Free State of Coburg

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Free State of Coburg
coat of arms flag
Coat of arms is missing Flag of the Free State of Coburg
Situation in the German Reich
Localization is missing, location maps are possibly still in progress.
Arose from Duchy of Saxe-Coburg
Incorporated into Free State of Bavaria
Data from 1919
State capital Coburg
Form of government republic
Consist 1918-1920
surface 562 km²
Residents 74,340 inhabitants
Population density 132 Ew. per km²
Religions 97% Ev.
2.6% Roman Catholic
0.4% others
Reichsrat represented by Gotha
License Plate CG
administration 4 immediate cities and 1 district office
map
Map of the Free State of Coburg

The Free State of Coburg emerged from the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg after the First World War . It existed from November 1918 until its unification with the Free State of Bavaria on July 1, 1920.

history

With the resignation of Duke Carl Eduard on November 14, 1918 went out during the November Revolution , the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and it emerged from the two parts of the country Duchy of Saxe-Gotha and Duchy of Saxe-Coburg, the Free States of Gotha and Coburg . Both parts of the country had their own state parliaments and independent ministerial authorities during the monarchy . The eleven members of the Coburg regional assembly followed on February 9, 1919. List I of the SPD received 58.6 percent, the bourgeois list II (Liberale, Deutschnationale, Coburger Bauernverein) 41.4 percent of the vote, which resulted in a distribution of seats of 7 to 4. The Social Democrat Erhard Kirchner became President of the State Assembly. On March 10, 1919, the state assembly passed the provisional law on legislation and administration in the Free State of Coburg , the provisional Coburg constitution. The three-member government consisted of State Councilor Hermann Quarck (national liberal, previously head of the Coburg ministerial department) as chairman and the two SPD MPs Franz Klingler and Reinhold Artmann. With the signing of the State Treaty on the Administration of the Common Affairs of the Free States of Coburg and Gotha on April 12, 1919, the separation of the two former parts of the country was finally completed.

Under imperial law, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha continued to exist as a state in the Reichsverband. Coburg was not viewed by the Reich as a country, but only as a part of the country or area.

On June 7, 1919, a severance payment agreement was signed with Duke Carl Eduard about his property and financial situation. The Duke received compensation for the entire domain estate , consisting of around 4500 hectares of forests, numerous buildings and individual properties as well as the art treasures of the fortress and the court garden museum , the library, the theater, castle and Gut Rosenau , the fortress Coburg , Ehrenburg castle and the state archive in the amount of 1.5 million marks. The art treasures of the fortress, the collections of the Hofgarten Museum and the furnishings of the Ehrenburg Palace became the property of the Coburg State Foundation , the rest remained with the Free State. Castle, castle park and Gut Callenberg as well as Eichhof Castle and the Swiss Rosenau with a total area of ​​533 hectares remained the property of the Duke.

According to the constitution of March 10, 1919, the national liberal Quarck held the leading position in government and administration. He was both chairman of the state government and head of the state ministry. After the social democratic parliamentary group, which had the majority in the state assembly, had appointed Reinhold Artmann as the Coburg government representative in the Thuringian State Council (administrative council for law enforcement), Quarck resigned from his offices on July 2, 1919. This was followed by a constitutional amendment on July 11, 1919, which abolished the personal union of government and administrative leaders. The chairmanship of the government was taken over by Franz Klingler (SPD) and MP Hans Schack (DDP) became a new member of the state government. Administrative lawyer Ernst Fritsch with the title of ministerial director took over the management of the ministry.

Since the politically responsible did not consider the new Free State to be economically viable, they looked for a connection to another country. Therefore, in March and May 1919, they took part in the conferences with the other Thuringian states to form the new state of Thuringia , but did not agree to the joint agreement of May. At the same time, negotiations began in mid-June for the Anschluss with Bavaria and a month later with Prussia . In August, however, Prussia refused to allow the states to come together. Bavaria was open-minded and, in contrast to Thuringia, which was just emerging, was able to make many concessions, especially with regard to the maintenance of Coburg's cultural institutions.

On November 30, 1919, one of the first democratic polls in Germany on the whereabouts of the state of Coburg followed. With a turnout of 75%, 26,102 people, 88.11% of the votes, voted for the question “Should Coburg join the Community Treaty of the Thuringian States?” With a no on the ballot and thus for joining Bavaria, 3,466 votes were for and 56 invalid. The reasons for this clear result were diverse: on the one hand, the population has always felt more closely connected with Franconia than with Thuringia , on the other hand, the fact that food had to be transported to Thuringia during the First World War, as well as a significantly stronger concession by Bavaria, influenced opinions .

Law on the unification of Coburg with Bavaria, dated April 30, 1920. Published in the German Reich Law Gazette of May 5, 1920

The unification of Coburg with Bavaria was regulated by a state treaty on February 14, 1920. In it, Coburg received guarantees for the state foundation, the agricultural and forestry trade association , the chamber of commerce , the chamber of crafts to be newly established from the chamber of crafts department , the rural hospital and the regional theater . In addition, Coburg received the approval for a new regional court to compensate for the loss of the state ministry . The Free State of Bavaria pledged to cover a maximum of 40% of the deficit of the state theater and 75% of the state hospital.

On July 1, 1920, the Free State of Coburg merged with the Free State of Bavaria , ending almost 600 years of state independence for Coburg. According to the state treaty, the Free State of Coburg was incorporated into the district (today: administrative district) of Upper Franconia . The office of Königsberg with the city of Königsberg and the communities of Altershausen , Dörflis , Erlsdorf , Hellingen , Köslau , Kottenbrunn and Nassach was assigned to the Hofheim district (today: Haßberge district) in the district (today: administrative district) of Lower Franconia .

The referendum of 1919 with the connection to Bavaria in 1945 had previously unforeseeable consequences. The territory of the former Free State of Coburg became part of the American zone of occupation , while the Thuringian hinterland belonged to the Soviet zone of occupation and remained cut off from Coburg by the zone border until 1949 and from 1949 to the GDR by the inner-German border .

politics

Grenzstein Dreiherrenstein ( K önigreich B ayern - H erzogtum S achsen- M einingen - H erzogtum S achsen- C oburg) near Weitramsdorf

State government

March 10, 1919 to July 1, 1920

Member of the National Assembly

Social Democratic Party of Germany:

  • Reinhold Artmann (1870–1960) from Coburg, carpenter
  • Ehrhard Kirchner (1866–1927) from Neustadt bei Coburg, AOK managing director and president of the state assembly
  • Franz Klingler (1875–1933) from Coburg, editor of the Coburger Volksblatt
  • Bernhard Lauer (1867–1927) from Neustadt near Coburg, AOK employee
  • Hermann Mämpel (1866–1944) from Coburg, AOK administrative inspector
  • Johann Stegner (1866–1954) from Frohnlach, brewer and landlord
  • Carl Wendt (1887–1936) from Rodach, machine fitter

Civil standard list:

  • Max Oscar Arnold (1854–1938) from Neustadt bei Coburg, doll manufacturer
  • Hans Schack (1878–1946) from Coburg, judge at the local court
  • Ernst Külbel (1863–1938) from Coburg, malt manufacturer
  • Gustav Hess (1874–1940) from Neuses near Coburg, farmer

cities and communes

Exclave Amt Königsberg: Municipalities of Altershausen , Dörflis , Erlsdorf , Hellingen , Köslau , Kottenbrunn and Nassach

literature

  • Harald Bachmann: 75 years in Coburg near Bavaria . In: Franconia. Journal for Franconian regional studies and cultural maintenance 1995, issue 3, ISSN  0015-9905 , pp. 143-150, online (PDF; 1.56 MB) .
  • Carl-Christian Dressel: The provisions of the State Treaty. Development, background, consequences - with special consideration of Franz Klingler's work. Technical thesis from the subject of history, Gymnasium Casimirianum Coburg, college year 1987/89. Self-published in Coburg 1989.
  • Jürgen Erdmann: Coburg, Bavaria and the Reich 1918–1923 . Druckhaus und Vesteverlag A. Rossteutscher, Coburg 1969, ( Coburg local history and regional history series 2, 22, ZDB -ID 1151614-8 ), (At the same time: Würzburg, Diss., 1969: Coburg in the early years of the Weimar Republic 1918–1923 ).
  • Rainer Hambrecht (arrangement): Not through war, purchase or inheritance . Exhibition catalog of the Coburg State Archives on the occasion of the 75th return of the unification of Coburg with Bavaria on July 1, 1920, Munich 1995.
  • Ronny Noak: Saxe-Coburg. The double uniqueness in the process of the Thuringian state foundation . In: Christian Faludi / Marc Bartuschka (eds.): "Engere Heimat". The foundation of the state of Thuringia in 1920 . Weimar 2020, pp. 83-93.
  • Esther Reinhart: Max Oscar Arnold (1854-1938). Life and work for the Coburg region . Historical Society, Coburg 2007, ISBN 3-9810350-3-8 , ( series of publications of the Historical Society Coburg eV , 21 volume).
  • Jörg Siegmund: Between consensus and blockade policy. The transitional parliaments in Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Coburg. In: Harald Mitteldorf (Red.): The forgotten parliaments. State parliaments and regional representations in the Thuringian states and territories 1919 to 1923 . Published by the Thuringian Parliament. Hain, Rudolstadt et al. 2002, ISBN 3-89807-038-7 , ( Writings on the history of parliamentarism in Thuringia 19), pp. 121–160.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999 - from the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting . Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 2002, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 , p. 67
  2. ^ Ulrich Hess: History of Thuringia 1866-1914 . Böhlau, Weimar 1991, ISBN 3-7400-0077-5 , p. 226
  3. ↑ Jürgen Erdmann: Coburg, Bavaria and the Reich 1918–1923. Druckhaus and Vesteverlag A. Rossteutscher, Coburg 1969, p. 43
  4. ^ Rainer Hambrecht: Free State of Coburg, 1918-1920. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . March 25, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Jürgen Erdmann: Coburg, Bavaria and the Reich 1918–1923. Druckhaus and Vesteverlag A. Rossteutscher, Coburg 1969, p. 40
  6. ↑ Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999 - from the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting . Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 2002, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 , p. 70
  7. ^ Rainer Hambrecht: Unification of Coburg with Bavaria, July 1, 1920. In: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns . April 8, 2011, accessed August 9, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Walter Schneier: Coburg in the mirror of history, from prehistoric times to the present: on the trail of princes, citizens and farmers . Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse GmbH, Coburg 1985, p. 277.