Department of the Saale

Basic data (1810)
Department of the Saale
Sales department
Department de la Saale

Consist:	December 1, 1807-1813
Kingdom :	Westphalen
Prefecture :	Halberstadt
Residents:	273,105 (1810)
Structure:	3 districts
Prefects :	Wilhelm Christian Goßler
Location of the department in the Kingdom of Westphalia

The department of the Saale (fr. Département de la Saale , Germany. Department of the Saale , shortly Saale department or Saale department ) was from 1807 to 1813 an administrative unit of the Kingdom of Westphalia . The department was based in the city of Halberstadt and was headed by a prefect .

history

In Art. 6 of the Peace of Tilsit of 7 July 1807, Prussia had to recognize Jérôme as King of Westphalia and, according to Art. 8 cede his West Elbian territories, which also included the Principality of Halberstadt, the main part of the Duchy of Magdeburg and the imperial territories around the Harz region acquired in 1802 in anticipation of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss .

On August 13, 1807, on the orders of Napoleon, delegates from all parts of the future kingdom were appointed in Paris , including the last Halberstadt cathedral dean, Count von Alvensleben, for the Altmark and district administrator von Hagen for Halberstadt, who, however, joined the advisory committee for Napoleon's in an audience on August 16, 1807 laid down the new Westphalian constitution.

On June 28, 1807, three French "regents" took up their government business in the new capital Cassel ; on the same day the imperial decree appeared with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Westphalia. The Westphalian constitution signed by Napoleon on November 5, 1807 in Fontainebleau was dated November 15, 1807 by him. Membership in the Rhine Confederation from January 1, 1808 was enshrined in the Westphalian constitution. The administrative structure based on the French model in departments and districts (with a maximum number being specified), cantons and municipalities was also prescribed in Article 34 of the constitution.

On December 10, 1807, Jérôme entered Cassel. The reception by the population is said to have been rather cold, but later adulation becomes evident throughout the new kingdom. Despite the introduction of the Code Napoléon as a civil code (January 1, 1808), the state laws were enacted in the form of royal decrees; the “imperial estates”, which had no right of self-assembly, were only allowed to “discuss” the laws according to the constitution.

By decree of February 11, 1808, Jérôme ordered celebrations of homage in the departments on March 6, 1808. In Halberstadt, Domdechant von Alvensleben took the oath of homage for the clergy , while Prefect Goßler took the oath from the secular representatives on a platform at the wood market.

As the capital of the department, Halberstadt was the seat of the prefecture and the criminal court, a special sub-prefect was not appointed for the district.

In general administration, the sub-prefects were directly subordinate to the municipalities with a maire and a maire adjoint at the head, until the maires de canton were appointed at the end of 1808. As in other parts of the kingdom, these mostly voluntary functions were taken on quite willingly, with 15% of the posts still remaining vacant in the 140 municipalities of the Halle district after the first appointment decree. On the one hand, there was a certain change in personnel. In the 73 communes of the ten former Prussian cantons of this district, 32 people were appointed mayors who had not previously been community leaders (mayor, Schulze, judge). 17 had previously been village judges. In the Saale department, however, formerly privileged elites also tried to occupy the municipal functions, because 13 Maires (of the 73 examined) were tenants of royal or noble estates and eleven were noble estate owners themselves. The government in Cassel tried, however, to reduce the influence of the nobility on local government. In the Halberstadt district (70 municipalities) the number of maires from the nobility fell from six to four between 1808 and 1812, and from 18 to eight in the Halle district (140 municipalities).

The majority of the Maires came from the middle peasantry, who were often subject to taxes and service. In 58% of the municipalities in the Halberstadt district, one of the two municipal officials - the Maire or the Maire adjoint - was a compulsory farmer. Officially, the government preferred Maires from their community, which was not the case for 75% (Halle district) or 85% (Halberstadt district) of the noble Maires.

The department 1812

After Napoleon's opponents (Prussia, Austria, Russia and Sweden) had won the Battle of Leipzig in mid-October 1813 , the Kingdom of Westphalia quickly disintegrated, and with it the Saale department.

With the exception of the Principality of Blankenburg and the Office of Hesse , which were incorporated into the newly formed Duchy of Braunschweig , the Saale Department fell back to Prussia, which in 1816 formed the Province of Saxony with the capital Magdeburg. Its administrative district Magdeburg included the city district of Halberstadt and the districts of Osterwieck (with Wernigerode), Aschersleben (district seat of Quedlinburg) and almost the entire district of Oschersleben from the former Saale department . The urban district of Halle , the Saalkreis, the Mansfelder Gebirgskreis (with Ermsleben, capital Mansfeld) and the Mansfelder Seekreis (with Alsleben, capital Eisleben) fell to the administrative district of Merseburg in the province of Saxony .

A change occurred in 1825 when, on the basis of a comparison made in 1823 with Count Henrich zu Stolberg-Wernigerode, the county left the Osterwieck district as an independent district, which was dissolved and a new district with the Halberstadt district and nine communities in the Oschersleben district Halberstadt formed.

Population and settlement structure

The Saale Department had 240,195 inhabitants with an area of 68.94 square miles, who lived in three arrondissements with 48 cantons with 312 municipalities (municipalities).

The department of the Saale was the most urbanized of all the departments of the kingdom. According to the Westphalian statistics, in 1809, 32.3% of the Westphalians lived in cities or towns. In the Saale department, this proportion was 47%. Almost two fifths of the population lived in cities with more than 2,000 inhabitants and a good fifth in cities with at least 5,000 inhabitants.

With the Harz department, the Saale department has the largest average settlement units. The villages were usually quite important.

As in the other eastern, formerly Prussian, areas of the kingdom, the vast majority of the inhabitants were Lutheran. In the Halberstadt district, other denominations and religions were represented only very slightly more. The proportion of the Jewish population was also considerably lower than, for example, in the former Hessian parts of the new kingdom. It was below five people per 1000 inhabitants, in the Halberstadt district a little higher, but below ten. In the Fulda and Werradepartement , the numbers were sometimes five to ten times higher.

structure

The arrondissements were further divided into cantons , each of which was headed by a mayor .

District	Cantons
Blankenburg	Blankenburg , Derenburg , Elbingerode , Ermsleben , Hasselfelde , Ilsenburg , Quedlinburg-Land ( Ditfurt ), Quedlinburg-Stadt , Wernigerode-Land , Wernigerode-Stadt
Halberstadt	Aschersleben-Land , Aschersleben-Stadt , Cochstedt , Croppenstedt , Dardesheim , Dedeleben , Gatersleben , Grüningen , Halberstadt-Land , Halberstadt-Stadt , Hesse , Horneburg , Osterwick , Schlanstedt , Schwanebeck , Wegeleben
Hall	Alsleben , Cönnern , Dieskau , Eisleben , Endorf , Fienstedt , Gerbstedt , Glaucha , Halle-Land , Halle-Stadt , Helfta , Hettstedt , Leimbach , Lobejün , Mansfeld , Neumarkt , Oppin , Polleben , Schraplau , Seeburg , Wettin , Wippra

Predecessor territories in the Old Kingdom

Prussian Principality of Halberstadt (created in 1802 from the Reichsstift Halberstadt): All cantons of the Westphalian district of Halberstadt, with the exception of the canton of Hesse, were part of Halberstadt until 1807. The cantons of Derenburg, Ermsleben, Quedlinburg-Stadt and partly Quendlinburg-Land in the Blankenburg district were also included .

County of Wernigerode (under Prussian suzerainty): The cantons of Ilsenburg, Wernigerode and partly Wernigerode-Land in the Blankenburg district belonged to this realm.

Prussian Domain Office Hasserode and Deutsch-Ordens-Kommende Langeln (from 1809): Both areas were added to the canton of Wernigerode-Land.

The cantons Mansfeld and Fienstedt from the Halle district belonged to the Prussian part of the county of Mansfeld .

The Halle cantons Halle and Alsleben belonged to the Duchy of Magdeburg with the Saalkreis .

The controversial part of the county of Mansfeld (actually only Westphalian in 1808 due to an exchange with Prussia for the former Cottbus district ) included the Halle cantons of Wippra, Endorf, Hettstedt and Eisleben.

The Westphalian canton of Hesse with the imperial barony of Schauen belonged to the former principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . From the Blankenburg district, Hasselfelde, Blankenburg and parts of Elbingerode once belonged to it.

The city of Elbingerode had belonged to Kurhannover .

prefecture

The previous Magdeburg Ordinary Councilor Wilhelm Christian Goßler (1755–1835), who received an annual salary of CHF 10,000 and had his seat on Domplatz 42/43, was prefect of the department . He was advised by a three-member prefectural council and a general department council consisting of 16 members. He was responsible for all administrative matters in the department. Despite his politically and economically difficult task, he was valued by his contemporaries. Initially he was the General Secretary of the Prefecture Baron Ludwig von Westphalen , who later became Karl Marx's father-in-law .

The prefecture building on Halberstädter Domplatz (center)

Ludwig von Westphalen was ordered to go to Salzwedel in 1809 , where he became sub-prefect. In order to rise in the administrative hierarchy, one had to have managed an administrative unit on one's own responsibility, which the general secretary of the Saale department apparently had not understood because he wanted to keep his post in Halberstadt.

The personal stability at the head of the department contrasted with the rapid change of sub-prefect of the Halle district. In the tightly structured Westphalian administrative hierarchy, this sub-prefecture seems to have served as a stepping stone to the appointment as prefect.

At least five sub-prefects were appointed in Halle from 1808 to 1813, four of whom actually occupied the post, more than in any other district. The sub-prefecture of Halle was also endowed with higher grants for office costs than the other sub-prefectures of the kingdom. At the beginning of 1808 the former Magdeburg war and domain councilor Johann August Wilhelm Frantz , who already knew the area as president of the road construction commission of the Saalkreis, was appointed sub-prefect, but was promoted to prefect of the linen department in October . Possibly he should also be transferred because he was related to figures in his district. His father-in-law was tenant of the important office of Giebichenstein .

Often times the sub-prefects were appointed in districts from which they were not from. Frantzen's successor, von Scheele, became prefect of the Aller department , while the Halle sub-prefect Piautaz was even promoted to prefect of the Fulda department in 1813 and was able to move into the prefecture in the capital Cassel.

literature

Bernd Feicke, Cornelia Kessler (Red.): The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and its effects on the Harz . In: Contributions to the regional and state culture of Saxony-Anhalt . Booklet 29. Halle 2004 (contains articles, literature, documents, maps and illustrations for the area of the later Saale department for the period from 1793 to 1813).
Kingdom of Westphalia (1807-1813) . On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the first civil constitution on German soil. In: Heiner Lück , Mathias Tullner (Ed.): Saxony-Anhalt. History and stories . Issue 2007/5 (contains, among other things, articles on the constitution and law in Westphalia, on the situation in the county of Wernigerode and a copy of the constitution).
Special atlas of the Kingdom of Westphalia consisting of eight departmental and one general chart on the highest royal level. Order according to official sources, Weimar, Verlag des Geographisches Institut, 1811. [Scale approx. 1: 280,000]
Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 (contains approx. 20 thematic maps of the entire Kingdom of Westphalia with information on all districts, as well as numerous special remarks on the Saaledepartement and Halle and its sub-prefecture, local government, nobility and relations between the French army and the population).

Individual evidence

^ Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 268 .
^ Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 288-292 .
^ Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 209 .
^ Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 213 .
^ Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 304-306 .
^ Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 175 .
^ Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 170 .

[1] Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 268 .

[2] Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 288-292 .

[3] Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 209 .

[4] Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 213 .

[5] Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 304-306 .

[6] Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 175 .

[7] Nicola Peter Todorov : L'administration du royaume de Westphalie 1807-1813 . Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-6-13154964-9 , p. 170 .