Eichsfeld State
The Eichsfeld State (also "Electoral Mainzisch Eichsfelder State") was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire , which belonged to the Archdiocese of Mainz and which existed until 1802. Until the end of the Eichsfeld state, the area was ruled by a Mainz governor.
geography
The historical Eichsfeld was on the border areas of the Thuringian, Saxon and Hessian tribal areas between the Werra and the Harz . These borders still form the state borders between Thuringia , Lower Saxony and Hesse today .
Adjacent administrative units were:
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history
From the 9th century onwards, the archbishops of Mainz began to build political territory between the Werra and the Harz in addition to religious influence. In 1294 Kurmainz also acquired the original Eichsfeld from the Lords of Gleichen . Only later was the name of the originally Thuringian area taken over for the entire Mainz property east of the Werra. In the middle of the 16th century, the area expansions were completed and the boundaries with the neighboring territories were laid down in contracts and marked with boundary stones.
When the term state was in use for the Eichsfeld territory is not exactly known, but probably not until the end of the early modern period as in the publication of the Kurmainzischer Hof- und Staats-Kalender . In the more recent literature, the term “Principality of Eichsfeld” was also used, probably based on the Electorate of Mainz.
For the loss of its areas on the left bank of the Rhine to France, the Electoral Mainz Eichsfeld was awarded to the Kingdom of Prussia . King Friedrich Wilhelm III. took possession of the entire Eichsfeld for Prussia in 1802 , and the media principality of Eichsfeld was created. From 1807 to 1813 the Eichsfeld was part of the Kingdom of Westphalia , after its dissolution it came back to Prussia. In 1816 the Eichsfeld was divided, which continues to this day.
Structure of the state
The exclave, located quite far from the Mainz central government, was administered from 1123 to 1540 by a Vizedom on the Rusteberg and from 1540 to 1802 by a senior bailiff and later by a governor in Heiligenstadt. The elector Philipp Karl von Eltz-Kempenich had the castle built as the residence of the archbishop's governor in place of the old collegiate curia from 1736–1738 . It is unclear when exactly one can speak of a state in the legal sense. The Eichsfeld state consisted of a secular and a spiritual state.
Secular state
In the 18th century, the secular state was structured as follows, with the governor as the representative of the Elector of Mainz:
- Government with the president in the person of the governor and the subordinate offices and councils, offices, messengers
- Higher Regional Court (from 1540)
- Land Tax Office
- Landschreiberei
- Forestry Office
- various commissions (construction, road and road construction and others)
The jurisdiction was divided into:
- City courts (with a city school and city council with mayor) to Duderstadt , Heiligenstadt and Worbis
- 8 administrative bailiffs of the Electoral Mainz offices of Bischofstein / Greifenstein , Gieboldehausen , Gleichenstein , Harburg , Lindau , Rusteberg , Scharfenstein and the adjacent office of Treffurt
- Joint Schulzenamt zu Niederorschel
- Monastic dishes at Anrode , Zella , Beuren , Gerode , Reifenstein and Teistungenburg
- 17 noble courts
See also: List of the offices and bailiffs in the Eichsfeld
See also: List of the vice domes, senior officials and governors of the Mainz possessions on the Eichsfeld
The Eichsfeld estates existed as representatives of the clergy, knighthood and cities .
Spiritual state
Already in the early Middle Ages the area between Werra and Harz belonged to the Archdiocese of Mainz. With the introduction of the archdeaconate , four archdeaconates were responsible for the area of the later Eichsfeld: Heiligenstadt, Nörten, Jechaburg and Dorla.
The Archbishop's Commissariat in Heiligenstadt has been at the head of the ecclesiastical state since the 15th century, with a commissioner as the Archbishop's deputy for Eichsfeld. The commissioner's office is responsible for the collegiate monastery in St. Martin in Heiligenstadt, the collegiate monastery in St. Peter in Nörten outside of Eichsfeld , abbeys and monasteries in Eichsfeld and the town and country pastors. During the 30-year war , the police station was relocated to Duderstadt in 1638 and back to Heiligenstadt in 1781. The commissioner's office for the upper field continues to this day, and since 1816 there has been another commissioner for the lower field in Duderstadt as a result of the division of the calibration field.
Landschreiber of the Eichsfeldes
The land clerk was the first civil servant to be one of the most important officials after the senior magistrate in Eichsfeld. At the beginning of the 17th century, Andreas Reuter was commissioned by the Elector of Mainz to reorganize the ownership structure and taxes in Eichsfeld. After his execution in 1618, the office of land clerk was established. The first land clerk was Johann Zwehl, who held this office until his death in 1652. Some land clerks held other offices at the same time, such as that of the city schoolmaster of Heiligenstadt , a higher regional court assistant or chamber director. The following land writers are known:
- Johann Zwehl (1618–1652)
- Johann Georg Dresanus (1654–)
- Thomas Heckemüller (1686, to 1708)
- Philipp Kolligs (until 1724)
- Ludwig Kolligs (1724–1739)
- Anselm Schott (1739–1763)
- Urban Ignaz Bodmann (1763–1779)
- Christian Anton Dresanus (1779–)
literature
- Karl Paul Haendly: The Electoral Mainz Principality of Eichsfeld in the course of its history, its economy and its people from 897 to 1933. Expanded to 1963 . Mecke, Duderstadt 1996, ISBN 3-923453-77-9 .
- Electoral Mainz Eichsfeld state. in: Kurmainzischer Hof- und Staats-Kalender to the year 1797. Mainz 1797
- Electoral Mainz Eichsfeld state. in: Kurmainzischer Hof- und Staats-Kalender to the year 1790. Mainz 1790
- Anton Friedrich Büsching: Magazine for New History and Geography. Section III. Exact geographical draft from Eichsfelde 1756. Sixth part, Verlag Buchröder and Ritter Hamburg 1771
- Alexander Jendorff: Government and administration on the Eichsfeld in the Kurmainzer period between 1540 and 1802. In: Eichsfeld-Jahrbuch , ISSN 1610-6741 , vol. 19 (2011), pp. 5-46
- Hans Becker von Sothen: The Mainzische government of the Eichsfeldes from the beginnings to 1802. In: Eichsfeld-Jahrbuch 2 (1994), S. 5-78
- Manfred H. Conraths: Stone witnesses on the borders of the Eichsfeld. Eichsfeld-Jahrbuch 11 (2003), pp. 313–328
- Thomas T. Müller: The Reutersche stock book as a source for local history. The income of the Elector of Mainz in Heiligenstadt around 1610. In: Eichsfeld-Jahrbuch 15 (2007), pp. 75–85
- H. Lücke: Controversial locations on the Eichsfeld-Hanover border. Duderstadt 1932
- Wilhelm Denninger and Annika Koch: Historic boundary stones on the former border between the Electorate of Mainz and the Hessian rule of Plesse. In: Eichsfelder Heimatzeitschrift. Volume 61, No. 5, pages 130-136
- Lower Saxony State Archives Hanover: Border comparison (recess) between the government in Hanover and Kurmainz because of the Eichsfeld from October 21, 1743. Inventory C No. 412.
- Klaus-Jürgen Schmidt: The Prussian eagle on boundary stones of the Eichsfeld from 1743. In: Südniedersachsen. 30 (2002) p. 118 ff.
- Raymund Falk: On the history of the development of the Mainz state Eichsfeld. In: Eichsfelder Heimatstimmen 1988, no. 8, pp. 380–386
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rudolf Linge, Peter Schmidt: Church and Faith in Eichsfeld St. Benno Verlag Leipzig and Cordier Verlag Heiligenstadt 1975, page 16
- ↑ Josef Keppler: Our beautiful Eichsfeld. Helmut Mecke Duderstadt 2007
- ↑ Thorsten W. Müller et al .: The churches in Eichsfeld. Mecke-Verlag Duderstadt 2011
- ^ [1] Episcopal Commissariat Heiligenstadt
- ^ Johann Wolf: History and description of the city of Heiligenstadt with documents. Göttingen 1800, pages 201-204
