Principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode

Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Anhalt-Harzgerode
coat of arms
map
Consist	1635-1709
Form of rule	principality
Ruler / government	Prince
Today's region / s	DE-ST
Dynasties	Ascanians
Incorporated into	Anhalt-Bernburg

The Castle Harzgerode was the residence of the Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode

The principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode was a German principality at the time of the Holy Roman Empire . It existed from 1635 to 1709. The rulers were the Ascanians . Originated from the division of Anhalt-Bernburg , it fell back to it in 1709.

history

Christian I , ruling Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg from 1606, had decreed in his will in 1626 that his three living sons should rule together under the direction of the elder. After the middle son Ernst died of injuries in 1632, the brothers Christian II and Friedrich were still alive . Friedrich, who reached the vogivable age (majority) in November 1634, managed to get his own principality. After lengthy negotiations, he took Walpurgis 1635 the offices Harzgerode and Guentersberge as newly constituted Principality. A settlement of December 3, 1635 sealed the completed division. This was based on the income of the individual offices recorded in 1603, according to which Friedrich was entitled to 8,000 thalers. Since his two offices only brought in 6,000 thalers, the compensation was to be paid to him by his brother and from an estate fund.

The new principality, one of the smallest in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, consisted of the small towns of Harzgerode and Güntersberge and three and a half villages. Anhalt Castle , which had been abandoned in the middle of the 14th century and gave its name to the Principality of Anhalt , was also located in the area. In the newly founded Principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode, further settlements emerged: Mägdesprung as the location of an ironworks (1646), Lindenberg (around 1650), Tilkerode (1662) and Siptenfelde (1663).

Initially, despite the division of the country, the brothers led a largely joint government and Christian acted as his brother's authorized representative after his brother was absent for years. After serious differences had broken out between the two, a settlement was signed in 1647 that declared Frederick's principality as independent and included the annexation of the village of Radisleben with its Vorwerk instead of the annual compensation payment by Christian II.

When the princes ruling in Plötzkau took over the principality of Anhalt-Köthen in accordance with the treaty after the Köthen prince line of the House of Anhalt, which emerged in 1603/06 , the office of Plötzkau fell back to the principality of Anhalt-Bernburg, with Prince Friedrich being entitled to half of the office. He agreed with the ruling nephew in Bernburg to cede the village of Radisleben to him and instead to take over the entire office with its five and a half villages. In 1669 he was able to expand his principality with the Gernrode office with the village of Frose when the senior citizen estates were divided .

Coin for the resumption of mining in the Harz Mountains (1693)

In 1670 Friedrich died in Plötzkau Castle . Married twice, he left a son and a daughter.

After Frederick's death in 1670, his only son Wilhelm took over the principality. He too tried successfully to overcome the damage caused by the Thirty Years' War . In 1682 he had the Wilhelmshof plant built on the desolation of the village of Anhalt and in 1688 the number of inhabitants of his residence continued to grow by laying the foundation stone for a rapidly developing Harzgeröder suburb (Augustenstadt). After the Leipziger Münzfuß replaced the Zinna Münzfuß around 1690 and thus promised a higher treasure trove, Wilhelm intensified mining. He leased it to a union , the 37 mines in the shortest time unsuspected . A silver smelter was built for smelting in 1692/1693 , from which the Harzgeröder district of the same name, Silberhütte, emerged . The Principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode experienced a brief period of prosperity. The population grew, Harzgerode received another suburb (mountain town), pennies and silver talers were minted in a newly established coin, and the most beautiful church in Anhalt was built in Harzgerode. From 1698, the mining company, which was last based on fraud, ran into financial difficulties. In 1702 the owed amount was 340,000 Reichstaler. Two mines were subsequently operated for fiscal purposes.

Coin for the reunification with the Principality of Anhalt-Bernburg

The chancellery located in the forecourt of the palace and the chamber located in the new office building on the market, both led by directors at the end, acted as government authorities of the small principality. The church affairs were headed by the Harzgeröder senior pastor as superintendent or inspector, assisted by the ministry as an organ.

After the death of Wilhelm, who had been married twice and remained childless, in 1709, the Principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode reverted to Prince Viktor Amadeus , who ruled in Anhalt-Bernburg . In his will, Prince Wilhelm bequeathed a legacy of 12,000 talers to the poor of his principality. The widowed princess, Princess Sophie Auguste von Nassau-Dillenburg , lived in the Harzgerode Castle as a widow's seat until she moved to Dillenburg in 1723 and handed over her Harzgerode property to the Prince of Bernburg in 1726.

As a reminder of the two generations of princes ruling in Harzgerode, the " Prince's chair " built into St. Mary's Church , the portraits of Prince Wilhelm with his two wives and two tombs in the church, one named after Wilhelm's first wife Albertine Mine area and Albertinenweg, plus Augustenstraße named after his second wife with the adjacent Augustenhöhe industrial area. Until the 19th century, the Harzgeröder and Güntersberger Armenkasse received an annual subsidy from the Fürst Wilhelmschen Legatekasse.

While increasing poverty had spread after the collapse of the mining industry in the Harzgeröder region, this process intensified after the abolition of the Harzgeröder principality and the dissolution of its government authorities and the court. However, with the economic decisions made in the years of the Principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode to start mining, to build the Mägdesprunger Eisenwerk and the Silberhütte, the basis for the initially faltering but then continuous development of the Harzgerode region into the economic center of the Principality or Duchy of Anhalt was laid -Bernburg from the 2nd half of the 18th century.

Princes

• Friedrich 1635-1670
• Wilhelm 1670-1709

literature

• Ferdinand Siebigk : The Duchy of Anhalt - historically, geographically and statistically represented. Dessau: Desbarats, 1867, pp. 236–238 ( digitized version )
• Wilfried Ließmann : Historischer Bergbau im Harz , Berlin: Springer, 2nd edition, 2010, p. 258 ff.
• Karl-Heinz Börner : Princes, Citizens and Fraudsters. Resident town of Harzgerode 1635-1709. Harzgerode 2001.
• Karl-Heinz Börner : Legate of Prince Wilhelm of Anhalt-Harzgerode. A legacy for the poor and how it was used. In: General Harz Mountain Calendar for 2018, 2017, pp. 131–134. ISBN 978-3-86948-596-6

Web links

Commons : Fürstentum Anhalt-Harzgerode  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Harzgerode (Regionalverband Harz eV) , accessed on December 18, 2016
• Regnal Chronologies, Anhalt section , accessed December 18, 2016, English
• Tradition on the princely branch line Anhalt-Bernburg-Harzgerode in the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau department

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry Anhalt-Bernburg-Harzgerode in Rulers: Germany, States before 1945 , accessed on May 13, 2019.
2. ^ Fritz-Rudolf Künker: Gold and silver coins, u. a. Rarities from the Friedrich Popken collection. Russian coins and medals. Auction 244, February 6, 2014 ( digitized version ).