Goo dish

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reconstructed Gogericht on the Desum , in Lerigau south of the municipality of Emstek

Gogericht (also Gohgericht or Gowgericht ) is the Thing meeting in pre-Carolingian Saxony . After the Frankish king, Charlemagne , had subjugated the Saxons, he appointed counts as his deputies within the existing districts . There they exercised the high level of jurisdiction, among other things. In this case one speaks of Gaugericht or better "Grafengericht". At the administrative level, the Franks set up the so-called Goe independently of the Gau borders, districts in which the lower jurisdiction lay with a Gogericht . While the count's courts lost more and more of their importance, the goge courts established themselves as the most important dishes until the beginning of modern times. The similarity of the words “Gau” and “Go” repeatedly led to the confusion of the terms.

Early medieval Saxon Gau dishes

A gogericht under a court tree in the Middle Ages

In the pre-Franconian period, the Gauerichte were the name for the assembly of free male residents on the level of the Gaue (Latin: "pagus"). Among other things, legal matters were discussed and decided there. As the highest judicial organ, the assembly could also decide between life and death.

The area of ​​Westphalia south of the Lippe and west of the former bishopric of Paderborn was divided into the Westfalengau (in the sources: 'pagus Westfalon'), previously called Brukterergau , and a Gau Angrien (in the sources: 'pagus Angeron'). The border ran along the Salzbach near Werl in a north-south direction. These must not be confused with the Saxon parts of Westphalia and Engern, which are sometimes also referred to as Gau.

Franconian county constitution in Saxony

In a collection of legal provisions for the conquered Saxony that was created around the year 795, one finds some important evidence of Franconian jurisdiction. Then the Frankish king made counts in the Gauen his deputies. One of their tasks was to hold meetings and court days. At the same time, further provisions were intended to secure the rule of the Frankish kings after the long and difficult battles. On the one hand, the independent convocation of the old things was forbidden by the Saxons. From now on they could only be summoned on the express order of the king. On the other hand, the counts should keep peace among themselves; apparently this was not a given. Feuds or other serious offenses were threatened with a fine of 60 shillings. Lesser, unspecified cases were punished with 15 shillings.

Initially, the counts were deductible and received part of the court income as payment, but since the time of Louis the Pious from the 9th century onwards, in addition to their office, they received a fief to support themselves. Soon afterwards, office and fiefdom became hereditary. Due to the internal weakening of the Franconian Empire in the 9th century and with the strengthening of the tribal duchies after the division of the empire, the county constitution in the East Franconian Empire very soon lost its function as an instrument of power for kings.

The counties themselves were from now on repeatedly divided. This, too, was a consequence of inheritance, which apparently took place in equal parts as far as possible according to Frankish inheritance law. Often there was no longer one but several counties within a district. At first, in some cases, these counties seem to have been responsible for a contiguous area, which was given its own name as Kleingau. Later, with increasing fragmentation, a meaningful spatial connection was no longer recognizable, so that the counties were now named after their owners. Such a county was, for example, that of Count Haold . After his death in 1011, Emperor Heinrich II gave them to the Bishop of Paderborn . It extended over 16 different small areas and places, in which other counts also had rights. These smaller counties often persisted even after they were reunited in the hands of a ruler. From this time at the latest, one therefore seems to have to distinguish between court owner and presiding judge. In any case, the old districts gradually fell into oblivion due to the development described.

The weakening of the counties was exacerbated by the fact that different groups of people gradually dropped out of the count's jurisdiction or were expressly subordinated to other courts. As an example, bailiwicks are to be mentioned, which were separated from the county by an act of the king. At the same time, various landlords, some of whom already had lower jurisdiction over their dependent people, tried to gain high jurisdiction over them. In this way patrimonial courts came into being . In addition, the cities that were gradually founded seem no longer subject to the count's courts.

From the remains of the Franconian district courts in Westphalia , the free courts were formed , which became more and more apparent from the 13th century. They developed into courts of the free. These were the ones who were not subject to a landlord. For a long time they existed mainly in Westphalia and there in greater numbers in the comparatively inaccessible areas of the Rothaargebirge , where the manorial system could not develop properly. These free courts then gained considerable influence over the judiciary , especially in the 15th century in Westphalia and also throughout the German Empire as so-called secret courts or feme courts .

Go dishes in Westphalia in the Middle Ages and the early modern period

After the conquest of Saxony, the Franks introduced the Goe as the lowest administrative districts. These seem to have coincided with the original parishes . So at the beginning they probably also served the missionary work of the heathen Saxons. These districts did not necessarily coincide with the existing districts.

“Go” means something like cultivated, newly populated land. This term was later transferred to the group of people who inhabited this area. In addition, it was used to combine the military tasks that were attached to the district. This becomes even clearer with the term “vest”, which we encounter with the same meaning. This becomes clear at Vest Recklinghausen , which describes the district of the Gogericht between Lippe and Emscher . "Landfeste" was the name given to the gatherings of the Gogerichte in the Sauerland region of Cologne . Mentioned is the Brilon Gogericht . Another synonymous term is the “ Börde ”, which we encounter above all in the “ Soester Börde ” and the Warburger Börde .

The judges of the Gogerichte, the counts , were initially elected. Later the election was replaced by the appointment by the owner of the go-court. In the 14th century, the choice of the count was only an exception and was limited to the south of the diocese of Paderborn, for example in the Warburger Börde . As is customary in Germanic legal practice, the gographer was the chief negotiator at a court hearing. Initially, the verdict was passed by the entire judicial community. This task was later taken over by the judges, who were called lay judges even later . The judge was then responsible for enforcing the judgment. This form of administration of justice is still preserved today in the Anglo-Saxon region.

The owner of a Gografschaft was entitled to the brutes, fines, various oat and chicken taxes and monetary payments. These taxes are called "Gohafer", "Grevenkorn" and "Gokorn" as well as "Gopfennige". Occasionally the Gorichter himself received a third of the breaches. In the Gografschaft Medebach, for example, every house with a chimney had to pay a fine of four shillings if a crime committed within a village was not reported.

Originally, from a legal point of view, the counts only had lower court duties and rights. If someone was caught in the act in a serious offense, they were also allowed to exercise blood justice directly. Building on this, in the course of time they were able to acquire more and more high judicial powers. This became all the easier when the court lord of a count was also the owner of a free court or bailiwick in the same area. This development can be observed for the first time around the middle of the 13th century. Around this time, Gogerichte were also called "Hogericht", which could have the function of a "high court" and should perhaps be suggested to contemporaries based on the name. But maybe it was just a mere sound shift at first. In any case, it was a clear sign of high jurisdiction when the Gorichter was awarded the sword by the Duke of Westphalia.

In many cases, the development of goge dishes into high dishes was not completed until the 16th century. Especially in the south-eastern areas of the Duchy of Westphalia, the Gogerichte had almost only lower court competences until 1500. It was certainly not by chance that the free courts held a strong position here. It was completely different in the county of Mark , where the sovereigns were able to unite go and free courts in their hands early on.

In addition to criminal proceedings, civil law issues were also dealt with on the court days. It happened that individual Gogerichte issued wisdoms or written legal provisions that had previously been handed down orally. In addition, the geographic areas also had military tasks. When their goose was threatened, the counters had to summon up the rural population capable of weapons, who had to appear armed at the designated meeting place when the bell struck. It was no coincidence that the mayors in the cities had the same rights and the same duties: by ringing the council bell, they could call together citizens who were fit for military service when danger threatened the city.

Many cities were evidently gradually separated from the Goen for military reasons. Here there is a division of tasks between city defense and protection of the rural district. With regard to the judicial functions, it could be useful to combine town and country again. In the 15th century, the Go and City Court were therefore often merged again or at least administered by the same judge. This applies, for example, to Brilon , Medebach , Attendorn and Werl .

The Gogerichte and the sovereignty

From around 1300 the Archbishop of Cologne, as Duke of Westphalia, claimed the appointment of all the counts between the Rhine and Weser rivers . Presumably the archbishops recognized the importance of the geographic areas for the expansion of their sovereignty. In some cases the Archbishop of Cologne succeeded in enforcing this claim, for example at the end of the 14th century in the diocese of Paderborn. In contrast, for example, Count von Arnsberg Gottfried IV defended himself in 1338 by having the king lend himself to three of his geographic areas in order to secure them against the archbishop. However, the archbishops were not satisfied with their claim, but at around the same time tried to purchase all Gogerichte within their narrower domain. With the purchase of the County of Arnsberg , the geographical areas located there also came into the possession of the Archbishops of Cologne.

The Counts of the Mark, who had been close allies of the Archbishops of Cologne for a long time until around 1250, had with their support been able to achieve sovereignty over many Goge courts in the western Sauerland early on . Then they changed their alliance policy. The Gogericht von Hagen could be acquired permanently after the Battle of Worringen in 1288. Schwelm fell to the County of Mark in the 14th century. The Gogerichte Wickede and Langschede had been split off from the Gogericht Menden and also came under Brandenburg rule. After 1426 the parish of Plettenberg was separated from the Gogericht Attendorn and added to the county of Mark. In this way, the Counts of Brandenburg were able to move the border to Cologne, Westphalia, step by step, further and further east in their fight against the archbishops. A special case was Valbert , where the Gogericht remained with Attendorn until the 16th century, but the Count of Mark owned the Freigericht. Since both sovereigns were about equally strong, there was practically a division of rule in this area.

The city of Soest had already gained influence on the Gogericht in the city in the 13th century, which then came into the hands of the city in the 14th century. The same applies, with a certain delay, to the surrounding Gogerichte in the Soester Börde, the number of which fluctuated between four and seven. This fluctuation resulted from the reorganization and reorganization of geographic areas that were made for military considerations. With the possession of the Gogerichte, the city also claimed the independent fortification of the Börde with land forces at the latest from the middle of the 14th century . In addition, Soest succeeded in exercising the high level of jurisdiction in his area and even extending control over the noble houses in it. Soest was able to establish almost unrestricted rule over the Börde even before the fall of Kurköln. The dispute therefore sparked among other things by the allegedly illegal possession of the city of the two Gogerichten “Am Hagedorn” and “Am Birnbaum” and the erection of new gallows as an expression of the high judiciary. With the final loss of Goge jurisdiction in and around Soest, after the Soest feud, the electoral sovereignty of the Electorate of Cologne in this area ended. From the Soest Börde only the office of Oestinghausen remained with the castle Hovestadt near Kurköln.

Course of research on the origin and development of the gau and goge dishes

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was believed that the free courts arose from the Carolingian count courts, while the gogerichte had their origin in the Saxon gau courts. Based on this, there was another theory, which said that the Frankish conquerors had set up the free courts exclusively for the Franks who had previously settled in Saxony on land that was previously ownerless. The weakness of the theories was that they only considered a narrowly limited area, such as the development in the border areas between the old Saxon districts of Westphalia and Engern. Albert K. Hömberg, on the other hand, extensively examined the development of Gogericht and Freigericht for Westphalia and was able to reconstruct older conditions based on more recent traditions.

Using the example of the quite atypical Ittergau and the Gogericht Medebach there, the aim is to illustrate how older counts' jurisdiction and Goge jurisdiction developed and overlapped over the centuries. The exact boundaries of this Gau are not described, but, as I said, have been reconstructed by Hömberg. According to him, the county in Ittergau probably consisted of the two Goen Flechtdorf ( Waldecker Upland , Marsberg and Korbach area ) and Medebach. This last-named Go roughly included the later office. In 1011 the county came to the Bishop of Paderborn, who gave it as a fief to the Erponen von Padberg . After their extinction, Count Friedrich the Warrior of Arnsberg presumably gained possession of the count's power. After his death in 1124 this passed into the hands of the Counts of Schwalenberg , who were the ancestors of the Counts of Waldeck . We meet these in turn in the 14th century as owners of the meanwhile increased to five free counties in the Medebach district: decay products of the old county. The Counts of Waldeck were not very interested in these free counties and lent or pledged them to other lords, who were mostly too weak to establish their own sovereignty.

The first documentary mention of a count of Medebach took place in 1172. This administrator of the Gografschaft belonged to a ministerial noble family who received the name Gogreve or Gaugreben from their office . Note the similarity of the names! Around 1300 the Marshal of Westphalia , Johann I von Plettenberg , bought the Gogericht for the Cologne church. As early as the 13th century, the three cities of the Electorate of Cologne, Medebach, Hallenberg and Winterberg, were excluded from the geographical area. The same applies to the two villages Deifeld and Niederschleidern , in which the noblemen of Deifeld had set up a patrimonial court and were also responsible for the defense.

In this case, the Cologne archbishops were not able to achieve sovereignty through the Gogericht. For a long time his powers were too weak for that. Rather, the archbishops came to rule as lords of the cities to which the majority of the rural population moved at the end of the Middle Ages. This is testimony to the enormous desertification in this area. The open courts simply lost the people they had to judge, so that these courts became almost meaningless.

See also

literature

  • Gustav Engel: Political history of Westphalia. Cologne 1968, p. 52, p. 87.
  • Albert Hömberg: county, free county, geographic area. Munster 1949.
  • Albert Hömberg: Ecclesiastical and secular state organization of southern Westphalia. Munster 1965.
  • Ewald Schmeken : The Saxon go-jurisdiction in the area between the Rhine and Weser. Munster 1961.
  • Johannes Schmitz: The Gogerichte in the former Duchy of Westphalia. Munster 1901.
  • Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Fontes iuris Germanici antiqui, leges Saxonum. P. 37 ff.
  • Godinck. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 11, Leipzig 1735, column 52.
  • Landwehr, Gogericht and Rügegericht, in: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History, German Department, Vol. 83 (1966), pp. 127–143.

Web links

Commons : Gogericht  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stock book of the Duchy of Westphalia, described in Golden Times | p. 16 ISBN 3-89861-006-3