Peace of Teschen
The Peace of Teschen was signed on May 13, 1779 in Teschen between Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia and ended the War of the Bavarian Succession .
prehistory
The trigger for the War of the Bavarian Succession was the death of the childless Bavarian Elector Maximilian III. Joseph (1745-1777). With him the Bavarian line of Wittelsbach died out. A number of Central European noble houses laid claim to parts of the inheritance, including Austria to the Duchy of Lower Bavaria . The right of inheritance was the Wittelsbach Elector Karl Theodor von der Pfalz (1724–1799), who after the death of Maximilian Joseph the claims of Austria to the Duchy of Lower Bavaria, the county of Mindelheim , the district of Burghausen , Bohemian fiefdoms in the Upper Palatinate u. a. recognized. As a result, Austrian troops occupied the county of Mindelheim on January 16, 1778 far more than the granted areas of the Bavarian sub-duchy of Bavaria-Straubing (also Straubing-Holland ) without incident. Straubing became the center of the territories known as “Austrian Bavaria”. However, the contract did not find recognition of the next rightful heir from Wittelsbach, namely Duke Karl August von Pfalz-Zweibrücken (1746–1795), who was supported by Prussia and a Bavarian patriot party.
With the Prussian invasion of Bohemia on July 5, 1778, the Bavarian War of Succession began with Austria, which was supposed to bring about a decision on these issues, but in which Bavaria declared itself neutral. During the war, which was also known as the Potato War or the Plum Fair , there were no noteworthy military conflicts.
Peace treaty
The peace came about at the initiative of Russia and was guaranteed by France and Russia. The treaty was signed in the Silesian city of Teschen on May 13, 1779, the birthday of Empress Maria Theresa , and ratified by the Empire on February 28, 1780, and by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II on March 8, 1780 .
Terms of the contract
Austria received from Bavaria the areas of the Burghausen Rent Office located east of the Inn and Salzach , i.e. an area strip from Passau to the northern border of the Archbishopric of Salzburg . These included the courts of Wildshut , Braunau , Mauerkirchen , Friedburg , Mattighofen , Schärding and Ried im Innkreis . This area was annexed to the Duchy of Austria ob der Enns under the name " Innviertel " .
In return, Prussia's claims to the two Hohenzollern margravates of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth were recognized. The Electorate of Saxony received six million guilders as an allodial property from Karl Theodor . The elections of Bavaria and the Palatinate were merged. Austria also recognized the house contracts of the Wittelsbach family of 1766, 1771 and 1774, in which the mutual succession of the Wittelsbach lines was regulated.
However, the complex of so-called Innviertel debts was not regulated. This concerns payment obligations of the Bavarian electors of 848,143 guilders to various cities, corporations and private individuals, which were accepted between 1592 and 1750. The Wittelsbachers, however, refused to repay. This problem could not be solved until 1895 through negotiations between the Austrian state and the state of the river Enns .
Execution of the peace treaty
On May 29, 1779, the governor of Upper Austria, Count Christoph Wilhelm II. Von Thürheim , swore in Braunau the former princely Bavarian officials. Two days later, the area called "Innviertel" was subordinated to the Oberennsian state governor for the first time. On July 2, 1779, the Innviertel nobility paid homage and celebrated a Te Deum together with the estates above the Enns . A final imperial patent was issued on November 27, 1779, which enacted the incorporation of the Innviertel into the land above the Enns.
Is known in this context, a sightseeing trip of Emperor Joseph II. In October 1779 the new part of the country, which it over Gmunden, Frankenmarkt, Straßwalchen, Perwang , Wildshut, Oh, Braunau am Inn, Schärding to Passau and from there to Engelhartszell and Linz led . In a letter to Empress Maria Theresa, he expresses a certain disappointment that it was not possible to acquire all of Bavaria, or at least Lower Bavaria.
“It's a tiny object, considering what might have worked; but in and of itself this region is beautiful and well located for Austria. "
Contract expenses
- Johann Jacob Moser : The Teschenische Peace Agreement of 1779 with notes. As a continuation of the state history of the war between Austria and Prussia in the years 1778 and 1779. Frankfurt am Main: Johann Gottlieb Garve 1779 ( digitized version, provisions in the French original, in German translation and annotations).
- Treaty text on the website European Peace Treaties of the Pre-Modern Age - online , Institute for European History (Mainz)
literature
- Proclamation of Peace. After the grace and blessing of the Most High between Sr. Königl. Majesty of Prussia, our most gracious lord on one side, and Majesty the Käyserin-Queen of Hungary and Bohemia on the other, a desired peace made and concluded at Teschen on the 13th of this month (...) . S. l. 1779 ( digitized version ).
- Adolf Unzer: The Peace of Teschen. A contribution to the history of the Bavarian succession dispute. Handorff, Kiel 1903. In particular Chapter 7: The Congress of Teschen , pp. 316–424 ( digitized version ).
- Isabel de Madariaga: Britain, Russia, and the Armed Neutrality of 1780. New Haven, CT 1962, Chapter: The War of the Bavarian Succession .
- Jerzy Michalski: Polska wobec wojny o sukcesję Bawarską. Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1964.
- Manfred Hellmann : The peace agreements of Nystad (1721) and Teschen (1779) as stages in Russia's advance into Europe. In: Historisches Jahrbuch 97/98 (1978), pp. 270–288.
- Karl Otmar von Aretin : Europe and the Peace of Teschen. In: ders .: Das Reich. Guarantee of Peace and European Balance 1648–1806. Stuttgart 1986, pp. 325-336.
- Siegfried Haider : History of Upper Austria. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-486-54081-5 .
- Georgij Aleksandrovic Nersesov: Politika Rossii na Tesenskom congresses. Moscow 1988.
- Daniel-Erasmus Khan : The German state borders. Legal history basics and open legal questions. Mohr Siebeck Tübingen 2004, pp. 178-181 .
Web links
- The Innviertel handover . In: OÖ Nachrichten , October 7, 2011.