Hochstift and Duchy of Verden

Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Verden Monastery, Duchy of Verden
coat of arms
map
Duchy of Verden (bottom right in pink) around 1655
Arose from	1180 from the dissolution of the Duchy of Saxony
Form of rule	Electoral principality / corporate state , from 1648: Duchy
Ruler / government	Prince-bishop , administrator or vacant : cathedral chapter , from 1648: duke
Today's region / s	DE-NI
Parliament	Reichsfürstenrat : 1 virile vote on the ecclesiastical bench, from 1648 secular bench
Reich register	5 horsemen, 24 foot soldiers, 60 guilders (1522)
Reichskreis	Lower Rhine-Westphalian
Capitals / residences	Verden , Rotenburg
Dynasties	1648: Sweden 1712: Denmark 1715: Kurhannover
Denomination / Religions	Roman Catholic until the Reformation , then Evangelical Lutheran
Language / n	German , Low German
surface	730 km² (1806)
Residents	20,000 (1806)
Incorporated into	1807/10: Kgr Westphalen 1815: Kingdom of Hanover

The historical state of Verden lay north of the center of today's Lower Saxony and was initially the territorial property of the Diocese of Verden . It existed in this form until 1648. The territory administered by the bishops and the cathedral chapter was not congruent with the territory of the ecclesiastical diocese , but comprised only part of it. At that time it was called Hochstift Verden or Stift Verden , but was often imprecisely referred to as the diocese or prince-bishopric of Verden during its existence . At the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 it was secularized to the Duchy of Verden .

location

The Verden territory comprised the eastern part of today's Verden district (the border ran between Langwedel and Etelsen ), the southern part of Rotenburg (Wümme) and parts of the Heidekreis and Harburg districts .

history

founding

The diocese of Verden was founded in Verden around 800 as a bishopric and initially belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Mainz . Originally in personal union with the Amorbach Abbey in the Odenwald, the diocese became the plaything of the regional nobility as early as the 9th century . The Billungers preferred to promote monks from Corvey Abbey to the bishopric, or members of their own families such as Amelung and Brun I.

As early as 890, the cathedral chapter was able to enforce a property separation vis-à-vis the bishop.

High Middle Ages

At the end of the 10th century (985) the bishop received market , coin , customs and ban rights in Sturmigau - as the region of today's Verden district and the old district of Rotenburg was called at that time - from Emperor Otto III. , represented by his mother Empress Theophanu , which became the basis for future sovereignty. In 1195, Bishop Rudolf von Holle had Rotenburg Castle (Wümme) built as a bulwark against the Archbishops of Bremen, which was used repeatedly as a residence in the following years. After mostly local bishops worked in the early 13th century and became entangled in regional conflicts, the diocese was tamed by papal commissions from the 14th century. However, this strengthened the influence of the cathedral chapter , especially since the bishops were now mostly foreigners .

The bishopric of Verden, like the neighboring county of Hoya, belonged to the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Empire . The neighboring territories of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Bremen , however, were counted as part of the Lower Saxony Empire . The Verden territory comprised the eastern part of today's Verden district ( Altkreis Verden ), the southern part of the Rotenburg district and parts of the Heidekreis district .

Reformation time

Since 1558 pioneered in the diocese and the Bishopric of Confession in which the adoption of a church order by the administrator Eberhard von Holle 1568 can be considered complete. In the Thirty Years' War, as a result of the Edict of Restitution , Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg , a Catholic bishop again moved into Verden in 1630 , but he was only able to hold out until 1634 . Since then the Catholic Church has only been represented by the Vicariate Apostolic of the North .

Heinrich Rimphoff , pastor primarius from 1638 at Verden Cathedral and from 1642 superintendent of the diocese of Verden , was appointed consistorial councilor for the duchy of Verden in 1651.

Principality of Verden

In 1648 the bishopric was finally secularized as a duchy and transferred to the Swedish crown during the Peace of Westphalia , which ended the existence of the monastery and the diocese. From 1648 to 1712, with an interruption from 1675 to 1679, it remained together with the area of ​​the former Archbishopric of Bremen as " Duchies of Bremen and Verden " (formally, however, Duchy of Bremen and Principality of Verden ) with its seat in Stade near Sweden .

In the Swedish-Brandenburg War from 1675 to 1676, Verden was conquered in a campaign by several states of the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark and remained in Allied ownership until the end of the war in 1679.

In 1712 it conquered Denmark , which sold it to the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg in 1715 . Sweden recognized the assignment of territory by Denmark in a Hamburg comparison .

With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Principality of Verden lost its importance as an imperial estate . After occupations and annexation in the Napoleonic wars, Hanover returned to France after the defeat . The Principality of Verden was also formally dissolved in 1823 and with the Duchy of Bremen and the Land Hadeln as Landdrostei Stade a Hanoverian administrative unit, but with the participation of the separately existing estates of Verdens, Bremen and Hadeln in the administration. In 1864 the first two estates were merged by the Hanoverian law on the landscape of the duchies of Bremen and Verden and their area of ​​responsibility was redefined.

With Hanover, Landdrostei became part of the Prussian province of Hanover through annexation in 1866 . On April 1, 1885, the Landdrostei Stade became the administrative district of Stade in accordance with Prussian administrative practice . In 1946 the state of Hanover became part of Lower Saxony , in which the administrative district of Stade continued until January 31, 1978. Today, the Stade Landscape Association and the landscape of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden exist in the area of ​​the former duchies of Bremen and Verden . a. active as a carrier of a territorially delimited public fire insurance within the framework of the VGH insurance .

coat of arms

Blazon : "In silver a black pointed paw cross (so-called" nail cross ")."

The oldest illustration of the cross can be found on a seal from 1338.

See also

• List of the bishops of Verden
• List of former Catholic dioceses
• Regional Association of Stade
• Landscape of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden

literature

• Society for the History of the Diocese of Verden e. V .: Diocese of Verden. 770 to 1648. Editions du Signe, Strasbourg 2001, ISBN 2-7468-0384-4 .
• Bernd Kappelhoff , Thomas Vogtherr (ed.): Immunity and sovereignty. Contributions to the history of the Diocese of Verden (= series of publications by the Regional Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden eV, Vol. 14). Landscape Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden, Stade 2002, ISBN 3-931879-09-7 .
• Arend Mindermann: Document book of the bishops and the cathedral chapter of Verden. Volume 1: From the beginnings to 1300 (= Verden Document Book. Dept. 1, Vol. 1 = Series of publications by the Regional Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden eV Vol. 13, 1 = Publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Vol 205). Landscape Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden, Stade 2001, ISBN 3-931879-07-0 .
• Arend Mindermann: Document book of the bishops and the cathedral chapter of Verden. Volume 2: 1300–1380 (= Verden Document Book. Dept. 1, Volume 2 = Series of publications by the Regional Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden eV Volume 13, 2 = Publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 220 ). Landscape Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden, Stade 2004, ISBN 3-931879-15-1 .
• Thomas Vogtherr (Ed.): Chronicon episcoporum Verdensium. = The chronicle of the Verden bishops (= series of publications of the regional association of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden e. V. vol. 10). Landscape Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden, Stade 1998, ISBN 3-931879-03-8 .

Web links

Wikisource: Verden  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Gerhard Köbler : Historical Lexicon of the German Lands. The German territories and imperial immediate families from the Middle Ages to the present. 5th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39858-8 , p. 650.
2. ^ (UB Düsseldorf :) Mercator, Gerard, Saxonia Inferior et Meklenborg. Duc. , Amsterdam 1609: "Freden Episcop"