Altenstein Office

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The Altenstein office was a territorial administrative unit under the suzerainty of the Ernestine Wettins . From 1722 it belonged entirely to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen .

Until the administrative and territorial reform of the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen in 1827 and the related resolution made it as official spatial reference point for claiming nationalistic taxes and labor services , for police , judiciary and military service .

Geographical location

The Altenstein office was located in the southwestern part of the Thuringian Forest south of Eisenach . It was traversed by the right Werra tributaries Schweina and Fischa with the Moorbach tributary . Other rivers in the area are the Steinbach, the Kallenbach and the Glasbach, the northern source streams of the Grumbach, which flows into the Werra .

During his membership in the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, the office was in the Meininger Unterland . The former official area is now in the southwest of the Free State of Thuringia and belongs to the Wartburg district .

Adjacent administrative units

Office Eisenach (Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach) Office Tenneberg (Duchy of Saxony-Gotha)
Office Salzungen (partly to the County of Henneberg, after 1680 to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen) Neighboring communities Amt Brotterode (Hennebergisch-Hessisches Condominium, after 1583 under the Hessian rule Schmalkalden)
Office Salzungen (partly to the County of Henneberg, after 1680 to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen) Exclave Barchfeld (to the Hessian rule Schmalkalden ) Liebenstein court and Frauenbreitungen office (after 1680 to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen)

history

Early history to 1346

The medieval Altenstein Castle , initially just called "Stone", was built before 1120 and was one of the first stone-built castle complexes in the central Werra Valley . It was strategically located on the edge of the Breitungen mark and at the same time at the beginning of Schweinaer Straße, an old road across the Thuringian Forest . The “Nürnberger Straße” ran near Waldfisch, which was protected by two high medieval castles called Alter Ringelstein and Neuer Ringelstein .

As the center of a small clearing lordship, which initially comprised the present-day towns of Schweina , Waldfisch , Gumpelstadt and Steinbach , Altenstein Castle was awarded to the original Franconian knight family von Stein (de Lapide) by the Fulda Monastery . The Lords of Stein left the castle to the Lords of Frankenstein , a sideline of the Counts of Henneberg, in the 12th century . After another castle was built on Bonifaciusfelsen opposite Stein Castle in the 13th century, the name "Altenstein" (de aniquo lapide), first used in 1225, for the older castle complex and the associated burgraviate (the "Dornheckenamt") became established.

Ludwig von Frankenstein († after 1164) appeared as the first Franconian owner of Altenstein. When the property was divided among his sons, Altenstein Castle came to Gotebold V († after 1197), the founder of the line of the Lords of Frankenberg, in 1186 . Gotebold's two sons, Otto and Poppo, were called "von Stein" (de lapide). After Otto died childless, Poppo was the sole owner of the Altenstein castle and manor. Since this line also died out, his relative, Heinrich I von Frankenstein († 1295), became the new owner of Altenstein around 1288. He soon sold Altenstein to Gunther von Salza, who was married to his daughter Kunigunde . During the Thuringian Count War Gunther's sons Friedrich, Heinrich and Günther von Salza sold the Burgrave Office Altenstein in 1346 to the Thuringian Landgrave Friedrich the Serious . As a result, the office came - in contrast to most of the other Henneberg areas - to the Upper Saxon Empire .

Thuringian Landgraves and the Hund von Wenkheim (1346 to 1722)

In 1353 the former Franconian towns Profisch and Atterode changed from the inheritance of Katharina von Henneberg to the Thuringian Landgrave. From this they were added to the Altenstein castle property. Mining was of great importance to the office. Iron ore mining developed in Schweina as early as 1150. Copper mining revived in the 15th century at the latest . 1441 already mentioned 14 smelting works in Schweina. In Hohen-Schweina (later Glücksbrunn) the ores from the copper mines at Altenstein and Schweina, also mentioned for the first time in 1441, were smelted, so that the name "Hüttenhof" or "the hut" was transferred to the settlement. A mine was mentioned in Atterode in 1460.

In 1492 Friedrich the Wise , Landgrave of Thuringia and Elector of Saxony, together with his brother, Duke Johann the Constant , entrusted the doorkeeper or chamberlain Hans Hund von Wenkheim with the castle and the Altenstein office as a fiefdom . Hans Hund got the lower and higher jurisdiction, while the Saxon dukes kept the feudal lordship.

Hans Hund bought the Neuchâtel opposite from his brother-in-law Hans Wetsch, knight and bailiff of Hausbreitenbach , in 1498 . This had probably come into the possession of Hans Wetsch via a pledge. After Hans Hund and his son died in 1505, Neuchâtel came back to the female heirs and Altenstein as an opened male fief to the Saxon liege lords. In the same year they enfeoffed Hans Hund's brother, the councilor and bailiff Burkhard von Hund zu Gotha with the castle and court of Altenstein. Its male descendants remained in the possession of the Altenstein Office for over 200 years.

During the Peasants' War , Altenstein Castle was not touched by rebellious peasants, as the lords of Wenkheim had apparently sided with the peasants. The introduction of the Reformation was completed in the Altenstein office by 1547. In 1554, the castle, which had long since become militarily out of date, was plundered and devastated in the Second Margravial War. Reconstruction began three years later, on a more modest scale and in the Renaissance style . In 1588 Klaus Johnbach sold the Walpolderoda farm (later the location of the Glücksbrunner Werke) to the noble court lord Hans Hund von Wenkheim (junior).

During the Thirty Years' War , the mines and official villages suffered from looting and pillage. Atterode became a desert during this time .

Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen (1680 to 1868)

With the establishment of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1680, the feudal sovereignty as well as the mining and hunting rights were transferred to this ruling house via the Altenstein office. All attempts by the fiefdom bearer, the Hund von Wenkheim family, to join the imperial knighthood failed.

Mining in the office resumed in 1681. In the 16th century, copper mining around Kupfersuhl and Schweina led to further mines in the woods near Waldfisch. In 1701 the ducal house leased the mine in Hohen-Schweina including the Hüttenhof to Johann Friedrich Trier and his brother. A year later they bought the Hüttenhof. In 1703 a first mansion was built for the von Trier family, which existed until 1722. In 1706, Duke Ernst Ludwig I renamed the Hüttenhof " Glücksbrunn ". After the discovery of cobalt deposits in 1714 of cobalt mining experienced its first flowering to 1719th With the Glücksbrunn works , the corresponding blue color works were created on the Walpolderoda farm .

With Eberhard Friedrich Hund von Wenkheim (born 1647), the noble line died out in 1722. The dukes of Saxony-Meiningen moved into the fiefdom, who in 1723 appointed an official and an official secretary to Altenstein for the administrative and judicial business. The Profisch estate was converted into a domain by the new owners in 1722 . Between 1722 and 1725 the von Trier family built a new, splendid baroque mansion, the current " Schloss Glücksbrunn ". Altenstein Castle went up in flames as a result of an arson in 1733. In 1736 Altenstein Castle was built on its ruins .

The second heyday of cobalt mining was from 1730 to 1760. Copper shale mining was stopped in 1747 and cobalt mining in 1772. With the acquisition of Glücksbrunn by the ducal house of Saxony-Meiningen, the blue paint factory was discontinued in 1818.

In 1800 the Liebenstein court was subordinated to the Altenstein office, but the judiciary was handled independently until 1827. Since 1812 the Altenstein bailiff was also responsible for the women's spreads office.

As part of the reorganization of the Meininger Unterland , the Altenstein office with the Liebenstein court was dissolved in 1827 and its administrative area was assigned to the Frauenbreitungen district office and to the newly established Glücksbrunn justice office. As early as 1829, the district office Frauenbreitungen was dissolved again and divided into the two administrative offices Wasungen and Salzungen, whereby the offices of Salzungen, Altenstein with Liebenstein and Frauenbreitungen were combined to form the latter. The jurisdiction was subordinated to the district court Meiningen.

During a structural reorganization of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1868, the Salzungen administrative office was dissolved and incorporated into the newly founded Meiningen district with other administrative offices in the Meiningen Unterland .

Associated places

Villages and individual goods
Castles and Palaces
Desolation
  • Erbach
  • Glasbach (near Steinbach)

Officials and other administrators

Officials
  • Konrad Christoph Graefe (1723–1748)
  • Konstantin Heinrich Appun (1748–1778)
  • Johann Heinrich Gottlieb Herrmann (1778–1791)
  • Philipp Jakob Heusinger (1791–1797)
  • Johann Gustav Tellgmann (1797–1821)
  • Johann Karl Friedrich Schenk (1822–1825)
  • Georg Vieweg (1825–1827)
Office Adjuncts
  • Johann Christoph Appun (1737–1748)
  • Konrad Christoph Appun (1770–1778)
Office secretaries
  • Johann Christoph Appun (1723–1737)
  • Eduard Rommel (1825-1827)
Public actuaries
  • Bartholomai (1748–1774)
  • Friedrich Christian Elias Ortmann (1807–1827)
Judicial officer of the Glücksbrunn judicial office (1827–1829)
  • Georg Vieweg (1827–1829)
Justice Office Secretary of the Justice Office Glücksbrunn (1827–1829)
  • Gottlieb Christian Schüler (1827–1829)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces . Jenzig-Verlag, Jena 2001, ISBN 3-910141-43-9 , Altenstein, Stein, p. 54-55 .
  2. ↑ The Altenstein in a description of Thuringia and the Harz Mountains