Assignment contract for Kastel and Kostheim

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The assignment contract for Kastel and Kostheim is a contract dated March 12, 1806 between Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of the French and Prince Friedrich August von Nassau-Usingen with the consent of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Nassau-Weilburg on the formal assignment of Kastel and Kostheim . The purpose was to improve the security of the then French fortress of Mainz .

background

The towns of Kastel and Kostheim on the right bank of the Rhine opposite Mainz on the left bank of the Rhine belonged to Kurmainz in the 18th century . In 1792 Mainz and Kastel were occupied together as a fortress by the French and subsequently recaptured by a German coalition army during the siege of Mainz . In the process, Kostheim was destroyed. As early as 1797, with the Peace of Campo Formio, the Rhine was established as the eastern border of France, so that the left-bank possessions of the Electorate of Mainz with the city of Mainz itself fell to France. Contrary to the peace agreement, the allocation of the fortifications of Kastel on the right bank of the Rhine remained controversial, French troops kept them occupied. The Electorate of Mainz now existed, limited to its right bank parts, under the rule of the Elector Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal and from 1802 under his successor Karl Theodor von Dalberg initially nominally. The final dissolution of the old structures through the execution of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of April 27, 1803 ended the existence of the electorate. The towns of Kastel and Kostheim, which were formerly part of Mainz, fell to the Prince of Nassau-Usingen in 1803 as compensation for the loss of areas on the left bank of the Rhine. Although the fortifications of Kastel had only been formally ceded by the French to Nassau-Usingen in February 1803, Napoleon began to re-annex Kostheim and Kastel to Mainz in September 1804 in order to expand the fortifications on the right bank of the Rhine. From September 1805 the fortifications were prepared by the French in the area formally belonging to Nassau-Usingen.

content

The treaty was formally intended to serve the security of both states, but in fact unilaterally expanded French positions at the expense of the Duchy of Nassau. France strengthened the Mainz fortress it held on the left bank of the Rhine by securing Nassau territory on the right bank of the Rhine as a bridgehead . The house Nassau-Usingen had, the just 1803 as part of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss conclusion of Kurmainz acquired communities Kastel and Kostheim and the St. Peter's Island in the Rhine on the right side of the valley road to cede to France and districts which km beyond within 2 - calculated from the crest of the covered paths in front of the crescent moons of the main wall of the Kastel bridge fortress.

In return, France guaranteed the Nassau-Saarbrücken house all of its other possessions in Germany, as it held them at the time the contract was signed.

Side agreements

It is disputed whether the parties made ancillary agreements outside of this contract. It was later rumored that a secret annual pension for the benefit of the Nassau princes from the extraordinary imperial domain had been agreed but never paid.

Conclusion of contract

The contract was set out in three articles . On Nassau's side, the Nassau Minister Ernst Franz Ludwig Marschall von Bieberstein signed for Friedrich August, Prince of Nassau-Usingen , and the French Councilor of State Jean-Baptiste-Moïse Jollivet for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte for France . The contract was signed on March 12th by the plenipotentiaries, on March 24th by Emperor Napoleon, on April 26th by the Prince of Usingen and on April 27th by Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Nassau-Weilburg and implemented on October 13th, 1806.

aftermath

After the fall of Napoleon, the plenipotentiary of the now Duchy of Nassau declared at the Congress of Vienna on October 25, 1814 , “Nassau had been forced by the overwhelming power of France at the beginning of 1806, without any replacement, Kastel, Kostheim and the Rhine islands to France to leave ". This, however, had no effect: Kastel, Kostheim and St. Petersinsel fell together with Mainz to the Grand Duchy of Hesse .

literature

  • Extract of the assignment contract for the fort and Kostheim between His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon and the Prince of Nassau . In: Peter Adolph Winkopp (ed.): Der Rheinische Bund. A journal with historical-political-statistical-geographic content . Volume 2, Frankfurt am Main 1807, pp. 246-253.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Main conclusion of the extraordinary Reichsdeputation of February 25, 1803 , § 12 ( Wikisource ).
  2. ↑ festung-mainz.de
  3. ^ Regionalgeschichte.net
  4. ^ Karl Anton Schaab: The history of the federal fortress Mainz . Mainz 1835, p. 472 ( books.google.de ).
  5. ^ Karl Anton Schaab: The history of the federal fortress Mainz . Mainz 1835, p. 474 ( books.google.de ).