Office Themar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Amt Themar was a territorial administrative unit of 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 Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg from 1672 and from 1680 to the Duchy of Saxony-Römhild by dividing the inheritance .

Since this line died out in 1710, the office was divided between the duchies of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (7/12) and Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (5/12) until it finally came to Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1805. In 1826 it was assigned to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen .

Until the administrative and territorial reform of the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen in 1829, 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 Themar office historically belongs to the Henneberger Land and was located on both sides of the upper Werra . The places north of the Werra are on the southern roof of the Thuringian Forest . A striking mountain is the 692 meter high Schneeberg near Grub. The official area south of the Werra lies between the foreland of the Thuringian Forest in the southeast and the Thuringian part of the Grabfeld in the southwest, where the territory is touched by the upper reaches of the Jüchse .

The former Themar office is now in the south of the Free State of Thuringia and is mostly in the Hildburghausen district , only Obendorf and Exdorf are now part of the Grabfeld community in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district .

Adjacent administrative units

Exclave Vachdorf / Leutersdorf ( 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 Maßfeld (County of Henneberg, from 1680 to Saxony-Meiningen) Neighboring communities Amt Schleusingen (County of Henneberg, after 1660 to the Principality of Saxony-Zeitz, 1718 to Electoral Saxony, 1815 to Prussia)
Amt Römhild (County of Henneberg, after 1680 to Sachsen-Römhild, after 1710 partly to Sachsen-Meiningen and Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld) Amt Hildburghausen (new rule Henneberg, 1353 care Coburg, after 1680 to Saxony-Hildburghausen)

history

Zent Themar and Vogtei Osterburg

Themar , first mentioned in 796, was the seat of a central court of the Counts of Henneberg as early as 1200 . In this area, the Werratalstraße crossed another old street, which came from the Gleichberg area , west of Themar, in a northerly direction. In the course of the rural development of the county of Henneberg , the Osterburg was built at this intersection, probably at the beginning of the 13th century, as a defensive administrative center of the surrounding places.

In an Elgersburg document from 1268, the Osterburg and its accessories were considered to be equivalent to the neighboring Schleusingen office and issued to Countess Sophia von Henneberg as a treasure trove. The accessories of the castle are to be understood as the Bailiwick district from which the “Amt Themar” later emerged.

County of Henneberg

The Osterburg only served a short time as the seat of a bailiff representing the state. In the Henneberg main division of 1274, the Zent and the city of Themar were divided between the lines Henneberg-Schleusingen and Henneberg-Hartenberg. This resulted in extremely complicated ownership relationships for a long time.

The Henneberg-Schleusingen line received the places Jüchsen and Neubrunn from the Zent Themar , as well as a share in the city of Themar. The Henneberg-Hartenberg line, on the other hand, received the Osterburg and several villages in its entirety, as well as the other part of Themar. As a result, the seat of the bailiff was most likely relocated from the Osterburg in Hartberg to the divided Themar. The two places Vachdorf and Leutersdorf also belonged to the "Zent Themar" , whose sovereignty lay with the Bishopric of Würzburg until 1542 as the exclaves of the Meiningen district . The Schleusinger places Jüchsen and Neubrunn became part of the Maßfeld office in the following period , while the Hartenbergische Belrieth belonging to the Zent came to the Schwarza office . An “Amt Themar” was first mentioned in 1341.

The Schleusinger share of the office and the city of Themar remained with an inheritance between the widow and the brother of the deceased Count Heinrich VIII. In 1347 as part of the "Althenneberg" land with the new Count Johann I von Henneberg-Schleusingen († 1359).

The Hartenberg stake in the office and the city of Themar with the Osterburg had to be pledged to Count Günter and Johann von Schwarzburg in 1359 due to financial difficulties . The right to redeem the pledge was transferred in 1371 with the entire county of Henneberg-Hartenberg through sale to the Henneberg-Aschach line. After a violent dispute over the legacy of the Hartenberg line, which died out in 1378, in which Themar and Marisfeld are said to have been besieged and some surrounding villages to have been devastated, the Counts of Schwarzburg were confirmed in possession of the official share in 1379. However, these pledged it to the Lords of Bibra as early as 1380 .

In 1416, Wilhelm II of Henneberg-Schleusingen († 1426) bought back the right to redeem the Osterburg and the Hartenberg share in the town and office of Themar from the house of Schwarzburg. In spite of this, the areas remained the property of the Lords of Bibra as pledges. In 1453, the previous pledged property of the Lords of Bibra was converted into a fiefdom and the Osterburg was bought back in three installments by Henneberg-Schleusingen from 1459 to 1468. The shares in the city and the Themar Office, which were split up into several family members of the Lords of Bibra, could also be acquired between 1452 and 1478, so that the Themar Office has since been completely owned by the Counts of Henneberg-Schleusingen.

After the re-acquisition of the Osterburg, the bailiff's seat was probably relocated from Themar to the castle for a few years, but in the last decades of the 15th century the castle probably lost its importance. In 1496, a guard at the castle appeared for the last time in Themar's official accounts, so that one can assume with a fair degree of certainty that the Osterburg was left open around 1500.

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 .

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.

Ernestine duchies

The Themar office was therefore added to the Ernestine part and came to the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg in 1660 . With the extinction of the Sachsen-Altenburg line in 1672, the office of Themar fell to the Duchy of Sachsen-Gotha , which has been called Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg since then . 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.

With the division of the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg in 1680, the Themar office came to the Duchy of Saxony-Römhild . Immediately after the founding of the duchy, in 1681 the jurisdiction of the higher courts was transferred via the places Jüchsen, Belrieth and Neubrunn, which had previously belonged to the Zent Themar, to the office of Maßfeld and via Vachdorf and Leutersdorf to the office of Meiningen in the also newly founded duchy of Saxony-Meiningen.

After the Saxon-Römhild line died out in 1710, the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg initially took full possession of the Themar office, but in 1714 ceded the due share to the Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld family due to an imperial judgment . The following special recess was established between the two princely houses through the joint administration in 1728 :

  • The appointment of the servants and the direction in judicial matters takes place alternately.
  • The office loans are divided in half.
  • The three knightly places Marisfeld, Oberstadt and Henfstädt are administered jointly in official and legal matters.
  • Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg receives 7/12 and Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld 5/12 from the office's proceeds.

Since 1805, the Themar office belonged entirely to Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld by swap. After the Saxon-Gotha-Altenburg line died out in 1826, the Ernestine duchies were reorganized . The office Themar was assigned to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen by the partition contract to Hildburghausen . The contract of 1826 also stipulated that all claims arising from previous divisions and inheritances had to be settled.

As part of the reorganization of the Meiningen national territory, the offices were dissolved by 1829 and the judiciary and administration were separated from each other. The official business in administrative matters has now been transferred to the “Römhild Administrative Office” responsible for Themar, and the judicial tasks have been transferred to the appropriate judicial office. During a structural reorganization of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1868, the district of Hildburghausen was formed from the administrative offices of Römhild and Hildburghausen , to which the former administrative area now belonged.

Associated places

In addition to the city of Themar, 17 villages, 1 manorial chamber property and 10 deserted areas belonged to the Themar office.

Cities
Official Villages
Noble villages
Castles and Palaces
Courtyards and porches
Desolation
  • Ruins of the pilgrimage church of St. Ottilien near Ehrenberg
  • Berthuns
  • Brunnhof, near Reurieth
  • Dörfles, (Dorphelen) near Grimmelshausen
  • Eytersfeld, near Schmeheim
  • Gertles , (Gertilure) near Tachbach
  • Schneebach, near Oberstadt
  • Steinhaug, (Steinhoug) near Henfstädt
  • Syholz (Sichildes)
  • Weißbach, (Wizzebach) near Themar

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Themar office in the Thuringia archive portal