Reign of Schmalkalden
The Schmalkalden rule was a territorial administrative unit, half of which belonged to the Landgraviate of Hesse from 1360 and, after its division, to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel and the other half to the County of Henneberg -Schleusingen. From 1583 the rule belonged entirely to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, which was designated as the Electorate of Hesse from 1815 . After the annexation of Hessen-Kassel by Prussia in 1866, the rule of Schmalkalden with Hessen-Kassel came to the Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau . It was only when it was incorporated into the Prussian province of Saxony in 1944 that the area became part of Hesse.
Geographical location
The rule of Schmalkalden was on the south side of the Thuringian Forest . The Rennsteig on the ridge of the mountains formed the north-eastern border, the Werra the western border. The highest elevation was the Große Inselberg with 916.5 m, which belonged to the rulership with its south side. The lowest point was in the Werra valley with about 242 m at Breitungen. The rivers in the area were the Truse , the Stille , the Schmalkalde and the Haselbach , all of which drain into the Werra. The place Barchfeld was separated from the rulership to the northwest of the rulership on the east bank of the Werra.
Today the area is located in the southwest of the Free State of Thuringia and the majority belongs to the district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen ; a small part in the north of the former rule and the exclave Barchfeld now belong to the Wartburg district .
Adjacent Territories
After the division of the former county of Henneberg in 1660 and the division of the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha- Altenburg in 1680, the territory of the Schmalkalden domain bordered on the following territories:
- to the west and northwest to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen
- in the east and northeast to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg , from 1826 to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- in the south to the Schleusingen exclave of the Principality of Saxony-Zeitz , from 1718 to the Electorate of Saxony , from 1815 to Prussia ( Province of Saxony )
The Barchfeld exclave was completely surrounded by the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen from 1680 onwards.
history
County of Henneberg
The town of Schmalkalden with its associated administrative district came with the Cent Brotterode from the legacy of the Ludovingian Landgraves of Thuringia to the first Wettin Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave Heinrich III. of Meissen († 1288). He handed over these areas to his maternal half-brother, Count Hermann I von Henneberg († 1290), in 1247, who in return waived his own claims to the imperial principality through their common mother Jutta von Thuringia .
In 1249 Hermann I von Henneberg incorporated the "Herrschaft Schmalkalden", consisting of the town and the office of Schmalkalden and the Cent Brotterode, into his possessions of the New Herrschaft Henneberg . Since the " Henneberg- Coburg" line he had founded, however, already expired in 1291 with the death of his son Poppo VIII, these areas came as heir to his half-sister Jutta († 1292) von Henneberg-Coburg and her husband, the Ascanian co-regent Margrave Otto the tall ones from Brandenburg to Salzwedel († 1308).
Through the arranged marriage of Jutta von Brandenburg-Salzwedel († 1353), the granddaughter of Jutta von Henneberg, with Heinrich VIII. († 1347), the son of Count Berthold VII. Von Henneberg-Schleusingen, who was prince in 1310 , her inheritance, d . H. the fourth part of the New Rulership Henneberg, in 1312 as a dowry to the County of Henneberg - Schleusingen . By 1316, Berthold VII succeeded in buying the other three shares in the New Rule (also called " Pflege Coburg ") with the Schmalkalden rulership.
After Berthold VII's death in 1340, his eldest son Heinrich VIII took over the county of Henneberg-Schleusingen. When he died in 1347, his territory ( Allod and Lehen ) was divided between his widow Jutta von Brandenburg and Heinrich's younger brother Johann I († 1359), with Jutta again the "New Rule" with the Schmalkalden rulership and also some Henneberg Territories were awarded.
With Jutta's death in 1353, her inheritance was divided among three of her daughters as heirs. The daughter Sophie von Henneberg-Schleusingen († 1372) was awarded the rule of Schmalkalden with the Cent Brotterode, the Vogtei Herrenbreitungen from the inheritance of the Lords of Frankenstein , the Schleusinger share of the Zent Benshausen and half of the fortress Scharfenburg , which thus became the property her husband, the Nuremberg burgrave Albrecht († 1364), passed over.
Henneberg-Hessian dual power
In 1360, Countess Elisabeth von Leuchtenberg († 1361), widow of Count Johann I von Henneberg-Schleusingen , who died in 1359 , signed a contract with her niece Sophie and her husband, the Nuremberg Burgrave Albrecht, about the repurchase of those who had gone to the Burgrave Areas. However, since she did not have the necessary financial means, she agreed in an inheritance contract with her husband's cousin, Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse († 1376), that he would share half of the purchase price and the ideal half these parts of the country. This established the Henneberg-Hessian dual rule over these areas. While the four offices were jointly administered by the condominium that was now in place, the town of Schmalkalden was divided along the Schmalkalde into a Henneberg and a Hessian half. The power and position struggles that broke out immediately had a negative effect on the rule.
In 1387 the lords of Stein-Liebenstein zu Barchfeld , who were in financial difficulties, sold three quarters of the property in Barchfeld to the Landgrave of Hesse. A truce was concluded with the Hennebergers, also to regulate the administration of the now divided town. As a result of the Hessian takeover, the gentlemen vom Stein had to hand over parts of the castle to Hessian castle men ( von Buchenau , von Herda ).
In 1401 a bloody dispute broke out between the inheritance owners of the Scharfenburg , as a result of which the castle was besieged. In the 15th century, the lords of Witzleben , von Wangenheim and, from 1452 to 1837, von Uetterodt finally succeeded in gaining long-term possession of the castle, which meant that it was withdrawn from the jointly administered Hessian-Henneberg area.
In the 15th century, the Counts of Henneberg -Schleusingen seized parts of the Schmalkalden office. A dispute between the two condomini over the Henneberg protection and umbrella justice over the Herrenbreitungen monastery and the joint administration of Schmalkalden ended in an arbitration award in 1498, in which it was determined that the Hennebergers alone were responsible for the Schmalkalden monastery and the bailiwick over the Herrenbreitungen monastery are responsible. In contrast, the central courts at Schmalkalden, Herrenbreitungen and Benshausen remained joint.
After violent disputes about the collection of the wine tariff in the area administered jointly by Henneberg and Hesse, the so-called " Casimir Treaty " was concluded in 1521 with the mediation of Margrave Kasimir von Brandenburg-Kulmbach . This stated, among other things, that in the event of one of the two royal houses becoming extinct, the remaining half should be given to the city and office of Schmalkalden.
A consequence of this competition between Hesse and Henneberg was the choice of Schmalkaldens as the founding and conference center of the Schmalkaldic League by the Lutheran Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse, who thereby included Count Georg Ernst von Henneberg-Schleusingen, who was forced to remain in the Catholic faith Position within the city wanted to weaken. During the time of the Schmalkalden Confederation between 1530 and 1547, seven of the total of 26 federal meetings took place in Schmalkalden. In 1546/47 the clashes between the Bund and the Kaiser culminated in the Schmalkaldic War .
After updating and supplementing the "Casimir Treaty" of 1521, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel , which was created in 1567 from the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse , and Henneberg in 1573 united their administrations in the common territory. In 1583 the last Count of Henneberg, Georg Ernst, was dying. A dispute broke out over the Henneberg area between the heirs, the Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel, and the Ernestine dukes of Saxony. A point of contention was that the Bailiwick of Herrenbreitungen and the town of Barchfeld were not part of the “Casimir Treaty” of 1521, but had been part of the Landgraviate of Hesse since 1360. The Dukes of Saxony ( Ernestines ) claimed the entire Henneberg area except Schmalkalden when the Hennebergers died in accordance with the Kahla Treaty with the Hennebergers (concluded in 1554). An agreement regarding Herrenbreitungen was reached in 1583 by the Salzung Treaty , whereby after the death of the last Count of Henneberg the office of Herrenbreitungen in Hessen-Kassel, but the office of Frauenbreitungen , should come under common Saxon administration.
Exclave of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel
With the death of the Prince Count Georg Ernst von Henneberg-Schleusingen in 1583, the Counts of Henneberg died out shortly after the conclusion of the Salzung Treaty . The inheritance contract cases of 1521 and 1583 came into being, which ended the Henneberg-Hessian dual rule over Schmalkalden and the surrounding area, which had been in effect since 1360.
City and Office Schmalkalden, the centering Brotterode, now enlarged Hessian share of centering Benshausen, the Bailiwick Herrenbreitungen and the place Barchfeld since formed the "Schmalkalden", which now than exclave completely belonged to Hesse-Kassel. In 1584 the Hessian Landgrave Wilhelm IV raised the town of Schmalkalden to one of his secondary residences and had the Wilhelmsburg , named after him, built.
In 1589 the district of Wallenburg Castle near Brotterode was added to the Schmalkalden rule and was incorporated into the Schmalkalden office. From the inheritance of the Hennebergers, the Wallenburg fell to the Wettins in 1583 and was sold in 1588 to the Hersfeld Abbey, which was under the influence of the Landgraves of Hesse .
In 1619 the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel and representatives of Albertine and Ernestine Saxony signed the Benshausen barter agreement . As a result, the previously Saxon office of Hallenberg came to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel in exchange for the Hessian share in the Zent Benshausen and was enlarged by an extensive forest district and some places from the Zent Benshausen. In the area of the Schmalkalden Office, jurisdiction over three locations was transferred to the Saxon Office Wasungen . These places had already been politically transferred to the Wasungen office at the time of the Grafschaft Henneberg. After this territorial rounding of the Schmalkalden rule, the Schmalkalden office had a senior office function over the offices of Herrenbreitungen, Brotterode, Hallenberg and the Barchfeld court.
The costly court holding of Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel led in 1626 to a pledge of the Schmalkalden rule to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , which lasted until the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. This had fatal consequences for the region, as the reformed Moritz von Hessen-Kassel was on the Protestant side, but Landgrave Georg II of Hessen-Darmstadt was on the Catholic side. The Schmalkalden rulership, which had plunged into economic decline since the Thirty Years' War, was nicknamed "Hessian Siberia" because officials who were unpopular were often deported to the exclave.
In 1721 Barchfeld became the seat of the Landgraves of Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld , a branch of the Hessian sovereign princes that emerged from the Hessen-Philippsthal branch that year , who served as the residence of Wilhelmsburg Castle between 1690 and 1732, directly adjacent to the Stein'sche Castle , built.
In 1791 there was an exchange of territory between the offices of Schmalkalden and Hallenberg, which eliminated the scattered position of both offices in Stillergrund and Haselbachtal. In 1803 the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel became the Electorate of Hesse through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss .
Kingdom of Westphalia
During the time of the French occupation from 1807 to 1813, the rule of Schmalkalden belonged as part of the Electorate of Hesse to the Kingdom of Westphalia under Jérôme Bonaparte . The rule Schmalkalden was within the department of Werra the district Eschwege assigned and in the six cantons Schmalkalden , Herrenbreitungen , Seligenthal , flea , Brotterode and Hallenberg divided.
After the end of the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1813, the Electorate of Hesse was restored with its previous administrative structure.
Electorate of Hesse
After the electoral prince Wilhelm II took office , the state was divided into four provinces and 22 districts as part of the administrative reform of the electorate in 1821. Administration and jurisdiction were separated from each other. For the administration was from the previous offices Schmalkalden , Hallenberg , Herrenbreitungen and Brotterode the district Schmalkalden the Hessian formed belonging Province Fulda . Four judicial offices were set up as courts of first instance for jurisdiction: Schmalkalden, Brotterode , Herrenbreitungen and Steinbach.
On October 31, 1848, as part of the March Revolution, the Hessian provinces and districts were abolished. They were replaced by nine districts and 21 administrative offices. The previous province of Fulda was converted into a "District Fulda" and a "District Schmalkalden" (corresponded to the district area of Schmalkalden), but comprised the same districts (now called "administrative offices") as the province before. In 1851, as part of the reaction of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I, this was reversed and the administrative structure from 1821 was restored.
Prussian Province of Hessen-Nassau
In the German War of 1866, the Electorate of Hesse sided with the Habsburgs. After the war it was annexed by Prussia and in 1867 incorporated into the newly formed province of Hessen-Nassau as the administrative district of Kassel . The former Hessian state forests around Trusen, around the Wallenburg and around the Hallenburg were given as a reward by the Prussian King Wilhelm to Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as a reward for the aid they had just given.
The Schmalkalden district now formed a Prussian exclave in the Ernestine duchies with the neighboring Schleusingen district to the south , but through which a Prussian provincial border ran, since the former Electoral Saxon area around Schleusingen had belonged to the Prussian province of Saxony since 1815 .
Due to the liberal Prussian legislation, especially the freedom of trade, there was an economic upswing in the Schmalkalden district, which picked up again significantly after 1871. Although the Schmalkalden district was given the name " Landkreis Herrschaft Schmalkalden " in 1907, the term "Herrschaft", which had been in use since the 16th century, disappeared from linguistic usage.
Dissolution of the Schmalkalden exclave
With the dissolution of the province of Hessen-Nassau by the Nazi government on July 1, 1944, the city and the entire district of Schmalkalden were incorporated into the Erfurt administrative district of the Prussian province of Saxony , which was also subordinated to the administration of the Reich Governor for Thuringia in Weimar . In 1945, with the dissolution of the State of Prussia , the area became part of the State of Thuringia . As a result, Schmalkalden's ties to Hesse, which had existed since 1360, finally ended. The town and district of Schmalkalden belonged to the Soviet occupation zone from 1945 and to the German Democratic Republic from 1949 . The Schmalkalden district was dissolved in 1950 and divided among its neighbors - the Barchfeld exclave was added to the Meiningen district as early as 1948. During the administrative reform of 1952 , a “ district of Schmalkalden ” was created again , which however no longer had its historical limits due to an area expansion.
Since then, the area of the former Schmalkalden lordship has only remained ecclesiastically connected to Hesse, as it still belonged to the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen and Waldeck . This was only interrupted by a decision by the GDR authorities through which the Schmalkalden deanery was incorporated into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia on the basis of a contract dated April 28, 1970 . At the request of the Dean's Synod in the spring of 1990, this was reversed in 1991. Another relic of the Hessian past are the Upper Hessian dialects, which are still spoken in the area of the former Schmalkalden rule .
Associated offices and locations
- Offices
- places
| place |
Associated office until 1821 |
Associated canton 1806–1814 |
|---|---|---|
| Altersbach | Schmalkalden, after 1791 Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Asbach | Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Atzerode | Schmalkalden | Seligenthal |
| Aue | Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden |
| Auwallenburg | Schmalkalden | Seligenthal |
| Barchfeld (exclave) | Barchfeld | Man spreads |
| Bermbach | Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Breitenbach | Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden |
| Brotterode | Brotterode | Brotterode |
| Elmenthal | Man spreads | Man spreads |
| Fambach | Man spreads | Seligenthal |
| Escaped | Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Grumbach | Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden |
| Haindorf | Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden |
| Helmershof | Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Herges-Hallenberg | Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Herges-Vogtei | Man spreads | Man spreads |
| Man spreads | Man spreads | Man spreads |
| Hessles | Man spreads | Seligenthal |
| Hohleborn | Schmalkalden | Brotterode |
| Kleinschmalkalden (Hessian part) | Brotterode | Brotterode |
| Laudenbach | Man spreads | Man spreads |
| Mittelschmalkalden | Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden |
| Medium quiet | Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Closer silence | Hallenberg / Schmalkalden, after 1791 Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Nesselhof | Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Oberschönau | Hallenberg / Schmalkalden, after 1791 Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Reichenbach | Schmalkalden | Seligenthal |
| Rotterdam | Schmalkalden, after 1791 Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden |
| Schnellbach | Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Seligenthal | Schmalkalden | Seligenthal |
| Jumping silence | Hallenberg / Schmalkalden, after 1791 Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Steinbach-Hallenberg (Ober- and Untersteinbach) | Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Struth | Schmalkalden | Escaped |
| Trusen | Man spreads | Man spreads |
| Unterschönau | Hallenberg / Schmalkalden, after 1791 Hallenberg | Hallenberg |
| Volkers | Schmalkalden | Schmalkalden |
| Choice | Man spreads | Man spreads |
| Weidebrunn | Schmalkalden | Seligenthal |
- Courtyards and individual goods
|
|
|
- Castles and Palaces
- Wilhelmsburg Castle (Schmalkalden)
- Wilhelmsburg Castle (Barchfeld)
- Wallenburg Castle
- Hallenburg
- Brotterode Castle
- Steinsches Castle (Barchfeld)
- Herrenbreitungen Castle (former Benedictine monastery)
- Zollburg Todenwarth (Hessian part)
- Desolations in the Schmalkalden office
- Falkenburg castle ruins near Seligenthal
- Ezzelingweneden (ore shrinkage) and Gerdrode (chicken) near Auwallenburg
- Helpers
- Kohlhof
- Reinhardsroda
- Rossbach
- Steinbach near Weidebrunn
- Untergrumbach
Web links
- History of the Schmalkalden rule
- Description of the Henneberg-Hessian offices of Schmalkalden, Brotterode, Herrenbreitungen and Hallenberg
- Cantons of the Kingdom of Westphalia in the area of the rule Schmalkalden, p. 214ff.
- "The acquisition of the Schmalkalden rule by Hesse"
- Website of the city of Schmalkalden
Individual evidence
- ↑ Norbert Krah: The iron trade and the metalworking industry in Schmalkalden - from the beginnings to the present . 2007, ISBN 978-3-9810525-7-2 .
- ^ Peter Heckert: Steinbach under Hallenberg - History of a Hessian-Thuringian city. 1990.
- ^ Reichsgesetzbl. 1944 I p. 109.
- ↑ Volker Knöppel: History of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck 1945 to 2000. In: Rainer Hering, Jochen-Christoph Kaiser (ed.): Kurhessen and Waldeck in the 20th century. Contributions to church history. Volume II . Evang. Medienverband, Kassel 2012, pp. 385–530, here pp. 519–525; kirchengemeinde-schmalkalden.de