Hanau Department

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The Hanau department was an administrative unit ( département ) of the middle administrative level within the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt from 1810 to 1813 .

history

Emergence

The department of Hanau was the Principality of Hanau of the Electorate of Hesse in terms of scope and function , which was designated as a "Department". After the electorate was occupied by Napoleon in 1806, the principality of Hanau was initially under French military administration until 1810 and then became part of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt in 1810. On May 16, 1810, the handover between the French State Councilor Jean-Baptiste-Moïse Jollivet and the Minister of the Prince Primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg , Leopold von Beust , took place in the Hanau City Palace in the presence of numerous officials from the former Principality of Hanau, including the Hanau city ​​councilors Old and new town completed. The change of reign was welcomed by the subjects , who had found the past years of French occupation oppressive. Obviously there were no concerns about the Roman Catholic denomination of the new sovereign.

Reforms

Middle management level

On January 1, 1811, the administration was redesigned according to the French model: the traditional administration, organized in colleges according to the early modern model, was organized by a strictly hierarchical administration under a prefect . The first prefect was Heinrich von der Tann , a top civil servant from the neighboring territory of Fulda, also recently acquired by Dalberg . He held office until 1813 and was then replaced by Carl Albrecht Wilhelm von Auer (1748–1830) after unrest in the city of Hanau , later: Prussian war and domain council and excise director.

The Hanau Department had a parliamentary body, the General Department Council, which , however, only had an advisory function. Chairman of Hanauer department of the college - one appointed by the Grand Duke state organ - that for (but also only advisory active) Parliament of the Grand Duchy, the five Hanauer deputies States General , elected, became the Hanauer Rentkammer President Friedrich Ludwig von Motz (1732-1817). It elected: Carl Friedrich Buderus von Carlshausen , Ludwig Wilhelm Gayling von Altheim , Ludwig Otto Toussaint , Georg Wachs and Johann Karl Lavater as MPs for the Hanau Department .

Local government level

In the lower administrative level, the traditional territorial structure of the early modern state was retained, but the functions of office holders and administrative units were given French names: village schools and mayors became “ Maires ”, city ​​councils “Muncipalräthe”, and offices “ districts ”. The Maires were given responsibility to the extent of their French colleagues, which increased their workload enormously and immediately triggered resistance from the predominantly volunteer workers. A parliamentary body, the municipal councils, was also set up at the lower administrative level, albeit with very limited tasks and powers.

Districts of the Hanau department

Judiciary

With an ordinance of October 5, 1812, a new court system was created for the Grand Duchy from the beginning of 1813 : In every departmental capital, including Hanau, a "departmental court" was set up to rule on civil law disputes. In practice, only the existing Hanau court was renamed. As a second instance, there was a court of appeal in Frankfurt and the State Council of the Grand Duchy also formed the superordinate court of cassation.

meaning

The Hanau department occupied a central geographical position in the Grand Duchy. In addition, some central government tasks were performed from here. All consistories of the predecessor states of the Grand Duchy - except that of the Principality of Hanau - were dissolved. The consistory in Hanau became the highest church authority in the Grand Duchy for both Protestant churches, the Lutheran and the Reformed Church , of the entire Grand Duchy, including Frankfurt, Wetzlar and Fulda. In addition, the Minister of the Interior, Justice and Police, Franz Joseph von Albini , took the seat of his ministry in the Hanau City Palace. The conversion of the Hesse-Kassel Principality of Hanau into a department of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt meant an upgrade.

The End

In 1813, due to the miserable economic situation, the conscription for the Napoleonic army (the Grand Duchy had to provide and equip a contingent of 2,800 men), troops passing through were constantly accommodated and fed, especially in the Kinzig valley , the constant threat of national bankruptcy and the decline of authority the government and the Grand Duke's claim to legitimacy created an anti-state atmosphere in the department. Peasants resisted the military, which deserters who had hidden with the peasants in Altengronau and Sterbfritz wanted to seize. Such incidents led to the fact that the Prefect Heinrich von der Tann was replaced by Carl Albrecht Wilhelm von Auer. That no longer stopped the decline of state power, whose protector Napoleon was in the process of collapse.

After the dissolution of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, the department of Hanau fell back to Kurhessen and was given its old name "Principality of Hanau" back. At the same time, the increase in importance that had grown in the Grand Duchy was lost again. So it was not only a peripheral province and the one furthest away from the capital Kassel, but also the only part of the country that was not represented in the estates of the electorate. It took the July Revolution of 1830 to achieve this step of integration into the Hessian electoral state.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schumacher, p. 158.
  2. ↑ a b c d Schumacher, p. 141.
  3. ↑ Schumacher, p. 145.
  4. ^ Rolf Straubel : Biographical manual of the Prussian administrative and judicial officials 1740–1806 / 15 . In: Historical Commission to Berlin (Ed.): Individual publications . 85. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-23229-9 , pp. 27–28 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ Schumacher, p. 155.
  6. ↑ Schumacher, p. 154.
  7. ↑ Schumacher, p. 159.
  8. ↑ Schumacher, p. 160.
  9. ↑ Schumacher, p. 162.
  10. ↑ Schumacher, p. 163.
  11. ↑ Schumacher, pp. 149f.
  12. ↑ Schumacher, p. 169.
  13. ↑ Schumacher, p. 171.