Reign of Zossen

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Zossen Castle, roughly on the site of the former Zossen Castle

The Zossen rule was a medieval aristocratic rule in the southern part of the state of Brandenburg . The independent history of the rule only becomes documented in the middle of the 14th century , when the family v. Torgow as the Lords of Zossen, and ends as early as 1490 with the purchase of the rule by the Margrave of Brandenburg . Originally about 30 villages and the town of Zossen (1583: 26 villages) with an area of ​​approx. 370 km² belonged to the rule of Zossen . The affiliation of the rule was disputed in the middle of the 14th century between the Mark Brandenburg and the Mark Lausitz . In 1375 the land book of Charles IV lists it as belonging to the Mark Brandenburg. A little later she put the emperor to Niederlausitz . With the purchase of the rule by Brandenburg in 1490, however , it was de facto attached to the Mark Brandenburg. But even after the Zossen rule was acquired by the Brandenburg margraves, the Zossen rule remained formally a land of the Bohemian Crown (until 1742). It remained as the administrative unit Amt Zossen (from 1491) essentially until the 19th century . In the course of the 17th century the Zossen office was added to the Teltow district ("Teltowischer Creis"). The former Zossen office was also the core of the Zossen district , which was formed in 1952 after the break-up of the old Teltow district and which was opened in the Teltow-Fläming district in 1993 during the district reform in the state of Brandenburg .

Location and geology

The former rule of Zossen lies with its center, the city of Zossen, approx. 18 km south of the Berlin city limits (as the crow flies). In the east it historically bordered the former aristocratic rule Teupitz (later Teupitz-Wusterhausen), in the north on the Markbrandenburg landscape of the (Hohen-) Teltow , in the west on the bailiwicks of Saarmund and Trebbin , in the south-west to a very small extent on the ore monastery Magdeburg and in the south to the rule of Baruth .

Notte, today the Notte Canal near Zossen

The rule of Zossen consisted of a landscape that was strongly articulated by the last glaciation. The north-west is formed by a larger ground moraine plate, into which, however, several deep bays protrude. There is also a smaller basement moraine plate in the southwest. The center, the south and the east, on the other hand, consist of strongly structured lowlands and islands of valley sand. The northern border is formed by a lowland (Notte lowland) that runs between and approximately parallel to the Baruther and Berlin glacial valleys . The Sperenberger Gipsberg is a specialty, a diapir that has broken through to the surface and consists of sedimentary rocks and salts from the Zechstein .

Limits and scope

The northern border of the rule ran along the northern borders of the districts Groß Schulzendorf (city of Ludwigsfelde), Glienick (today city of Zossen), Dabendorf (city of Zossen) and Telz (today districts of the city of Mittenwalde), along the eastern borders of the districts of Schöneiche (city of Zossen), Kallinchen (city of Zossen), Motzen (city of Mittenwalde), Töpchin (Mittenwalde), Zehrensdorf (district is part of the district of Wünsdorf, a district of Zossen), along the southern borders of the districts, Jachzenbrück (today Lindenbrück , district of Zossen), Kummersdorf (today Kummersdorf-Gut and Kummersdorf-Alexanderdorf , district of Am Mellensee ), Schöneweide (today district of Nuthe-Urstromtal ), the western borders of the districts Lüdersdorf , Christinendorf , Wilmersdorf (today Märkisch Wilmersdorf ) and Wietstock (today the city of Ludwigsfelde).

Originally about 30 villages belonged to the rule. However, the scope fluctuated in the course of history, as some villages possibly fell into desolation in the Middle Ages and were later rebuilt as Vorwerke . In some of the outbuildings that were built later, however, a medieval predecessor settlement has not been proven (e.g. Kummersdorf, Sorge, Wolziger Mühle). Some villages were added to the rule in the course of history (e.g. Gallun ), others were lost (e.g. Märkisch Wilmersdorf). The lords of Zossen were also enfeoffed with some estates in the Teltow (so-called “Brandenburg fiefdoms”), which, however, were not part of the Zossen rule. st. belonged ( Damsdorf , Kerzendorf , Genshagen , Kleinbeeren , Löwenbruch , Wierichsdorf (today desolate; Feldmark bei Ragow ), Steglitz , parts of Rangsdorf , the wood Lomen and the Rangsdorfer See ). Also in the south of the rule they had property in villages outside the actual rule, e.g. B. in Gottow (today municipality Nuthe-Urstromtal ), in Lichterfelde (municipality Niederer Fläming ) and the municipality Ihlow (around 1478).

Associated villages ( numbers with hooves according to the inheritance register of 1583):

The Teltow district around 1788. Map by Carl Ludwig von Oesfeld

Around 1600 Gallun (today the town of Mittenwalde) was also counted as rulership, the farmers had to do services for the castle and work on dams and paths in the rulership. However, it did not belong directly to the Zossen rule, but was owned by a noble family based in Zossen. In 1624 it had 20 peasant hooves and 4 knight hooves.

The small river Notte , which flows past Zossen, divided the rule into a left, "upper" half and a right, "lower" half. In the 17th century, the "upper" half was predominantly German-speaking, the "lower" half predominantly Sorbian-speaking . The two parts also differ slightly in terms of settlement geography . However, the geographic settlement boundary does not run exactly along the Notte, as some of the Slavic villages, typical of their village structure and number of hooves, are also north / west of the Notte.

history

The territorial affiliation of the rule Zossen was uncertain in the Middle Ages and fluctuated between the Mark Brandenburg in the north and the Mark Lausitz in the south. From 1370 it belonged to Niederlausitz, even if later only formally. That is why the history of Niederlausitz is of great importance in this context. The (Lower) Lausitz was owned by the Margraves from 1046 to 1117 and then again from 1136 to 1304. Wettin. After the turmoil of the 14th century, it was annexed to Bohemia in 1367/70 by Emperor Charles IV .

The core of the Zossen rule, the castle on a sand island in the Notte lowland, was probably built in the late 12th or early 13th century on an old connecting route from Köpenick to Lusatia to protect the Notte crossing. It was probably linked to a Slavic predecessor castle, since the church organization , which can only be grasped much later, resembles a Burgward organization. Over 20 villages were parished to Zossen and were cured by the local parish.

The rule of Zossen is documented for the first time in 1347 with the mention of Bernhard and Theodericus v. Torgau, gentlemen of Zossen. However, a Theodericus v. Torgow witnessed a transaction by Margrave Otto, presumably already a feudal man of the Ascanians. In 1301 Dietrich the Younger von Wettin wanted to sell the entire Lausitz to Archbishop Burchard II of Magdeburg . In the end, this sale did not take place, but the corresponding document lists the castles ("castra") that were in Lusatia at that time. Zossen Castle and the possibly already existing little town ("oppidum") Zossen are not among them. Since it cannot be assumed that Zossen Castle did not even exist around 1300, this can only mean that the Zossen rule was not (or no longer) owned by Dietrich the Younger at that time. It would fit the above-mentioned fiefdom relationship between the von Zossen under the Margraviate of Brandenburg.

The V. Torgow originally came from the Wettin sphere of influence. In 1217 Friedrich v. Torgow named as a vassal of Margrave Dietrich von Meißen . Another branch of the family remained in Meissen and held influential posts there. It does not seem improbable that the Zossen reign was owned by the v. Family before 1300. Torgow was, and these were feudal people of the Brandenburg margraves. In 1303, Margrave Dietrich IV. Sold the Lausitz region to the Brandenburg margraves. The Ascan fiefdom is therefore more or less certain before 1320. The line of the Brandenburg Ascanians died out in 1320 with Heinrich II . The Mark Brandenburg fell as a settled fiefdom to his uncle, Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian , who enfeoffed his son Ludwig the Brandenburger with the Mark Brandenburg in 1323 . The Mark Lausitz had also fallen to the emperor as a loan. However, parts of the Lausitz region had also come to Duke Rudolf von Sachsen-Wittenberg and Heinrich I von Jauer, Duke of Jauer in Silesia. The main part of the Mark Lausitz was pledged to the Margraves of Meißen from 1323 to 1328. In 1347 Ludwig the Brandenburger ordered the Lords of Zossen to pay homage to Margrave Friedrich von Meißen. In 1350 the Brandenburg Margrave Ludwig I was excommunicated by the antipope Clement VII . This also affected his vassals "Bernhardum Theodorum et Fredericum dictos de Torgou dominos de Zosna". In 1351 Ludwig I abdicated from Brandenburg in favor of his half-brother Ludwig II ("the Romans") . In 1353, Ludwig II of the Romans pledged the Lausitz region to Margrave Friedrich III. from Meissen . In this document it was unclear whether the rule belonged to the Mark Brandenburg or the Mark Lausitz. In 1367, the Brandenburg Elector Otto V ("the lazy") sold the Lausitz region to the Roman-German Emperor Charles IV , who attached it to Bohemia. In 1375, however, the Landbuch of Karl IV recorded the rule of Zossen as a fiefdom of the Brandenburg margraves; Zossen and the Zossen rule belonged to the Teltow. However, the associated villages were not described. 1411 acclaimed King of Bohemia (and Roman-German king) Wenzel the Lusatian stands that the country Lausitz "from the crown of Bohemia should not be divorced." This is the Lusatian stalls in 1414 by King (and the Holy Roman Emperor) Sigismund again approved. Hans v. Torgau, Herr von Zossen listed. The gentlemen von Zossen appeared regularly in the gentlemen's lists of the Lusatia council until 1449. The rule Zossen thus formally belonged to Lusatia (and thus to Bohemia), even if the affiliation was really different due to the fiefdom of the Lords of Zossen from the Brandenburg margraves. The feudal sovereignty of the Bohemian crown over the Lausitz and thus the rule of Zossen remained formally until 1742.

The family v. Torgow remained in the possession of the Zossen rule until 1472 as fiefdoms of the Brandenburg margraves, but under the fiefdom of the Bohemian crown. 1373 is a Hans v. Torgau Lord of Zossen. In 1375 this Hans v. Torgow the Bede von allen Hufen in Rangsdorf from the Brandenburg Margrave to fief. Presumably it was still this Hans v. Torgow, who was appointed judge by Friedrich I in 1414 in a Felonie trial against Werner von Holzendorf. 1426 a Hans v. Torgau (young) called Herr zu Zossen. 1462 Bernd and Hans v. Torgau, Lords of Zossen, from Friedrich II with Genshagen, Löwenbruch, Kerzendorf, Damsdorf, Steglitz, Kleinbeeren, Rangsdorf, Wirichsdorf and four Hufen to Groß Machnow, the wood Lomen, the large meadow and a lake called Vehlen (= Rangsdorfer See ) as well as six Malter Salz annual interest from the Berlin customs. In 1477 Bernhard v. Torgau, Mr. zu Zossen, half of Wietstock. Presumably his brother Hans had already died without an heir. In 1478 Bernhard v. Torgow. First of all, Bothe v. Ileburg the right to rule Zossen. In the same year, however, Georg v. Stone of Wladislaw , King of Bohemia enfeoffed Zossen. Georg v. In 1490, Stein sold the rule for 16,000 Rhenish thalers to the Brandenburg Elector Johann Cicero . The Bohemian king confirmed the sale in 1493, but reserved the right of repurchase. At the same time, however, he refrains from exercising this right of repurchase during Johann Cicero's lifetime. Two villages, Jachzenbrück (later Lindenbrück) and Fernneuendorf were owned by the v. Torgaus to the family v. Schlieben, owner of the Baruth estate , has been pledged for repurchase. They were bought back in 1496. The Zossen office is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1491. The rule was administered by a bailiff appointed by the Brandenburg elector. In 1515 King Wladislaw left the rights to Zossen, with the exception of feudal sovereignty to his chancellor Ladislaw v. Sternberg . In 1516 he sold the right of repurchase for 7,500 guilders to the Brandenburg elector Joachim I. He appointed a fiefdom holder, Hans v. Pannewitz, who was confirmed in 1516. In 1583 all hooves in the villages and town of Zossen were described according to the Zossen district register. When the district constitution of the Mark Brandenburg was formed at the beginning of the 17th century, the rule of Zossen and Teupitz as well as the electoral rule of Wusterhausen and the Vogtei Trebbin came to the district of Teltow. However, the term “main district” became established for the old landscape (= Hoher Teltow), and the term “district” for the areas that were added later.

The officials of the Zossen office

After the Brandenburg Elector Johann Cicero took over the rule of Zossen in 1490, he appointed a bailiff to manage it. The names of the officials and their terms of office are not fully known.

  • 1490 Georg v. Tassel
  • 1491–1493 Dr. Johann Staufmel
  • 1493–1495 Georg Flanß
  • 1495–1501 Dietrich Flanß (brother of the above Georg Flanß)
  • 1501 Melchior of Pfuel
  • 1512 Hans Bernfelde
  • 1519 Hans Peitz
  • 1536–1568 Eustachius von Schlieben († 1568)
  • 1568 Wolff v. monastery
  • 1599 Wedigo Gans zu Putlitz, captain of the offices of Zossen and Trebbin
  • until 1601 Ludwig vd Gröben († 1601)
  • 1609 Ernst v d. Coarse
  • 1616 Joachim Rüdiger vd Goltz
  • until 1635 Lewin vd Knesebeck († 1635)
  • 1641 Hans v. Waldow
  • 1676 by Goltz
  • v. Kalenberg
  • until 1683 Friedrich Rudolph Ludwig von Canitz
  • until 1693 Philipp Ernst v. Mandelsloh († 1693)
  • 1710 Christoph v. Bar life
  • 1728 Lewin v. Towers

Church affiliation

The rule of Zossen formed its own provost's office in the Middle Ages , which belonged to the diocese of Meissen , a clear indication of the original affiliation of the rule to the Wettin sphere of influence. The area is characterized by the fact that many of the ruler's villages did not have their own churches, but were incorporated into Zossen . In 1495, four villages (Thyrow, Kerzendorf, Löwenbruch and Genshagen) belonged to the provost's office, which later did not belong to the actual rule of Zossen, or probably originally did not belong to the rule. They were later referred to as the "Brandenburg fiefs" of the von Zossen lords or came into other ownership.

Settlement structures

The Zossen rule consists of two somewhat different areas in terms of settlement geography, as Oskar Liebchen recognized and explained in 1941. The area in the north-western and western part of the estate is characterized by a few relatively large villages with high numbers of hooves, which were originally also church villages. The area south and east of the Notte and a few villages immediately north of the Notte (e.g. Dergischow / Horstfelde, Dabendorf, Telz, Next Neuendorf) are characterized by small villages with low numbers of hooves that have no churches (or only recently one Church) and originally all were incorporated according to Zossen. According to their village structure, the latter villages are predominantly round or dead-end villages. This indicates that the small part of the rulership on the Hohe Teltow was still sparsely populated or unpopulated in Slavic times and only through the German colonization of the 12th / 13th centuries. Century was developed, whereby probably also small Slavic settlements were dissolved and integrated into the large German colonist villages. Some villages with a large number of Huffen and planned settlement character (Angerdorf / Straßendorf) in this area of ​​rule have Slavic names or Slavic-German mixed names (e.g. Glienick, Nunsdorf). Conversely, Gadsdorf has a Slavic-German mixed name with a low number of hooves and a Slavic village form (round village). It should be noted in this context that, according to the current state of research, the Runddorf (or Rundling) is no longer a typical Slavic village form, but is probably a type of settlement of the early German eastern settlement that can be found in the penetration zone of the Slavic and German settlers, i.e. is basically a (different) form of the planned settlement. The many German names, or Slavic-German mixed names for the Rundling villages of the Zossen rule, also point in this direction. The field name Alt-Schöneiche (at Schöneiche) indicates z. B. point out that here an old Slavic village was given up in favor of a new village in round shape, which also received a German name. The original Slavic name is not known.

According to the structure of the district boundaries, the settlement and restructuring of the villages in the north-western and western parts of the Zossen rule may have been initiated by the von Zossen lords. In this part only Groß Schulzendorf and possibly Glienick have (stone) churches from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century. The other large towns on the German side probably only had wooden churches, at least Wietstock, Christinendorf, Nunsdorf, Märkisch Wilmersdorf, Schünow and Lüdersdorf church buildings are much more recent. On the other hand, in 1495, Motzen, Sperenberg, Wünsdorf and Schöneweide also owned churches on the “Slavic side”. But on the Slavic side, too, a number of places without churches with a Slavic village structure and low numbers of hoofs have German names (Klausdorf, Rehagen, Schöneiche, Schöneweide, Kummersdorf and the two Neuendorf (Fern- and next Neuendorf)) or German-Slavic mixed names (Dabendorf, Jachzenbrück , Next and Fern-Wünsdorf and Zehrensdorf).

literature

  • Eberhard Bohm: Teltow and Barnim. Investigations into the constitutional history and state structure of Brandenburg landscapes in the Middle Ages. Central German research, 83.Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-412-03878-4 .
  • Lieselott Enders , Margot Beck: Historical local dictionary for Brandenburg. Part IV: Teltow. Hermann Böhlau successor, Weimar 1976.
  • Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German states: the German territories from ... p. 468, Niederlausitz. (Online at GoogleBooks)
  • Rudolf Lehmann: The gentlemen in Lower Lusatia. Studies of origin and history. Böhlau, Cologne 1966.
  • Oskar Liebchen: The beginnings of settlements in the Teltow and in the Ostzauche. Research on Brandenburg and Prussian History, 53. Berlin 1941, pp. 211–247.
  • Berthold Schulze, Gerd Heinrich: Historical hand atlas of Brandenburg and Berlin. de Gruyter, Berlin 1962–1978.
  • Johannes Schultze: The land book of the Mark Brandenburg from 1375. Brandenburg land books volume 2. Commission publishing house by Gsellius, Berlin 1940.
  • Georg Dehio (editor Gerhard Vinken and others): Handbook of German Art Monuments Brandenburg. 1207 pp., Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2000, ISBN 3-422-03054-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Office for Geosciences and Natural Resources Brandenburg / State Surveying Office Brandenburg: Geological overview map of the State of Brandenburg, scale 1: 300,000. Potsdam 1997.
  2. ↑ a b according to the historical local dictionary
  3. ↑ In the literature there is also talk of a "Lausitz border fortress" (e.g. in Dehio / Brandenburg, pp. 1171–1173 ). However, this expression does not take into account the location of Zossen Castle, which is relatively central within the Zossen rule, nor the political conditions during the presumed period of origin of the rule. Rudolf Lehmann therefore does not use this expression.
  4. ↑ a b Bohm, 1978: pp. 15, 24, 40, 52, 74, 76, 78, 89, 99, 100, 116, 118, 120, 125.
  5. ↑ a b Wilhelm Spatz: The Teltow. Part 3: History of the localities in the Teltow district. Rohde, Berlin 1912.
  6. ↑ a b c d Lehmann, 1966, pp. 76-78, 130-131.
  7. ^ A b Rudolf Lehmann: History of Niederlausitz. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1963, pp. 106-107.
  8. ^ Albert Kotelmann: History of the older acquisitions of the Hohenzollern in Niederlausitz. Reimer, Berlin 1864.
  9. ↑ Ernst Fidicin: The territories of the Mark Brandenburg or history of the individual districts, cities, manors, St. History of the Teltow district and the cities, manors, villages, etc. Berlin 1857.
  10. ↑ Friedrich Beck: Document inventory of the Brandenburg State Main Archive - Kurmark, 2: Municipal institutions and noble lords and goods. VII, 820 pp., Berlin, Berlin-Verl. Spitz 2002 ISBN 3-8305-0292-3 (also publications of the Brandenburg State Main Archive Potsdam 45), p. 650.
  11. ^ Johann Ulrich von König: The Freyherrn von Canitz poems. Berlin & Leipzig, Haude & Spener 1750. P. 46 in the Google book search
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Jürries (Hrsg.): Rundlinge und Slawen: Contributions to Rundlingsforschung (accompanying volume to the Rundlingsausstellung in the Rundlingsmuseum Wendlandhof Lübeln). Köhring, Lüchow 2004, ISBN 3-9806364-0-2 .
  13. ↑ Joachim Mielisch: 500 years Schöneiche. Home calendar for the Zossen district, 1990, Zossen 1989, pp. 8–11.