Generalgouvernement Mittelrhein

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Generalgouvernement Mittelrhein was a provisional administrative unit and part of the Central Administration Department , which existed from February 2 to June 15, 1814 . The administrative area initially extended to the Left Bank of the Rhine in the First Empire , to the Département du Mont-Tonnerre , the Département de Rhin-et-Moselle and the Département de la Sarre . On March 9, 1814, the Forêts department was added. Justus Gruner was installed as governor general . The official seat was first Trier , later Koblenz and finally Mainz .

history

After the Allies took back possession of the area on the left bank of the Rhine in January 1814, which had been occupied by French revolutionary troops after 1794 in the First Coalition War and annexed by France , Generalgouvernements were established here as well, which were part of the central administrative department that was established in 1813 . The southern part of the Left Bank of the Rhine was assigned to the Generalgouvernement Mittelrhein with the Donnersberg, Rhine and Moselle and Saar departments. According to the description in the announcement of the takeover, jurisdiction temporarily extended to all, unspecified , French provinces conquered by the Silesian Army . Appointed by the Allies Governor General was Justus Gruner , who at the time as Privy Councilor in the service of the Russian tsars I. Alexander stood. There were 774,000 inhabitants in the entire Generalgouvernement.

In order to ensure the internal administration, a "General-Governor-Commissair" was installed in each department, who took over all functions of the escaped chief prefect. Freiherr von Vincke , based in Koblenz, was designated for the Rhine and Moselle département . The Donnersberg department was taken over by Baron von Otterstädt, based in Worms and after the blockade was lifted in Mainz . "Commissair" of the Saar-Département became Mr. Athenstädt, seat was Trier. The sub-prefects of the districts (arrondissements), as far as they were still in service, were initially confirmed in their function.

On February 25, 1814, Gruner made it clear that the previous court and administrative organization would remain unchanged for the time being. The names of the civil servants were replaced by German official titles: the sub-prefects were now called district directors, the mayor became mayor and, in the capital cities, lord mayor, an adjoint became an adjunct or "delegate" and a "municipal councilor" was renamed "city council" in cities and in the rural communities in "Schöffe".

On March 9, 1814, the Department of Forests was detached from the General Government of Nancy (Department of Moselle, Meurthe and Forêts) and merged with the General Government of Middle Rhine, and this was made known to the inhabitants of the former Duchy of Luxembourg and the County of Chiny .

In the Paris Peace of May 30, 1814 was u. a. the (approximate) restoration of the French borders of January 1, 1792 . On the following day, the allies decided not to dispose of the countries returned to Germany for the time being, but to leave them under military occupation and to allow each country to be administered provisionally by the power to which the military occupation was entrusted. As a result, on June 16, 1814, the two general governments of the Lower Rhine and Middle Rhine regions were dissolved or the entire area was redistributed. For this purpose, the previous Generalgouvernement Mittelrhein was divided, for the time being the border was to be formed by the Moselle . The area to the left of the Moselle was merged with the Lower Rhine General Government and from this the Lower and Middle Rhine General Government was formed with its seat in Aachen , which was already subordinated to the administration on the direct account of Prussia. In addition, the city of Koblenz on the right of the Moselle was also assigned to the new Generalgouvernement Nieder- and Mittelrhein.

The area to the right of the Moselle, with the exception of the city of Koblenz, was assigned to the Joint State Administration Commission based in Kreuznach , which was under the administration of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Bavaria .

At the end of May 1815, this provisional division was modified according to the status of the negotiations at the Congress of Vienna . Now the area up to the Nahe and a line from Lauterecken via Birkenfeld to Trier was also transferred to the administration of the General Government of the Lower and Middle Rhine and Prussia.

The main point of negotiation was this redistribution of the areas on the left bank of the Rhine. With regard to the former Generalgouvernement Mittelrhein, the following was agreed in the main contract of June 8, 1815 :

  1. The Kingdom of Prussia received the northern part of the former-general means Rhein, whose border essentially on the river of the near and the Glan was determined (item 25). In the west, the border with the area designated for the king of the United Netherlands ran along the Sûre and the Our . Prussia assigned this area to the province of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine and in 1822 to the Rhine province .
  2. The Grand Duchy of Hesse received a state area with 140,000 inhabitants from the former Donnersberg department (Article 47). This resulted in the Hessian province of Rheinhessen on July 8, 1816
  3. The Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and the Duchy of Oldenburg each received an area with 20,000 inhabitants from the former Département de la Sarre (Article 49). The Principality of Lichtenberg emerged from the Saxon-Coburg area on September 11, 1816 , and the Principality of Birkenfeld from the Oldenburg area on April 16, 1817 .
  4. In the former departments of the Saar and the Donnersberg, the Emperor of Austria received the territory within the boundaries established in the First Peace of Paris (Article 51). This area was ceded to the Kingdom of Bavaria on May 1st, 1816 on the basis of a state treaty . This gave rise to the Rhine district in 1816 , later known as the Pfalz (Bavaria) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Collection of the ordinances published under the General Government of the Middle Rhine , Speyer, 1819, p. 1 ff ( Google Books )
  2. ↑ a b FWA Schlickeysen: Repertory of laws and ordinances for the royal. Prussian Rhine provinces , Trier: Leistenschneider, 1830, p. 13 ff ( dilibri.de )
  3. ↑ Gottfried Kentenich : How the Moselle Country came to Prussia in Trierische Chronik , Trier 1914, p. 105 ( dilibri.de )
  4. ↑ a b Wilhelm von der Nahmer: Handbuch des Rheinischen Particular-Rechts: Development of the territorial and constitutional conditions of the German states on both banks of the Rhine: from the first beginning of the French Revolution up to the most recent times . tape 3 . Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main 1832, p. 201 ( online at Google Books ).
  5. ^ The Vienna Congress Act of June 8, 1815