History of Franconia
Franconia is a not precisely demarcated region in the north of the Free State of Bavaria , parts of Baden-Württemberg and southern Thuringia as well as Hesse . It is characterized by cultural and linguistic peculiarities. Their story begins with the first human settlement around 600,000 years ago. Thuringians , Alamanni , but also the Franks that gave it their namesettled in the area in the early Middle Ages . From the middle of the 9th century, the tribal duchy of Franconia , one of the five tribal duchies of the East Franconian Empire, was established . On July 2, 1500, during the reign of Emperor Maximilian I, the empire wasdividedinto imperial circlesas part of the imperial reform movement , which led to the creation of the Frankish imperial circle . This was decisive for the formation of a Franconian identity . In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, “ small states ” werecharacteristic of Franconia. In the 19th century,large parts of Franconia wereincorporated intothe Kingdom of Bavaria under Napoleon .
Early history and antiquity
Fossil finds of artifacts, found near Kronach and on the Schalksberg in Würzburg , show that the region was settled by primitive humans ( Homo erectus ) as early as the Middle Ice Age ( Pleistocene ) about 600,000 years ago . Fossil finds are also available from later areas of the Pleistocene. The oldest human remains found in Franconia, for example, come from the cave ruins of Hunas near Pommelsbrunn in the district of Nürnberger Land .
In the Neolithic , the area was populated by the linear ceramic culture, especially along the rivers.
In the early Bronze Age , the region was probably only relatively sparsely populated, as few precious metals occur and the soils are only moderately fertile. However, in the late Bronze Age, a warrior elite of the so-called Urnenfeld culture (1200 - 800 BC) began to settle on mountain tops such as the Ehrenbürg , the Hesselberg or the Marienberg above Würzburg. A particularly large facility of this time was located on the Heunischenburg near Kronach in Upper Franconia. A helmet from this era was found in nearby Thonberg . Another helmet from this era comes from Ebing near Bamberg.
In the course of the following Iron Age (from around 800 BC), the Celts became the first people in the region to become tangible. In northern Franconia they built a chain of summit castles as a line of defense against the Germanic peoples pushing in from the north . On the Staffelberg they built a mighty settlement, mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy under the name oppidum Menosgada , and on the Gleichbergen the largest still preserved oppidum Steinsburg in central Germany . With the increased expansion of Rome in the first century BC and the simultaneous advance of Elbe Germanic tribes from the north, the decline of Celtic culture was initiated. A Germanic cemetery from this time, which was used for a long time, is located in today's Altendorf in the Bamberg district .
The southernmost parts of today's Franconia soon came under Roman control; however, most of the region was consistently in free Germania . Here lived Markomannen until v after a defeat against Rome approximately between the years 7 and third Moved further east to present-day Bohemia and were replaced by other Elbe Germanic tribes such as the Hermunduren . Initially, Rome tried to expand its direct influence far to the northeast, as evidenced by the Marktbreit legionary camp , which was discovered in 1986 at the tip of the Main Triangle. In the longer term, however, the Germanic-Roman border established itself further to the south-west.
Under the emperors Domitian (81–96), Trajan (98–117) and Hadrian (117–138), the Limes was created as a border with the tribes in the north. This line of defense cut through the south of Franconia and described an arch in the region, the northernmost point of which was at today's Gunzenhausen . To protect it, the Romans built several forts, such as the Biriciana fort near Weißenburg or the Ruffenhofen fort at the foot of the Hesselberg . As early as the middle of the third century, however, the Limes border could no longer be held because the Alamanni occupied the areas south of the Limes up to the Danube around 250 AD .
Fortified settlements like on the Gelben Bürg near Dittenheim and the Reisberg near Scheßlitz controlled the new areas. But also north of the former Limes, for example on the Ehrenbürg , the Staffelberg or the Houbirg , several such Gau castles have been found. In most cases, it is unknown to which people the inhabitants belonged. In the southern parts in particular, they were probably Alamanni and Juthungen . On the other hand, Burgundies established themselves on the lower and middle Main . They are also assigned a facility on the Wettenburg near Urphar . By 500 AD at the latest, however, many of these hilltop castles seem to have been destroyed. The exact reasons for this have not been clarified, but could have something to do with the Huns' invasions and the resulting avalanches of vandals and Suebi that crossed southern Germany. In many cases, however, the conquest by the Franks probably meant the end of these hill settlements.
middle Ages
Early middle ages
Until the beginning of the 6th century, the East Franconian region was caught in the tension between Thuringians and Alemanni . The cosmographer of Ravenna wrote in the 7th century that the rivers Naab and Regen flow into the Danube in what is now Upper Palatinate in the Land of Thuringia. He apparently obtained his information from older sources, which makes a temporary expansion of Thuringian influence in the 5th and early 6th centuries at least in parts of Upper Franconia likely.
According to recent studies, however, the expansion of the Thuringian sphere of influence into the main areas cannot be reliably proven. In Upper Franconia, relationships with Bohemian cultural groups seem to have existed until the Franks conquered. Apparently an autochthonous Elbe-Germanic population group was predominant as the bearer of tradition. The franc fell with their victories over the Alemanni around 507 n. Chr. And Thuringia (529-534 n. Chr.) In its core areas of the region today francs. At first it was only loosely incorporated into the Franconian Empire . However, as early as the 6th century, Franconians settled the region, primarily from the Lower Main . In the 7th century, Franconian settlers advanced as far as the Obermainbogen and the Regnitz . Shortly afterwards, by the middle of the 7th century at the latest, Slavs began to settle the northeastern parts of the region from the east. The Franconian King Dagobert I deployed a man named Hruodi as Duke ( dux ) over the mainland at the central transport location of Würzburg . Occasionally it is speculated that this was identical to the Thuringian Duke Radulf . It is more likely, however, that a separate duchy was formed in Franconia back then, founded to create a counterweight to the powerful Thuringian duke. Typical rows of burial grounds from this time were discovered in Westheim , Dittenheim , Gnotzheim , Hellmitzheim , Hettstadt , Kleinlangheim , Klepsau , Neubrunn , Niedernberg , Sulzheim , Weißenburg and Zeuzleben . Individual graves and grave goods from this era were also discovered in Bad Staffelstein , Hirschaid and Eggolsheim .
Most of the population in the area was pagan well into the early Middle Ages . Only the ruling class subordinate to the king is likely to have been Christian . Archaeological finds from Niedernberg, Pflaumheium and Großwallstadt attest to Christian life in Lower Franconia as early as the early 7th century. The first to try to forcefully spread the Christian faith were Irish - Anglo-Saxon wandering monks . One of the first was Kilian , who became the apostle of the Franks. Around 685 the Irish preacher and his companions Kolonat and Totnan moved to Würzburg, where he became a kind of bishop. With their murder, he and his companions became martyrs , which may have laid the foundation for the legends of the saints. Under Boniface , the first diocese of Franconia was founded in 741 or early 742 with the diocese of Würzburg . Around 742, possibly a little later, St. Willibald the diocese of Eichstätt , which included the southeastern parts of Franconia, but also Bavarian and Alemannic areas.
Until about the 8th century, the region, which had become increasingly important for the empire, did not have an independent name. From the 9th century onwards, the main area was called Eastern Franconia (Francia Orientalis) . With the same name, however, the entire East Franconian partial empire of the successors of Charlemagne was designated. Under Charlemagne, attempts were made to build a navigable connection between Altmühl and Swabian Rezat and thus between the Rhine and Danube near the present-day town of Graben near Treuchtlingen . Whether this fossa Carolina, also known as the Karlsgraben , was ever completed is still controversial today.
High Middle Ages
From the middle of the 9th century, the tribal duchy of Franconia , one of the five tribal duchies of the East Franconian Empire, was established . Today's Franconia only includes the easternmost part of this duchy. Up to the 10th century, Franconia also consisted of the Duchy of West Franconia , which included today's Hesse , Rheinhessen , the Palatinate and North Baden . In addition, parts of today's Thuringia south of the Rennsteig belonged to Franconia .
The so-called older Babenbergs, also known as Popponen , held a considerable position of power in the Main region in the 9th century, until they broke with the Carolingian kings. The last Carolingian, Ludwig the child , finally moved in some of their goods and gave them away to members of the Konradin clan , who were wealthy in the Franconian Rhine region. In the ensuing Babenberg feud , the Konradines and Babenberger wars. In the end, most of the Babenbergs' goods were confiscated, including Bamberg.
When Ludwig's child died in 911, Konrad I , who had previously been Duke of the Franconian tribal duchy, was elected King of Eastern Franconia in Forchheim . He handed over regional power over the Duchy of Franconia to his brother Eberhard von Franconia . After Konrad's death, Heinrich, Duke of Saxony, was elected King of Germany. Eberhard von Franken was killed in action against Heinrich's son, Otto the Great, in the battle of Andernach in 939 . Thereafter, no successor was appointed and the Frankish duchy was placed directly under the king. In contrast to the other tribal duchies, Franconia was from then on the homeland and power base of the East Franconian and German kings. As a result, no regional power as strong as in Saxony, Bavaria and Swabia developed there in the High Middle Ages .
Otto I. endowed the Schweinfurt counts , who were presumably descendants of the Franconian Babenbergs, with numerous offices, such as the bishopric in Würzburg, and made them counts of the most important Franconian districts . Under him and his immediate successors, Franconia always behaved loyally to the king. Otto the Great stayed frequently in Franconia, including when he met his renegade son Liudolf in 957 in the Palatinate Zenna, today's Langenzenn near Nuremberg .
In 973 Otto II transferred the important Babenburg (Bamberg) to the mighty Bavarian Duke Heinrich the Quarrel in order to win him over. This nevertheless instigated an uprising, whereby he was defeated and the Bavarian duchy was smashed. Under Otto III. However, the son of Heinrich the quarrel, Heinrich II , got his Bavarian duchy back and was even elected king when the main line of the Ottonians with Otto III. became extinct in 1002. He previously had the support of the Schweinfurt counts assured in the election for king and promised Heinrich von Schweinfurt the Duchy of Bavaria. However, he did not keep this promise after his election in 1002 . Thereupon the Schweinfurt joined the enemies of the king ( Schweinfurt feud ), but was ultimately defeated. Heinrich von Schweinfurt kept the castles of Hersbruck , Creußen , Kronach , Burgkunstadt and Banz , but lost his counts and royal fiefdoms .
In 1007, Heinrich II, who was later canonized, founded the Bamberg diocese and furnished it with rich goods. Bamberg became a preferred Palatinate and an important center of the empire. The remains of Heinrich II and Pope Clement II , who was once Bamberg's bishop, are located in Bamberg Cathedral . It is the only papal grave north of the Alps . Since parts of the diocese of Würzburg also fell to Bamberg, Würzburg received from Heinrich II. As compensation some goods from the property of the king as a fief, including the Meininger Mark with the royal estate Meiningen in Grabfeldgau .
The most important areas in today's Franconia region were, besides dioceses and the Hohenstaufen power, the Meranische Lande and the counties of Henneberg , Greifenstein , Wiltberg , Rieneck , Wertheim , Castell , Hohenlohe , Truhendingen and Abenberg .
Under the Salier Heinrich III. was Nuremberg , mentioned in 1050 for the first time, developed as a new center of power for the royal power. The aim was to curb the great influence of Bamberg, and so former Bamberg areas such as Langenzenn or areas south of Forchheim were separated. Bamberg forests in the vicinity of Nuremberg became imperial forests and the market rights of Fürth were transferred from Bamberg to Nuremberg. However, under the restless rule of his son Heinrich IV. Forchheim and Fürth fell back to Bamberg. When Bavaria, Swabia and Saxony rose against the king, Franconia became one of the king's most important pillars. The diocese of Bamberg again benefited from this situation and was always loyal to the king in the following investiture dispute . In contrast, the Würzburg bishop joined the opponents of the king, who in Forchheim in 1077 raised Rudolf von Rheinfelden to the rivalry of the king. However, he could not prevail against Heinrich.
Under the Staufer kings Konrad III. and Friedrich Barbarossa became the center of power in Franconia. Würzburg and Nuremberg were their special supports. At that time, Würzburg was one of the largest cities north of the Alps with around 4,000 to 5,000 inhabitants. From 1190/1191 Philipp von Schwaben , the youngest son of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, was a bishop , i.e. the elected bishop of Würzburg. He should after the death of his brother Heinrich VI. to succeed him as the German king. Originally intended for a spiritual career, Philipp was therefore one of the few German kings who could read and write. Barbarossa and his grandson Friedrich II established new Hohenstaufen centers of power with the Palatinates of Gelnhausen , Seligenstadt and Wimpfen and expanded the Hohenstaufen empire between Rothenburg , Nördlingen and Nuremberg. The famous poet Wolfram von Eschenbach , who came from Wolframs-Eschenbach , also lived around this time .
Originally, the royal rule was based almost exclusively on bishops, but by the middle of the 13th century some powerful noble families had managed to take a stronger position in Franconia. The most important were the Counts of Rieneck , the Counts of Wertheim and the House of Hohenlohe in the west, the Counts of Henneberg , Truhendingen and Orlamünde in the north, and the Schlüsselberger and Counts of Castell in the middle. In the far south, the ministerial family of Pappenheim protected Franconia from the Duchy of Bavaria. The Andechser , originally a Bavarian noble family, occupied a dominant position in Upper Franconia with the Duchy of Meranien until their territory was finally divided among other mansions after the death of Otto VIII in 1248. In addition, the Teutonic Order also had rich possessions in the region. The Counts of Zollern , who inherited the Burgraves of Nuremberg in 1192 , achieved special significance . In the late Middle Ages , members of the dynasty of the Hohenzollern became electoral princes of Brandenburg, in modern times they became kings of Prussia and, from 1871, emperors of the newly founded German Empire .
Late Middle Ages
During the imperial period, the interregnum (1254–1273), individual princes became increasingly powerful. After the end of the interregnum, however, rulers succeeded in reestablishing strong royal rule in Franconia. Franconia played an important role for the kingship already in the time of Rudolf von Habsburg , the itineraries of the following kings prove the favoring of the Rhine-Main area. In spite of all this, Franconia's small states resulted from it. In addition to the monasteries of Würzburg and Bamberg and the larger aristocratic families , there were numerous knights from the lower nobility.
With the exception of the free imperial cities , which were directly subordinate to the empire, the emperor's influence in all secular and spiritual possessions was greatly reduced. Under Ludwig the Bavarian , the imperial city of Nuremberg benefited from numerous new privileges, which made it an economically as well as politically important metropolis. For example, the imperial regalia were kept in Nuremberg from 1423.
Since the Counts of Zollern were enfeoffed with the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1415, their Franconian possessions were also referred to as margravates. In the First Margrave War (1449–1450) the Zoller Albrecht Achilles von Brandenburg-Ansbach tried to gain dominance over Franconia and besieged the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg without success. In the end the margrave failed and had to limit himself to his original possessions again. Albrecht bequeathed the Mark Brandenburg to his eldest son and his heirs and the areas around Ansbach and Kulmbach to his other sons Friedrich and Sigmund . As a result, the Franconian territories of the Zollern were elevated to independent principalities. Other lords, such as the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, did not succeed in building a larger, cohesive territorial power. Above all, the free imperial city of Nuremberg emerged victorious from the war of the margraves and at the end of the Middle Ages owned the largest imperial urban area in all of Germany.
With the decline of chivalry at the end of the Staufer period and the increasing use of mercenaries, numerous knights lost their livelihoods and became impoverished. As a result, they often shifted their craft and became robber barons , like the famous Eppelein von Gailingen . The pilgrimage to Niklashausen in 1476 with the indignation described by Lorenz Fries in the wake of the preacher Hans Böhm was symptomatic of the pending social conflicts of that time, which later escalated in the Reformation and in the Peasants' War.
Modern times
Establishment of the Franconian Imperial Circle
On July 2, 1500, during the reign of Emperor Maximilian I, the empire was divided into imperial circles as part of the imperial reform movement , which led to the creation of the Frankish imperial circle . Initially it was only called Reichskreis Nr 1 , in 1522 it was first called the Franconian Reichskreis .
The imperial circles were not territories, but regional amalgamations of neighboring imperial estates for the performance of communal tasks. This included the raising of troops for the Reichsheer within the framework of the Reichsatrikel , the election of judges to the Reichskammergericht , the supervision of the coinage , the maintenance of the peace and the like. a. From today's perspective, the Franconian Imperial Circle, which like the other circles existed until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, is sometimes an important basis for the development of a Franconian community feeling that still exists in this otherwise politically very fragmented region. Although the bishops of Würzburg continued the old title of Dukes of Franconia , this claim to leadership remained meaningless. Instead, in the late Middle Ages and modern times , Franconia was particularly hard hit by small states in Germany. Completely different forms of rule huddled closely together. Nuremberg and Schweinfurt were free imperial cities , while the areas around Würzburg and Bamberg were ruled as religious high- endorsers. Then there were medium-sized principalities such as Ansbach and Bayreuth or small territories such as the county of Henneberg . Sometimes the neighboring town already had another gentleman with his own small domain. In Fürth even the individual houses were assigned to one of the three gentlemen ("triple rule"). The Frankish Reichskreis repeatedly failed to secure the peace. The Grumbachian Handel , which reached its climax with the attack by Wilhelm von Grumbach on Würzburg, and the Second Margrave War were decided and settled by powers that did not belong to the Franconian Circle.
reformation
Franconia, in particular the powerful imperial city of Nuremberg, played an important role in the expansion of Martin Luther's Reformation movement . Very early on, vacancies in the two Nuremberg churches were filled with people from Luther's circle. Important Nuremberg residents such as Anton Tucher and Albrecht Dürer were in close contact with the Wittenberg circles . The Luther Bible was printed in Nuremberg and started its triumphal march from here. Most of the other Frankish imperial cities, such as Rothenburg, Schweinfurt, and Dinkelsbühl , soon followed suit and held German masses, provided Protestant preachers or approved Protestant communion celebrations. The Coburg Land , which at that time belonged to the Electorate of Saxony , was even one of the most important centers of the Reformation movement. The Frankish imperial knights also professed their new faith and hoped for greater independence from the prince's power. In addition to Lutheranism, the radical Reformation Anabaptist movement had spread early in the Franconian region. Konigsberg and Nuremberg were important centers for the Anabaptists . The Hohenzollern areas around Ansbach and Kulmbach initially remained Catholic until Georg the Pious introduced Luther's teachings. Even in the monasteries of Bamberg and Würzburg there were numerous supporters of the Reformation movement, although these areas remained essentially Catholic.
Frankish War
The robber baron Hans Thomas Absberg kidnapped regularly merchants and nobles, so Emperor Charles V , the imperial ban pronounced against him. After the kidnapping of Hans Lamparter von Greiffenstein, the emperor's spokesman, and Johann Lucas, who carried out financial transactions on the emperor's personal behalf, Emperor Charles V tried to win over the Swabian Federation for more targeted action against Absberg and the Franconian noble families who supported him. This led to the Franconian War in 1523 : the Swabian Federation began a campaign against various families of knights allied with Hans Thomas von Absberg and destroyed several castles, such as Absberg Castle or Boxberg Castle , as evidenced in the woodcuts by war correspondent Hans Wandereisen .
Peasants' War
Above all oppressive tax burdens and compulsory labor in connection with the new, liberal ideas that were introduced with the Reformation movement unleashed the German Peasants' War in 1525 . First in Upper Swabia , farmers demanded the free choice of pastors , the restoration of traditional rights such as hunting and fishing , the curbing of forced labor and fairer taxes. In large parts of Franconia, too, these demands met with broad approval. In mid-March 1525, a radical group of peasants of about 4,000 men, called the Tauberhaufen , gathered in the villages around Rothenburg . Their leaders, among whom Florian Geyer was, declared that all people are equal and that serfdom is unjust. In a similar way the Odenwälder Haufen formed further west , led by Götz von Berlichingen . However, the rebellious peasants did not move any of the important princes to make decisive changes and so they began to raid and plunder official houses, aristocratic houses and monasteries. In doing so, they were particularly interested in the tax lists and interest books. The nobility initially gave in and even the Count von Henneberg supplied the farmers with weapons and food. At the same time, however, they recruited soldiers with war experience in Italy. These were led by Truchsess von Waldburg , known as the Bauernjörg .
Soon the uprisings had spread and reached the Hochstifte Bamberg and Würzburg. Numerous castles and monasteries were burned down in the Würzburg area. In contrast, the Nürnberger Land and the areas around Kulmbach were largely spared. At the end of April, almost 20,000 farmers moved in front of Würzburg, where the bishop had holed up on the Marienberg . The Würzburgers, among whom Tilman Riemenschneider played an important role, surprisingly allied themselves with the farmers. However, they did not succeed in taking the Marienburg. When the princely mercenary army approached with 3,000 horsemen and 9,000 mercenaries, the peasants under Götz von Berlichingen faced battle at Lauda-Königshofen , but were hopelessly inferior to the well-equipped troops. No prisoners were taken on express orders, and on the evening of June 4, 5,000 peasants were lying dead on the battlefield. Another battle broke out near the town of Meiningen, which belongs to the Würzburg monastery, between episcopal troops and the peasant army. Bildhäuser Haufen were defeated by the Würzburgers. After the suppressed uprisings, the victors carried out a cruel campaign of revenge, which resulted in mutilations and numerous executions (including the pastor of Meiningen). The farmers suffered great human losses and crop failures and lost almost all the relief promised in the course of the uprisings. For centuries the common people were excluded from almost all political processes.
Second Margrave War and Counter Reformation
From 1552 Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades von Kulmbach-Bayreuth tried to break the supremacy of Nuremberg in the Second Margrave War and to secularize the holdings of the Hochstifte . He attacked Bamberg and Würzburg and extorted money payments from Nuremberg. Large areas of Franconia were ultimately devastated in the fighting until King Ferdinand I and several dukes and princes decided to subjugate Albrecht. In 1553, Albrecht's retreat, the Plassenburg , was captured and completely destroyed. His later successor demanded high compensation payments from the imperial city of Nuremberg, which had already suffered badly from this war.
In the course of the Counter-Reformation , Julius Echter in Würzburg and Neidhardt von Thüngen in Bamberg took ruthless action against the Protestant circles of the two Hochstifte. Lutheran pastors were expelled and subjects were given the choice of emigrating or converting . The power of the evangelical imperial knighthood was broken many times. In the course of this Counter-Reformation there was also unprecedented persecution of witches in Franconia . The worst witch hunts in Europe took place in the princes of Würzburg and Bamberg.
Thirty Years' War
In 1608, reformed sovereigns in the empire united to form the so-called union . In Franconia, the margraves of Ansbach and Bayreuth as well as the imperial cities belonged to this military and political alliance. The Catholic side responded in 1609 with a counter alliance, the League , in which mainly clergy princes gathered under the leadership of Maximilian I of Bavaria . The differences between the two camps finally led to the Thirty Years' War , which began in Bohemia, but finally spread to the whole of the empire and Europe.
Franconia itself was initially not a direct theater of war, but due to its central location within the empire it was often crossed by plundering armies. After the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, when the Catholic League won, Emperor Ferdinand II began extensive recatholicization. The bishops of Franconia then demanded the return of all goods confiscated since 1552. In this context, the Würzburg bishop, for example, received Kitzingen , which had previously been pledged to Brandenburg-Ansbach for centuries. After the battle of Breitenfeld in September 1631, Swedish troops under Gustav Adolf advanced to Franconia. They took Würzburg and stormed the Marienberg fortress , which was considered impregnable . While many imperial knights welcomed the invasion of Sweden, most of the Protestant rulers and the imperial cities held back. Only the Duke of Coburg immediately went over to the Swedish side. Nuremberg, for example, only concluded an alliance with the Swedes through public pressure and supplied them with troops and cannons. When Wallenstein intervened again in the war, Gustav Adolf had a huge camp built around Nuremberg in the summer of 1632. Wallenstein took up a position west of Nuremberg around Zirndorf , but did not allow himself to be lured off the defensive. Thereupon the Swedes opened the battle at the Alte Veste and suffered greater losses. Two weeks later, the Swedish king withdrew from Franconia and the war shifted to central Germany. Nevertheless, Franconia was plagued by raids, billeting, troop moves, the extortion of contribution payments and plague epidemics for another 16 years . When the war was ended by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 , the confessional limits were set at those of 1624. The Franconian estates had to raise huge sums of money as war compensation for Sweden, which was hardly possible due to the depopulation and devastation of the areas. Half of the population had perished, in the Coburg region even 70 to 80 percent of the population had disappeared. Around 150,000 displaced Protestants were settled in the Protestant areas after the war. Some of them were Austrian exiles and were accepted in large numbers by the Margrave of Ansbach , who settled them around Ansbach , Gunzenhausen and Wassertrüdingen . One year after the peace agreement, a final peace congress, the Nuremberg Execution Day , took place in Nuremberg , on which open questions were clarified.
Integration of Franconia into new areas
Typical of the sovereignty in Franconia was still the territory non clausum (literally non-enclosed area ), i.e. the territorial area that was not precisely defined. Rather, sovereignty in the region was realized through individual legal titles. So there were places in which land and judicial rule lay with different masters. A prime example of this is Fürth, where the imperial city of Nuremberg, the Ansbach margraves and the bishop of Bamberg held rulers. At least in the area of the principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth , this changed at the end of the 18th century. The last Margrave of Ansbach-Bayreuth, Karl Alexander , renounced his rule in 1791 and ceded his two principalities to Prussia . Immediately after the handover, the Prussian provincial governor Hardenberg secured the sole rule of Prussia in these areas with military pressure and thus forced the territory clausum in favor of the great power. This created a relatively large state in the area of what is now the Franconian region, whereby a great power had significant influence on the Frankish Imperial Circle and its fragile balance of power broke, even if the Imperial Circle formally continued until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
Overall, however, the franc remained politically highly fragmented. In addition, the rulers were divided into Catholic and Protestant territories in accordance with the imperial legal principle cuius regio, eius religio (whose country, whose religion) .
This fragmentation and the status as a classic imperial landscape made Franconia at the beginning of the 19th century the bankruptcy and disposition assets of the Old Empire following the Peace of Lunéville . Under Napoleon's influence, Bavaria , which he saw as a potential bulwark against Austria , became the winners of the southern German states. With the Treaty of Paris in 1802, among other things, a large part of today's franc was given to the Elector Palatinate-Bavaria, as compensation for the loss of the Rheinpfalz and Jülichs . This affected almost all of today's Franconia with the exception of the principalities of Ansbach-Bayreuth and the imperial city of Nuremberg. As early as 1802, the regions gained in this way were also occupied by the military; for the Electorate of Bavaria not only a compensation, but an increase in land and residents. Due to the secularization , the arrival of the land and the possession of monasteries and monasteries, the structural diversity of Bavaria began to homogenize not only in administrative but also in cultural terms. By Reichsdeputationshauptschluss from 1803 finally it was possible, even the provincial estates to sue monasteries that already belonged previously to Bavaria. The Hochstift Eichstätt initially went to Ferdinand III. of Tuscany , before it finally fell to Bavaria two years later in the Peace of Pressburg and Grand Duke Ferdinand was transferred to Würzburg. In the main state border and purification comparison of 1802, Bavaria and Prussia agreed on an exchange of territory following the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, which, among other things, placed the city of Weißenburg under Prussian sovereignty with effect from 1803, before it became Bavarian again after the Prussian defeat of 1806.
Also in 1806 Bavaria was able to exchange the Prussian Principality of Ansbach for the Duchy of Berg von Prussia. The Rhine Confederation Act ended - again in 1806 - the independence of the city of Nuremberg and ordered its incorporation into what is now the Kingdom of Bavaria . In the so-called " Rittersturm ", the larger territorial states of Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden also received the small territories of the Imperial Knights and Franconian Knights, which often comprised only a few villages, after 1803, although the Imperial Deputations' main conclusion had not mentioned them. The Rhine Confederation Act sanctioned these unilateral measures in Article 25. In 1810 Bavaria acquired the French and formerly Prussian principality of Bayreuth, which had been French and formerly Prussian in 1807, and finally ousted Prussia as the region's previous supremacy. In 1805, in an exchange from Bavaria, the House of Habsburg secured the area of the former bishopric of Würzburg as the foundation of its Tuscan branch line, while Bavaria was compensated with the areas of the former bishopric of Eichstätt, Trient and Brixen and the county of Tyrol . Würzburg thus became the capital of the short-lived electorate and from 1806 the Grand Duchy of Würzburg under Ferdinand III. of Tuscany, which as a member of the Rhine Confederation - like Bavaria - was one of Napoleon's allies. Bavaria, in turn, exchanged the Würzburg area at the Congress of Vienna for its territories to the right of the Inn von Habsburg.
At the Congress of Vienna, Bavaria was also awarded the originally Fulda and Electoral Mainz areas of Bad Brückenau and Aschaffenburg as well as their surroundings, which historically had belonged to the Upper Rhine or Kurhine Empire , i.e. had never been part of Franconia (in the sense of the Franconian Empire). In the course of the Bavarian administrative division, these areas were reduced to lower francs and are now calculated accordingly in francs.
In the Franconian areas there was sometimes considerable resentment against belonging to Bavaria. This included liberal demands for republican structures. The constitutional lawyer and mayor of Würzburg, Wilhelm Joseph Behr , was arrested for high treason , for example , after he described the Bavarian constitution as the worst possible constitution in front of 6,000 participants at the Gaibacher Fest in 1832 . In the spring of 1849, the tensions escalated when the democratic opposition in Franconia demanded recognition of the decisions of the Paulskirche and openly threatened to break away from Bavaria. Arms depots were stormed in Würzburg and Miltenberg , and in Schweinfurt six cannons and 1,100 rifles were counted at a meeting. The Frankish possession and educated middle class , but also churches and officials decided ultimately against violence and for reconciliation with Munich . Since Bavaria became part of the German Empire in 1871 and this opened up completely different perspectives, the contrast between Franconia and Bavaria has weakened significantly.
In 1920 the Free State of Coburg decided in a referendum against joining Thuringia and instead joined Bavaria. Coburg enjoys a certain administrative and cultural special position due to the membership agreement of 1920 with the Free State of Bavaria. For example, Coburg is exempt from the responsibility of the Upper Franconian State Archives in Bamberg and has its own state archive. In the Free State of Saxony-Meiningen , which at that time comprised around two thirds of what is now southern Thuringia , there was no referendum on this issue. There, the then SPD-led state parliament decided to join the new state of Thuringia. There were also loud protests here and immediately after the founding of the state of Thuringia, a movement, Los von Thuringia , which was active until 1931, was founded . Schmalkalden , Suhl and Schleusingen belonged to Prussia then and until 1945 and 1947 respectively.
time of the nationalsocialism
The first NSDSP local groups in Franconia were founded in 1921 and 1922. During the time of National Socialism , parts of Franconia received their own party structures at the middle party level with the NSDAP districts Main Franconia and Franconia . Upper Franconia, on the other hand, formed the Bavarian East Mark with Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate . The Protestant regions of Franconia had proven to be particularly receptive to National Socialism . In the constituency of Rothenburg-Land, the NSDAP achieved a result of 83 percent in 1929 (Bavaria as a whole: 32.9 percent). An early stronghold of National Socialism in Middle Franconia were the district and the city of Neustadt an der Aisch , from which some NSDAP local group members were elected to the district assembly in 1928 . In the town hall of the city of Coburg, the NSDAP ruled with an absolute majority from 1929 under the mayor Franz Schwede , who later rose to become Gauleiter of Pomerania . Nürnberg played as a city of Reichsparteitage a prominent role in the self-expression of the Nazis by the repatriation of the imperial crown aware rich urban sentimentality and reminiscences of the Nuremberg served. As one of the first cities in the Reich, Gunzenhausen distinguished itself by discriminating against the Jewish population. The first Hitler memorial in the German Reich was erected there in April 1933. On March 25, 1934, the first Jewish pogrom took place in Bavaria. The attack brought Gunzenhausen negative press coverage worldwide. Political affiliation to Bavaria and other areas remained out of the question during the Nazi era, but was insignificant due to the fact that the states were brought into line.
Like all parts of the German Empire, Franconia was also badly affected by Allied air raids . Nuremberg as an important industrial location and transport hub was hit particularly hard. Between 1940 and 1945 the city was the target of dozens of air raids. Many other locations were also exposed to air strikes. The Würzburg residence , for example, was badly damaged . The old town of Bamberg was almost completely spared. To secure cultural assets, the historical art bunker was created below Nuremberg Castle , where, among other things, the imperial regalia , the Krakow high altar , Martin Behaim's Erdapfel and the Codex Manesse were kept. In the final phase of the Second World War , at the end of March and April 1945, the Franconian cities were taken by units of the US Army , which advanced from the west after the failure of the Ardennes offensive and the company Nordwind . The battle for Nuremberg lasted five days; it claimed at least 901 deaths. The battle for Crailsheim lasted 16 days, the battle for Würzburg lasted seven days. The battle for Merkendorf lasted three days. The 7th US Army took these cities.
Contemporary history
In the FRG
After the unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, the Bavarian part of Franconia came to the American zone of occupation , while southern Thuringia, with the exception of smaller exclaves such as Ostheim vor der Rhön, became part of the Soviet zone of occupation . The later Württemberg-Baden was also part of the American Zone. In autumn 1945, the Free State of Bavaria was founded when the Bavarian Constitution came into force . The state of Württemberg-Baden was founded on September 19, 1945. On April 25, 1952 , this state then merged with Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern (both from the former French occupation zone ) to form today's state of Baden-Württemberg. The state of Hesse was founded on December 1, 1945.
In addition to the reconstruction , Bavaria in particular took in most of the German states and refugees from all federal states, who at the end of the Second World War streamed into Bavaria from the formerly German eastern territories as well as Eastern and Southeastern Europe, as this was only released by American troops at the end of the war was conquered. Numerous refugee camps were set up, such as on the Wülzburg . Economically, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg managed the structural change after 1945 from a predominantly agricultural region to a leading industrial country.
In the years 1971 to 1980, the regional reform in Bavaria was carried out with the aim of creating more efficient municipalities and districts . This should be achieved through larger administrative units ( community mergers ), which, in the opinion of the Bavarian state government , would work more efficiently. The number of municipalities was reduced by two thirds and the number of rural districts by around half, amid sometimes great protest by the population. The district of Eichstätt , which had been in Central Franconia until then , became part of Upper Bavaria .
In the DDR
After the US occupation troops withdrew in June 1945, the Franconian areas in southern Thuringia belonged to the Soviet occupation zone , which later became the territory of the GDR . On July 25, 1952, as part of an administrative reform , the Thuringian Landtag passed the law on the further democratization of the structure and functioning of the state organs in Thuringia . From then on, the Thuringian districts of Erfurt and Gera were joined by the Franconian district of Suhl . The Franconian part of Thuringia south of the Rennsteig was then covered relatively precisely in line with the Suhl district, popularly known as the "Autonomous Mountain Republic of Suhl". After the political change in the GDR, the state of Thuringia was re-established as a free state with the Land Introduction Act of July 22, 1990, effective October 14, 1990 . Since then, the Franconian southern Thuringia has been under the control of the Thuringian state government in Erfurt . In southern Thuringia, the history of the Grafschaft Henneberg and the knowledge of the linguistic and cultural affiliation to Franconia remained alive even during the GDR. In the districts of Sonneberg and Hildburghausen , which are largely in the GDR border area , the residents were constantly confronted with the interrupted connections to Upper and Lower Bavaria in Bavaria, which anchored and strengthened their sense of belonging to Franconia across the border. This becomes clear, for example, in the close cooperation relationships that the districts of Sonneberg and Hildburghausen entered into with the district of Coburg immediately after the political change in the GDR in the cultural field and in tourism, or when the district of Sonneberg joined the metropolitan region of Nuremberg .
See also
literature
- Werner K. Blessing , Dieter Weiß (Ed.): Franconia. Imagination and reality in history, (= Franconia. Supplements to the yearbook for Franconian regional research, vol. 1), Neustadt (Aisch) 2003.
- Jürgen Petersohn : Franconia in the Middle Ages. Identity and profile in the mirror of consciousness and imagination (lectures and research, special volume 51), Ostfildern 2008 (cf. the review ).
- Michael Peters: History of Franconia. From the end of antiquity to the end of the Old Kingdom. Katz Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-938047-31-6 (cf. the review ).
- Conrad Scherzer: Franconia, country, people, history and economy . Nuremberg: Verlag Nürnberger Presse Drexel, Merkel & Co., 1955, 489 S., IDN: 451342119.
- Martin Bötzinger: Life and suffering during the Thirty Years' War in Thuringia and Franconia , Langensalza ²1997. ISBN 3-929000-39-3 .
- Reinhold Andert: The Franconian Rider , Dingsda-Verlag Querfurt, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-928498-92-4 .
- Andreas Kraus (Hrsg.): Handbook of Bavarian history . CH Beck: Volume III, 1: History of Franconia up to the end of the 18th century . Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-39451-5 . Google Book
- Ada Stützel: 100 famous francs. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-118-9 .
- Wolfgang Wüst (Ed.): Franconia's cities and territories as a cultural hub. Communication in the middle of Germany. Interdisciplinary conference from September 29th to 30th, 2006 in Weißenburg i. Bavaria (Middle Franconian Studies 19) Ansbach 2008, ISBN 978-3-87707-713-9 .
- Anna Schiener: A short history of Franconia. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg, 2008. ISBN 978-3-7917-2131-6 .
Web links
- Noble and free. Franconia in the Middle Ages (website for the 2004 national exhibition in Forchheim)
- Map: Franconia around 1500 (historical maps of the House of Bavarian History )
- Reich register from 1532 with names of the classes in the Franconian Reichskreis (PDF file; 1.60 MB)
- Franconia in the Middle Ages Project to provide an overview of Franconian history in the Middle Ages. Numerous subject-specific articles.
- Frankenbund e. V. Association for Franconian regional studies and culture.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frank Falkenstein, Helmut Johannes Kroll, Kelly Reed: New Materials of the Bavarian Neolithic Conference in the Windberg Monastery from November 21 to 23, 2014. 2016 Würzburg University Press, ISBN 978-3-95826-045-0 from the Frank Falkenstein series, Heidi Peter-Röcher (Hrsg.): Würzburger studies for prehistoric and early historical archeology. Vol. 2 [1]
- ^ Peter Kolb, Ernst-Günter Krenig: Lower Franconian History. From the Germanic conquest to the high Middle Ages, Volume 1. Echter Verlag Würzburg, 1989; second edition: 1990, ISBN 3-429-01263-5 , pp. 27-37.
- ^ The early medieval cemetery of Westheim, booklet accompanying the special exhibition. Gunzenhausen Museum, 1987, p. 10
- ↑ Jochen Haberstroh : The rice mountain at Scheßlitz-Burgellern in the time of the migration. Reflections on the 5th century AD in Northern Bavaria. With a contribution by Jörg Faßbinder . GERMANIA 81-1, 2003 Summary ( Memento from February 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 109 kB)
- ^ Gottfried Mälzer: Würzburg as a city of books. In: Karl H. Pressler (Ed.): From the Antiquariat. Volume 8, 1990 (= Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel - Frankfurter Ausgabe. No. 70, August 31, 1990), pp. A 317 - A 329, here: p. A 321.
- ↑ Meininger Document Book No. 3–5; Reg. Thur. I No. 614, 616, 618 - Meiningen City Archives.
- ^ History of Franconia up to the end of the 18th century (Spindler's Handbook III 1), p. 602
- ↑ Cf. Maximilian I .: No. 177. (152). Regimental order of Maximilian I (Augsburg Reichstag). - 1500, July 2. In: Karl Zeumer (Ed.): Collection of sources on the history of the German constitution in the Middle Ages and modern times (= collections of sources on constitutional, administrative and international law. Vol. 2). 2nd increased edition. JCB Mohr, Tübingen 1913, pp. 297-307, here: § 6, p. 299
- ^ Christian Hege: Königsberg in Bayern (Free State of Bavaria, Germany) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
- ^ Christian Neff: Nuremberg (Free State of Bavaria, Germany) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
- ↑ a b Andreas Kraus: History of Bavaria. From the beginning to the present . Munich 1983, p. 371,372 .
- ^ Andreas Kraus: Basics of the history of Bavaria . In: Basics . tape 54 . Darmstadt 1984, p. 137.138 .
- ↑ Napoleon, Strauss, Seehofer. FAZ , September 13, 2013, accessed on September 19, 2013 .
- ↑ What makes Bavaria so special. Die Presse , September 14, 2013, accessed May 30, 2014 .
- ↑ Peter Weidisch: Würzburg in the "Third Reich". In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 196-289 and 1271-1290; here: p. 232.
- ^ Wolfgang Mück: Nazi stronghold in Middle Franconia. The Volkish Awakening in Neustadt ad Aisch 1922–1933. Schmidt, Neustadt an der Aisch 2016, ISBN 978-3-87707-990-4 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Mück (2016), pp. 79–81.
- ↑ Wolfgang Mück (2016).
- ↑ Werner Falk: An early hatred of Jews in Nürnberger Nachrichten of March 25, 2009
