Meiningen Office

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The Meiningen office was a territorial administrative unit that emerged from the free float of the Würzburg monastery in the county of Henneberg . In 1542 the three enclaves in the area were exchanged for the county of 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 Meiningen office initially consisted of three territorially separated parts. The main area with Meiningen and Walldorf and a few other places and desert areas lay in the Werra valley on the eastern edge of the Rhön . The exclave with the towns of Vachdorf and Leutersdorf was also located in the Werra Valley, southeast of Meiningen. The Queienfeld exclave was located south of Meinigen in what is now the Thuringian part of the grave field . The places that came into office in 1825 are located west and northwest of Meiningen in the Rhön.

While it was part of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, the office belonged to 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 .

Adjacent administrative units

The following offices bordered the main part of the office around Meiningen:

The area around Vachdorf / Leutersdorf bordered in the west on the Maßfeld office, in the east on the Themar office (Grafschaft Henneberg, 1680 to Sachsen-Römhild, 1710 divided between Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld and Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg). The Queienfeld exclave bordered the Maßfeld office in the north. To the southeast was the office of Römhild (County of Henneberg, after 1555 belonging to various Saxon duchies). In the south-west there were various noble villages that initially belonged to the Maßfeld office and later to the Behrungen office (Duchy of Saxony-Hildburghausen). The place Wolfmannshausen in the south, on the other hand, belonged as an exclave to the Hochstift Würzburg and only came in 1808 in exchange to the Office of Römhild, 2/3 of which belonged to Sachsen-Meiningen.

history

Würzburg Monastery

Around the year 1000 Meiningen was an imperial estate and the capital of the "Meininger Mark", a subordinate administrative unit in the Grabfeld district . The place was the seat of a tithe . In 1008 King gave Henry II. The Bishopric of Würzburg as compensation for territorial losses as a result of the establishment of the diocese Bamberg the County Meiningen among other places than fiefdom . After the line of the Counts of Henneberg ceased to exist around 1219, the Bishop of Würzburg tried to collect the bishopric's fiefs, which were connected with the burgrave office. A bitter dispute ensued, which ended with Count Poppo von Henneberg's renunciation of Mellrichstadt and Meiningen.

The administrative district Meiningen consisted of the free float of three separate areas, which were in the territory of the county of Henneberg . At that time, in addition to Meiningen, the places Wallbach , the later desert areas Berkes, Defertshausen and Breuberg as well as the “ Walldorf ” mark were transferred to the diocese. Walldorf was awarded in the late Middle Ages as a knight's fief with the Defertshausen desert. Since the end of the Middle Ages, the Meiningen district also included the villages of Vachdorf , Leutersdorf and Queienfeld , which were also owned by Würzburg and separated from the Meiningen area.

To protect the area and the trade routes running along it, there were three high-altitude castles between Meiningen and Walldorf on both sides of the Werra: Welkershausen Castle on the Spitzberg, the Habichtsburg and the Landeswehre Castle . Meiningen Castle was built in Meiningen . Walldorf, Leutersdorf, Vachdorf and Queienfeld were secured with fortified churches.

Meiningen itself took on a special development in the following period, which was due to its property as a city (first attested in 1230 as " Civitas "). Even if the freedoms it acquired in the late Middle Ages were considerably restricted by the city statutes of 1565, it still retained an independent lower court district and had self-administration. The high courts in Meiningen and Walldorf and the surrounding towns and deserted villages incumbent from time immemorial the centering Meiningen, to which the court also some places in the hen bergischen offices Wasungen and Maßfeld belonged. Leutersdorf and Vachdorf, however, belonged to Zent Themar . Queienfeld, whose high jurisdiction probably previously belonged to the Mellrichstadt center , was later not subject to a center association, but to the main jurisdiction of the Meiningen office.

In 1406 Bishop Johann I pledged the town and office of Meiningen to the gentlemen " von der Tann ". Due to disagreements, his successor, Bishop Johann II , took the town and office back with military force in 1418. In 1434, Bishop Johann II transferred the town of Meiningen as a pledge to Count Wilhelm and Heinrich von Henneberg-Schleusingen. The pledge was expanded in 1435 to include the villages of Vachdorf, Leutersdorf and Queienfeld. Only in 1495 did the Würzburg bishop Rudolf II redeem the pledge. The place Wallbach belonged from 1480 to the Hennbergischen Amt Wasungen , but remained judicially still with the Zent Meiningen.

County of Henneberg

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 Würzburg knights of Walldorf, which were not mentioned in this exchange agreement, stayed with the diocese after long battles. The barter agreement also stipulated that if the Hennebergers died out, the diocese should get the Meiningen office back from the allodial heirs against payment of 70,000  fl .

Since Henneberg took over the office in 1542, the Meiningen district has 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. In 1544, the Reformation was introduced in the town and office of Meiningen and in the entire county of Henneberg-Schleusingen .

Joint Saxon administration and division of the county of Henneberg

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.

However, the Bishopric of Würzburg has now also registered ownership claims for the town and the Meiningen office based on the barter agreement of 1542, after which the office was to be returned to the Monastery when the Count's house was extinguished through compensation for the heirs. Thereupon the bishopric agreed with the Saxon princes in the Schleusinger Treaty of July 9, 1586 that the office and castle Meiningen would remain in Saxon hands, but not as an allod , but as a Würzburg man fief . The office including the ducal residence palace remained fiefdom until 1808.

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 Meiningen office was therefore added to the Ernestine part and came to the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg in 1660 . After the county of Henneberg was dissolved, the Meiningen district lost more and more importance, which was also reflected in the progressive alignment of the central and official boundaries. The blood jurisdiction exercised by her passed to the office of Maßfeld, whose core had previously belonged to the Meiningen Centers. High jurisdiction over the towns of Wallbach, Metzels and Melkers , which belong to the Wasungen office and have been in the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha since 1660 , came to this office. Walldorf resigned from the Meiningen Centers' Association in 1670/1686 after the noble heirs there had acquired jurisdiction. Since the end of the 17th century, after the old central constitution was dissolved, the highest jurisdiction was transferred to the office.

Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen

With the extinction of the Sachsen-Altenburg line in 1672, the Meiningen office fell to the Duchy of Sachsen-Gotha , which has been called Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg since then . This was again divided in 1680, which means that the town and office of Meinigen have belonged to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen since then . The city of Meiningen was raised to their residence city.

When the principality of Meiningen was founded, the office consisted of the town of Meiningen, which formed its own lower court district and enjoyed some self-government rights, the villages of Helba and Welkershausen and the exclaves of Leutersdorf, Vachdorf and Queienfeld. The high jurisdiction over Vachdorf and Leutersdorf, which was previously held by the Zent Themar, came to the office in 1681. In 1702 Utendorf passed from the Wasungen office to the Meiningen office. In contrast, Queienfeld, located far to the south, was completely isolated and fell to the Duchy of Saxony-Hildburghausen in exchange for the Office of Schalkau in 1723 and was incorporated into the Office of Behrungen . The village of Walldorf, which had belonged to the imperial knighthood since the 17th century and came to the Grand Duchy of Würzburg after its dissolution , was acquired in an exchange contract from 1808 and has since belonged again to the Meiningen office. A final, but fundamental change before the reorganization of the Meiningian state administration came in 1825. At that time, the villages of Vachdorf and Leutersdorf were separated from the Meiningen office and assigned to the Maßfeld office, but from the northern part of the Maßfeld office and the remnants of the Meiningen office new office formed with the seat in Meiningen. This new office of Meiningen included Meiningen, Welkershausen, Helba and Utendorf as well as Walldorf, the former Maßfeld official villages of Solz, Rippershausen, Stepfershausen, Herpf, Drei 30acker, Melkers, Träbes, Hutsberg and Schmerbach.

As part of the reorganization of the Meiningen Unterland , the Meiningen office was only partially separated from the judiciary and administration. The old Meiningen 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.

In 1829 the offices of Meiningen and Maßfeld 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 high courts in Walldorf and the lower courts in Welkershausen, Geba, Träbes, Heftenhof, Hutsberg and Rippershausen remained in existence 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

Cities
Villages
Villages of the Amt Maßfeld, which were incorporated into the Amt Meiningen in 1825
Castles and Palaces
Courtyards and individual goods
Desolation
  • Berkes (Villa Bergozzis)
  • Breuberg
  • Defertshausen (Döbertshausen)
  • Oberhelba
  • Spitzberg near Welkershausen

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. Since then the following persons have been administrators:

Officials
  • Johann Jakob Grimm (1720–1749)
  • Johann Georg Schleusing (1749–1763)
  • Friedrich Bernhard Trinks (1763–1782)
  • Karl Friedrich Ludwig (1782–1791)
  • Christian Siegmund Lehmann (1791–1793)
  • Johann Abel Hopf (1793–1801)
  • Ernst Friedrich Baumbach (1801–1807)
  • Johann Heinrich Gottlieb Melzheimer (1807–1829)
Office secretaries
  • Elias Salomon Philipp Fromm (1791–1793)
  • Ernst Eusebius Reinwald (1793–1807)
  • Ernst Friedrich Weber (actuary) (1808–1812)
  • Johann Karl Friedrich Schunk (1812–1822)
  • Eduard Rommel (1822-1825)
  • Julius Friedrich (1825-1829)
Public actuaries
  • Johann Georg Schleusing (1720–1721)
Central funnel
  • Hans Jost von Hagen (1655-1691)
  • Johann Ludwig Bube (1730)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the lines of the Grafschaft Henneberg, pp. 103f.
  2. ↑ Meiningen in the Rhön lexicon
  3. ↑ exchange of territory in 1808 Rhon lexicon
  4. ↑ [1]

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