Spots (place)
The spot is a name for a smaller, but locally important settlement. Especially in northern Germany it was used to designate a minority town ; Today there are places in several German countries that are officially called spots. In Switzerland and the Netherlands , however, the term only has historical meaning.
To the subject
A patch forms a focal point for the surrounding villages and performs central functions. He may also have some city privileges, such as market rights (market towns) . The equivalent is called Marktgemeinde or Markt in Austria and southern Germany, městys in the Czech Republic, köping in Sweden, handelsplads in Denmark.
Germany
Lower Saxony
In the province of Hanover , spots were partially the seat of a royal office until 1885 .
50 municipalities in Lower Saxony bear the title "Flecken", the largest is Langwedel (Weser) with around 14,500 inhabitants. The smallest place is Wiedensahl with about 1,000 inhabitants. Other spots were elevated to cities. For example, the city of Bad Iburg in the Osnabrück district (Lower Saxony) used the name Flecken until 1959.
Saxony-Anhalt
In Saxony-Anhalt the municipalities lead Apenburg-Winterfeld and this village , the district Calvörde the community Calvörde and the district Weferlingen the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen this designation.
Hesse
Spots in Hesse are the market towns of Hartenrod , Mengerskirchen , Merenberg , Weilmünster and Villmar .
Former spots in Schleswig-Holstein
When the entire Danish state passed to Prussia and Austria in 1864 , there were still a total of 25 patches in the province of Schleswig-Holstein . These were then raised step by step to cities or came to Denmark in 1920 (see: popular vote in Schleswig ). The last town in Arnis was in 1934; since then there have been no more spots in the area of what is now Schleswig-Holstein . The northern Schleswig towns of Hoyer , Lügumkloster , Christiansfeld , Augustenburg and Norburg retained this status until the Danish administrative reform of 1970, after which they were incorporated into the new large municipalities .
Bavaria
A district of the town of Immenstadt in Allgäu has always been called Flecken . The town of Immenstadt was also wrongly described by Martin Zeiller as a “big market town” in 1643 .
Other German countries
The term stains is not officially used in:
- North Rhine-Westphalia , z. B. Bösingfeld or Freudenberg . In the case of the last-mentioned municipality, mostly in connection with "old spots", the old town .
- Rhineland-Palatinate , e.g. B. Katzenelnbogen
- Brandenburg , z. B. Flecken Zechlin . In Brandenburg, the Brandenburg City Book (2000, pp. LIII – LXII) lists a total of 52 “former cities, towns and spots”. These minor cities often emerged from oppida .
Switzerland
In Switzerland, places located in the foothills of the Alps and in the Alps in particular are or were called spots, because the process of the medieval city foundation stopped here, but such places nevertheless assumed central local tasks. Examples are Altdorf , Appenzell , Herisau , Langnau im Emmental and Schwyz . But some places in the Central Plateau such as Bad Zurzach , Beromünster , Elgg and Rothenburg are or were considered spots; in some cases these are localities that have not been able to maintain their town charter for a long period of time.
From the 13th century onwards, a number of Swiss spots increasingly assumed the position of capital in the surrounding rural area, and some of their citizens developed an urban self-confidence.
Austria
In Tyrol there is a village called Flecken (approx. 50 houses) in the municipality of St. Ulrich / Pillersee .
See also
literature
- Beat Häusler: Spots. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Representation of the Flechtingen community
- ↑ Cf. Beat Häusler: Flecken. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz ., Where more.