Greifswald Parliament from 1806

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The Greifswald state parliament of 1806 was a solemn act to represent the incorporation of Swedish Pomerania into the Swedish state association. The state parliament , which took place in Greifswald from August 4 to 18, 1806 , was the first and only meeting of the state estates reorganized according to the Swedish model .

history

After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the former Duchy of Pomerania was divided between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Electorate of Brandenburg . Here came Vorpommern and a strip of land east of Oder and Dievenow as eternal fiefdom of Sweden. Swedish Pomerania remained part of the Holy Roman Empire . The Swedish King, who, like the Elector of Brandenburg, bore the title Duke of Pomerania , became Prince of Germany . The previous legal system was largely retained, with the main difference that the highest instance was no longer the Reich Chamber Court , but the Wismar Higher Tribunal . The previous privileges were confirmed to the estates and cities. These conditions remained until the beginning of the 19th century, with Sweden finally having to cede large parts of Western Pomerania to Prussia during the Great Northern War .

Incorporation of Swedish Pomerania into the Swedish State Association

After Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation as emperor in 1804, the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire began. In June 1806, the Swedish King Gustav IV Adolf deposed the government of Swedish Pomerania , which, together with the estates , had opposed the introduction of a Landwehr ordered by the king , and transferred sole government power to Governor General Hans Henrik von Essen . On June 26, 1806, the king repealed the Pomeranian state constitution and declared the state estates and all associated institutions and ordinances repealed. Instead, the Swedish constitution was introduced in the regimental form of 1772 and the Unification and Security Act of 1789. The patrimonial jurisdiction was abolished in favor of the Swedish court system. On July 4, 1806, serfdom was abolished in Swedish Pomerania.

State Parliament in Greifswald

In his decree of June 26th, 1806 Gustav IV. Adolf ordered that for matters which only concern Swedish Pomerania, the representatives of the country should be heard in a general parliament called for this purpose. The convening of this first general parliament was announced on July 18. The model for the state parliament was the Swedish State Parliament . The previously abolished estates were newly established for this purpose.

On August 3, 1806, the deputies had to submit their legitimacy to the court chancellor Zibet. On August 4th, the opening of the state parliament was declared and the speakers for the four estates were appointed. On the following two days the powers of attorney were checked, and the members of parliament were registered and authenticated. The first meeting took place on August 7th in a hall of the University of Greifswald with a speech by the king. This was followed by a service in the St. Nikolai Cathedral . The Landtag ended in the same way after a fortnight.

The negotiating matters were given by the king, other subjects were not allowed. The main subject of the state parliament was the programmatic speech from the king's throne, about which, however, no negotiations or resolutions took place, and the oath of the estates. Gustav IV Adolf felt compelled to proclaim in the state parliament that the annexation to Sweden would not call the unity of the German nation into question. Negotiations took place on the purchase of land for the reorganized courts and administrations as well as the reorganization of the land caste , the committee of the estates, including the election of the deputies. According to the Swedish model, the purpose of the Landkasten was to settle the national debt. On August 8, the peasant class applied for the Pomeranian state debt to be guaranteed, interest paid and amortized by the peasantry, amounting to 240,000 thalers. The knighthood and the nobility protested violently, but had to agree to a guarantee from the estates in order to demonstrate their loyalty. Interest and repayment were taken over by the government.

The implementation of the initiated changes came to a standstill in 1807 with the occupation of Swedish Pomerania by the French. No further parliament was convened. After the French withdrew in 1810, parts of the changes were repealed and a new constitution was introduced. Even this could do little because of the renewed invasion of the French in 1812.

Composition of the state parliament

As in Sweden, the estates were divided into knighthood and nobility , priesthood, city citizens and peasant class . The king selected a spokesman for each estate, only the general superintendent Gottlieb Schlegel was appointed spokesman for the clergy by virtue of his office.

The knighthood gathered in a building of the University of Greifswald. Like the Swedish knight house , knighthood and nobility were divided into three classes. 130 noble families were entitled to state parliament, of which 18 belonged to the counts and barons as the first, 32 to the second class, and the remaining families to the third class. Either the head of the family, his eldest son, or another elected representative of the sex had to appear. For Landmarschall was Jakob Gustav De la Gardie (1768-1842) appointed. Previously there had only been hereditary land marshal offices in Pomerania.

For the priesthood, who met in the house of the general superintendent, two pastors appeared from each of the nine provosts . All pastors of a provosty elected the two members, who received power of attorney from the Greifswald consistory . For the first time in over 100 years there was a permanent representation of the clergy in Swedish Pomerania.

The third estate, the cities, had to send members of the magistrates, whereby the actual selection process was optional. The deputies received a power of attorney from their mayor. Stralsund provided three, Barth , Greifswald and Wolgast provided two each and Bergen , Damgarten , Franzburg , Garz , Grimmen , Gützkow , Lassan , Loitz , Richtenberg and Tribsees each provided one representative. The mayor of Stralsund, David Lukas Kühl , was appointed spokesman .

The "honorable peasant class" did not yet exist after the abolition of serfdom. There were no land-owning peasants, so the deputies were chosen from among the tenants of the crown estates and the royal tenants. In each parish two proxy were elected, who elected the representatives of the respective office before a judge. Each of the offices in Bergen , Franzburg, Grimmen and Greifswald had eight members. The dominion tenant Carl Andreas Samuel Ascher from Neuendorf near Gützkow was appointed spokesman.

literature

  • Norbert Buske : Pomerania - territorial state and part of Prussia. An overview of the political development . Helms, Schwerin 1997, ISBN 3-931185-07-9 , p. 49f.
  • Reinhart Berger : Legal history of the Swedish rule in Western Pomerania. Triltsch, Würzburg 1936, p. 47f.
  • Carl Johannes Fuchs: The fall of the peasant class and the rise of the landlords. Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1888, p. 226f.
  • Julius Heinrich Biesner: Outline of the history of Pomerania and Rügen, with attached special history of the Eldena monastery. Stralsund 1834. pp. 285f ( Google books ).