Wolfhagen office
The Wolfhagen office was an administrative and judicial district of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel and the Electorate of Hesse that existed from the 14th century to 1821 .
history
In the 13th century, the Landgraves of Thuringia sought to expand and round off their territory to the south. The main opponents were the Archbishops of Mainz . The city of Wolfhagen was therefore founded to secure power in the Diemeltal . The population came from the surrounding unpaved areas, which then fell largely desolate. The construction of the fortified town and castle Wolfhagen began in 1200 at the earliest and 1226 at the latest. In 1231 Landgrave Konrad mentions a farm “in nostro oppido Wolfhain”, the first written document of the city's existence.
In the 14th century, an official structure was formed in Wolfhagen as part of the territorialization . In 1317 an officialis, i.e. a bailiff in Wolfhagen, is first mentioned in a document. The scope of the office is poorly documented. On the one hand, the office was only pledged once and, on the other hand, the few sources only name the desolations. Documents from 1293 and 1313 name the desert areas Langel and Herksen, a document from 1334 names Holzkirche, Obernothfelden and Hildegersen as landgraves. In 1401 further property was added in Altenhasungen and the desert areas of Gasterfeld and Langel. The first official accounts from the 15th century name Renlewessen, Langel, Gasterfeld, Herksen, Zabenhausen, Hildegassen and Bodinghusen (all desolations). In 1458 the office consisted of Ehringen , Gasterfeld, Nothfelden , Istha , Hasungen and Viesebeck . With the exception of the deserted Gasterfeld, which no longer appears in later sources, the office had thus received its final size.
The Amt and Freigericht Freienhagen (see Castle Freienhagen ) was a condominium between Hesse and Mainz since around 1360 . Later the office fell entirely to Hesse. The Hessian free count of the Free Court in Freienhagen was subordinate to the bailiff in Wolfhagen. In the 15th century, however, the sovereignty of Hesse over Freienhagen was lost.
In 1806, as part of the formation of the Rhine Confederation, the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel was dissolved and the administrative area fell to the Kingdom of Westphalia . The canton of Wolfhagen came into being there . After the end of the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Electorate of Hesse was created again and the Wolfhagen office was rebuilt. In 1821/22 the separation of jurisdiction from administration was introduced in Kurhessen . The administrative tasks went to the Wolfhagen district , the jurisdiction to the Wolfhagen judicial office . The office itself was dissolved.
literature
- Anna Schroeder-Petersen: The offices of Wolfhagen and Zierenberg, 1936, pp. 97–114.
- Paul Görlich: Wolfhagen. History of a North Hessian city. Kassel 1980.