Office Zwingenberg (Hesse)

The office of Zwingenberg was a historical administrative unit of the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen , later of the Landgraviate of Hesse , the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt and, until 1821, of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in its province of Starkenburg . In 1821 the office of Zwingenberg became part of the newly created district of Bensheim .

history

The Zwingenberg office is known from the time of the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen. This means a geographically delimited part of the County of Katzenelnbogen . In 1138 Heinrich II. Von Katzenelnbogen was taken over by King Konrad III. raised to the rank of count and founded the count family. Through the marriage of Hildegard von Henneberg , parts of the Bergstrasse came to Heinrich II von Katzenelnbogen around 1135 as a fiefdom from Kurmainz . Zwingenberg and Auerbach with Hochstädten formed an exclave surrounded by Kurmainz in the south and west, the dominion of Bickenbach in the north and the county of Erbachin the East. 1260 a division of the county took place between the brothers Diether V and Eberhard I take. Eberhard I was the founder of the Younger Line and owned the majority of his property in the Upper County. Zwingenberg was given town and market rights by King Rudolf von Habsburg under Count Diether V in 1274 , making it the oldest town on Bergstrasse. In 1479 the von Katzenelnbogen family died out with Philip I in the male line, and the county came as heir to Landgrave Heinrich III with Philip's daughter Anna . of the Landgraviate of Hesse. The Landgraviate of Hessen was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire and was ruled by the House of Hessen .

The Hessian landgraves repeatedly divided their territory within the family; however, these divisions did not last. It was only the division of the estate by Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous , who divided the Landgraviate among his four sons in 1567, that finally caused the nearly four hundred years of separation into the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel (whose regent was made electoral prince in 1803 ) and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt in the the office Zwingenberg (until 1803 office Zwingenberg and Jägersburg ) was. The overriding administrative unit was the Upper County of Catzenellnbogen before 1803 , and the Principality of Starkenburg from 1803 ( province from 1816 ). Furthermore, there were administrative units in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Upper Duchy and later Province of Upper Hesse, and from 1802 to 1815 the Duchy of Westphalia . In 1816 the third province of Rheinhessen was added.

The peace treaty signed on February 9, 1801 in Lunéville between France and Austria under the Roman-German Emperor Franz II is referred to as the Peace of Lunéville , which also applied to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . The Reich was obliged to compensate the German princes affected by the loss of territory, which was implemented in 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss .

The Principality of Starkenburg was created through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 in which the old and new Landgrave Hessian-Darmstadt areas east of the Rhine and south of the Main were combined. On August 14, 1806, in the course of the founding of the Rhine Confederation , promoted by Napoleon I , against the provision of high military contingents to France, the elevations to the Grand Duchy of Hesse took place for Hesse-Darmstadt , accompanied by the withdrawal of Hesse-Darmstadt from the Holy Roman Empire Nation . The end of the old empire had already been sealed by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and ceased to exist with the laying down of the imperial crown on August 6, 1806 by Emperor Franz II .

After Napoleon's final defeat, the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 also regulated the territorial situation for Hesse, and in 1816 provinces were established in the Grand Duchy. The area previously known as the “Principality of Starkenburg” was renamed “Province of Starkenburg” .

With the administrative reform in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1820/1821, district districts were formed and the Zwingenberg office was assigned to the newly created district of Bensheim .

territory

During the time of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Zwingenberg office included the towns

Zwingenberg (already in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Auerbach (already in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Hochstädten (already in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Alsbach (already in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Hähnlein (already in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Langwaden (still in the Jägersburg office in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Schwanheim (still Office Jägersburg in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Groß-Hausen (still the Jägersburg Office in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen)

Gross-Rohrheim

Jägersburg

literature

• Helfrich Bernhard Wencks: Hessian history, with a document book and geographical charts, Volume 1 , Darmstadt and Giesen 1783 ( online at google books )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Office Zwingenberg. Search in the "Historical Ortlexikon für Hessen". (As of March 2019). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
2. ^ Helfrich Bernhard Wenck: Geographical directory of the Upper County of Katzenelenbogen