Bergische Amt Constitution in 1363

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Location of the offices in the Duchy of Berg (1791)

The Bergische Ämterverfassungs in 1363 is handed down in a document that was issued on September 6, 1363 on the occasion of the prescription of an annual annuity . Offices Constitution referred to the historical sciences a territorial management principle in which parts of the previously landesherrschaftlich bound rights of administration and jurisdiction in offices distributed and of these in the name of the sovereign were perceived. The eight offices of the County of Berg, which were later classified as main offices, are mentioned for the first time in the document. The document thus documents that the process of forming offices that began around the middle of the 13th century in the county was largely complete at the time it was drawn up.

history

The first steps towards the constitution of offices were taken with the purchase of the right and the lower jurisdiction in Overath and Altenrath in 1311, with which the parishes of Overath and Altenrath were attached to the county of Berg. Around this time, several parishes were combined to form the Steinbach office .

In the document from 1363, the cities of Ratingen, Düsseldorf, Wipperfürth, Lennep, Radevormwald and Mülheim am Rhein are initially listed . Then the offices Angermund , Monheim , Mettmann , Solingen , Miselohe , Bornefeld with Hückeswagen , Bensberg and Steinbach are mentioned. The Beyenburg office , which first appeared as an office in 1396, as well as the Burg winery and the Siegburg bailiwick are omitted. The later Amt Porz was originally Amt Bensberg; sometimes you can also find the term Amt Bensberg / Porz . The bailiff continued to have his seat at Bensberg Castle , while his upper court with the corresponding administrative tasks was based in Porz.

As the basis for a uniform regulation of general administrative sovereignty in the county of Berg, the constitution of offices remained decisive for more than four centuries.

Organization and tasks of the offices

At the head of an office (officium) stood the bailiff (officiatus) . It was a person from the knightly nobility who was appointed by the sovereign. On this he was sworn in and usually appointed for life. Often the bailiffs were also castle rulers. A bailiff received income in the form of Brüchten , pension prescriptions, payment in kind, reimbursements, etc. His responsibilities included u. a .:

  • Supervision of the administration of the police, legal and protective functions,
  • Preventing the establishment of facilities that were detrimental to the sovereign, such as permanent places, places of execution, houses, mills or churches, if they have not existed since ancient times,
  • Guarding the borders and land defenses to protect the population against robbery or during army marches,
  • Maintaining the peace,
  • Commander of knights and armed men in times of war.

So on the one hand he had to worry about the orders and ordinances of the sovereign and on the other hand to preserve the old legal relationships and customs. In addition, he was a sovereign civil servant who had official, feudal and land law functions. As the guardian of public order, he was the supreme court lord in his district and was in charge of the execution of sentences, court fines, imprisonment and pillory up to execution .

The administration of the sovereign property, patronage, leasehold farms, pensions, freedoms and non-leased duties, deliveries in kind and interest, however, was not the responsibility of the bailiff, but the waiter or land manager. Often the two offices of bailiff and waiter were held in one hand.

With the constitution of offices it was achieved that the administration was based on public services of the subjects - in particular on general taxes - which had nothing to do with the manor and without formal dissolution of the court associations ensured the supreme power of the sovereign and his judicial system.

dualism

In the same decades of the constitution of the office constitution, the Bergisch knight and land law was recorded. It brought knighthood and cities into play as separate legal entities. As a result, the dualism of sovereign and estates developed into a late medieval corporate state , which only gave way to sovereign absolutism with the regional church sovereignty of the Reformation and the emergence of a new army constitution .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Main State Archives Düsseldorf : Berg, Document 354; published by Theodor Joseph Lacomblet : Archive for the history of the Lower Rhine. Volume 4. Voss, Düsseldorf 1863, pp. 147-158 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ A b c Kurt Kluxen : History of Bensberg. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1976, ISBN 3-506-74590-5 , p. 68 ff.

literature

  • Albrecht Brendler: On the way to the territory. Administrative structure and office holder of the County of Berg 1225–1380. Dissertation University of Bonn, 2015, especially pp. 47–50. 432-435 and passim ( PDF publication ).
  • Kurt Kluxen : History of Bensberg. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1976, ISBN 3-506-74590-5 , pp. 68-74.
  • Axel Kolodziej : Duke Wilhelm I von Berg (1380-1408). Schmidt, Neustadt an der Aisch 2005, ISBN 978-3-87707-657-6 .

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