Arrondissement Elberfeld

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The Elberfeld arrondissement was an administrative unit in the Grand Duchy of Berg under French rule between 1808 and 1813. It comprised the area of ​​the Bergisch offices of Elberfeld , Barmen , Beyenburg , Solingen and Bornefeld , as well as parts of the offices of Steinbach and Miselohe .

background

The Duchy of Berg last belonged to King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria due to inheritance . On March 15, 1806 he ceded the Duchy of Berg to Napoleon Bonaparte in exchange for the Principality of Ansbach . He transferred the duchy to his brother-in-law Joachim Murat , who on April 24, 1806, together with the counties of Mark , Dortmund , Limburg on the right bank of the Rhine , the northern part of the Principality of Munster , from the counties of Bentheim (with the glory of the location), Horstmar , Steinfurt , Rheina-Wolbeck , Tecklenburg and Lingen united to form the Grand Duchy of Berg .

Soon after the takeover, the French administration, which was largely made up of knowledgeable local administrators, began to introduce new and modern administrative structures in the Grand Duchy based on the French model. By August 3, 1806, this municipal reform replaced and unified the old Bergisch offices and rulers. It provided for the creation of cantons (districts, districts) and municipalities (mayor's offices) based on the Prussian model and broke with the old noble privileges in local government. On November 14, 1808, this process was completed after a reorganization of the first structuring from 1806, the Altbergic honors and farmers were often retained and were assigned to the respective Mairies of a canton as rural communities. During the restructuring, on the orders of Napoleon, the French prefectural system with départements (prefectures) and arrondissements (sub-prefectures) was introduced and the municipalities were formally converted into Mairies . The Elberfeld arrondissement was created in the Rhine department .

In 1813 the French withdrew from the Grand Duchy after the defeat in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig and from the end of 1813 it fell under the provisional administration of Prussia in the so-called Generalgouvernement Berg . With the formation of the Prussian province of Jülich-Kleve-Berg in 1816, the existing administrative structures were largely retained and, while maintaining the French borders, transformed into Prussian districts , mayorships and municipalities , which often survived into the 20th century.

Sub-prefects

Moritz von Untzer was appointed as sub-prefect of the arrondissement from 1809 to 1810 , followed by Schleicher from 1810 to 1813 and, from 1813, Theodor Graf von Seyssel d'Aix , who remained district administrator of the Elberfeld district even after the transition to Prussia .

Subdivision

The arrondissement was divided into seven cantons (counties) (population as of November 14, 1808):

The whole arrondissement (96,471 inhabitants) contained a total of 56 municipalities, seven cities, fifteen villages, 33 lordships, fifteen special courts and one freedom in seven cantons .

literature

  • Bettina Severin Barboutie: French rule politics and modernization: administrative and constitutional reforms in the Grand Duchy of Berg (1806-1813) , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58294-9
  • A. Dessauer: Der Rheinische Bund , Vol. 11, 1809, S. 94 ff. Online
  • Nicolaus J. Breidenbach : Families, property and taxes in Wermelskirchen, Dabringhausen and Dhünn 1666 to 1991 . Verlag Gisela Breidenbach, Wermelskirchen 2003, ISBN 3-9802801-8-7 , p.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gemeindeververzeichnis.de
  2. ↑ JC Dänzer: Décret impérial sur la circonscription territoriale du grand-duché de Berg… Imperial decree on the division of the Grand Duchy of Berg . 1808, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-84858 .