Office of Vacha

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Amt Vacha was a territorial administrative unit that belonged partly to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel from 1406 and completely from 1648 . From 1816 it was an office of the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach .

Until the administrative and territorial reform of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1850 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 office of Vacha was on the northern edge of the Thuringian Rhön . Important mountains in the office are the Öchsenberg , the Dietrichsberg , the Sattelsberg , the Lohberg and the Ulsterberg . The Oechsen exclave is surrounded by the important Rhön Mountains Schorn and Baier .

In Vacha there is the important Werra bridge , over which the old Via Regia led. The most important rivers in the administrative area are the border river Werra in the north and the lower reaches of the Ulster in the west. Other rivers are the Breizbach, the Sünna and the Oechse , which were only in the Oechsen exclave and in the estuary area in the official area.

During his affiliation to the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, the office was in the northwest of the Eisenacher Oberland . The official area is now in the west of the Free State of Thuringia and belongs to the places Vacha, Unterbreizbach and Oechsen in the Wartburg district .

Adjacent administrative units

The specified dominions refer to the official area without the exclave Oechsen.

Amt Landeck (Hersfeld Abbey, after 1648 part of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel) Vogtei Kreuzberg (Landgraviate Hessen-Kassel) Vogtei Kreuzberg (Landgraviate Hessen-Kassel)
Mansbach rule (clerical principality Fulda) Neighboring communities Völkershausen Court (from 1648 to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel)
Geisa Office (clerical principality of Fulda)

history

prehistory

Since the 9th century, the area around today's city of Vacha (Gau Tullifeld ) was located in the border area between the abbeys of Fulda and Hersfeld . In 786, the Dorndorfer Mark was handed over to the Hersfeld Abbey with a boundary description. This describes the western borderline from Öchsenberg in a northerly direction to today's deserted Schwenge (in the documents Uuihingesboumgarto) with the intermediate point of the Badelachen court (possibly the royal court).

The village of Vacha probably emerged only in the 12th century as an outbuilding of the Badelachen farm, from which the village of Vacha gradually emerged. This village was mentioned for the first time in a servitia register of the Fulda monastery , which is dated between 1155 and 1165.

Vacha is owned by the Fulda monastery

Vacha was a village with its own village mark until at least 1180. In that year Hersfeld Abbey received donations from the Hersfeld monk Sigibodo. Among other things, the income from a field in the village of Vacha. But just six years later, in 1186, an exchange took place between Landgrave Ludwig III. von Thuringia and Abbot Hermann von Reinhardsbrunn , in whose document Vacha was mentioned as a city owned by the Abbey of Fulda. In the 12th century, the construction of the city wall and Wendelstein Castle began, which served both to protect the Werra crossing of the Via Regia with the famous Werra bridge and to control the city itself.

The parish of St. Vitus , first mentioned in 1172, was the seat of an ecclesiastical administrative district (Sedes) with the subordinate parishes of Oechsen, Völkershausen and Heiligenroda. The Servite Convent, which was located in Mariengart / Rhön before 1339 , was granted the right to settle in the suburb in front of the Obertor in 1368. The monastery church was built there around 1400. The monastery properties were increased through donations and gifts and included farms and land in the surrounding communities. The farms Poppenberg, Luttershof, Busengraben and Hedwigsberg came into their possession from the Völkershausen court , to which they were only reassigned in 1706.

By taking over the Buchenau'schen pledge in 1406 two thirds of the city and office of Vacha came to the Landgraviate of Hesse . With that the castle lost its military function. Wendelstein Castle now became the official seat of Hesse. Gottschalk von Buchenau held the other third of the pledge to the city and castle from the imperial abbey of Fulda. In September 1518, Count Wilhelm von Henneberg tried to conquer the city in a nocturnal raid, but was repulsed.

Reformation and Peasants' War

Vacha is one of the cities in Germany where the Reformation began. The first Lutheran sermons were given by Georg Witzel from 1522 , who introduced the first preachers to the official villages of Sünna and Unterbreizbach in April 1525 as part of a Protestant visitation . At the same time, the farmers in the neighboring court revolted Völkershausen . Vacha became the rallying point of the Werrahaufens , which was led by the Vacha citizen Hans Sippel and comprised about 8,000 men who came from Saxon and Fulda offices.

The monks of the Vacha Servite monastery had taken over the evangelical sermon. Their farms and the monastery were plundered by the rebellious peasants, and the neighboring Kreuzburg monastery was attacked at the same time . After the end of the Peasant War, the further fate of the Servite monastery in Vacha lay in the hands of the city lord and Landgrave of Hesse, Philip I. After the Homberg Synod , the Servite monastery was closed in 1527.

As a result of this decision, Landhofmeister Ludwig von Boineburg zu Lengsfeld was also able to acquire the neighboring fiefdom of Mariengart in 1528 . The previous diocesan association in Vacha was declared dissolved and new pastors, vicars and chaplains were appointed by the sovereign. Even the official places belonging to the Fulda third were inspected and reformed. A dispute also arose over the occupation of the city parish in Vacha, the people proposed by the council had to be examined and approved by both the Hessian landgrave and the Abbot of Fulda, this regulation was still in use in the 17th century.

Vacha in the Thirty Years War

During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the city was captured and occupied as a strategically important place (Werra Bridge) by changing warring parties. As early as 1631, the Hessian landgrave managed to recapture the city, which the previous year had been captured by Count Fugger's imperial troops without much resistance. Since Count Fugger also acted as governor in Vacha with the approval of the Fulda abbot, Landgrave Wilhelm declared the dual rule ended after the liberation of Vacha and, on this pretext, marched into the state territory of the Fulda Abbey, which he held for two years.

The Hessian office of Vacha from 1648

The Fulda abbot Joachim sold his share of the urban area of ​​Vacha to the Hessian Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth in 1648 . The annexation made by Landgrave Wilhelm in 1631 had become ineffective as the war continued. In the Seven Years War (1756–1763) it was occupied by a French regiment. At the same time as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss concluded in 1803 and the secularization of the clergy, the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel became the Electorate of Hessen .

Napoleonic occupation

Elector Wilhelm I of Hesse-Kassel did not join the Rhine Confederation , which was dominated by Napoleon , and tried to remain neutral . Thereupon Napoléon occupied the country and after the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 it was almost completely added to the newly formed Kingdom of Westphalia of his brother Jerome . During this time Vacha was the capital of the canton Vacha and seat of the justice of the peace . The canton of Vacha also included the neighboring court Völkershausen and belonged to the Hersfeld district of the Werra department . After the dissolution of the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1813, the Electorate of Hesse and its administrative structure were restored.

Belonging to the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar Eisenach from 1816

After the Congress of Vienna , the office of Vacha and the judicial district of Völkershausen were ceded to the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach in 1816. In addition, Oberzella and the farms Badelachen , Heiligenroda , Niederndorf , Schwenge and Unterzella came from the neighboring Hessian Vogtei Kreuzberg ( Philippsthal ) to Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. They were affiliated to the Vacha office.

In 1849/50, jurisdiction was separated from administration in the Grand Duchy . The office Vacha was merged with other offices of the Rhön to form the administrative district Dermbach , which was also referred to as the fourth administrative district , with its seat in Dermbach . This comprised the southern part of the former Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach , which was also known as the Eisenacher Oberland in the 19th century . Vacha became the seat of a judicial office .

Associated places

city
Villages
Courtyards and court communities
Villages and farms of the Vogtei Kreuzberg (Philippsthal), which were affiliated to the office in 1816

Bailiffs

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vacha and his Servite Monastery in the Middle Ages, pp. 9-14

literature

  • Kronfeld, Constantin: Thuringian-Saxon-Weimar history. - Weimar: Böhlau, 1878. - (Regional studies of the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach; T. 1) / [reviewed by:] Ulrich Stechele
  • Rein, Wilhelm: Archaeological walks. 1. The offices of Creuzburg, Gerstungen, Tiefenort and Vacha, located on the Werra, in: ZVThGA 4 (1860), 395–430 (as a digital copy on URMEL )
  • Anneliese Hofemann: Studies on the development of the territory of the imperial abbey of Fulda and its offices. 1958, pp. 157-160.

Web links