Hallenberg Office (Steinbach-Hallenberg)

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The Hallenberg office was a territorial administrative unit of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel and then of the Electorate of Hesse in the Schmalkalden rule .

The office initially belonged to the county Henneberg and was judicially with the centering Benshausen connected. After the Counts of Henneberg died out in December 1583, the office came under the joint administration of the Albertine and Ernestine Wettins and in 1619 was transferred to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel in exchange .

Map of the Hallenberg office (near Köbrich, 1894)

Until the administrative and territorial reform of the Electorate of Hesse in 1821 ( list of districts in the Electorate of Hesse (1821) ) and the associated separation of the administrative and judicial functions of the offices , it formed the spatial reference point for the collection of sovereign taxes and compulsory services for the police , Military service (district office) and jurisdiction (judicial office).

Geographical location

The area of ​​the Hallenberg district was in the south-western part of the Thuringian Forest . The Rennsteig , which runs over the ridge of the Thuringian Forest, marked the northern border of the office to the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha for centuries . The office area closed the headwaters of the Werra inflows Haselbach and silence one. Mountains in the official area were among others Schützenberg , Gebrannter Stein and Ruppberg .

The official area is now in the southwest of the Free State of Thuringia and belongs to the district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen .

Adjacent administrative units were

history

Reign of Hallenberg

The small rule of the von Hallenbergs was first mentioned in the 13th century (1228 and 1232), but could go back to the beginning of the 12th century, as the boundary line of a Reinhardsbrunn monastery document from 1111 allows conclusions to be drawn about a dominion around the Hallenburg . In 1228 a "Reginhald von Haldinberc" was named as a witness when the Rohr monastery was defied. Since this Reginhald was referred to as a Hennebergian Dienstann in 1232 , it can be assumed that the Lords of Hallenberg went into the ministry of the Counts of Henneberg between 1228 and 1232 .

The small lordship of the Lords of Hallenberg was the starting point for the creation of the later "Amt Hallenberg", which originally only comprised the Burgvogteibezirk of the Hallenburg with the two places Untersteinbach and Obersteinbach as well as a larger forest area.

County of Henneberg

Count Heinrich III. von Henneberg († 1262) took over the Althenneberg lands, which also included the Hallenburg with its castle district, when he took office. Since the middle of the 13th century, the Hallenburg was the residence, official and administrative seat, protective castle and central prison of the medieval judicial district of the Zent Benshausen , with which it remained connected until the 16th century. During the entire rule of the Henneberg, the castle and the office of Hallenberg were administered by castle officials and bailiffs.

In the Henneberg main division in 1274, the Benshausen district was divided between the lines Henneberg-Schleusingen and Henneberg-Hartenberg, while the castle and the Hallenberg office came completely to Henneberg- Hartenberg . The Hallenburg became the residence of the Counts of Henneberg-Hartenberg. They pledged the Hallenburg in 1374 to the Lords of Bibra , who ceded the Hallenburg in 1391 to the Henneberg-Aschach line (later called Henneberg-Römhild), which had secured ownership rights to the Hallenberg office before the Hartenberg line died out in 1378.

In 1468, the Hallenberg office came through an inheritance from the county of Henneberg-Aschach (-Römhild) to the "Römhilder part" under Count Friedrich II of Henneberg-Aschach († 1488). When the estate was again divided among his grandsons in 1532, it came to Albrecht von Henneberg-Schwarza. Upon his childless death in 1549, the office and the Hallenberg Castle fell to the Count von Stolberg , who were related by marriage to him , but Count Wilhelm IV von Henneberg-Schleusingen did not recognize this and took the office and the castle in the same year by force into his possession.

In the 16th century, the Hallenberg office comprised the Burgvogteibezirk with the two places Untersteinbach and Obersteinbach and a larger forest area. It also owned sovereign rights to some villages in the area (including shares in Albrechts , Mehlis and Springstille ). After 1549 the office broke away from its court seat of the Zent Benshausen.

Joint administration of the Wettins

After the Counts of Henneberg died out in December 1583, the Hallenberg office came under the joint administration of the Ernestine and Albertine Wettins in accordance with the Kahla Treaty of 1554 . It was added to the Saxon share (Albertiner).

As a result of the change of rule, the Hallenberg office was given more independence compared to the neighboring parts of the country, which was expressed above all in the establishment of its own high court in Steinbach. Until 1588, the Hallenburg was the seat of the castle bailiff and administrator. After that, the offices of Hallenberg and Kühndorf were jointly administered by an official bailiff who had his seat at Kühndorf Castle .

Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel

In 1619, Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel and representatives of Albertine and Ernestine Saxony signed the Benshausen barter agreement . As a result, the previously Saxon office of Hallenberg came to the Landgraviate Hessen-Kassel in exchange for the Hessian share in the Zent Benshausen and was subordinated to the Oberamt Schmalkalden under the direction of a Hessian official school .

As a result of the contract, the Hallenberg Office lost jurisdiction in the parts of the villages of Albrechts and Mehlis that were previously under the Office. For this purpose, the places Bermbach , Herges-Hallenberg and the parts of Unterschönau and Oberschönau on the right of the Haselbach, which were previously part of the Benshausen district, were incorporated into the Hallenberg office. Furthermore, the office received a considerable increase in real estate from the Benshausen district, so that the following mountains have belonged to the administrative district since then: Schützenberg , Gebrannter Stein and Ruppberg , Breukopf, the Steinhauk, the Small and Large Hermesberg (Hermannsberg), the Brand and Sonnenberg, the Kirchberg, Winterleite and Krummeschlinge, Mittelberg, Raitzberg and Sattel.

The expensive court of Landgrave Moritz led in 1626 to a pledge of the Schmalkalden rule to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , which lasted until the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. This had fatal consequences for the region, as the Reformed Moritz was on the Protestant side, but Landgrave Georg II of Hesse-Darmstadt was on the Catholic side.

In 1791 there was an exchange of territory with the office of Schmalkalden , which removed the scattered position of both offices in Stillergrund and in Haselbachtal. Closer silence came to the office of Schmalkalden. Unterschönau , Oberschönau and Springstille , which had previously been part of both offices, were assigned to the Hallenberg office together with the villages of Altersbach and Rotterode , which had previously belonged entirely to Schmalkalden .

Kingdom of Westphalia

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, whose regent was made electoral prince in 1803 , was incorporated into the Kingdom of Westphalia under Jérôme Bonaparte during the French occupation from 1807 to 1813 . The rule Schmalkalden was within the department of Werra the district Eschwege assigned and in six cantons divided. The Hallenberg office became the Hallenberg canton .

After the end of the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1813, what was now the Electorate of Hesse was restored with its previous administrative structure.

Administrative reform and dissolution in 1821

After Elector Wilhelm II of Hessen-Kassel took office, the state was divided into four provinces and 22 districts as part of the administrative reform of the Electorate of Hesse in 1821. Administration and jurisdiction were separated from each other.

For managing Schmalkalden, Hallenberg, Herrenbreitungen and Brotterode was the from the previous offices district Schmalkalden formed, which the Hessian newly established province of Fulda belonged. Four judicial offices were set up as courts of first instance for jurisdiction: Schmalkalden, Brotterode, Herrenbreitungen and Steinbach.

Associated places

Villages
Castles and individual goods

Henneberg officials

  • Hans von Rosental (around 1358)
  • Berld Banse (around 1380)
  • Ditrich von Thunfeldt (around 1410)
  • Hermann Vrat (before 1467)
  • Leonhard von Masbach (1467–1470)
  • Hans Zoller (Zollner) the Elder of Rotenstein (1473–1490)
  • Eberhard von Ostheim (1490–1498)
  • Hans Zoller (Zollner) the boy from Rotenstein (1498–1508)
  • Bartholmes Zoller (Zollner) von Rotenstein (1508–1510)
  • Vinzenz Burkan (early 16th century)
  • Balthasar von Ostheim (around 1524)
  • Hans von Ostheim (around 1534)
  • Bernhard Truchseß (1548–1552)
  • Vinz Treuter (1552–1556)
  • Heinrich von Vitzenhagen (1556–1564)
  • Hans Keller (waiter) (1564–1572)
  • Jobst Ziegler (Siegler) (1572–1580)
  • Michael Mußmacher (1580–1588)

From 1588 the bailiff Michael Mußmacher received the title "Amtsvogt". This was the administrator of Hallenberg and Kühndorf and had his seat in Kühndorf.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Heckert: Steinbach under Hallenberg - History of a Hessian-Thuringian city. 1990.

literature

Web links