Great free things
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The Great Free refers to a settlement area that emerged in the 12th century and was independent until 1730 in the city triangle of Hanover , Hildesheim and Peine . It comprised 14 villages of today's cities of Lehrte , Hanover and Sehnde as well as other places bordering south. The residents had special rights and were called the free ones in front of the northern forest .
Origin of name
The origin of the landscape name is derived from the sovereignty rights: According to current knowledge, the origin of the name is due to the residents' “ great freedom” rights.
The interpretation of the origin of the name via the tribe of possible settlers, people of the Franks ("Franks-Free"), cannot be historically proven.
location
The villages of the "Great Free" are located in the city triangle between Hanover, Hildesheim and Peine. They are mostly clustered villages . They are located in a landscape between the sandy Burgdorf-Peiner Geest in the north and the fertile Hildesheimer Lössbörde in the south.
Historical development
The independent history of the free begins around the 12th century. In the 13th century, the Counts of Roden, with their ancestral seat in Lauenrode Castle , had a large and a small county between Hanover, Peine and Hildesheim from the Hildesheim diocese as fief. The Great County included what is now the Great Free, extended a little further south, as well as the Small Free. The small county was roughly between the town of Peine and Hohenhameln . There was evidence of good suitors in both counties . The bishops, who had received the office of count in the middle of the 11th century and became imperial princes in 1235 , subsequently tried to buy back both fiefs in order to secure their territorial sovereignty beyond the Hildesheim monastery in the long term. Fiefs were long-term and as fiefs they had little influence. The repurchase was only successful for the Little County.
The Guelphs , who also received the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg as an imperial fief in 1235 , tried for their part to get hold of the Great County. In 1248 the Lauenroder Counts finally sold the Great County to the Guelphs, to which Hanover had already submitted in 1241. Only a part was returned to the diocese due to an old pledge . This included Klein Lobke, which did not return to the Welfs until 1643. For the rest of the area, the bishop asked the Guelphs to recognize his suzerainty , which was refused. After military defeats in 1283, 1310 and 1331, the Guelphs had to recognize the feudal sovereignty of the bishops, but did not give up their goal.
They acquired the Holzgrafschaft over the Steinwedeler Forest and with it the associated wooden court . Having jurisdiction meant exercising power and therefore they especially cultivated the free court in Lühnde, which was subordinate to them, while the Gogericht on the Hassel , a now wooded hill between Müllingen and Bledeln, was subordinate to the bishop. The aim was to strengthen and expand the influence of the free court. This strengthened both the position of the free peasants and the position of the Guelph Duke in relation to the bishop. For this purpose, he also issued clearing permits for the settlement of farmers who sat on the land of the duke, paid landlord taxes to him and belonged to the Guelph Free Court. Ultimately, the Guelphs became the undisputed rulers, but gave the Little Free in 1671 to the Principality of Calenberg for the help of the Duke of Calenberg in taking Braunschweig . On June 22nd, 1671, Duke Georg Wilhelm von Lüneburg bequeathed these villages to Duke Johann Friedrich von Calenberg . After that, the terms “The Great Free”, “The Free”, “The Free Before the North Forest” and “In the Free” became common, in particular to denote membership of the Lühnde Free Court. Around 1500 the free court was moved from Lühnde to Ilten.
The residents of these localities lost their rights of freedom after a division of territory under Guelph or Hildesheim rule.
The free and their rights
The Great Free, this name was not created until 1671, arose from the Great County, which has already been discussed. The residents were members of a Saxon tribe . To the extent that they belonged to the class of the free , they had a number of special rights. They were originally free and their land was a free good. There is no evidence of the traditional origin of the free from a settlement by Frankish colonists.
The free migrated more and more to neighboring cities and the now resident farmers had their land mainly as a Meiergut . They were still personally free and could dispose of their own property accordingly. Furthermore, they obtained extensive freedom from taxes (e.g. from the Accise on beer), from warfare, tariffs and concession fees for distilling spirits , brewing beer, and trading and commercial activities. They also claimed the right to have their own representatives check weights and measures , to hold target shooting, to hunt, and to appoint deputies and builders in their area. In summary, it can be said that the freedoms of the peasants in the great outdoors grew or were retained for them from the sovereignty disputed between the Welfs and the Hildesheim bishops. From the point of view of the diocese they were called “the free ones in front of the forest” or “in front of the north forest”, which formerly stretched as a contiguous forest area from Anderten almost to the Elm .
On the other hand, the farmers were obliged to pay contributions and other taxes to the sovereign, taxes approved by the countryside, as well as tithes and other church taxes. The taxes included war contributions during the Thirty Years' War , cattle treasure, tobacco money and the like. In addition, services had to be provided, such as castle festival services, carts and other auxiliary services. In addition, the outdoor of the Office Ilten had to Amtshof the bailiff build Ilten and entertained. In addition, like the peasants in general at that time, the free were obliged to do military service for the sovereign. There was the late 16th century in office Ilten two militia - companies which free companies, in the newly established 1766 Country regiments aufgingen.
The outdoor courtyards are referred to as rows and can be traced over the centuries to this day. Their number remains unchanged at 565. Via the elected deputies (verifiable since 1660), the free participated in the administration and represented the interests of the peasants in office. Later builders were chosen who were responsible for the construction and maintenance of the office building.
Administrative assignment
The part of the Great County that the Guelphs were able to bring under their influence in 1248 was initially administered from Lauenrode Castle near Hanover and later from Wilkenburg Castle near Laatzen. He belonged to the Vogtei Lauenrode. From 1373 to 1395 the area was pledged to the diocese and was administered from the Hildesheim official castle in Koldingen . After that, the Lüneburg Guelphs ruled until 1409, the House of Brunswick from 1409 to 1495 and the Duke of Lüneburg again from 1495. Calenberg Castle has been the administrative seat since about 1395 . The bailiwick of Ilten was created. In the 15th century the administration and in 1500 the seat of the free court was moved to Ilten. In 1859 the Ilten Office was incorporated into the Burgdorf Office and thus lost its independence.
The territory of the great free
The area of the Great Free, located between Hanover, Peine and Hildesheim, was initially administered by the Guelphs as a Hildesheim fiefdom in the 13th and 14th centuries. Pledged and redeemed several times, it finally fell to the Principality of Lüneburg in 1512 . It formed the bailiwick of Ilten, later Amt Ilten, whose seat was moved there in the 15th century. In 1528 this included the villages of Ahlten, Anderten, Bilm, Dolgen, Döhren, Gilgen , Gretenberg, Haimar, Harber, Höver, Ilten, Laatzen, Lehrte, Rethmar, Sehnde and Wülfel. The villages of Döhren, Laatzen and Wülfel were spatially separated from the rest of the area and were ceded to the Principality of Calenberg in 1671 and have since been referred to as "The Little Free". The village of Gilgen, which is still mentioned, was burned down in the Hildesheim collegiate feud in 1519 and then given up. Evern, although located in the middle of the Ilten Bailiwick, was only incorporated into the Great Free in 1621. Klein Lobke only joined in 1643. These two places, with the twelve localities printed in italics above, have since formed the Great Free. Ultimately, the existence of free farms and free farmers was not decisive for the territorial layout of the area, which also existed in other surrounding places, such as B. in today's Sehnder districts Bolzum, Wassel, Wirringen and Müllingen, but the demarcation of the Guelph from the episcopal-Hildesheim area of rule.
The coat of arms of the free
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Around 1400, the Guelphs gave the free ones the coat of arms known today , whereby the position of the free court in Lühnde and thus their own influence was strengthened. Documentary evidence of the award has not yet been found, but seal impressions are available. Engelke names 1408 as the oldest publication date. The heraldic association "Zum Kleeblatt" in Hanover announced a seal from 1492 in 1897 , which is said to have been in the State Archives in Hanover at the end of the 19th century. And in an archive report from 1826 prints from the years 1574, 1589 and 1592 are cited. There the coat of arms is also described as follows: "A crowned helmet over an inclined shield with the Lüneburg lion".
The design used today essentially corresponds to that published by the Kleeblatt association in 1897: “In the red shield there is an upright blue-tongued and blue-armed golden (yellow) lion . On the shield is a helmet with a golden (yellow) crown of leaves as a jewel. The helmet cover is red on the outside and golden (yellow) on the inside. To this end, the association "had an exemplary drawing made according to the oldest seals". This drawing shows the inclined shield in a version called "Gothic"; on the other hand a straightened shield in "Renaissance" style. Today, the version with an inclined shield is generally used.
All places that used to belong to the Great Free World now have a golden lion with blue claws and blue tongue in their coat of arms, each associated with symbols of their particular local history. The lion in the open air coat of arms is traced back to the Lüneburg lion. Regarding the color design, it must be noted that the Guelph ancestral land of Lüneburg had a (heraldically) right-facing soaring lion (like in the open-air coat of arms) in the coat of arms sprinkled ground, which does not correspond to the free coat of arms.
The great free today
The "row positions" testify to the history to this day. These are the courtyards in which the free people originally sat. The owners of the row, as a traditional community, still appoint a “deputy”, i.e. a chairman and spokesman, who represents them in public. He is responsible for the silver bird of the free and for the ark of the free. The latter is a collection of files that goes back to the 15th century, but has been in the Lower Saxony State Archives for a number of years for proper storage. A flag of the Corporation of the Free is shown at important festivals.
A special shooting tradition dates back to the time of the free companies. The Deputy of the Great Free kept a silver bird from the 16th century. It is a rifle trophy that is shot every three years among the male members of the shooting clubs in the large open air. The village of Dolgen has its own silver bird from 1652, which is expelled every seven years among the local owners. The hunt in the open is still practiced today by the row owners in the Altwarmbüchener Moor . The names of streets and squares (Freie Straße, Thie, Thiestraße, Thieplatz, Hasselweg) of restaurants and pharmacies testify to the lively historical awareness of the residents of the area. There is a “rowing club for the great outdoors”. The historical name is also used by the Hegering Das Große Freie of the Burgdorf hunters' community and the associated hunting horn corps Das Große Freie .
Because ten of the fourteen free locations are now part of it, the city of Sehnde represents the history of the great free one. That is why there has been a permanent exhibition on this topic since 2007 in the Sehnde Regional Museum, located on the estate there in Sehnde-Rethmar .
Great outdoors places
Anderten , Höver , Bilm , Ahlten , Lehrte , Ilten , Sehnde , Haimar , Dolgen , Gretenberg , Harber , Rethmar , Evern and Klein Lobke
Small open spaces
Other places
Ummeln , Wätzum , Wassel , Wehmingen , Wirringen , Müllingen , Oesselse , Ingeln , Bledeln , Hotteln , Gödringen , Lühnde , Algermissen , Grasdorf , Sarstedt , Clauen and a few more.
literature
- Manfred von Boetticher : Free counties in central Lower Saxony . Hanover 1992
- Arnd Fritzemeier: The corporation of the free in the office Ilten near Hanover . Hanover 1994
- Manfred Holaschke: coat of arms in the great outdoors . KLEEBLATT, magazine for heraldry and related sciences, 2/2010, Hanover
- Adolf Meyer / Klaus-R. Rose: The great outdoors . Local history texts and bibliography from "Our District", supplement to the Burgdorfer Kreisblatt / Lehrter Stadtblatt from 1949 to 1986, Felicitas Hübner Verlag, Lehrte 2008, ISBN 978-3-927359-65-9
- Julius Rohrbeck: Rethmar in the great outdoors. Contributions to the history of the village and house of Rethmar from 1117 to 1954. , Ed .: Jürgen Bortfeldt, self-published by the editor, 417 pages, numerous illustrations, 2nd edition 2001; contents
- Anton Scholand : Anderten and the free in front of the north forest . August Lax printing house, Hildesheim 1970
- Heraldic messages of the association “Zum Kleeblatt” , Hanover, VIII. Year No. 6 of June 1, 1897, p. 41 ff.
- 50 Years of the Rifle Brotherhood “The Great Free” , anniversary publication, Lehrte 2004
Individual evidence
- ↑ Meyer, Rose: Das Große Freie , pp. 24–28.
- ^ Schützengesellschaft von 1896 eV - The Little Free
Coordinates: 52 ° 20 ′ 45 ″ N , 9 ° 56 ′ 11 ″ E