Greifswald Court Court
The Greifswald Court Court was the highest sovereign court in Swedish Pomerania . It was founded in the middle of the 16th century by the Pomeranian dukes in Wolgast and moved by the Swedes to Greifswald in the 17th century . After the transfer of Swedish Pomerania to Prussia , it continued to exist until the judicial reform in 1849.
Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast
From the middle of the 16th century court courts were formed in the partial duchies of Pomerania . The highest regional court for the Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast was located in Wolgast Castle . It was the first instance for noblemen of high class and castle people, for corporations such as cities or guilds and for princely officials. An exception was the nobility in the former Principality of Rügen , for whom the Landvogteigericht in Bergen auf Rügen was the first instance. It acted as a secondary instance for the decisions of the city, patrimonial and domain courts. The court of appeal for the court court was the Reich Chamber Court .
The organization was laid down in the court orders of 1566/1569 and 1572. Three assessors and a court administrator, the director, took care of the day-to-day business. Two trainee lawyers or extraordinary assessors were added later. The court was formally presided over by the duke, who was represented by a court president in his absence. This function was often assumed by the chancellor of the ducal government, but mostly the court court director also presided over the court.
The court court in Wolgast existed until the Thirty Years' War . After the extinction of the griffin dukes with Bogislaw XIV , the representation of the Pomeranian estates, which ruled the country according to the regimental constitution of 1634 , decided in 1638 to dissolve the court courts as well as all other central offices.
Greifswald Court Court in Swedish Pomerania
The Swedes, who occupied Pomerania during the Thirty Years War, took over civil administration in 1638 and appointed a governor general . Against the resistance of the estates, the re-establishment of the central administration was announced in 1641. After the intervention of the Swedish Chancellor Johan Oxenstierna , the council assistants Alexander Erskein and Johan Hallenus began to set up a court court in Greifswald in accordance with the provisions of the court court order and the regimental constitution of 1634. Appeals to the Reich Chamber Court were banned by the Swedes in 1643, these were made by the State Council edited until 1653 the Wismar Tribunal was set up as an appeal body for the Swedish imperial territories. The city of Stralsund, which already forbade appeals to the court court in the ducal era, was able to receive its privilege.
Alexander Erskein became the first president of the court. Arnold von Bohlen was appointed director. The number of assessors and trainees changed during the existence of the court. The area of jurisdiction, which initially corresponded to the area of the former Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast, was expanded after the border recession of 1653 to the territories for which the court in Stettin was previously responsible. In the regimental form of 1663 , the changes that had previously been implemented in the organization of the court were confirmed. At the same time the order for the renewal of the court court order was given. An order prepared under the direction of David Mevius was confirmed by the Swedish king in 1672 and was in part the basis of judicial activity until the middle of the 19th century.
In 1665 the court was moved to Wolgast. During the Swedish-Brandenburg War it was in the Stralsund fortress . In 1680 it was relocated to Greifswald, where the court officially had its seat until the end of its existence. From 1709 to 1710 a new courthouse was built on the former provost yard.
From 1678 the position of the president, who was the representative of the crown in court, was no longer held for almost a hundred years; his duties were taken over by the court director. According to the court order of 1672, five assessors and two trainee lawyers belonged to the court. Between 1720 and 1732, the Swedish Pomeranian estates had the right to propose vacancies. Only German subjects of the Swedish king were allowed to be employed. Studying at least one year at the University of Greifswald was a prerequisite for knowledge of the legal situation in Swedish Pomerania. In the 18th century the actual number of judges fluctuated between two and four assessors and up to three trainee lawyers.
After the introduction of a new constitution under King Gustav IV Adolf , the powers of the court were expanded between 1806 and 1811. It took over the jurisdiction of the dissolved Rügen Landvogteigergericht and the Count's Putbusser Lehnsgericht. It became an appeal instance for the four newly established local courts.
Stralsund administrative district (Prussia)
After the transition of Swedish Pomerania to Prussia and the establishment of the administrative district of Stralsund , the Prussian government endeavored to fully integrate the new part of the country into the Prussian legal system. The New West Pomeranian estates opposed this resolutely. Prussian regulations could only be introduced gradually in the form of individual ordinances at the court.
With the Prussian judicial reform, the court court was liquidated on April 1, 1849. Three district courts as the first and a higher appeal court in Greifswald as the second instance took over when a modern judicial system was introduced.
literature
- Pawel Gut: The court court in Greifswald in Swedish and Prussian times. In: Nils Jörn , Bernhard Diestelkamp, Kjell Å Modéer (eds.): Integration through law. The Wismar Tribunal (1653-1806). Böhlau, Cologne Weimar 2003, ISBN 978-3-412-18203-8 , p. 157f. ( Google books ).
- Reinhart Berger : Legal history of the Swedish rule in Western Pomerania. Konrad Triltsch, Würzburg 1936, pp. 33–34.