and with it the imperial immediacy. In 1548 the electoral sovereignty had to be recognized by the monastery administration. The land and its extensive property were initially administered by secular administrators and, from 1571, by a governor who was subordinate to the electoral government in Amberg . During this period some of the property was sold to private individuals. The population of the Stiftland was evangelical-Lutheran, later Calvinist-Reformed for three generations through the Reformation and after the imperial and religious peace in Augsburg. With the beginning of the Thirty Years War , after the Bavarian occupation in 1621 and the cession to the Duchy of Bavaria in 1628, recatholicization began.

dialect

The dialect of Northern Bavarian is spoken in Stiftland . Compared to other Bavarian dialects, it has remained relatively unadulterated.

Museums

Attractions

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Langhammer, p. 10ff.
  2. ↑ Langhammer, pp. 189-196.