Department of the Elbe
| Department of the Elbe | |
| Department de l'Elbe | |
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| Basic data (as of 1809) | |
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| Consist: | December 1, 1807-1813 |
| Kingdom : | Westphalen |
| Prefecture : | Magdeburg |
| Residents: | 309.902 (status 1809) |
| Structure: | 4 (September 1810 to March 1811: 3) districts |
| Prefects : |
Philipp Ernst Alexander Graf von der Schulenburg-Emden (until May 1812) Joseph-Claude Legras de Bercagny (from May 8, 1812) |
| Location of the department in the Kingdom of Westphalia | |
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The department of the Elbe ( French Département de l'Elbe ), also called Upper Elbe Department in 1810/11 , was an administrative unit (department) of the Kingdom of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813/14 .
history
The department was formed on December 1, 1807 from the largest part of the Duchy of Magdeburg , on the left bank of the Elbe, from Altmark , which previously belonged to Brandenburg , from the County of Barby , from the Gommern offices separated from Saxony ( Gommern , Ranies , Elbenau and Plötzky ) , some parts of the Halberstadt, formed from the Braunschweigischen Amte Calvörde and from the Amt Weferlingen . The main town of the department was Magdeburg . Due to its areas essentially ceded by Prussia and the Magdeburg fortress , the Elbe department had a special symbolic and strategic function in relation to the Westphalian reform policy and the role of the new kingdom in relation to neighboring Prussia.
In March 1808 Saxony ceded the county of Barby and the office of Gommern ; both were assigned to the Magdeburg district. The cantons of Brome and Klötze are said to have remained with the Principality of Hanover until January 1810 .
On September 1, 1810, Napoleon proposed the rest of the Principality of Hanover to become the Kingdom of Westphalia, which thereby received three new departments. This resulted in the following changes for the department of the Elbe: The district of Salzwedel lost eight cantons ( Jübar , Calbe , Groß Apenburg , Betzendorf , Disdorf , Salzwedel (city) , Salzwedel (country) and Arendsee ) to the department of the Nieder-Elbe . The cantons of Mieste , Gardelegen (city) , Gardelegen (country) and Zichtau came to the Neuhaldensleben district , the cantons of Bretsche and Pollitz to the Stendal district . The Salzwedel district was thus dissolved. For this there was a new district of Salzwedel in the department of the Nieder-Elbe. In the few months that the Nieder-Elbe department existed (September 1810 to approx. March 1811), the department was also called the Upper Elbe Department .
With a decree of August 7, 1810, another court of appeal was set up in Celle to relieve the court of appeal in Celle, responsible for the three new departments ( Elbe and Weser estuaries , Nieder-Elbe and Aller ) as well as for the departments of the Elbe and Oker .
Due to the annexation of the northern German coastal states by France and the establishment of the Hanseatic departments on January 1, 1811, changes occurred again for the department of the Elbe. The Salzwedel district came back into the department. Finally, on March 22, 1811, the villages of Cracau and Prester , on the right bank of the Elbe near the Magdeburg Citadel, came to the canton of Sudenburg , and the Herrenkrug to the city canton of Magdeburg . They had recently been ceded by Prussia.
The department of the Elbe made up the north-eastern part of the Kingdom of Westphalia. In the north was the French-occupied Duchy of Lüneburg , essentially east of the Elbe was the Prussian Anhalt . To the west of the Kingdom of Westphalia belonged the Saale and Oker departments . The border ran from the river Bode, at the customs house where the Bode emerges from the Halberstädtischen, along the border between the Halberstädtischen and the Magdeburgischen to the area of Gehringsdorf , then leaves Warmsdorf on the left and goes in the direction of the river Aller to Grafhorst and then Luneburg . The department got its name from the Elbe. With the exception of some parts of Magdeburg and the Gommern Office , the river formed the border.
1811: The Elbe department now bordered the Duchy of Mecklenburg in the north, according to the State Handbook, but the Aller department to the north. It bordered Prussia to the east, Saxony and Anhalt to the south, and the Saale and Oker departments to the west.
State in 1811:
The department of the Elbe comprised about 160 square miles or 444 square lieues or 3,529,200 Brunswick acres, of which 511.6 Brunswick acres were forest. The population was given as of December 1, 1810 as 309,902 people (excluding the military). They lived in four districts, 59 cantons, 531 municipalities, 45 mayies, 61 courts of justice, in 29 cities, twelve towns, eleven suburbs, 820 villages, 168 hamlets, 157 detached houses. There were a total of 42,870 fire pits.
- In the Magdeburg district, 110,302 people lived on almost 27 square miles. The city of Magdeburg was both the district and department capital.
- In the Neuhaldensleben district, 63,606 people lived on almost 39.5 square miles.
- In the Stendal district, 55,572 people lived on almost 39.7 square miles.
- In the Salzwedel district, 80,422 people lived in almost 53.4 square miles.
By decree of August 4, 1810, the cantons of Mieste (town and country), Gardelegen and Zichtau became part of the Neuhaldensleben district, and the cantons of Bretsche and Polliz became part of the Stendal district. The rest of the Salzwedel district came to the department of the Lower Elbe.
The Kingdom of Westphalia was divided into departments , the departments into districts, these into cantons and these into municipalities.
The prefectures
The department of the Elbe was based in Magdeburg. It was directed by the Prefect Alexander Graf von der Schulenburg-Emden , supported by his secretary Franke. Legras de Bercagny was prefect from 1813. He was French and had built the "High Police" (secret police) when the kingdom was founded. He replaced Schulenburg, which had fallen out of favor and was therefore promoted to the Council of State, where he no longer had any direct influence on the administration. The prefecture in Magdeburg was deliberately occupied by a French in order to be able to solve the problems between the French military and the civil administration more easily. The prefect also administered the sub-prefecture in which the prefectural seat was located. With Le Gras de Bercagny, a sub-prefect for Magdeburg, the State Auditor Henneberg, was appointed. The council assembly (1810) included Messrs. Immernann, Costenobel , Schulz and Weyhe.
The council meeting of the sub-prefect of Magdeburg included (1810) Bennecke, Grunow, de Mahrenholz, d´Ahlemann, Döbbel, Klotze, Voigtel and Delbrück. In 1812 it was Count von Alvensleben, von Schulenburg auf Altenhausen, von Vangerow, von Klevenow, von Röder, Schulz, von Bismark, von Crewese, von Busche, von Knesebeck, von Medingen, Rötger, von Bornstädt, von Alvensleben auf Zichtau and Sombart.
There were other sub-prefects in
- Neuhaldensleben: the Prefect Baron de Froreich with his secretary Tuckhard,
- Salzwedel: from 1808 to 1810, sub-prefect Burchard von Bülow, from 1810 to 1813 the sub-prefect Rittmeister Ludwig von Westphalen with his secretary Schönewald, from 1811 d´Uslar, and in
- Stendal: Unter-Prefect Count von Schulenburg-Bodendorf with his secretary Breil
literature
- (No. 26) 1808 Kgl. Decree which prescribes that the counties of Bary and Gommern, ceded by the King of Saxony, are to be united with the district of Magdeburg, and contains the division of these.
- (No. 39) 1808 Kgl. Decree on the division of the city of Magdeburg into three cantons
- “ Handbook on the Kingdom of Westphalia for information about the country and inhabitants, constitution, administration and external conditions of the state in general and its individual parts in particular, together with a list of the most distinguished court and state officials” Halle, bey Hemmerde and Schwetschke. 1808.
- (78) Royal decree of July 19, 1810, which decreed the composition of the three departments formed from the former Hanoverian provinces and the unification of certain other parts of the kingdom with them. (79) ..determines the time ... [As of September 1, 1810]
- Kgl. Decree of August 4, 1810 making the cantons of Mieste (town and country), Gardelegen and Zichtau to the district of Neuhaldensleben, and the cantons of Bretsche and Polliz to the district of Stendal.
- “ Handbook about the Kingdom of Westphalia ”, Halle, bey Hemmerde and Schwedtschke, 1808
- “ Court and State Handbook of the Kingdom of Westphalia ”, Hanover, from the Hahn brothers, 1811
- 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]
- “ Almanach Royal de Westpahlie ”, all years
- Peter P. Rohrlach: Historical local dictionary for the Altmark. Volume 1 (pp. 1–1300), 2nd volume (pp. 1301–2954), BWV Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin, 2018 (publications of the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, vol. 68) ISBN 978-3-8305-3743-4 Preview in Google Books
- Peter Adolph Winkopp : The Rheinische Bund. a journal with historical-political-static-geographical content, Mohr, Frankfurt am Main 1810, different years
- FJ Bartuch: General Geographical Ephemeris. written by a society of scholars, Weimar, various years. - 36 volumes, in it Georg Hassel: “ Statistical inventory of the Kingdom of Westphalia ”, 1811.
Web links
- Royal decree, by which the division of the kingdom into eight departments is ordered with: Directory of the departments, districts, cantons and communes of the kingdom on www.lwl.org (Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe) or digitalisat in the MDZ
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friedrich Justin Bertuch (ed.): General geographical ephemeris . With charts and copper. Volume six and thirtieth. Publishers of the Landes-Industrie-Comtoir, Weimar 1811, p. 19 ( full text in Google Book Search [accessed June 8, 2017]).
- ^ August Wilhelm Pohlmann: History of the city of Salzwedel . Hall 1811, S. 372 .
- ^ IT Ahrens, Homann: Chart of the Kingdom of Westphalia. bey Homanns Erben, Nuremberg, 1810 Online at Gallica
- ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Kingdom of Westphalia. At the Hahn brothers, Hanover 1811
- ^ Nicola-Peter Todorov: L'administration du royaume de Westphalie. Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires européennes, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-613-1-54964-9 , p. 176
