Office Salzungen

The office Salzungen with the monastery office Allendorf was a territorial administrative unit, which at first partially belonged to the Counts of Henneberg , the Landgraviate of Thuringia and various monasteries. After 1577 the office came to various Ernestine duchies until it finally fell to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1680 .

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 area of the Salzungen office with Allendorf lay on both sides of the central Werra between the Thuringian Forest and the Rhön . The exclaves Dietlas and Oberellen were to the west and north of the administrative area in the Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach. The former official area is now in the west of the Free State of Thuringia and belongs to the Wartburg district .

Office Salzungen in the county of Henneberg

Adjacent administrative units

Office Krayenberg (Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach)	Office Eisenach (Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach)
Office Krayenberg (Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach)		Altenstein Office (Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen)
Lordship of Lengsfeld	Office Frauenbreitungen and Office Sand (Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen)	Barchfeld exclave of the Schmalkalden rule

history

Lords of Frankenstein

The middle Werra valley was called Mark Breitungen in the High Middle Ages . It was the center of a vast royal estates complex formed by Emperor Henry II. The Hersfeld Abbey was passed. To protect the Breit monasteries and the surrounding marrow, a sideline was determined by the Counts of Henneberg , whose progenitor Poppo II of Henneberg († 1118) was. The ancestral seat of this branch line, Frankenstein Castle east of Salzungen , was first mentioned (indirectly) in 1137 when Poppo's son Ludwig I von Frankenstein (* before 1131; † after 1164) named himself after this castle. Since this year the hereditary feudal relationship over Salzungen has been found with the Lords of Frankenstein . As ministerial officers of the Hersfeld monastery, they were responsible for administration and jurisdiction in the Salzungen area. In 1265 the Lords of Frankenstein founded the Allendorf Monastery .

The attempts of the Frankensteiners to assert themselves against the strongest powers in the region - the Fulda monastery and the Thuringian landgraves - led to their decline. In 1265 Frankenstein Castle was besieged by Abbot Bertho II of Fulda and partially destroyed, and in 1295 King Adolf von Nassau succeeded in doing this , and the castle was probably badly damaged again. The Frankensteiners were unable to rebuild their deserted ancestral castle. They left the castle and moved to Salzungen. Weakened by the warlike entanglements and conquests and heavily in debt, the Frankensteiners had to make up one ideal half of the Salzungen office in 1306, 1311 and 1317 with the town of Salzungen and the villages of Witzelroda, Möhra, Immelborn, Langenfeld, Leimbach, Wildsprechtroda, Übelroda and sell the Sorghöfen to the Abbey of Fulda. They left the other part to Count Berthold VII of Henneberg-Schleusingen in the "Frankensteiner Sales Letter" from 1330 .

Salting under a dual rule

Since the sovereignty of Salzungen had been divided since 1330, there were now two officials. The Henneberg-Schleusinger share fell after 1400 in an unexplained way to the Wettin Landgraviate of Thuringia , with which it has remained ever since. In 1485 this came to the Ernestine Electorate of Saxony when the Wettin lands were partitioned in Leipzig .

The Allendorf monastery was subordinate to the Abbot of Fulda. In 1366 the monastery, to whose territory Allendorf Monastery, Allendorf, Ettmarshausen, Kaltenborn, Hermannsroda, Graefendorf, Nitzendorf, Neuendorf, Moorhof, Hüttenhof, Röhrigshöfe, the Rohnhöfe and the Grundhof belonged, came under the bailiwick of the Landgraves of Thuringia.

The Landgraves of Thuringia together with the Lichtenberg had brought the Fulda half of Salzungen to their house as early as 1366 by pledge. In 1409 they both transferred to the Archbishopric of Mainz , which in turn left them to the Bishopric of Würzburg in 1423 . In 1433 they came from this as a pledge to the county of Henneberg -Aschach (-Römhild), which finally bought the offices in 1459 and 1501. Through an inheritance from the county of Henneberg-Aschach (-Römhild) in 1468, the former Fulda half of Salzungen came to the "Römhilder part" under Count Friedrich II of Henneberg-Aschach († 1488).

In 1524 the Reformation was introduced in Salzungen . A year later, during the Peasants' War , citizens of the city joined the Werrahaufen , an 8,000-strong troop from the upper Werra region. The uprising in the Salzunger Amt was aimed at the elimination of monastery rule. Here, the monasteries in Allendorf and Frauensee and the Wildsprechtroda Castle were devastated and the Pfänerschaft (owner of the salt-boiling huts) was disempowered. After the defeat of the rebellious peasants, the old power structures had been restored in Salzungen, but the extensive monastery property was now confiscated by the Wettin rulers. In 1528 they secularized the Allendorf monastery and appointed the last provost as secular administrator of the monastery properties. The now created "Klosteramt Allendorf" with 15 places was united with the Saxon half of Salzungen and finally in 1645 went completely to the office of Salzungen.

The Henneberg (-Aschach) -Römhilder part of Salzungen came to Albrecht von Henneberg-Schwarza in 1532 when an inheritance was divided among the grandsons of Friedrich II von Henneberg-Aschach . With his death in 1549, the Henneberg-Schwarza line became extinct. This half of Salzungen came as a Wittum to Count Albrecht's widow, Katharina von Stolberg . After their death in 1577 this inheritance fell to the Counts of Stolberg. Because of a Stolbergischen accounts payable of Henneberg-Aschacher part was of Salzungen by Duke Johann Casimir of Saxe-Coburg in the same year in receivership taken (sequestration). The full unification of both parts of the office only took place after a protracted dispute in 1657, after the Counts of Stolberg had ceded their share to Duke Ernst of Saxe-Gotha .

The office Salzungen as part of the Ernestine duchies

The Saxon-Ernestine portion of Salzungen came to Duke Johann Friedrich the Middle when Erfurt was divided in 1572 . His sons received the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Eisenach , which they divided up in 1596, with the office of Salzungen and Allendorf falling to Duke Johann Ernst of Saxony-Eisenach . In 1625, based on the deed of sale from 1366, the Fulda Abbey tried to regain the office of Salzungen with imperial help. The negotiations ended in the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War.

After Johann Ernst's death in 1638, the Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach was divided up again, so that Salzungen became part of the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar . As early as 1641 Saxony-Weimar was divided again and the office of Salzungen came to the Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach under Duke Albrecht. After his death in 1644, Saxony-Eisenach was split in half between Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Weimar, with Salzungen becoming part of Saxe-Gotha. After the latter was divided into seven duchies in 1680, the office of Salzungen was part of the duchy of Saxony-Meiningen until the end of its existence .

The Office Salzungen with its official seat on the Schnepfenburg once formed the northernmost periphery of the Franconian Empire .
Since the unification of the two parts of Salzung's office, only one bailiff was responsible for the administration. Until the end of the 17th century he was assisted by a clerk (magistrate). In addition, the office had a senior bailiff since 1692. In the course of the 14th century, the Buttlar courts in Wildsprechtroda, Dietlas and Übelroda and the Hanstein court in Oberellen were formed at noble lower courts .

In 1714, 1723, 1735 and 1803, the Fulda Abbey, partly with the support of the Reichshofrat, applied for the repurchase of the Salzungen office, citing the right of repurchase set out in the document of 1366. The purchase letter of 1366 submitted for this was not recognized by the dukes of Saxony and answered in 1726 with a reply from the Saxon side.

As part of the reorganization of the Meininger Unterland , the old Salzungen office was dissolved in 1827. Justice and administration, which were previously in one hand, have been separated. Administratively, the Salzung area came to the newly established Frauenbreitungen district office , while a judicial office remained in Salzungen. As early as 1829, the district office Frauenbreitungen was dissolved again and divided into the two administrative offices Wasungen and Salzungen, whereby the offices of Salzungen, Altenstein with Liebenstein and Frauenbreitungen were combined to form the latter. The jurisdiction was subordinated to the district court Meiningen.

During a structural reorganization of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1868, the Salzungen administrative office was dissolved and incorporated into the newly founded Meiningen district with other administrative offices in the Meiningen Unterland .

Associated places