Office Schmalkalden
The office of Schmalkalden , later also referred to as Oberamt Schmalkalden , was an administrative unit of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel and then of the Electorate of Hesse , located in the rule of Schmalkalden .
The office emerged from the main area of the Schmalkalden dominion and since 1360 it belonged half to the Landgraviate of Hesse or Hesse-Kassel and the other half to the County of Henneberg -Schleusingen. From 1583 the office belonged completely to Hessen-Kassel. Until the administrative and territorial reform of the Electorate of Hesse in 1821 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 office was in the valley of the Schmalkalde and its tributary Stille in the southwest part of the Thuringian Forest . Until the exchange of territory with the Hallenberg office in 1791, the upper Haselbach formed the border with the Hallenberg office. The Rennsteig , which runs over the ridge of the Thuringian Forest, marked the northern border of the Schmalkalden district to the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha for centuries .
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
Adjacent offices were
- the offices of Herrenbreitungen and Brotterode (both part of the Schmalkalden rule) in the north-west and north,
- the Saxon-Gothic offices of Georgenthal and Black Forest in the northeast,
- the Hessian-Narrow Kaldic office Hallenberg in the east, as well
- the Hennebergische Zent Benshausen (from 1660 to Saxony-Zeitz, 1718 to Electoral Saxony, 1815 to Prussia) in the southeast and
- the Hennberg office of Wasungen (from 1680 to Saxony-Meiningen) in the south and west.
history
Belonging to the county of Henneberg
The town of Schmalkalden with its associated administrative district came with the Cent Brotterode from the legacy of the Ludovingian Landgraves of Thuringia to the first Wettin Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave Heinrich III. of Meissen († 1288). In 1247 he handed over these areas to his half-brother on his mother's side, Count Hermann I von Henneberg († 1290), who in return waived his claims to the Imperial Principality of Thuringia through their common mother Jutta von Thuringia . In 1249 Hermann I incorporated the "Herrschaft Schmalkalden", consisting of the town and the office of Schmalkalden as well as the Cent Brotterode, to his possessions of the New Herrschaft Henneberg . Since the " Henneberg- Coburg" line he had founded, however, already expired in 1291 with the death of his son Poppo VIII, these areas came as heir to his half-sister Jutta († 1292) von Henneberg-Coburg and her husband, the Ascanian co-regent Margrave Otto the tall ones from Brandenburg to Salzwedel († 1308).
Through the arranged marriage of Jutta von Brandenburg-Salzwedel († 1353), the granddaughter of Jutta von Henneberg, with Heinrich VIII. († 1347), the son of Count Berthold VII. Von Henneberg-Schleusingen, her inheritance, d. H. the fourth part of the New Rulership of Henneberg, in 1312 as a dowry to the now ruled county of Henneberg-Schleusingen. By 1316, Berthold VII succeeded in buying the other three shares in the New Rule (also called " Pflege Coburg ") with the Schmalkalden rulership. In 1325 the place Volkers came to office by purchase. In 1330 the place Reichenbach and the desolate places of Rotterdam and Altersbach were bought by the Lords of Frankenstein to the Counts of Henneberg-Schleusingen ("Frankensteiner Kaufbrief"). They were also affiliated to the office of Schmalkalden.
After Berthold VII's death in 1340, his eldest son, Henry VIII, inherited the county of Henneberg-Schleusingen. When he died in 1347, the county was divided between his widow Jutta von Brandenburg and his younger brother Johann I († 1359), with Jutta again being awarded the "New Rule" with the rule of Schmalkalden and also some Henneberg areas. With Jutta's death in 1353, her inheritance was divided among three of her daughters as heirs. The daughter Sophie von Henneberg-Schleusingen († 1372) was awarded the rule of Schmalkalden with the Cent Brotterode, the Vogtei Herrenbreitungen , the Schleusinger share of the Zent Benshausen and half of the fortress Scharfenburg , which thus became the property of her husband, the Nuremberg burgrave Albrecht († 1364), passed over.
Henneberg-Hessian dual power
In 1360, Countess Elisabeth von Leuchtenberg († 1361), widow of Count Johann I von Henneberg-Schleusingen, who died in 1359, signed a contract with her niece Sophie and her husband, the Nuremberg Burgrave Albrecht, about the repurchase of those who had gone to the Burgrave Areas. Since she did not have the necessary financial means, she agreed in an inheritance contract with her husband's cousin, Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse († 1376), that he would share half of the purchase price and the ideal half of it Parts of the country should receive.
This established the Henneberg-Hessian dual rule over the city and the office of Schmalkalden. While the office of Schmalkalden was jointly administered by the condominium that was now in place, the town of Schmalkalden was divided along the Schmalkalde into a Henneberg and a Hessian half. The power and position struggles that broke out immediately had a negative effect on the rule.
In the 15th century, the Counts of Henneberg-Schleusingen seized parts of the Schmalkalden office. Schwallungen , which still belonged to the Schmalkalden rule in 1340, already paid its taxes to Wasungen in 1493 . The neighboring Niederschmalkalden came at the same time from the rule of Schmalkalden to the Hennbergian office Wasungen .
A dispute between the two condomini over the Henneberg protection and umbrella justice over the Herrenbreitungen Monastery and the joint administration of Schmalkalden ended in an arbitration award in 1498, in which it was determined that the Hennebergers alone were responsible for the Schmalkalden Abbey and the Bailiwick over the Herrenbreitungen Monastery be responsible. In contrast, the central courts at Schmalkalden, Herrenbreitungen and Benshausen remained joint.
After violent disputes about the collection of the wine tariff in the jointly administered area, the so-called " Casimir Treaty " was concluded in 1521 with the mediation of Margrave Kasimir von Brandenburg-Kulmbach . This stated, among other things, that in the event of one of the two royal houses becoming extinct, the remaining half should be given to the city and office of Schmalkalden. After updating and supplementing the “Casimir Treaty” of 1521, Hesse and Henneberg united their administrations in the common territory in 1573.
Belonging to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel
With the death of Count Georg Ernst in December 1583, the Henneberg family died out in the male line. The inheritance contract of 1521 came into being, which ended the Henneberg-Hessian dual rule over Schmalkalden, which had lasted since 1360. City and Office Schmalkalden, the centering Brotterode, now enlarged Hessian share of centering Benshausen, the Bailiwick Herrenbreitungen and the place Barchfeld belonged since then as "Schmalkalden" all the way to Hesse-Kassel , the 1567 from the division of the land county Hessen was born. Möckers , which belonged to the Henneberg monastery bailiwick of Schmalkalden, came to the now Saxon office of Wasungen after its dissolution in 1583.
In 1589 the district of Wallenburg Castle near Brotterode was added to the Schmalkalden rule and was incorporated into the Schmalkalden office. From the inheritance of the Hennebergers, the Wallenburg fell to the Wettins in 1583 and was sold in 1588 to the Hersfeld Abbey, which was under the influence of the Landgraves of Hesse .
In 1619, as part of the Benshausen barter agreement between the Saxon Wettins and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel as heirs of the Henneberg territories, the sovereignty and jurisdiction of some places and areas were changed. In the area of the Schmalkalden Office, this affected the jurisdiction over the places Schwallungen, Niederschmalkalden and Möckers, which were now also judicially incorporated into the Wasungen Office. After the territorial rounding of the Schmalkalden rule, the Schmalkalden office had a senior office function over the offices of Herrenbreitungen, the Zent Brotterode, the Barchfeld court and the Hallenberg office acquired in 1619 in exchange for the Hessian share in the Benshausen center.
The luxurious court holding of Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel 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 von Hessen-Kassel was on the Protestant side, but Landgrave Georg II of Hessen-Darmstadt was on the Catholic side.
In 1791 there was an exchange of territory with the Hallenberg office , which removed the scattering of both offices in Stillergrund and Haselbachtal. Closer silence came to the office of Schmalkalden. The villages of Unterschönau , Oberschönau and Springstille , which previously belonged proportionally to both offices, were assigned to the Hallenberg office together with the villages of Altersbach and Rotterode , which had previously belonged entirely to Schmalkalden .
French occupation
The Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, the regent of which 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 previous office of Schmalkalden was divided as follows:
| Canton | Associated localities from the Oberamt Schmalkalden |
|---|---|
| Schmalkalden | City of Schmalkalden with Hedwigshof, Stillerthormeierei and Röthhof, Aue , Haindorf , Mittelschmalkalden , Breitenbach , Grumbach , Volkers |
| Seligenthal | Seligenthal , Atzerode , Kirrhof and Dippach, Reichenbach , Weidebrunn , Aue-Wallenburg with Wallenburgshof |
| Escaped | Flea , Schnellbach , Nesselhof , Struth , Helmershof , Asbach , Näherstille , Mittelstille |
| Brotterode | Hohleborn |
After the end of the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1813, 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 the administration, the Schmalkalden district in the province of Fulda was formed from the previous offices of Schmalkalden, Hallenberg, Herrenbreitungen and Brotterode . Four judicial offices were set up as courts of first instance for jurisdiction: Schmalkalden, Brotterode, Herrenbreitungen and Steinbach.
Associated places
- Cities
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Schmalkalden with
- Drill mill, gun factory
- Röthhof
- Silent horror
- Weidebrunn smelter
- Villages
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- Castles and Palaces
- Yards
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- Desolation
- Falkenburg castle ruins near Seligenthal
- Ezzelingweneden (ore shrinkage) and Gerdrode (chicken) near Auwallenburg
- Helpers
- Kohlhof
- Reinhardsroda
- Rossbach
- Steinbach near Weidebrunn
- Untergrumbach
Individual evidence
- ^ Description of the Saxon-Meiningische Amt Wasungen, pp. 178f.
- ^ Peter Heckert: Steinbach under Hallenberg - History of a Hessian-Thuringian city. 1990.