Gelnhausen document from 1180

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The Gelnhäuser document from April 13, 1180, Emperor Frederick I on the court day to Gelnhausen ausfertigen. The imperial diploma was directed against Henry the Lion and dealt with the division of the tribal duchy of Saxony .

Part of the copy of the certificate in the historical archive of the City of Cologne (dimensions 29 × 42 cm)

prehistory

This was preceded by two proceedings against Heinrich following the rift between Emperor Friedrich and Heinrich the Lion in 1179. The prince court at the Reichstag in Würzburg decided in 1180 to withdraw the imperial fiefs. The Hoftag in Gelnhausen was about the division of the tribal duchy of Saxony. A similar meeting on the matter of the Duchy of Bavaria was later held in Altenburg .

content

A copy, with the imperial bull, of the lost original from 1180. (Dimensions 47 × 50 cm)

The resolution was made out in the Gelnhausen document for Archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg of Cologne . The text begins in the narrative with a summary of the allegations against Henry the Lion:

“ Accordingly, the general public of the present as well as the future faithful of the kingdom should experience, like Heinrich, former Duke of Bavaria and Westphalia, by harshly suppressing the freedom of the churches of God and the nobles of the kingdom by snatching their possessions and restricted their rights, due to repeated complaints by the princes and most of the nobles despite summons to appear before our majesty, refused and, as a result of his defiance of the princes and his Swabian peers, attracted the verdict of our respect. Furthermore, he has not ceased to dispute the rights and freedoms of the Church, the princes and nobles of the empire, both through the injustice towards them, as well as through disregard, which he showed us several times, especially because of obvious rebellion, which is why he was legally called to our court three times according to feudal law, and, because he stayed away and did not send an agent for himself, he was judged to be opposed and accordingly the Duchy of Bavaria as well as that of Westphalia and Engern, as well as all fiefdoms that he had from the Reich had, by unanimous decision of the princes at the Reichstag that was solemnly held in Würzburg, and handed over to our jurisdiction and power . "

About the resolutions (Dispositio) it says in the regesta to the documents of Frederick I in summary:

"Friedrich certifies that he has divided the Duchy of Westphalia-Engern (Saxony), which had come to him as a result of the conviction of the former Duke Heinrich as well as Bavaria and the other imperial fiefs of the lion, based on a ruling by the princes with the consent of Duke Bernhard, which in the Area of ​​the dioceses of Cologne and Paderborn, part of the Cologne church and given to Archbishop Philipp as a fief. "

- 1180, April 13, Gelnhausen

meaning

The document is a central source for the trial against Henry the Lion. It sealed the end of the old tribal duchy of Saxony. The part of the duchy located in the dioceses of Cologne and Paderborn was subordinated to the Archbishop of Cologne. This marked the beginning of the Duchy of Westphalia . As a duke in the rest of Saxony, Bernhard von Anhalt was installed as dux Saxoniae . Because this aspect is only briefly mentioned in the Gelnhausen certificate, there may have been another certificate for Bernhard. The situation in other large parts of the old duchy remained unregulated. The area of ​​the dioceses of Münster and Hamburg-Bremen , Magdeburg and the eastern areas newly won by Heinrich the Lion were not taken into account . In 1181 Heinrich the Lion got back the Guelph own property between the Upper Weser and the Lower Elbe.

Beyond the case itself, it is important that the imperial princes are mentioned for the first time in the document as a prominent and distinct class from the other dynasts.

Lore history

The letter came from the imperial chancellery, certified by the imperial court chancellor Gottfried as the representative of Christian I von Buch Archbishop of Mainz as archchancellor for Germany.

The original of the certificate (A.) was in the main state archive in Düsseldorf at the beginning of the Second World War . Already in the 14th century the document was badly damaged by moisture, so that it was illegible, especially at the beginning. In modern times someone has tried to trace the faded areas, but made mistakes. Inadequate reconstruction attempts have further damaged the document. In 1912, however, the treatment with tincture of gallus, which made large parts of the text visible again, was successful. This condition has been preserved as a photograph. The document itself is lost in 1945. It may have been burned. Fritz Rössler suspected that the document came to the State Archives in Magdeburg during the war and was brought from there to the Hardmersleben mine. In any case, it is assumed that the original will be lost.

A copy from the beginning of the 14th century (B.) is or was in the historical archive of the city of Cologne . Another copy comes from the 1370s. However, this is not complete and was based on the original, which was no longer fully legible at the time (C.). This version is now in the main state archive in Düsseldorf.

The somewhat unclear tradition due to the damage at crucial points led to scientific controversy about the design.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Rössler: attempt to translate the certificate
  2. ^ Appelt: Documents Friedrich I. p. 360.

literature

  • Heinrich Appelt : The documents Friedrich I. Part 3: The documents Friedrich I. 1168-1180 . Hahn, Hannover 1985, ISBN 3-7752-5143-X , ( Monumenta Germaniae historica. Diplomata 4, The documents of the German kings and emperors 10, 3), No. 795, p. 360ff. Digitized .
  • Hermann Bannasch: Gelnhausen certificate . In: Gerhard Taddey (Ed.) Lexicon of German History . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , p. 432.

Web links