Forêts department

This article deals with a former French department; for the French writer, see Louis-René des Forêts .

Map of the departments in today's Benelux region

The Département des Forêts ( German  Department of Forests ) was the name of a department in historic France. It was created in 1795 after the annexation of the territory by the French Republic and was in first French Empire of Napoleon I. on.

Before the occupation by France, the area was part of the Duchy of Luxembourg ( Austrian Netherlands ) and the Duchy of Bouillon .

The area covered parts of what is now Belgium , Luxembourg and Germany . The capital of the department was Luxembourg . The name comes from the forests of the Ardennes .

After the victory over Napoléon, the department was initially placed under the provisional administration of the Central Rhine General Government (March to June 1814), then the Lower and Central Rhine General Government . Due to the decisions of the Congress of Vienna (1815), the area was divided between the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Prussia .

Administrative division

The department was divided into four arrondissements , 27 cantons and 383 communes:

• Arrondissement Luxembourg (Luxembourg) , cantons: Arlon , Bettembourg , Betzdorf , Grevenmacher , Luxembourg , Mersch , Messancy and Remich (Arlon and Messancy now belong to Belgium, the others to Luxembourg).
• Arrondissement Bitburg (Bitbourg) , cantons Arzfeld , Bitburg , Dudeldorf , Echternach and Neuerburg (the western part of the canton Echternach today belongs to Luxembourg, the eastern and the other cantons to Germany).
• Arrondissement Diekirch , cantons: Clervaux , Diekirch , Ospern , Vianden and Wiltz (today all belong to Luxembourg, parts of the canton Vianden to Germany)
• Arrondissement Neufchâteau , cantons: Bastogne , Étalle , Fauvillers , Florenville , Houffalize , Neufchâteau , Paliseul , Sibrét and Virton (now all part of Belgium).

During the provisional administration, the arrondissements were renamed "Kreise" or "Cercles".

See also

• French departments in Central Europe from 1792 to 1814

literature

• Alfred Lefort: Histoire du Département des Forêts . Volume I., Alphonse Picard & Fils, Paris and Luxembourg 1905.
• Albrecht Friedrich Ludolph Lasius : The French Imperial State under the government of Emperor Napoleon the Great in 1812 . A historical manual, first section, Johann Gottfried Kißling, Osnabrück 1813, page 234 ( Google Books )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FWA Schlickeysen: Repertory of laws and ordinances for the royal. Prussian Rhine provinces , Trier: Leistenschneider, 1830, p. 13 ff. ( dilibri.de )
2. ^ Heinrich Berghaus : Germany for a Hundred Years , Part 2, Volume 3, Voigt & Günther, 1862, p. 81 ( Google Books )