Volkach Office

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The prince-bishop's office in Volkach was an administrative unit in the medieval and early modern bishopric of Würzburg . It was between the 16th century and 1804. Earlier, the office between 1230 and about 1540 is based on the in Volkach nearby Castle Hall Castle and was also official Hallburg called.

history

The history of the office is closely linked to the history of the surrounding Mainschleife . It had its origins in the so-called Atonement Treaty, which was concluded between the Counts of Castell and the Würzburg Monastery on January 18, 1230. Count Rupert II had feuded his liege lord Hermann I von Lobdeburg , Bishop of Würzburg. After his defeat, Rupert ceded Hallburg Castle to the diocese and received it back as a fiefdom.

The bishop established an office in the newly acquired castle and initially transferred it to the Count of Castell . The Hallburg was strategically located on the Volkacher Mainschleife and dominated the landscape on the edge of the episcopal sphere of influence. Heinrich von Hohenlohe, fiefdom holder of the castle at the beginning of the 14th century, raised the first Mainzoll at its fortification. He sold this share of the customs fee to the Würzburg bishop in 1328.

By further purchasing the rights attached to the castle, Bishop Otto II von Wolfskeel forced his influence on the castle and the office connected with it. In 1342 two thirds of the Mainzoll was in the hands of the bishop. From then on, the Würzburg sovereign appointed a bailiff to represent the manorial rights associated with the castle in the nearby village of Sommerach and in Volkach. Thein von Lichtenstein was handed down as the first bailiff in 1345 .

Soon afterwards, however, the office had to be pledged as it was too much of a financial burden on the bishopric . On February 24, 1356, the Castellian ministers Konrad, Erkinger and Stephan Zollner received the office in return for a cash payment. The bishop had to transfer them 75 pounds hellers each year as interest. The Zollner von der Hallburg , as they called themselves, held the post of bailiff until the 16th century.

After the previously divided city rulership over Volkach - part was held by the aristocratic families from Franconia, the other part by the Würzburg bishops - had been united under the bishopric, Bishop Konrad II of Thüngen also wanted to move the office to the city. However, this only happened under his successor Conrad von Bibra . In 1542 the official seat was transferred from the Burg am Main to the city. The nearby Obervolkach was also awarded the office.

After Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn was elected Bishop of Würzburg, the office experienced a renewed, but only representative upgrade. The new prince-bishop appointed his brother, Valentin Echter von Mespelbrunn , to be the bailiff of Volkach. It is thanks to him that the representative office building on Hauptstrasse was built, which became the seat of the bailiff in the following years.

In 1698 the office was expanded again. The localities Escherndorf , Köhler and Untereisenheim were taken from the Prosselsheim office and assigned to Volkach. Furthermore, the bailiff had power over subjects in the monastery villages of Sommerach and Nordheim am Main , for which, however, the abbot of Münsterschwarzach was largely responsible. At the end of the 17th century, 552 citizens paid homage to the new bishop Johann Philipp von Greiffenclau-Vollrath.

As mentioned above, tributes from the sovereign took place in Volkach - as a city it offered the bishop traveling through more protection. For this purpose, the residents of the offices of Prosselsheim and Klingenberg and those of the village of Astheim traveled to Volkach. After the dissolution of the prince-bishopric of Würzburg in 1802, the Volkach office was dissolved in 1804 and converted into an older district court for the Bavarian region .

Bailiffs (selection)

After the establishment of the prince-bishop's office of Hallburg on the castle of the same name, the post of bailiff was soon transferred to the Casteller Ministeriale Zollner von Hallburg. Her family held the office, with brief interruptions, until 1542. With the relocation to the city of Volkach, the sexes who held the post as bailiff changed, often they were recruited from the knight families of the canton Steigerwald . The Echter von Mespelbrunn, under whom the representative office building on Hauptstraße was built, were particularly influential.

Donor relief Valentin Echter von Mespelbrunn

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Egert, Gerhard: City and parish Volkach am Main . P. 44.
  2. ↑ Feuerbach, Ute: Court and Office . P. 50.
  3. ↑ Feuerbach, Ute: Court and Office . P. 52.