Kelbra Office

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The Office Kelbra was a territorial administrative unit jointly owned by 1710 in an imperial immediacy Principality converted County Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and the County of Stolberg - Roßla .

Until it was ceded to Prussia in 1815, as an office under the sovereignty of the Electorate of Saxony, it was the spatial reference point for the demand for sovereign taxes and compulsory services , for the police , jurisdiction and army service .

Geographical location

The area of ​​the Kelbra office was on the northern slope of the Kyffhäuser Mountains in the Golden Aue . The helmets flowed through it.

Today the official area belongs to the places Kelbra and Berga in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz ( Saxony-Anhalt ). Today it lies on the border with Thuringia , which is also the historical border to the Heringen office in the west .

Adjacent administrative units

The Kelbra office belonged jointly to the neighboring county of Stolberg-Roßla to the north and the subordinate rule of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt to the south .

Electorate of Hanover (exclave Ilfeld ) County of Stolberg-Roßla
Office Heringen (common Schwazburg - Stolberg possession) Neighboring communities Electorate of Saxony ( Amt Sangerhausen )
Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen ( subordinate rule ) Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt ( subordinate rule )

history

Count of Hohnstein

The place Kelbra was first mentioned in 1093 as Chelvera. In the 11th century, monks from the Walkenried monastery began to drain and reclaim the upper Helmeried between Görsbach and Kelbra. Kelbra was granted town charter in 1351. The area of ​​the Golden Aue around Kelbra and Heringen belonged to the Counts of Hohnstein from the 12th century , whose center was the area around Ilfeld and Neustadt / Harz with the Hohnstein Castle (Harz) . The counts expanded their territory considerably up to the middle of the 14th century, so that they could be addressed as the most important counts in the southern Harz , even before the counts of Schwarzburg and the counts of Stolberg . At the end of the 13th / beginning of the 14th century, the Hohnstein family began to split into several lines, and from 1315 it was divided into three lines.

In 1373 the lines Hohnstein- Kelbra - Heringen and Hohnstein- Lohra - Klettenberg divided the county among themselves, whereby the ancestral county with the castle of the same name should remain in common ownership.

In the Flegler War of 1412, part of the rulership was destroyed and ultimately the downfall of the Hohnsteiners was initiated. Count Heinrich von Hohnstein was after the end of the Flegler War and the Heldrunger feud on January 8, 1413 by the Wettin landgraves Friedrich IV. , Wilhelm II. And Friedrich the Elder. J. von Thuringia left the castles and cities of Heldrungen and Wiehe against assignment of his claims to Kelbra , Harzgerode , Güntersberge , Hoym , Ballenstedt and Sandersleben . The Kelbra-Heringen line was later split up further, so that by the end of the 15th century all possessions on the southern Harz were given up.

Wettiner, Stolberger and Schwarzburger

However, the Wettins , who as feudal lords had already achieved a decisive position of power in the Golden Aue in the 14th century due to their strength , did not set up their own administration in Kelbra , but reliably relocated the city, which is on the periphery of their own possessions, along with the castle and accessories appearing pledgee. They believed they had found this in the Counts of Schwarzburg and zu Stolberg .

The rule of the Hohnsteiner Kelbra-Heringen line fell through sale to the Counts of Stolberg in 1412/17 . In 1413, the castle and town of Kelbra with all accessories were leased to the brothers Heinrich and Botho zu Stolberg for three years . After the three-year period had expired, the Wettin landgraves of Thuringia renewed the pledge of Kelbra and its accessories in 1417. This time the pledges were Count Botho zu Stolberg and Count Heinrich von Wernigerode, who was related to him . The pledge period was set to six years and the text of the contract included the clause that in the event of war the Counts should provide assistance to the Wettins .

Due to a financial debt of Count Botho zu Stolberg and Heinrich von Wernigerode, which their uncle Count Heinrich von Schwarzburg took from them, they promised him in 1418 that they would leave half of the pledge amount in case the Wettin Kelbra would redeem it. The Wettins were not interested in such redemption in the years that followed. Therefore, the two Counts of Schwarzburg and zu Stolberg asked the Dukes Friedrich and Sigismund of Saxony to give them Kelbra as a joint loan. The feudal letter that was then issued was dated September 19, 1428. In 1461, Duke Wilhelm of Saxony enfeoffed Metze, the wife of his secret council, Count Heinrich zu Stolberg, with half of the Kelbra Castle as personal property . In 1478 the Count of Stolberg left this half as pledge to the bailiff Ritter Hans Knauth . The pledge from the hands of his sons, the brothers Heinrich and Hans Knauth, was redeemed in 1486.

Since the division of Leipzig in 1485, the state sovereignty over the Kelbra office lay with the Albertine line of the Wettins , whose possessions were elevated to the Electorate of Saxony after the Wittenberg surrender in 1547 .

The counts of Stolberg came from 1554 in great financial need, which is why they are 20,000 gold florins of Black burgers borrowed and pledged for its share of the Office Kelbra.

Count Wilhelm von Schwarzburg, son of Count Günther XL., To whom Frankenhausen was assigned as a place of residence and residence in 1560 , arranged for a division of property with his two brothers. 1570/71 he received sole rule in Frankenhausen and the offices of Kelbra and Heringen and Straussberg . In 1592/1593 the Stolbergian half of the offices passed into the possession of Count Wilhelm von Schwarzburg as a pledge and for Stolberg to be repurchased. Due to the high amount of debt, the Stolberg House was unable to redeem its share.

Count Wilhelm I, Herr zu Schwarzburg-Frankenhausen died childless in 1598, which led to the extinction of the Schwarzburg-Frankenhausen rule . Since then the Kelbra office has belonged to the county of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , subordinate to Frankenhausen . After the county of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was raised to a principality directly under the Empire in 1710 , the sovereignty of the Electorate of Saxony over the Unterherrschaft Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt expired with the exception of the offices of Kelbra and Heringen.

The Stolberg's share of the office, which had been a pledge with the Counts of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt since 1554 , came to the County of Stolberg-Roßla after the division of Stolberg in 1706 .

Prussia

As a result of the defeat of Saxony , which was appointed a kingdom in 1806 , the Congress of Vienna decided in 1815 to assign territories. a. affected all areas in Thuringia under the control of Saxony . State sovereignty over the offices of Heringen and Kelbra was ceded to the Kingdom of Prussia .

In 1816 a state treaty was signed between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt . By redeeming the Stolberg share and all rights to the office were transferred to Prussia. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt received compensation for this.

Kelbra with his office were the district Sangerhausen in the administrative district of Merseburg of the Prussian province of Saxony affiliated. After Stolberg-Roßla had legally sued the repurchase of the shares, Prussia left the Kelbra office to the Counts of Stolberg-Roßla in 1836 , but retained sovereignty.

Associated places

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literature

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