Black Forest Office

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Black Forest Office , later also called the Zella Office , was a territorial administrative unit of the Ernestine duchies . From 1640 it belonged to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha , from 1672 to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and from 1826 to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .

Until the administrative and territorial reform of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1858 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 Black Forest office was mostly on the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest from the mountain exit to the Rennsteig , only Zella and Mehlis were on the other side of the Rennsteig in the southern part. In the official area were the upper reaches of the Ohra , the Wild and the Zahmer Gera from the source area to the northern exit from the mountains. Only the source rivers Lubenbach in Zella and Heinrichsbach in Mehlis drain over the Lichtenau into the Werra . A striking Kartal is the snow pot near Gehlberg. In the official area there were 43 mountains of the central Thuringian Forest, including the Schneekopf ( 978  m above sea  level ; second highest mountain in Thuringia), the Schmücke 916  m above sea level. NN , the Dörrberg ( 568  m above sea  level ) and the Arlesberg ( 651  m above sea  level ).

The official area is now in the center of the Free State of Thuringia and belongs to the districts of Ilm-Kreis , Schmalkalden-Meiningen and Gotha .

Adjacent administrative units

When it was founded in 1367, until the Counts of Henneberg died out in 1583, the Black Forest office bordered the county of Henneberg in the west and south , with the neighboring Schmalkalden dominion to the west under the joint administration of the Landgraviate of Hesse and the County of Henneberg-Schleusingen. In the north and west of the office was the area of the Georgenthal monastery until its secularization in 1528/31 . To the east of the office were a few places that belonged to different noble families.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the political affiliation of the surrounding areas changed. a. through the following events:

  • Transfer of the Georgenthal Monastery to Wettin-Saxon ownership in 1528 (Ernestiner)
  • Divisions and amalgamations of the Ernestine duchies from 1572
  • Extinction of the Counts of Henneberg in 1583: the county of Henneberg came under common Saxon-Albertine and -ernestinian administration; the rule of Schmalkalden became sole property of Hesse
  • Benshausen barter contract 1619: The Hallenberg office comes to the Hessian rule Schmalkalden in exchange for the Hessian share of the Zent Benshausen
  • Real division of the county of Henneberg into the Ernestine duchies and the Albertine electorate of Saxony in 1660

When the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg was founded in 1672, the Black Forest office bordered the following areas:

history

Counts of Kevernburg

An old pass road once led through the valley floor of the Ohra in the northern part of the Thuringian Forest over the Thuringian Forest towards Oberhof and the southern Thuringian Meiningen to Franconia . The first documentary mention of the Black Forest Castle , which secured Meininger Straße as a fortification , is in 1290, when the castle is named "castrum Swarzenwalt" at the Reichstag in Erfurt .

Until 1302, the castle with the associated economic settlement Black Forest in the valley belonged to the Counts of Kevernburg , then it was briefly acquired by the Counts of Orlamünde and a little later by the Counts of Schwarzburg . Around 1367 the city of Erfurt tried hard to buy the castle, it wanted to secure one of its most important trade routes to Franconia and save customs and road money. This project failed and the castle fell to the Wettin landgraves of Thuringia . Half of Mehlis came to the Landgraves of Thuringia as early as 1357 through an exchange contract from the provost Zella St. Blasii .

Wettin landgraves of Thuringia, counts of equals and Ernestine Wettins

The Wettins established a bailiwick in the castle and thus established the Black Forest office . Oberhof was first mentioned in a document in 1470, Arlesberg in 1503. From 1470 to 1525 the castle and the office belonged to the Counts of Gleichen . After the secularization of the Reinhardsbrunn monastery , Zella St. Blasii joined the office, which this year came into the possession of the Ernestine Electorate of Saxony. In 1535, the Black Forest became the seat of the office of the same name, which at that time included five towns and several small forest settlements (hunting lodges, mines, mills, hammer mills, huts and forest workers' places). As a result of the Schmalkaldic War , the Ernestines lost their electoral dignity in 1547, which meant that their possessions were united in the Duchy of Saxony .

Ernestine duchies

When Erfurt divided the Duchy of Saxony in 1572, the Black Forest office was assigned to the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar . During the Ernestine partition in 1640, the Black Forest office came to the newly founded Duchy of Saxony-Gotha , which was expanded to the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg in 1672 . With the Benshausen barter agreement concluded in 1619 , the part of Mehlis , which had previously been under the former Henneberg office of Hallenberg , was separated from the latter, but remained under the joint administration of the Ernestines and Albertines . It was not until the real division of the county of Henneberg in 1660/61 that Duke Ernst I of Saxony-Gotha was finally able to acquire the former Henneberg rights in Mehlis from the principality of Saxony-Zeitz in 1661 , which ended the centuries-long division of the town into two parts.

The official seat was moved from the Black Forest to Zella Sankt Blasii in 1642. After the Thirty Years War , the Black Forest castle ruins were abandoned and served as a quarry for the Black Forest settlement, which now expanded to include the castle hill. The Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg was divided again in 1680 by the “ Gotha Main Recess ”, with the Black Forest office remaining with the greatly reduced Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg. The Black Forest Office now included nine towns and a hammer mill. These were the town of Zella St. Blasii, the villages of the Black Forest, Mehlis, Oberhof, Arlesberg and the “Black Forest Hammer” hammer mill. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the villages of Gehlberg, Lütsche, Stutzhaus and Dörrberg continued to develop from individual forest workers' houses, a glassworks, a mill or mining or hammer works. The extensive forests around the Black Forest were popular hunting grounds for the Gotha dukes. In 1753 the Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg renamed the smelter with the neighboring hammer mill, the Black Forest Hammer , in Luisenthal in honor of his wife Luise Dorothée of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1710–1767) .

After the Saxon-Gotha-Altenburg line had died out, the Hildburghausen Partition Treaty of November 12, 1826 resulted in a comprehensive restructuring of the Ernestine duchies . The part of Saxony-Gotha with the Black Forest office came to the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha, whose two parts of the country were henceforth governed in personal union. After the administrative reform in 1830, the Black Forest office was divided into three judicial offices. In Zella St. Blasii the new "Justice Office Zella" was created with the places Zella St. Blasii, Mehlis, Oberhof and Gehlberg. Luisenthal, Schwarzwald and Stutzhaus came to the "Justizamt Ohrdruf". Lütsche, Arlesberg and Dörrberg were incorporated into the "Liebenstein Justice Office". The Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha was divided into independent cities and district offices in 1858. The three judicial offices were subordinated to the district office of Ohrdruf in administrative tasks . In 1879 the Gotha Justice Offices Zella, Ohrdruf and Liebenstein were converted into local courts of the same name.

Associated places

Cities
Official Villages
Castles

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Limits of the Black Forest Office on Pilgernetz.com
  2. ^ The Zella Justice Office in the Thuringia archive portal
  3. ^ The Ohrdruf justice office in the Thuringia archive portal
  4. ^ The Liebenstein Justice Office in the Thuringia archive portal