Grand Duchy of Frankfurt
The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt existed from 1810 to 1813. With 302,000 inhabitants, it was a contiguous model state (except for the Wetzlar exclave ) of 5,160 km² within the Rhine Confederation . The capital and seat of government was Frankfurt am Main . The Grand Duke mostly resided in Johannisburg Castle in Aschaffenburg . The Palais Thurn und Taxis was given to him as the official residence in the capital .
geography
The area of the Grand Duchy was 5,160 km 2 , the population was 302,000. With the exception of the Wetzlar exclave , it was a territorially contiguous state area that was divided into the four departments of Frankfurt , Hanau , Aschaffenburg and Fulda .
The Grand Duchy extended in the north to the province of Upper Hesse (northern part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse ), the Principality of Isenburg (northern part with Wächtersbach, Meerholz , Büdingen , Birstein ) and the Werra department of the Kingdom of Westphalia , in the east to parts of the Duchy of Saxony- Weimar-Eisenach , to the east and south to the Grand Duchy of Würzburg , to the south to the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Principality of Isenburg (southern part with Offenbach am Main and Neu-Isenburg ). In the west, the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt joined the Duchy of Nassau . In addition, some possessions of the French Empire and the Principality of Lippe-Detmold were adjacent .
history
Development until 1810
The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt is closely associated with the name of Karl Theodor von Dalberg . Dalberg was the last Archbishop and Elector of Mainz . Through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , the right bank of the Archbishopric Mainz was secularized and reconstituted as the Principality of Aschaffenburg . Together with the territories of the Principality of Regensburg and Wetzlar, it formed the state of the Kurerzkanzler . In the Rhine Confederation Treaty of 1806 , this was also awarded the imperial city of Frankfurt .
On February 19, 1810, Napoleon I signed a state treaty that established the Grand Duchy. The Principality of Hanau and the former Principality of Fulda were incorporated into the re-establishment while Dalberg renounced the Principality of Regensburg .
Constitution
On August 16, 1810, the highest organizational patent for the constitution of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was adopted, a constitution based on the French model. It saw Napoleon's stepson Eugène de Beauharnais as heir to the throne . An assembly of estates of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was planned as parliament . However, it only had an advisory function and only met once, on 15–26. October 1810. The venue was the Hanau City Palace . Three ministries have been set up:
- Foreign affairs, culture and war ( Josef Karl Theodor von Eberstein ); Office: Frankfurt
- Home Affairs, Justice and Police ( Franz Joseph von Albini ); Office: City Palace Hanau
- Finance, domains and trade ( Leopold von Beust , later: Karl Christian Ernst von Bentzel-Sternau ); Office: Frankfurt
Reforms
Dalberg recognized the pressure to reform, which it also had to give in to maintain the new state. To what extent he acted on his own initiative, to what extent he was forced by external pressure, is controversial. The equality of subjects before the law - including the abolition of serfdom and compulsory labor, aristocratic privileges and the emancipation of Jews - was introduced (§§ 13f highest organizational patent), as was freedom of religion (§ 11 highest organizational patent). On January 1, 1811, the Civil Code was introduced. In January 1812, a state university was founded in Aschaffenburg, whose law faculty was relocated to Wetzlar and the medical faculty to Frankfurt. In February 1812 the "school patent" was published. The aim was to reform the school and education system across the country. The main point was that the entire school system was nationalized, i.e. - if this had not yet happened - taken out of church sponsorship. This reform had been introduced in 1806 in parts of the Grand Duchy that had previously been ruled by Dalberg.
With an ordinance of October 5, 1812, a new court system was created from the beginning of 1813 : In every departmental capital and also in Wetzlar, a “departmental court” was set up to resolve civil disputes. In practice, the courts that already existed there were merely renamed. The second instance was a court of appeal in Frankfurt . The State Council of the Grand Duchy also formed the country's court of cassation. The civil and patrimonial jurisdiction remained largely in place. The Roman Catholic clergy were also exempt from ordinary judicial proceedings - but not those of the Protestant churches.
All consistories of the predecessor states - except that of the Principality of Hanau - were dissolved. The consistory in Hanau was now also the highest church authority in the Grand Duchy for the two Protestant churches, the Lutheran and the Reformed Church , in Frankfurt, Wetzlar and Fulda.
Similar to the Kingdom of Westphalia and the Grand Duchy of Berg , all efforts to create a model state shaped by the principles of the Enlightenment were doomed to failure by the extreme economic stresses of the Napoleonic wars. This also included the conscription for the Napoleonic army. The Grand Duchy had to provide and equip a contingent of 2,800 men. There was also the constant accommodation and food for troops passing through, especially in the Kinzig valley . The state was constantly on the verge of bankruptcy , which was also due to the fact that the majority of the state domains in the Grand Duchy had been confiscated by Napoleon years before and given to his sister, Pauline Bonaparte , and deserving generals. In this way alone the state lost 600,000 francs a year . An internal territorial reorganization of the Grand Duchy and an adjustment of the sometimes highly complicated mix of enclaves and exclaves also failed completely .
The End
Dalberg left the Grand Duchy on September 30, 1813 and abdicated on October 28 in favor of the heir to the throne designated by Napoleon, Eugène de Beauharnais .
After the Battle of Leipzig and the Congress of Vienna , the Grand Duchy fell apart. Fulda and Hanau fell to Hessen-Kassel , Aschaffenburg to Bavaria , and Wetzlar to Prussia . Frankfurt should also fall to Bavaria, but the city negotiators at the Congress of Vienna succeeded in restoring it as the Free City of Frankfurt .
Administrative division (1811)
Frankfurt troops 1807
Frankfurt troops 1809
Frankfurt Department
| number | Surname | Number of parishes | after 1815 |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Frankfurt Department | 11 | |
| 1 | Frankfurt (city) | 1 | Free City of Frankfurt |
| 2 | Frankfurt (Landdistriktsmairie) | 9 | Most of Frankfurt, part of Hessen-Darmstadt |
| 3 | Wetzlar (sub-prefecture) | 1 | Prussia |
Aschaffenburg Department
| number | Surname | Number of parishes | after 1815 |
|---|---|---|---|
| II | Aschaffenburg Department | 177 | Bavaria |
| 1 | Aschaffenburg (district mairie) | 2 | |
| 2 | Exactly | 2 | |
| 3 | Kreuzwertheim | 9 | |
| 4th | Eschau | 4th | |
| 5 | Frammersbach | 4th | |
| 6th | Kaltenberg | 26th | |
| 7th | Kleinwallstadt | 11 | |
| 8th | Krombach | 11 | |
| 9 | Lohr | 7th | |
| 10 | Obernburg | 11 | |
| 11 | Rieneck | 4th | |
| 12 | Rothenbuch | 18th | |
| 13 | Rothenfels | 8th | |
| 14th | Schweinheim | 18th | |
| 15th | Triefenstein | 6th | |
| 16 | Klingenberg | 11 | |
| 17th | Stadtprozelten | 7th | |
| 18th | Hoppach | 1 | |
| 19th | Fechenbach | 2 | |
| 20th | Orb | 5 | |
| 21st | Burgjoss | 10 |
Department of Fulda
| number | Surname | Number of parishes | after 1815 |
|---|---|---|---|
| III | Department of Fulda | 305 | |
| 1 | Fulda (city) | 1 | Hessen-Kassel |
| 2 | Bieberstein (district mairie) | 26th | Hessen-Kassel and Bavaria |
| 3 | Brückenau | 23 | Bavaria |
| 4th | Burghaun | 16 | Hessen-Kassel |
| 5 | Dermbach | 16 | Saxe-Weimar |
| 6th | Pus field | 20th | Hessen-Kassel |
| 7th | Fulda country | 34 | Hessen-Kassel |
| 8th | Geisa | 21st | Saxe-Weimar |
| 9 | Grossenlüder | 20th | Hessen-Kassel |
| 10 | Hammelburg | 18th | Bavaria |
| 11 | Haselstein | 9 | Hessen-Kassel |
| 12 | Hünfeld | 17th | Hessen-Kassel |
| 13 | Johannesberg | 21st | Hessen-Kassel |
| 14th | Neuhof | 21st | Hessen-Kassel |
| 15th | Salmunster | 18th | Hessen-Kassel |
| 16 | Weyhers | 24 | Hessen-Kassel and Bavaria |
Hanau Department
| number | Surname | Number of parishes | after 1815 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IV | Hanau Department | 83 | Hessen-Kassel |
| 1 | Hanau (city) | 1 | |
| 2 | Altengronau (district mairie) | 8th | |
| 3 | Mountains | 14th | |
| 4th | Beaver | 5 | |
| 5 | Büchertal | 14th | |
| 6th | Gelnhausen | 11 | |
| 7th | Schwarzenfels | 10 | |
| 8th | Steinau | 13 | |
| 9 | Wind corners | 7th |
Note: The villages of Dorndiel, Mosbach and Radheim of the district mairie Obernburg did not come to the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hessen-Darmstadt) until 1817 through the exchange of territory from Bavaria .
government
- Karl Christian Ernst von Bentzel-Sternau , Minister of Finance and State
literature
- Paul Darmstädter: The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt: A cultural image from the time of the Rhine Confederation . Frankfurt 1901.
- Konrad M. Färber (Ed.): Carl von Dalberg. Archbishop and statesman (1744–1817). MZ-Buchverlag, Regensburg 1994, ISBN 3-927529-03-6 (exhibition catalog).
- Konrad M. Färber: Emperor and Arch Chancellor, Carl von Dalberg and Napoleon; the biography of the last ecclesiastical prince in Germany. Mittelbayerische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Regensburg 1994, ISBN 3-927529-51-6 . (also Diss. Univ. Munich 1982)
- Nils Hein: The state of Karl Theodor von Dalberg: Theoretical claim to leadership and political impotence in the Old Reich and in the Rhine Confederation (1802-1813) Dissertation . Frankfurt 1996.
- Jochen Lengemann : Parliaments in Hesse 1808–1813. Biographical handbook of the Imperial Estates of the Kingdom of Westphalia and the Estates Assembly of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. (= The Hessen Library). Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-458-16185-6 .
- Ralf Schumacher: The political integration of the Principality of Hanau into the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. In: Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 e. V .: Hanau in the Napoleonic era (= Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 47). Hanau approx. 2015, ISBN 978-3-935395-21-3 , pp. 137-185.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ GfRegBl. 1810, 1st volume, p. 10 ff.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 138.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 152f.
- ↑ Schumacher, pp. 149f.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 140.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 162.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 163.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 162.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 163.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 163.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 169.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 153.
- ↑ Schumacher, p. 165ff.