County of Mühlingen
The county of Mühlingen was a territorial administrative unit under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire . It existed from the 9th to the 20th century.
Geographical location
The area of the county of Mühlingen was south of Magdeburg in the Magdeburg Börde . Today this area is in the Salzlandkreis in the center of Saxony-Anhalt . At the time of its greatest expansion at the beginning of the 13th century, it was bounded clockwise by the rivers Elbe , Saale , Bode and Sülze . At that time the following places belonged to the county:
|
|
|
In addition, there is roughly double the number of places that later became devastated .
history
founding
Until the 6th century, the area of the county was predominantly populated by the West Germanic Thuringians . Then the Saxons and Slavs pushed into the country. The county of Mühlingen was founded at the beginning of the 9th century by Emperor Charlemagne and later came under the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire . The county was liable to pay tribute to the Diocese of Halberstadt . Gero was installed as the first liege lord . In a deed of gift dated September 13, 936 from King Otto I , the geographical name Mühlingen (mulinge) was first mentioned in a document.
Askanian rule
In 1034 Gero's last descendant Odo died, and Emperor Konrad II transferred the fiefdom to the progenitor of the Askanians Esico von Ballenstedt . His grandson Otto made a name for himself in the fight against the Slavs, whom he inflicted a crushing defeat in 1115 near Koethen . His son Albrecht the Bear went down in history as the founder of the Mark Brandenburg .
Dornburg rule
During his lifetime, Margrave Albrecht appointed Count Siegfried von Dornburg as fiefdom administrator for Mühlingen, who, however, got into a dispute with Albrecht and was executed. In 1140 the margrave transferred the administration of the fief to Siegfried's son Bederich. With the death of Bedrich III. Around 1240, the Dornburg counts died out and the Mühlingen fiefdom largely went to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, only Großmühlingen and Kleinmühlingen were transferred to the Counts of Arnstein .
Counts of Arnstein
In 1242, Count Gebhard von Arnstein quarreled with the Magdeburg Archbishop Wilbrand and the Bishop Meinhard von Halberstadt , as a result of which Calbe and Nienburg were destroyed. After Günther von Arnstein died in 1282, his line of the Arnstein family died out, so that their property came to the Barby branch of the Arnstein family. They then called themselves Counts of Mühlingen and Lords of Barby. Under the reign of Count Albrecht, who ruled from about 1289 to 1332, there was another dispute with the Archdiocese of Magdeburg. Albrecht supported the Magdeburg citizens in revolt against Archbishop Burchard . Burchard then destroyed the Mühlingen Castle, which, however, was immediately rebuilt with the help of the grateful Mühlingen citizens. The epoch of the Ascanian rule also saw the difficult times of the plague epidemic of 1350 and the famine of 1370, which was triggered by the mismanagement of Archbishop Albrecht II in the region. The county's population decreased significantly as a result.
When in 1468 Prince Bernhard VI. von Anhalt died from the house of the Ascanians, their fiefdom, to which the county of Mühlingen belonged, became free. Emperor Friedrich III. gave the Count of Mühlingen and Barby Günther IV. in 1478 the county of Mühlingen directly to the fiefdom, which thus became free of the empire. The status of imperial immediacy was modified by a comparison between the regents of Anhalt and Mühlingen so that the county had to take the feudal oath to the Prince of Anhalt, but still owed the feudal burdens to the emperor. Count Wolfgang I of Mühlingen and Barby built Großmühlingen Castle around 1530 into a Renaissance building and made it the county residence. In the middle of the 16th century he introduced the Reformation in the county .
During the Thirty Years' War , the county was in the deployment area of the imperial Catholic troops against Magdeburg and was badly devastated. Großmühlingen Castle also suffered severe damage and was given up as a residence. With the death of Count August Ludwig on October 17, 1659, the family of the Arnstein Counts of Mühlingen and Barby died out. At that time the county consisted only of the places Großmühlingen and Kleinmühlingen.
Under the rule of Anhalt
The county passed into the possession of Duke August von Sachsen, who in 1660 gave Prince Johann VI. von Anhalt-Zerbst enfeoffed. In 1793 the Zerbster line became extinct and the county of Mühlingen came as a fief to the Principality of Anhalt-Bernburg, which was ruled by Prince Friedrich Albrecht at that time . The Bernburg family also died out in 1863, the county came to the newly formed Duchy of Anhalt as an exclave surrounded by Prussia and was placed under the administration of the also newly formed Bernburg district .
While the term "Amt Mühlingen" appeared administratively in the 17th century, the county officially received the status of an administrative district with the introduction of the municipality, town and village regulations for the Duchy of Anhalt on April 7, 1878 . When Duke Joachim Ernst von Anhalt renounced the throne on November 12, 1918, the feudal subdivision of Grafschaft Mühlingen ended.
literature
- Friedrich Heine: History of the county of Mühlingen . Paul Schettlers Erben GmbH, Koethen 1900 ( online version )
- Rudolf Kampe: The history of the village of Kleinmühlingen in Anhalt . Edited by Eckart Engel, Niedernwöhren 2007
- Gustav Hertel. The desert areas in Northern Thuringia . Verlag Otto Hendel, Halle 1899 ( online version )