Gotha office

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The administration building served u. a. the office building in Gothaer Augustinerstraße

The Gotha office was a territorial administrative unit of the Ernestine duchies . From 1640 it belonged to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha , from 1672 to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and from 1826 to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .

Until the administrative and territorial reform of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1858 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 official area was in the Thuringian Basin and extended to the Fahner Heights in the northeast and the foreland of the Hainich in the northwest. In the south it was in the western Thuringian mountain and hill country and reached as far as the Boxberg and the Kleiner Seeberg . The highest mountain in Gotha is the Krahnberg (431.3 m). Wiegleben, north of the office, was separated from the official area by the area of ​​the Wangenheim court. The watershed of the Elbe and Weser rivers lay in the former official territory . The waters in the office were the Flutgraben in Gotha, the Nesse , the Apfelstädt , the Rettbach and the Hörsel . The Rot and Tonna originate in the area.

The former official area is now in the western center of the Free State of Thuringia and belongs to the district of Gotha , only Wiegleben belongs to the Unstrut-Hainich district .

Adjacent administrative units

Since the founding of the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg in 1672 and the division of the state in 1680, the Gotha office has bordered the following areas:

The exclave Wiegleben bordered in the north on the electoral Saxon office of Langensalza (1815 to the Prussian district of Langensalza ), in the east on the sub-care of the Tonna office (from 1677 on Saxe-Gotha) and in the west and south on the Wangenheim court (Saxe-Gotha).

history

Landgrave of Thuringia and the Ernestine Electorate of Saxony

The place Gotha established itself through its favorable location at the intersection of Via Regia or Hohen Straße (west-east direction) and a road from Mühlhausen over the Thuringian Forest (north-south direction) during the time of the rule of the Ludowingians Landgraves of Thuringia to a central market place. In the 12th century it received under Landgrave Ludwig II. The Eisenach town charter . Grimmenstein Castle , first mentioned in 1215, was built to protect the Via Regia . After the Ludowingers became extinct, the Wettins became the new Landgraves of Thuringia during the War of the Thuringian Succession (1247–1264) . In the 13th and 14th centuries Grimmenstein Castle was the seat of the Thuringian landgraves Albrecht II and Balthasar .

The places around Gotha were already in the 14th century their own care, which was initially administered by bailiffs , later by officials . The care gradually arose from individual noble rulers, which were subject to the sovereignty of the Thuringian landgraves. In 1421 the following nine places belonged to the Gotha office: Bufleben, Eberstädt, Grabsleben, Molschleben, Remstädt, Siebleben, Tüttleben, Warza and the village of Alschleben, which later disappeared. The Wettin sovereigns confirmed their own jurisdiction in the years 1589 and 1656 for the places Friemar, Ballstädt, Hausen and the Saxon half of Eschenbergen, which is why the places were called "Kanzleidörfer". The other official locations were called “care villages”, which were again subdivided into “Nessörfer” and “Bergedörfer”.

After the Leipzig division of the Wettin possessions in 1485, the Gotha office came as part of the Landgraviate of Thuringia to the Electorate of Saxony of the Ernestines . In 1526, the Ernestine-Saxon Elector John the Constant and the Hessian Landgrave Philip I signed the original treaty for the Torgau Bund at Grimmenstein Castle . This was the first Protestant association. With the formation of the Schmalkaldic League , the castle became the main fortress of the Protestants in Central Germany, which significantly expanded it.

Ernestine duchies

With the victory of the imperial troops in the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547 was Schmalkaldic War decided and the Ernestine Elector Johann Friedrich I , which already in 1546 imperial ban was imposed captured. As a result of the Wittenberg surrender , which was then signed, the Grimmenstein fortress was defended by imperial orders and some parts of the fortifications were removed. Furthermore, the Ernestines lost their electoral dignity through the surrender , whereby their possessions were united in the Duchy of Saxony . Duke Johann Friedrich II. (The middle) , the son of the last Ernestine elector, took over the reign of the Ernestine possessions , initially together with his brother Johann Wilhelm , after the death of his father in 1554 by agreement of his siblings. He moved into his residence in Gotha on the Grimmenstein, which was re-fortified and expanded with imperial permission since 1552. In 1565 the two older of the three ducal brothers agreed on a division of the country. Johann Friedrich II. Received Gotha, Coburg and Eisenach, Johann Wilhelm Weimar.

Duke Johann Friedrich II strove to regain the electorate for the Ernestines. After settling for this reason with the outlawed knight William of Grumbach allied against the emperor, which was about him also outlawed imposed and the city of Gotha in the years 1566 and 1567 besieged by imperial troops and destroyed. The Grimmenstein Fortress was razed during the Grumbach trade and Johann Friedrich II was expelled from the country. The lands of Johann Friedrich the Middle were first handed over to his brother Johann Wilhelm for administration. In 1572 the two sons of Johann Friedrich II, Johann Casimir (1564–1633) and Johann Ernst (1566–1638) were reinstated in their father's estates; However, after the partition of Erfurt, Johann Wilhelm had to share his land with his two nephews. The Gotha office came with this division to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Eisenach and when it was divided in 1596 to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg .

After the death of Johann Casimir von Sachsen-Coburg in 1633, the office of Gotha with the Duchy of Sachsen-Coburg fell back to Sachsen-Eisenach, which was now again called Sachsen-Coburg-Eisenach. Already in 1638 the Gotha office came to the duchy of Saxe-Weimar when the line Saxe-Coburg-Eisenach died out and was assigned to the newly founded duchy of Saxe-Gotha when the Ernestine was divided in 1640 . This made the city of Gotha the capital. Since there was no suitable residence in the city , Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Gotha ("Ernst the Pious") began planning a new palace early on. Friedenstein Castle was built on the ruins of Grimmenstein Castle between 1643 and 1654 and fortified until 1672. It served as the princely residence for Duke Ernst I until 1675 and as the administrative seat of the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha from 1640 to 1894.

After the Saxony-Altenburg line died out, the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha was expanded to the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg in 1672 , but was divided into seven duchies by the " Gotha Main Recess " in 1680 . The Gotha office remained as the core area of ​​the greatly reduced Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg. In 1677 Duke Friedrich I bought the towns of Erffa, Metebach and Gut Frankenroda from the Lords of Erffa . Friedrich I arranged for a representative country palace to be built on the site of the dilapidated Erffa moated castle . The name of the new Friedrichswerth Palace was carried over to the town of Erffa in 1685 in honor of the Duke. The former estate of the Lords of Erffa in Friedrichswerth now became a chamber estate, which was administered together with Metebach and Frankenroda by a special official. The three places were combined as the "Administrative District Friedrichswerth", which under Duke Friedrich III. (* 1699, † 1772) was incorporated as a separate district of the Gotha office. The large Frankenroda corridor was used to drive cattle . In 1798 a new village was built in the corridor of the Frankenroda chamber at the expense of the ducal chamber. This new poor colony was named "Neu-Frankenroda", it was supposed to promote the welfare of the country and its subjects. The jurisdiction of the new village was transferred to the administrative district Friedrichswerth in the Gotha office. Until 1818 Neufrankenroda was supported with considerable financial means, and considerable measures were taken to preserve and secure the food supply. Nevertheless, Neufrankenroda fell into such disrepair that it had to be completely abolished in 1818.

After the Saxon-Gotha-Altenburg line had died out, the Hildburghausen Partition Treaty of November 12, 1826 resulted in a comprehensive restructuring of the Ernestine duchies . The Gotha office came as part of Saxe-Gotha to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , whose two parts of the country were henceforth governed in personal union. During the administrative reform that took place in 1830, the Gotha office was continued as the Gotha Justice Office, to which twelve offices belonged. In addition, it received six places of the Tenneberg office , the Cobstädt exclave of the Reinhardsbrunn office , Günthersleben from the county of Unterleichen and the place Seebergen, which belonged to Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt as an exclave until 1825 ( Seebergen office ). The northern districts of Ballstädt, Eschenbergen (official part) and Wiegleben, however, came to the Tonna Justice Office. After the patrimonial jurisdiction of the Wangenheim court fell to the duchy in 1839 , some of the Wangenheim towns were merged with the Gotha districts of Brüheim, Eberstädt and the three towns of the Friedrichswerth administrative district to form the “Wangenheim in Friedrichswerth Court Office”. In the Gotha Justice Office, the tasks of criminal justice were transferred to the newly established "Criminal Police Office Gotha" in 1838, but in 1858 they were returned to the Justice Office. A special city court district was formed for the city of Gotha in 1849.

The Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha was divided into independent cities and district offices in 1858. The Gotha and Tonna justice offices were subordinated to the Gotha District Office in administrative tasks , and the city of Gotha was given an independent administration. The administration of the Wangenheim zu Friedrichswerth court office was subordinated to the Waltershausen District Office , while the authority renamed “Wangenheim in Friedrichswerth Justice Office” continued to be responsible for judicial matters. In 1879 the Gotha Justice Offices were converted into local courts. The Gotha District Court took over the judicial tasks of the Justice Office and the Gotha City Court. The Tonna District Court and the Wangenheim District Court in Friedrichswerth took over the judicial functions of their predecessors of the same name.

Associated places

The Gotha office consisted of a town and 19 villages, which were divided into chancellery and care villages. The care villages were again divided into mountain and ness villages.

city
Office village
Pflegedörfer (mountain villages)
Care villages (Nessedörfer)
Yards
Places of the administrative district Friedrichswerth
Palaces and castles
Desolation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Book on the history of Thuringia and the Harz, p. 37
  2. ^ The Gotha Justice Office in the Thuringia archive portal
  3. ^ The Tonna Justice Office in the Thuringia Archives
  4. ↑ Book: "Thuringia Architectural and Art Monuments", 1891
  5. ^ The court office Wangenheim zu Friedrichswerth in the archive portal Thuringia