Office of Maßfeld
The Amt Maßfeld was a territorial administrative unit of the county of Henneberg , which emerged from the original area of the county, the Vogtei Henneberg .
After the Count von Henneberg -Schleusingen died out, the office came under the joint administration of the Albertine and Ernestine Wettins in 1583 . By splitting up the county of Henneberg in 1660, the office was assigned to the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg . Afterwards it belonged to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg from 1672 and from 1680 to the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen through the division of inheritance .
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 Amt Maßfeld historically belonged to the Henneberger Land and was located between the foothills of the Vorderrhön in the north, the Grabfeld in the south and the Werra valley in the east. The most striking mountains in this area are Hutsberg , Gebaberg and Neuberg .
Rivers in the office were next to the Werra itself, its tributaries Jüchse , Hasel , Sülze and Herpf . The places that went to Würzburg and are now in Lower Franconia drain to the Streu (Franconian Saale) .
During his membership in the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, the office was in the Meininger Unterland . The official area is now in the southwest of the Free State of Thuringia and belongs to the district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen . The places that went to Würzburg now belong to the Lower Franconian district of Rhön-Grabfeld in the north of the Free State of Bavaria .
Adjacent administrative units
| Amt Wasungen / Amt Sand (County of Henneberg, after 1680 part of Saxony-Meiningen) | Amt Meiningen (Hochstift Würzburg, from 1542 County of Henneberg, from 1680 to Saxony-Meiningen) | Office Kühndorf (County of Henneberg, after 1660 to the Principality of Saxony-Zeitz, 1718 to Electoral Saxony, 1815 to Prussia) |
| Amt Lichtenberg (back court) / Amt Kaltennordheim (county of Henneberg, after 1672 to Saxony-Eisenach) |
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Amt Themar (County of Henneberg, after 1680 part of Saxe-Römhild, after 1710 part of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld) |
| Villages of the imperial knighthood | Winery / Office Behrungen (County of Henneberg, after 1680 to Saxony-Römhild, after 1710 to Saxony-Hildburghausen) | Amt Römhild (County of Henneberg, after 1680 to Sachsen-Römhild, after 1710 partly to Sachsen-Meiningen and Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld) |
The office was bordered by the following exclaves of the Meiningen office: Vachdorf / Leutersdorf in the east (1825 to the office Maßfeld) and the exclave Queienfeld in the south (1723 to the cellar / office Behrungen, Saxony-Hildburghausen). The imperial knighthood places bordered in the east on the office Maßfeld, in the west on the area of the Hochstift Würzburg (offices Fladungen and Mellrichstadt), as well as on the Saxon-Eisenachian office Lichtenberg (front court) (exclave).
history
County of Henneberg
The large area of the later Amt Maßfeld formerly formed the core of the Henneberg country. His historical starting point was the Vogtei Henneberg , the oldest allod property of the Counts of Henneberg . It was made up of the count's property in the Meiningen and Mellrichstadt cents , the courts of which were not part of it, but were subordinate to the Würzburg monastery. It was not until the Henneberg main division of 1274, when the area of the Vogtei Henneberg fell to the Henneberg-Schleusingen line, that property was added to the Zent Themar .
After the death of Count Heinrich VIII von Henneberg-Schleusingen, an inheritance in the Henneberg-Schleusingen house was divided between his widow Jutta and his brother Johann in 1347. As the main part of the "Althenneberg" land, the Bailiwick of Henneberg remained with the new regent, Count Johann I von Henneberg-Schleusingen († 1359).
The pledging of half of Henneberg Castle from Schleusinger to the Römhilder line in 1393 probably resulted in the relocation of the bailiwick to Maßfeld Castle in Untermaßfeld, which was built around 1350 at an important road crossing point . In 1383, the Counts of Henneberg had the Hutsburg rebuilt as an important strategic base on the southwest flank of their territory and used their own castle men to manage it. A new, extensive office was established there by 1429. However, the office itself did not have any jurisdiction until the 17th century. Rather, this was distributed over five cents. But the village of Henneberg itself did not belong to any center; here the office had the highest jurisdiction.
To the core of the office, the "Vogtei Henneberg", belonged the places Henneberg, Unter- and Ober Maßfeld, Sülzfeld, Herpf and Einhausen, which belonged to the center Meiningen except for Henneberg . The districts of Hermannsfeld, Stedtlingen, Haselbach, Eußenhausen and Mühlfeld belonged to the Mellrichstadt district. In the Henneberg main division in 1274, the Henneberg-Schleusingen line received the Bailiwick of Henneberg as well as the places Jüchsen (with Lampertshausen and Aroldshausen) and Neubrunn from the Zent Themar, which have since belonged to the Bailiwick. From the oldest official accounts it can be seen that around the middle of the 15th century Ritschenhausen, Ellingshausen and Ellenbach (desert near Eußenhausen) were part of the office and the district of Meiningen.
The former Neuchâtel monastery villages Bettenhausen and Seeba, which had been part of the Sand Office since 1320 , came to the Maßfeld Office from the Fulda Monastery in 1419 after the deposit was redeemed by Henneberg . Both places belonged to the district of Kaltennordheim as fiefs of the Fulda Abbey . Around the same time, Stepfershausen, which once belonged to the Wasungen office , was united with Maßfeld and came to the Meiningen district court.
In the official accounts 1458 Willmars (cent. Mellrichstadt), which was acquired by Henneberg-Römhild in 1453, 1458 the devastations Affenwind and Melweiß, 1468 Drei 30acker (cent Meiningen) and 1476 Berkach (fiefdom of the Hochstift Würzburg, belonging to the cent Mellrichstadt) are mentioned. Wölfershausen (Zent Meiningen), was counted as an office in a tax register from 1481. Solz (Zent Wasungen), gradually came to Henneberg from Hesse-Thuringia ownership in the 16th century and was incorporated into the office. Belrieth (Zent Themar) also came to Maßfeld relatively late. Together with the deserted Bitthausen, the village came from Henneberg-Hartberg possession in 1380 to the Römhilder line and the office of Schwarza . Only after this tribe died out in 1549 did Belrieth fall to Henneberg-Schleusingen and the Maßfeld office.
In 1542, the Würzburg monastery and the county of Henneberg-Schleusingen exchanged rulership over the office and the district of Meiningen for the office and the district of Mainberg . The Meiningen office has since been administered by the Maßfeld bailiff, who initially also oversaw the town of Meiningen. After the high jurisdiction of the district of Meiningen came to Henneberg in 1542, the counts and later the joint Saxon government in Meiningen tried to settle the central and official borders. This is how the affiliation of Hermannsfeld and Stedtlingen to the Cent Meiningen in 1596 is to be understood. In 1544 the Reformation was introduced in the Amt of Maßfeld as in the entire county of Henneberg-Schleusingen .
Joint Saxon administration
With the death of Count Georg Ernst von Henneberg-Schleusingen in 1583, the Henneberg Count's House went out. The Kahla Treaty concluded by the Hennebergers with the Ernestine Wettins in 1554 regulated the succession of the individual parts of the country. But since the Albertine Wettins made equally justified claims to inheritance, the County of Henneberg and its offices were initially placed under a joint Ernestine and Albertine administration based in Meiningen. Since Meiningen was supposed to fall back to the bishopric due to the barter agreement of 1542 after the Henneberger died out, the Saxon elector tried to reach an agreement with the Würzburg bishop on behalf of the Saxon royal houses. This was made in the Schleusinger Treaty concluded in 1586 , whereby Meiningen remained in Saxon possession as a Würzburg fiefdom, but splintered property was given to Würzburg. In the Maßfeld office, this affected the place Eußenhausen , which has since been part of the Mellrichstadt office in Würzburg and the Catholic doctrine was immediately reintroduced.
When the counts died out, the Maßfeld office thus included the villages of Ober- and Untermaßfeld, Einhausen, Belrieth, Neubrunn, Jüchsen, Wölfershausen, Ritschenhausen, Sülzfeld, Henneberg, Hermannsfeld, Stedtlingen, Bettenhausen, Seeba, Herpf, Drei 30acker, Solz, and parts of Willmars Berkach as well as numerous devastations.
The position of the many aristocratic villages interspersed in the district was not entirely clear. They later paid the taxes to part of the imperial knighthood . Ellingshausen, owned by the Henneberg family since the High Middle Ages, was awarded to von Herda in 1350 and since then has been alienated from the Maßfeld office after the jurisdiction of the bailiwick had passed to the noble village lords. Likewise, when the counts died out, the villages of Einödhausen, Ober- and Unterharles, Geba, Träbes, Gleimershausen, Haselbach, Rippershausen, Rentwertshausen and Schwickershausen (Schleusinger share), including the lower jurisdiction, were in aristocratic hands when the counts died out, but belonged to the state sovereignty Dimension field.
Henneberg's constant struggle with the neighboring bishopric of Würzburg had led to the emergence of further noble petty lords on the southern borders of the office. They merged with the imperial knighthood, even if their legal position remained unclear until the 18th century. These are the villages of Bibra, Bauerbach, Mühlfeld, Nordheim im Grabfeld, Sands, Oberfilke and Unterfilke, Völkershausen and Hof Ruppers. While the property of the Amt of Maßfeld was put together in the manner described in the later Middle Ages, the blood jurisdiction of this area goes back to an older time. This also explains the multiple overlaps between the lower jurisdiction of the office and the high jurisdiction of the Zenten in the Meiningen area.
Division of the county of Henneberg
Since the Ernestine and Albertine sovereigns could not agree on the administration of their inheritance, the county of Henneberg was dissolved in 1660/61. The division of the county was regulated in the Weimar Treaty (Saxon Partition Treaty), based on the Kahla Treaty of 1554.
The office of Maßfeld was therefore added to the Ernestine part and came to the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg in 1660 . Stepfershausen came to the Office Wasungen assigned to Saxe-Gotha . After the dissolution of the county of Henneberg, the old central courts lost more and more of their importance, which was also reflected in the progressive alignment of the central and official borders. The high jurisdiction exercised by her passed to the Amt of Maßfeld in the 17th century, which now also acquired the high courts in Bettenhausen, Seeba and Solz.
Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen
With the extinction of the Sachsen-Altenburg line in 1672, the Amt Maßfeld fell to the Duchy of Sachsen-Gotha , which has been called Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg since then . Stepfershausen was again attached to the Maßfeld office. The Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was divided again in 1680, so that the Amt Maßfeld became part of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen . Immediately after the founding of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1681 the high jurisdiction of the office was extended to Jüchsen, Belrieth and Neubrunn, so that this now represented a closed blood court district.
Various changes occurred under Meininger's rule. In 1723, in exchange for the office of Schalkau, the villages of Schwickershausen (Meiningischer part), Rentwertshausen and Berkach im Grabfeld were lost to the Duchy of Saxony-Hildburghausen , which incorporated them into the office of Behrungen . Unterharles fell to the Meiningen family in 1782 after the uninherited death of Herr von Marschalls zu Waltershausen as if opened.
As part of a border adjustment with the Grand Duchy of Würzburg , the former imperial knighthood villages Bibra, Bauerbach, Nordheim and the Hof Ruppers came to the office of Maßfeld in 1808, whereas the sovereign free float in Willmars was abandoned and with the imperial knighthood half of Willmars and the imperial knighthood places Mühlfeld, Neustadt Oberfilke and Unterfilke, Völkershausen and Sands were left to the Grand Duchy of Würzburg. In the same year the feudal sovereignty of the dissolved Fulda monastery over Seeba and Bettenhausen expired.
The last change and substantial downsizing of the office took place in 1825, when the north of the office with the villages of Solz, Rippershausen, Stepfershausen, Herpf, Dreiässigacker, Melkers, Geba, Träbes, Hutsberg and Schmerbach passed to the office of Meiningen and only its exclaves Vachdorf and Leutersdorf in the east were acquired.
As part of the reorganization of the Meininger Unterland , the Maßfeld office was only partially separated from the judiciary and administration. The old Maßfeld office still existed as a uniform authority, but was already run as an “administrative office” in administrative matters and as a “judicial office” in judicial matters. During the major reorganization of the Meiningen administration in 1829, the offices of Maßfeld and Meiningen were combined to form the “Meiningen Administrative Office”. It was not until this year that the judiciary and administration were also completely separated and the “Meiningen District Court” was established alongside the administrative office. The noble lower courts in Einödhausen, Ellingshausen, Geba, Träbes, Gleimershausen, Haselbach, Heftenhof, Nordheim with Ruppers, Rippershausen, Schmerbach, Unterharles and Kätzerode (Amalienruhe) and Aroldshausen lasted until 1848.
During a structural reorganization of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1868, the Meiningen administrative office was dissolved and incorporated into the newly founded Meiningen district with other administrative offices in the Meininger Unterland .
Associated places
The affiliation of the official places to the respective central court, which existed until the 17th century, is indicated in brackets.
- Official Villages
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- Noble villages
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- Villages and courts of the imperial knighthood
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- Villages of the Amt Maßfeld, which were incorporated into the Amt Meiningen in 1825
- 30 acre
- Herpf
- Hutsberg and Hutsburg Castle
- Melkers (previously to the Wasungen Office)
- Rippershausen
- Schmerbach
- Solz
- Stepfershausen
- Träbes
- Exclaves of the Meiningen Office, which were incorporated into the Maßfeld Office in 1825
- Castles and Palaces
- Henneberg Castle (1274 on the Henneberg-Schleusingen line; divided between Henneberg-Schleusingen and Henneberg-Aschach-Römhild from 1393–1549)
- Hutsburg (destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525)
- Maßfeld Castle (built around 1350)
- Courtyards and porches
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- Desolation
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Affiliation of the official places to the central courts until the 17th century
Up until the 17th century, the Maßfeld department itself had no jurisdiction, but was divided into the following five cents:
- The "Zent Meiningen" , which Henneberg only acquired in 1542, included the core of the office with the villages of Dreiässigacker, Herpf, Stepfershausen, Sülzfeld, Bauerbach, Gleimershausen, Wölfershausen, Ritschenhausen, Unter- and Ober Maßfeld and Ellingshausen.
- The places Hermannsfeld, Stedtlingen and the desert of Ottenhausen, which belonged to the Würzburg "Zent Mellrichstadt" , were transferred to the Zent Meiningen in 1596. On the other hand, the places Mühlfeld, Bibra, Schwickershausen (Schleusinger part), Nordheim im Grabfeld, Willmars and Berkach, which belong to the imperial knighthood, remained near Mellrichstadt until 1808.
- The east of the office with Jüchsen, Neubrunn and Belrieth belonged to the "Zent Themar" . Here, high jurisdiction passed to the Maßfeld office in 1681.
- The town of Solz in the north was part of the “Zent Wasungen” . Here, high jurisdiction passed to the Maßfeld office in 1660.
- The "Zent Kaltennordheim" included the places Bettenhausen and Seeba, which were under the suzerainty of the Fulda monastery. Here, high jurisdiction passed to the Maßfeld office in 1660.
- The village of Henneberg itself did not belong to any center; the office had the highest jurisdiction here.
Officials and other administrators
Until 1720 the Meiningen office was co-administered by the magistrate of the Maßfeld office. The old central court in Meiningen, which had jurisdiction over numerous villages in the area, passed to the Maßfelder in 1691 and in 1720 to the Meiningen magistrate after the death of the central judge, who was still from the time of the Henneberg.
- Officials
- Paul Kühnhold, chief magistrate (1680–1685)
- Just Heinrich Brochhausen (1691–1700)
- Dr. David Frank (1702-1706)
- Erasmus Günter Theuerkauf (1706–1725)
- Lic. Johann Christoph Schröter (1726–1750)
- Tobias Heinrich Schröter (1750–1777)
- Johann Karl August von Uttenhoven (1778–1792)
- Martin Christian Amthor (1792–1807)
- Ernst Friedrich Baumbach (1808–1829)
- Office secretaries
- Martin Christian Amthor (1778–1792)
- Ernst Friedrich Baumbach (-1801)
- Christoph Elias Schulz, actuary (1798–1806)
- Secretary (1806-1828)
- Georg Adam Debertshäuser (1823–1829)
- Public actuaries
- Johann Jodocus Siegmund Strauss (1693–1694)
- Johann Michael Kartscher (1712–1738)
- Ludwig Josias Hausinger (1738–1743)
- Georg Wilhelm Gerlich (1743–1778)
- Trustee
- Johann Jodocus Siegmund Strauss (1694–1700)
- Office Adjuncts
- Johann Elias Strauss (1680–1694)
- Lic. Johann Christoph Schröter 1723–1726
- Clerk
- Gottfried Neumeß (1656–1685)
- Joseph Augustin (1703-1712)
Individual evidence
- ↑ exchange of territory in 1808 Rhon lexicon
- ↑ Bettenhausen Rhoen in Encyclopedia
- ↑ Ruppers in Rhon lexicon
- ↑ Hutsberg in Rhon lexicon
- ↑ Amalienruhe in the Rhönlexikon
- ↑ Bitthausen desert in the Rhön Lexicon
- ↑ Wüstung Ellenbach in the Rhön Lexicon
- ↑ deserted mines in Rhon lexicon
Web links
- Description of the Henneberg office of Maßfeld
- Description of the Saxon-Meiningische Amt Maßfeld p. 174f.
- History of the lines of the Grafschaft Henneberg
- The places of the Maßfeld office in the Rhön Lexicon