Front Austria

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Coat of arms of Austria, which was also used in the various sovereign territories in Front Austria.

Vorderösterreich , formerly the Vorlande , is a collective name for the former Habsburg possessions west of Tyrol and Bavaria . This part of the Habsburg Monarchy is now mainly in Switzerland , Vorarlberg , Alsace , around Belfort , in southern Baden-Württemberg and in Bavarian Swabia .

The oldest known Habsburg possessions such as Habsburg Castle and Ottmarsheim Abbey are located in the former Upper Austria . Between the 13th century and the beginning of the 19th century, sovereignty gradually passed - with the exception of Vorarlberg - from the Habsburgs to other owners (various places or cantons of the Swiss Confederation , Kingdom of France , Bavaria , Württemberg and Baden ). Like the Archduchy of Austria, Vorderösterreich was part of the Holy Roman Empire from the 14th to the 19th century and was briefly part of the Austrian Empire .

Emergence

After the relocation of their main focus of property and rule to the Duchy of Austria , the foothills were a fragmented and fragmented appendage of the Habsburg monarchy. Jokingly, people spoke of the "tail feather of the imperial eagle". The defeat of Morgarten in 1315 and Sempach in 1386 lost the original home of the Habsburgs to the Confederates . Main parts of the Austrian Swabia were now the Sundgau (southern Alsace ) and the Breisgau . The seat of government was Ensisheim near Mulhouse . Freiburg im Breisgau , which had submitted to the Habsburgs in 1368, was the intellectual and cultural center for most of the time. Loosely connected with Upper Austria were scattered possessions in Upper Swabia and Allgäu , the largest of which was the Margraviate of Burgau . Between 1469 and 1474, Duke Siegmund pledged a large part of the foreland to Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy.

Early modern age

Freiburg im Breisgau was the most important city in Upper Austria (engraving by Matthäus Merian , 1644)
Swabian-Austrian state house on the market square of Ehingen

With all the division of rule by the Habsburgs in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period , the foreland came to the line that ruled Tyrol , thus belonged to Austria Superior - Upper Austria , in the language used at the time - and was therefore always ruled from Innsbruck. In 1490 a central authority for Tyrol and the Austrian foreland was created. In 1548 Konstanz lost its status as a free imperial city and became part of Upper Austria for over 250 years.

During the Thirty Years 'War , the widowed Archduchess Claudia von Tirol ( Claudia de' Medici ) acquired three Württemberg rulers - the Achalm pledge , the Hohenstaufen pledge and the Blaubeuren office . From 1640 to 1648 these lordships were in front of Austria. However, the Chancellor Isaak Volmar did not succeed in enforcing the ownership claims in the Westphalian peace negotiations, especially since the German princes on the side of Duke Eberhard III. of Württemberg stood. With the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Habsburg Alsace, here especially the Sundgau , and also Breisach on the right of the Rhine fell to France . In 1651, instead of Ensisheim, Freiburg became the capital of Upper Austria; The Basler Hof became the seat of the regional presidents of Upper Austria . Württemberg received the three lords back.

After the Turkish Wars , many residents of Upper Austria were persuaded to settle on the new southeast border of the Habsburg Empire in the Kingdom of Hungary . Their descendants are called Danube Swabians .

The reforms of the administration under Maria Theresa and Joseph II met with frequent rejection. In the 18th century, some areas such as Tettnang and the Ortenau district were acquired and others, such as the Gersbach district in the southern Black Forest, were sold to the Margraviate of Baden.

Around 1780, Front Austria had about 400,000 inhabitants. This includes Vorarlberg , which from 1782 was again administered from Innsbruck .

Administrative division 1790

Front Austria around 1780

Vorarlberg (around 1780 Oberamt Bregenz ) is at this time part of the Fürsteten Grafschaft Tirol with Vorarlberg .

The end of Upper Austria

Front Austrian boundary stone on the Salhöhe , demarked in 1768

Austria lost the areas south of the Rhine as early as 1799. The Fricktal was initially a French protectorate , in 1802 a separate canton in the Helvetic Republic , and in 1803 finally a part of the Aargau . In 1803, the Breisgau and the Ortenau passed to the short-lived Duchy of Modena-Breisgau , which was ruled by a Habsburg branch line. In the Peace of Pressburg of 1805, the Habsburgs completely lost Front Austria. The historical territories - especially parts of Bregenz , Günzburg and Weissenhorn - went to the new Kingdom of Bavaria , Breisgau to the new Grand Duchy of Baden , Rottenburg am Neckar and Horb am Neckar to the Kingdom of Württemberg , areas near Sigmaringen an Hohenzollern and smaller areas the Grand Duchy of Hesse (see also: Territorial particularities in southwest Germany after 1810 ).

In some parts of Upper Austria, people mourned the time they belonged to the House of Habsburg: The Swabian Günzburgers, for example, were only persuaded to exchange the Austrian colors for the Bavarian ones in their city arms after massive action by the Bavarian government. In Weissenhorn, near Günzburg, the imperial eagle, led by the Habsburgs as emperor, is emblazoned with the Austrian shield on the city gate, as is the case in Freiburg i. Br. , Breisach am Rhein and Endingen am Kaiserstuhl . In Villingen , the coat of arms adorns the facade of the old town hall as one of three.

The district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald has had the Austrian colors in its coat of arms since its formation in 1973/74 to honor the historical affiliation of large parts of the district. In 1815, at the Congress of Vienna , the consideration was given to foregoing the Duchy of Salzburg and instead to acquire the Breisgau again. This would have corresponded to the wishes of the Breisgau residents, who were represented with a delegation at the Congress of Vienna and, by means of a message to the Emperor of Austria and the Russian Tsar , asked to remain with Austria. Salzburg, however, turned out to be more practical because the Austrian territory was better rounded off . Curiously, however, at the Congress of Vienna Austria received a previously non-Habsburg rule as an exclave in the border area between Ortenau and Breisgau with the small county of Hohengeroldseck , which, however, fell to the surrounding Baden as early as 1818/19 through the swap of territory. With the Congress of Vienna, the existence of the Austrian foothills effectively ended after around 550 years. With the exception of Vorarlberg, the empire lost all other areas to today's Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland .

Historical meaning

The coat of arms of Vorderösterreich is the last of the six small coats of arms on the top left of the large coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg

The historical importance of Upper Austria lies u. a. in the fact that - together with the estates of the Fürstenberg , Hohenzollern and Waldburg families as well as a number of religious areas and imperial cities - it is responsible for the Catholic character of the southern half of Baden-Württemberg . Architectural evidence of this are the many large monasteries and churches, such as the buildings of the Thumb family .

Many communities and districts in today's Baden-Württemberg have the Austrian red-white-red shield in their coat of arms, such as Achern , Altheim (near Riedlingen) , Altenschwand , Altoberndorf , Bergalingen , Biengen , Bierstetten , Birkingen , Bremgarten , Buchenbach , Bußmannshausen , Deilingen , Dietenheim , Eberhardzell , Ehrsberg , Endingen am Kaiserstuhl , Großherrischwand , Hänner , Herbolzheim , Herten (Rheinfelden) , Heimbach (Teningen) , Hochdorf (Riss) , Höchenschwand , Hochsal , Hogschür , Hohentengen (Upper Swabia) , Indlekofen , Kenzingen , Klingenstein , Luttingen , Niederschwörstadt , Oberschwörstadt , Münstertal / Black Forest , Oberbergen (Vogtsburg im Kaiserstuhl) , Reute (Breisgau) , Rheinhausen (Breisgau) , Rippolingen , Riedichen , Riedlingen , Rotzel , Schlechtnau , Schönau in the Black Forest , Schönenberg (Black Forest) , Tiefenhäusern , Todtnauberg , Unlingen , Weilheim (Baden) , Weingarten (Württemberg) , Winterstettenstadt , Wyhlen , Zell im Wiesental and di e Districts of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald , Freiburg (1939–1973), Ehingen and Sigmaringen . For the Ortenaukreis see Ortenau # Landvogtei .

In Bavaria, the municipality of Missen-Wilhams and the district of Wegscheid (1939–1972) near the border have the binding shield in their coat of arms.

Endingen am Kaiserstuhl has the Vorderösterreich Museum .

See also

literature

  • Franz Kreutter: History of the Imperial and Royal Front Austrian States . Fürstliches Reichsstift, St. Blasien 1790 ( digitized 1st part , 2nd part ).
  • Ignatz de Luca: The foreland. In: Geographisches Handbuch von dem Oestreichischen Staats. 2. Volume The countries in the Austrian district. Verlag Johannes Paul Krauß, Vienna 1790, pp. 533-592 ( Vorarlberg pp. 593-600; Google eBook, full view ).
  • Dieter Mertens: Reich and Alsace at the time of Maximilian I: Investigations into the history of ideas and regional history in the southwest of the Reich at the end of the Middle Ages , University Library Freiburg im Breisgau 2006, DNB 1119716616 (Habilitation thesis, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, June 27, 1977, 332 Pages, full text online PDF, free of charge, 332 pages, 44 MB).
  • Christoph Döbeli: The Habsburgs between the Rhine and the Danube. 2nd edition, Education Department of the Canton of Aargau, Aarau 1996, ISBN 3-9520690-1-9 .
  • Volker Himmelein, Franz Quarthal (ed.): Front Austria. Just the tail feather of the imperial eagle? The Habsburgs in the German southwest. Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1999, ISBN 3-88294-277-0 (catalog of the state exhibition).
  • Hans Maier, Volker Press (ed.): Front Austria in the early modern period. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1989, ISBN 3-7995-7058-6 .
  • Friedrich Metz (ed.): Front Austria. A historical geography. 4th revised and expanded edition. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, ISBN 3-7930-9237-2 .
  • Franz Quarthal: Front Austria . In: Meinrad Schaab , Hansmartin Schwarzmaier (ed.) U. a .: Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History . Volume 1: General History. Part 2: From the late Middle Ages to the end of the old empire. Edited on behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-608-91948-1 , pp. 587-781.
  • Franz Quarthal, Gerhard Faix (ed.): The Habsburgs in the German southwest. New research on the history of Upper Austria. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 2000, ISBN 3-7995-0124-X .
  • Dieter Speck: A short history of the front of Austria . G. Braun, Karlsruhe 2010, ISBN 978-3-7650-8554-3 .
  • Andreas Zekorn, Bernhard Rüth, Hans-Joachim Schuster and Edwin Ernst Weber (ed.): Front Austria on the Upper Neckar and Upper Danube. UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, Konstanz 2002, ISBN 3-89669-966-0 (published on behalf of the Rottweil, Sigmaringen, Tuttlingen and Zollernalb districts).
  • Angelika Westermann: The Upper Austrian Mining Regions in the Early Modern Age (= quarterly journal for social and economic history , supplement No. 202: History ), Steiner, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-515-09306-4 (Habilitation University of Kiel 2008, 395 pages ).

Web links

Commons : Vorderösterreich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Himmelein, Franz Quarthal (ed.): Vorderösterreich, Nur die Schwanzfeder des Kaiseradlers? The Habsburgs in the German southwest . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1999, ISBN 3-88294-277-0 (catalog of the state exhibition)
  2. ^ Eberhard Fritz: The Achalm pledge in the possession of the Tyrolean line of the House of Habsburg. Expansion efforts in Upper Austria during the Thirty Years' War. In: Reutlinger Geschichtsblätter NF 49/2010. Pp. 239-348.
  3. ↑ http://www.endingen.de/html/seiten/text;vorderoesterreich-museum;153,de.html