Frankfurt Association
The Frankfurter Association also Frankfurter Association Recess , Frankfurter Provisional-Rezess of January 25, 1697 was a district association of the front circles of the Holy Roman Empire towards the end of the Palatine War of Succession .
prehistory
The Holy Roman Empire was threatened by the Ottomans in the west of France ( Louis XIV ) and in the south-east in the second half of the 17th century . Not only, but also against this background, the empire or individual imperial estates developed various forms of defense. The Reich publicist Johann Georg Kulpis differed more or less standing armies of armored imperial estates , the troops of the Empire Defension order established by 1681, and the connection of individual imperial districts in the county associations .
In the Palatinate War of Succession, the larger territories with a standing army, which agreed on a joint approach in the so-called Magdeburg Concert , initially proved to be ready for action. In addition, the Swabian and Franconian Imperial Circles had been working together on military policy since 1693. They deployed around 24,000 men to defend the region on the Upper Rhine. The troops were commanded by Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden , who had already excelled in the Turkish wars . Although he would have liked to have acted more aggressively himself, the defensive nature of the alliance forced him to be restrained. The associated troops managed to defend the region.
history
There were tendencies to expand this alliance and to make it more independent of other forces. One of the propagandists was the aforementioned Kulpis, who as Württemberg chancellor and diplomat also had political influence. In a much-noticed pamphlet he promoted an alliance of the front imperial circles in the broadest sense (Franconian, Bavarian , Swabian, Kur - and Upper Rhine as well as Westphalian imperial circles ). In addition to this and the margrave of Baden, the Archbishop of Mainz and Imperial Chancellor Lothar Franz von Schönborn was one of the main initiators.
The Association of the Front Imperial Circles was founded in Frankfurt am Main in early 1697 . The Reich circles mentioned by Kulpis were involved. It was decided to raise an army of 40,000 men in peacetime and even 60,000 men in wartime. The army was commanded by a single high command, had artillery and a common supply system. The desired troop strength was never reached. One reason was that the Upper Rhine areas were particularly hard hit by the effects of the war and they were therefore guaranteed a reduction in their military contribution. In addition, the Peace of Rijswijk and with it the end of the war created new conditions and made military probation of the alliance unnecessary. Nevertheless, it was a high point of the association concept. The involved imperial circles and the association were included in the great Viennese alliance against Louis XVI.
In addition to the acute defense against the French threat, the militarily weaker imperial estates tried to create a kind of counterweight to the armed imperial estates in this way. The alliance was not directed directly against Emperor Leopold I. But the initiators accused him of little involvement in matters of Reich defense. For this reason they did not want to involve the emperor at first. But neither did they want to exclude him. About Schönborn's policy in this context, it was said that "loyalty to the emperor did not mean imperial leadership." In Vienna there were different opinions on the association. Leopold I finally confessed to the association, but also claimed leadership.
Problematic for the high-tension goals, especially for the intention to continue the association beyond the end of the war, was that most of the imperial estates saw the alliance as purely defensive and only supported it for the duration of the war.
The association was represented, among other things, with Kulpis at the peace congress in Rijswijk, but played no significant role there alongside the great powers. Even after the war, the association continued to exist, at least nominally.
The protagonists of the Frankfurt Association did not succeed in making the idea of association the predominant form of military organization in the empire, but the associations remained one possibility among others and often there were mixed relationships in practice.
literature
- Johannes Burkhardt : Completion and reorganization of the early modern empire 1648–1763 . Stuttgart 2006 pp. 130-132, 159
- Michael Müller: The development of the Kurrheinische Kreis in its connection with the Upper Rhine District in the 18th century. Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 265
- Rudolf Endres : Franks in the clashes of the great powers up to the end of the Franconian Empire. P. 501 In: Andreas Kraus (Ed.): Handbook of Bavarian History Vol. III, 1: History of Franconia up to the end of the 18th century , Munich, 1997 Google Book
- Karl Otmar von Aretin : The problem of warfare in the Holy Roman Empire. In: Ernst Willi Hansen (ed.): Political change, organized violence and national security: Contributions to the recent history of Germany and France. Munich 1995, p. 5