Frankfurt Union

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Frankfurt Union 1744

In historical studies, the Frankfurter Union is understood to mean an alliance between Prussia , Hesse-Kassel , the Electoral Palatinate and Emperor Charles VII, concluded in Frankfurt am Main on May 22, 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) . It was blown up in the spring of 1745 by the Peace of Füssen .

Frankfurt Union 1803

The Frankfurter Union (also Union of Frankfurt), which was founded in Frankfurt am Main on August 29, 1803 and named after the place where it was founded, was brought into being by a group of ruling princes and counts from Protestant secular territories of the old empire . The association of noble houses (whose members mostly belonged to the Wetterauer Grafenverein ) aimed to prevent the mediatization of these "estates of the 2nd and 3rd rank" ( "inferior" noble houses ), which began with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss . As this was no longer achievable as a result of the Peace of Pressburg (December 26, 1805 / French: 5th Nivose year XIV), after which the imperial knightly possessions with a few exceptions and the smaller secular principalities were assigned to the larger secular territorial states , the Union did not pursue its tasks after only three years. The interests of the members of the Frankfurt Union were even after its dissolution, the fall of the old empire and the media coverage of their territories as loose Standesherren association thereof in the Confederation of the Rhine and later at the Congress of Vienna re-raised.

Foundation (August 1803)

Preparations from Solms-Laubach and Isenburg

On the basis of the suggestions made by the Count of Solms-Laubach to Löwenstein-Wertheim , he turned to Isenburg-Birstein ( residence in Offenbach am Main ). Thereupon the Isenburgische Geheime Rat Goldner met on August 3rd, 1803 ("in the morning at 6 o'clock" in Vilbel [today: Bad Vilbel northeast of Frankfurt am Main, almost halfway between the two residences] in the inn "Zum golden Engel") with Solms-Laubach to clarify the further procedure to initiate the establishment of an association of underpowered estates (aristocratic association). Shortly afterwards, on August 20, 1803, there was a preliminary meeting of the delegates from six noble houses in Rückingen (at that time in the Principality of Isenburg), and on August 29, 1803 the act of unification was passed for the purpose of constitutional self-government in Frankfurt am Main . The aristocratic houses Erbach, Hohenlohe-Neuenstein (in Öhringen), Isenburg (princes and counts), Leiningen and Solms (princes and counts), Löwenstein (princes and counts), Wied-Runkel (prince) and Wittgenstein (prince) took part. Oettingen-Spielberg and Limpurg-Speckfeld.

Members

On October 12, 1803, the chiefs of the princely and countless houses signed the contract (exception: Prince von Wied); The Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg and the Count of Salm-Reifferscheid-Krautheim had already joined in mid-September 1803. The first union day took place on November 7, 1803 in Miltenberg , meanwhile Wartenberg (Graf) and Salm (Rheingraf) had also joined: ten German imperial princes, of which the prince von Löwenstein-Wertheim is at the head .

The act of unification recorded the following members:

1. the Count's entire house in Erbach ,

  • Erbach-Schönberg;
  • Erbach-Erbach;
  • Erbach-Fürstenau;

2. the Princely House of Hohenlohe ,

  • Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst;
  • Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Oehringen;
  • Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Ingelfingen;
  • Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Kirchberg;
  • Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Langenburg;

3. the Princely and Countess House Isenburg ,

4. the Princely House of Leiningen ,

5. the prince and count house Löwenstein-Wertheim ,

6. the Princely House of Oettingen-Spielberg ,

7. the prince and count house of Solms ,

8. the princely house of Wied-Runkel ;

9. the Princely and Countess House of Wittgenstein ;

10. The Count's House of Limpurg-Speckfeld .

The following are the names of the princes and estates of the Swabian Union who have joined the Frankfurt Association:

tasks

According to the act of unification of August 29, 1803, the main objective of the Union was the establishment of embassies in Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Petersburg and the maintenance of business agents at common expense in order to work for the "constitutional self-preservation" of the members (Art. 1 -3). You aspired z. B. also the participation in the future division of the imperial circles and the possibility for the smaller aristocratic rule to receive viril votes (individual votes) in the diet of the old empire or a regulation for the involvement of the count class in a future empire deputation .

Union Conference in Miltenberg (1804)

The Union, which operated more behind the scenes, had no official representative at the Prince's Day held by Napoleon in Mainz (September 20 - October 1, 1804), but decided to send one of its members to Paris for Napoleon's coronation . The choice fell on Carl Prince of Isenburg-Birstein that there also the official accreditation (recognition) of Leiningen representative Greuhm as chargé reached the Union.

Peace of Pressburg (December 1805)

In 1805 there was no union meeting, although Solms-Laubach warned that "prolonged lethargy would be the grave of the union". Illnesses of the Union envoy in Paris and of Leiningen's privy councilor Lang, who coordinated all correspondence from Amorbach (residence of the Prince of Leiningen), paralyzed the Union further.

When, after the Peace of Pressburg (end of December 1805), it became apparent that the goals of the Frankfurt Union to maintain independence could hardly be achieved, a number of members looked for other ways. Leiningen sought an agreement with one of the future medium-sized states in order to obtain favorable conditions for the subsequent mediatization, because there were mediatizations in the old empire that guaranteed these class lords the ius territoriale subalternum . Therefore, almost three months later, on March 22, 1806, Leiningen concluded a protection and inheritance treaty with Bavaria in order to secure its political existence. In this contract, the House of Leiningen declared that it was ready to submit itself to the state sovereignty of Bavaria. Napoleon did not accept the treaty (Leiningen later came to Baden ). Thereupon the prince declared that he was obliged to look after himself and that his negotiations did not allow him to make common cause with the other princes .

Military Union (1806)

Goldner and Isenburg pursued a different plan: the expansion of the union into a military union, if not with a reorganization of the German imperial territories each individual member could be given the sovereignty to secure this at least jointly ( en corps ). The Union should be given "the same sovereignty" "as the Peace of Pressburg created". At a meeting of the Union Committee in Rödelheim (residence of Solms-Rödelheim; today part of Frankfurt am Main) on February 6, 1806, this plan was decided and Goldner was commissioned with this mission in Paris. But this also failed, the military union came about in July 1806 through the Rhine Confederation, but of the members of the union only Isenburg received sovereignty; the territories of the other members were mediatized.

Different interests of the members

The members were by no means unanimous among themselves; mutual accusations of having been cheated or of having enriched themselves at the expense of neighbors or agnates were the order of the day and did not exactly contribute to the z. B. Solms-Laubach invoked solidarity of the counts: "As a precaution, the instructions to the ambassadors had to be drafted in such a way that even the most jealous, suspicious and weak cannot quarrel about them." There have always been factions within the Union. Hohenlohe-Öhringen z. B. only recognized the act of unification with restrictions and threatened with “total refusal” if his conditions were not met. Envy of prestige, rivalry, different regional orientations, fiscal and administrative problems, territorial delimitations due to unclear regulations in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and last but not least the aristocratic hierarchy did the rest that the rifts within and between the groups of the German aristocracy could not be filled even by the acute danger of mediatization.

Solms-Laubach: tradition as a noble "professional politician"

Friedrich Ludwig Christian Graf zu Solms-Laubach (* 1769; † 1822)

Solms-Laubach, who placed large parts of his life as a noble “professional politician” in the service of the empire and the less powerful imperial estates, guided by traditional imperial patriotism from family tradition, but also in the hope of strengthening aristocratic solidarity. Solms-Laubach saw something similar in the Union as in the old imperial counts' colleges . On the one hand, he wanted France as a negotiating partner and, on the other hand, the protection of the rights enshrined in the imperial constitution.

When it became clear that many union members had only joined the association because of the financial advantages of sharing the embassy costs, tried to exploit the union for their private interests and refused to make further financial sacrifices, Solms-Laubach only remarked: Such speeches can only be conspicuous to those who do The attitudes of the class to which we belong, do not know, I am no longer astonished, consider the petty egoist to be the rule and a mild patriotism to be the highest conception, which does not take into account the deliberation and power of mostly neutral reason, but only fear Existence can call. Who can swim against the current? . The Union already shares the fate of outdated institutions .

However, the attitude of the Reich traditionalist Solms-Laubach was not the only political concept represented within the Union. Count Solms-Laubach and Prince Isenburg (with his Chargé d'Affaires Goldner) and the Hereditary Prince of Leiningen had different positions. In all three, the political aspect of “survival” of one's own person or one's own territory predominated. The political movement of the proponents of a triad politics of Third Germany was still in its infancy.

Leiningen: Territorial independence in the miniature state

Emich Carl zu Leiningen (* 1763; † 1814)

Hereditary Prince Emich Carl zu Leiningen (* 1763; † 1814), who led the affairs of state for his very old father, was sovereign over a comparatively extensive territory (approx. 90,000 inhabitants) around the Abbey of Amorbach and Miltenberg on the Main (residence of the princes was Amorbach since 1803 ).

For the wealthy, such as the Principality of Leiningen, it was true that the Union was judged more according to its usefulness for their own political interests than according to the criteria of aristocratic solidarity. Approaching France, upgrading one's own political existence to the point of claiming one's own statehood, cost savings in the expensive embassy system, extensive correspondence and mutual contacts as well as the attempt not to compromise one another through too obvious selfishness in front of the classmates and possibly lose prestige reasonable reasons that spoke for membership in the Frankfurt Union.

Goldner and Isenburg: Military Union

Wolfgang Christian Carl Ludwig von Goldner
(* 1764 † 1837)
from Wikimedia Commons
Carl Friedrich Ludwig Moritz von Isenburg-Birstein
(* 1766 † 1820)
from Wikimedia Commons

A third political concept within the Frankfurter Union propagated its military upgrade to a military union in order to meet Napoleon's wish for aid contingents for his army and thereby to enhance its own political significance and to avoid mediatization. Carl Prince zu Isenburg and his Privy Councilor Goldner, who always advised him, were representatives of such proposals. For them there was no alternative to a policy based on Napoleon's wishes. Isenburg represented this position both within the Union and in an independent effort to save his aristocratic rule from mediatization. In 1804 he was the only one of the leading union members who was ready to officially represent the association at Napoleon's coronation , which Solms-Laubach mockingly commented: "When a soldier becomes emperor, soldiers must wish luck." However, Carl zu Isenburg's military career was By no means a disadvantage: As an officer, Isenburg clearly recognized the importance Napoleon attached to the military-strategic aspect in the announced peace order of the imperial territories. While the other union members hoped that Napoleon would form a kind of buffer zone out of the smaller aristocratic rule, Isenburg put himself in the service of Napoleon as an active soldier in the 3rd coalition war and recruited two foreign regiments for France (1805 the Isenburg regiment, later: 2nd imperial- French foreign regiment and one year later the Prussian regiment, later: 4th Imperial French foreign regiment ).

Isenburg succeeded in combining union politics and his own interests so skillfully that he received the undivided applause of his fellow citizens for his mission. Napoleon welcomed the plan: Le ministre des relations exterieures m'a dit, mon Cousin, que l'union desirait accrediter un Charge d'affaires. J'accepte avec plaisir et je prouverai toujours que proteger l'independance de chers amis les princes et etats de l'Allemagne est ma plus vive solicitude et l'interet re el de la France. Napoleon's more in-depth questions focused in particular on the constitution of the Union, the presidency, its connection to more powerful neighbors, and Austria's views on the Union. The fate of the Union may well have depended on the answers from Carl zu Isenburg. He believed that he had gotten himself out of the affair well, in that he replied, not entirely correctly: "The emperor regards the union as entirely constitutional and in accordance with his intentions, the electors could not look at this connection from any other point of view". The management of the Union lies with a committee headed by Leiningen.

According to Goldner's plan, the Union was to provide 4,000 military men (six times the envisaged Imperial District contingent), "which should be viewed by France as well as the current auxiliary troops to be used by the other Allied courts". This is "probably appropriate to the taste of Napoleon, who likes to see Germany's armed forces combined with the interests of France." With the support of Napoleon, the Union was then to be expanded into a “greater confederation of all classes belonging to this category” until it had reached the size of a thousand square miles with two million inhabitants. This federation could ultimately maintain 20,000 men "and protect itself against any vexations of the then no longer powerful sovereign neighbors". Goldner hoped that once “collective sovereignty” was achieved, “unity” and “difficult organization of the Union” would come about and that France would accept this. In order to preserve the continued existence of the Union at all, it had to represent a “valeur politique d'autant plus real pour la France”, and this could only be achieved through military armament.

For Isenburg, the close contact with France was beneficial. The principality, increased by the territories of its agnates , was the only one of the Union members to escape mediatization, and this without the Union members being aware of it beforehand.

Dissolution and end

With the establishment of the Rhine Federation in 1806, all members (exception: Isenburg) lost their sovereignty to the newly formed states (e.g. Leiningen to the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Kingdom of Bavaria; Solms-Laubach to the Grand Duchy of Hesse ). The Frankfurter Union dissolved no later than autumn 1806, mainly because of financial differences. The former members kept in contact with each other, but Isenburg was formally ostracized. Leiningen withdrew the power of attorney from Minister Goldner and Solms-Laubach kept his distance. Carl von Isenburg himself suffered personally from the consequences of his political isolation: my existence as an independent prince is saved , he wrote to Goldner on July 21, 1806, I am still standing on a pile of rubble, but my friends and relatives are all sinking away , I can hardly rejoice ... Oh, how ungraciously I will be judged by all others who were less happy than I, and how little do I deserve this judgment.

literature

  • Peter Burg: The German triad in idea and reality. From the Old Reich to the German Customs Union = publications by the Institute for European History Mainz, Department of Universal History. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1989. ISBN 978-3-515-04914-6
  • Wilhelm Karl Prince of Isenburg: Around 1800. From the time and life of Count Volrat zu Solms-Rödelheim 1762–1818 . Degener & Co., Leipzig 1927.
  • Eva Kell: The Frankfurter Union (1803–1806) - A princely association for the “constitutional self-preservation” of the smaller secular aristocracy . In: Journal for Historical Research. Quarterly journal for research into the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, issue 1. Duncker & Humbolt, Berlin 1991, pp. 72–97; ISSN  0340-0174
  • Manfred Mayer History of Mediatization in the Principality of Isenburg . M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891.

Web links

Commons : Frankfurter Union  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna, Fourth Edition, 1885-1892 VI. Volume p. 505
  2. ↑ The grave of the Frankfurt Union. From a patriotic German. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1745, download: https://download.digitale-sammlungen.de/BOOKS/download.pl?id=bsb10886207
  3. ↑ Eva Kell: The Frankfurter Union (1803-1806) - A prince association for the "constitutional self-preservation" of the smaller secular aristocratic rule. In: Journal for historical research, quarterly for research into the late Middle Ages and the early modern times, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1991 (Issue 1) P. 72 ISSN  0340-0174 with reference to Peter Burg The German triad in idea and reality. From the Old Reich to the German Customs Union. Publications of the Institute for European History Mainz, Dept. Universal History, Stuttgart 1989 p. 136
  4. ^ Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891, pp. 162-164
  5. ↑ National-Zeitung der Teutschen, 45th item, November 10th 1803 , Verlag der Becker'schen Buchhandlung, Gotha 1803 Sp. 1012
  6. ^ Manfred Mayer History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891; P. 45
  7. ↑ Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich: 1891, Supplements I No. 2, pp. 162-164
  8. ^ Kurpfalzbaierische Münchner Staats-Zeitung by Lorenz Hübner, fifth year 1804 Nro. 170 Wednesday November 14, 1804, p. 1100
  9. ^ Kurpfalzbaierische Münchner Staats-Zeitung by Lorenz Hübner, fifth year 1804 Nro. 170 Wednesday November 14, 1804, p. 1100
  10. ^ Eva Kell: Die Frankfurter Union (1803-1806) ... p. 83 ISSN  0340-0174
  11. ↑ Thomas Bruckner loan commission , doctoral thesis jur. University of Würzburg, Würzburg 2002
  12. ^ Eva Kell: Die Frankfurter Union (1803–1806)… , p. 82 ISSN  0340-0174 with reference to a letter from Wolfgang von Goldner dated September 17, 1803 to the Count of Solms-Laubach
  13. ^ Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891; P. 52 f.
  14. ↑ Eva Kell Die Frankfurter Union (1803-1806)… p. 82 ISSN  0340-0174 with reference to a letter from Wolfgang von Goldner dated September 17, 1803 to the Count of Solms-Laubach
  15. ^ Eva Kell: Die Frankfurter Union (1803-1806)… p. 82 ISSN  0340-0174 with reference to a letter from Wolfgang von Goldner dated October 11, 1803 to the Count of Solms-Laubach
  16. ^ Manfred Mayer History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891; P. 49
  17. ↑ Eva Kell: Die Frankfurter Union (1803–1806)… p. 83 ISSN  0340-0174 with reference to a letter from Solms-Laubach to Goldner of January 13, 1805 and a memo from Solms-Laubach of March 31, 1805
  18. ↑ Peter Burg The German Trias in Idea and Reality. From the Old Reich to the German Customs Union. Publications of the Institute for European History Mainz, Dept. Universal History, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart: 1989, ISBN 978-3-515-04914-6
  19. ^ Eva Kell: Die Frankfurter Union (1803–1806)… p. 89 ISSN  0340-0174 with reference to a letter from Solms-Laubach to Carl zu Isenburg of June 27, 1804
  20. ↑ quoted from Eva Kell: Die Frankfurter Union (1803-1806)… p. 90 ISSN  0340-0174
  21. ^ Eva Kell: Die Frankfurter Union (1803–1806)… p. 93 ISSN  0340-0174 with reference to a note from Goldner to Talleyrand, Paris in April 1806
  22. ^ Carl zu Isenburg from Montpellier on July 21, 1806 to Goldner; Carl was with the regiment he had set up in southern France