Ingelheim reason
The Ingelheimer Grund , which was the Ingelheim Empire until the 14th century , was a direct imperial area in what is now Rheinhessen .
geography
The Ingelheimer Grund comprised the places and districts of that time
- Nieder-Ingelheim with the hamlet of Sporkenheim
- Ober-Ingelheim
- Frei-Weinheim
- Groß-Winternheim , today all Ingelheim am Rhein
- Bubenheim
- Elsheim , today Stadecken-Elsheim
- Sauer-Schwabenheim , today Schwabenheim an der Selz
- Wackernheim
- Daxweiler
With the exception of Daxweiler, all of these places still bear the imperial eagle in their city arms .
right
The places and inhabitants of the reason enjoyed unusually far-reaching rights and freedoms as des riches lude (the people of the empire), such as B. the rights to
- own administration,
- own jurisdiction,
- own financial management,
- free hunting and fishing,
but also the duties of supplying the Ingelheim imperial palace and maintaining the ferry service across the Rhine by the residents of Frei-Weinheim . Serfdom and compulsory labor did not exist.
The inhabitants knew how to keep these rights, which are comparable to those of the imperial villages , over the centuries. Even then, when the reason was de facto no longer directly imperial. These freedoms only expired when, with the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797, the areas west of the Rhine fell to France.
history
The area around Ingelheim with the above places was already a crown property in Franconian times and as such was immediately imperial . Werner II von Bolanden , who came from the ministerial family of those von Bolanden , was enfeoffed in 1190 by the emperor as Vogt with the Ingelheimer Grund.
Pledges
On January 16, 1315, Ludwig the Bavarian pledged parts of the area together with the cities of Oppenheim and Nierstein to the Archbishop of Mainz, Peter von Aspelt . This first pledge lasted until December 10, 1353.
On December 24, 1356, Emperor Charles IV pledged half of the income from the Ingelheimer Grund to the city of Mainz for a cash payment of 33,000 small Florentine guilders . Four years later, on September 3, 1360, he also pledged the remaining half to the Oppenheim mayor Heinz zum Junge.
In 1375 the Ingelheimer Grund in the Oberamt Oppenheim , which was obviously no longer needed, was pledged by Charles IV to the Elector Ruprecht I of the Palatinate for the duration of his lifetime. The imperial immediacy thus effectively expired, because no ruler was then willing or able to redeem the pledge, so that the pledge was declared irrevocable in the Peace of Westphalia .
Respect for fundamental rights
The inhabitants of the Ingelheimer Grund were very careful to protect their traditional rights even in times when the area was mortgaged. In fact, the Palatinate electors often tried to curtail these rights. However, these attempts were never successful. The confirmation by the Roman-German King and later Emperor Maximilian I of June 12, 1495 is certain to have given all communities their freedoms, privileges, letters and celebrations that they and their ancestors would have had and allowed to have.
So it came about that the inhabitants of the Grund had their rights and freedoms confirmed by the new elector with every change of ruler, and in return he had the inhabitants pay homage and swear allegiance.
The wording of such a confirmation by the then Elector Carl Theodor has been preserved from the year 1747 :
By the grace of God We Carl Theodor Count Palatine at the Rhine, etc.,
hereby add everyone to know about Roman emperors and our most honored ancestors resting in God on the Chur, the Ingelheimer Grund Oberamt Oppenheim, namely Ober- and Nieder-Ingelheim, Großwinternheim, Sauberschwabenheim, Bubenheim, Elsheim, Wackernheim and Frey-Weinheim with special privileges, freedoms and graces, which that we would like to confirm graciously after the accession of our government, mayor, aldermen and communities there, subserviently begged us that we should therefore come from the country first more fatherly Grace Sothanes graciously agrees to her most insubordinate requests, hence the same privileges, exemptions and excellence enjoyed by old and young people, as much of which is brought here and whose changed time has been graciously confirmed according to the circumstances, as follows.
With the wars as a result of the French Revolution , the history of the Electoral Palatinate and with it the Ingelheimer Grund came to an end: with the Peace of Campo Formio of 1797 and the Peace of Lunéville of 1801, the left bank of the Rhine was annexed by France, after the Congress of Vienna came the area in 1816 to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt .
administration
The Ingelheimer Grund was administered by the so-called Grundrat, an assembly of 100 members that met every six months in Ober-Ingelheim . The chairmanship was held by the Oberschultheiß of Ober-Ingelheim. Each village sent a delegation to the council corresponding to its population.
Jurisdiction
Every place in the Ingelheimer Grund had its own local court. These courts met on the so-called required thing days under the chairmanship of the local school body and in the presence of several lay judges.
| place | Chair | Aldermen | Clerk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nieder-Ingelheim | Mayor | 4th | 1 |
| Ober-Ingelheim | High school hot | 4th | 1 |
| Groß-Winternheim | Mayor | ||
| Sauer-Schwabenheim | Mayor | 8th | |
| Elsheim | Mayor | 4th |
Furthermore, the court of knights met three times a year in Nieder-Ingelheim . These meetings were unofficial things days and attendance was mandatory for all residents.
The Ingelheimer Oberhof was important far beyond the Ingelheimer Grund , as it watched over the uniform jurisprudence in the Grund and was an imperial court of appeal far beyond its borders.
Designation as Ingelheimer Reich or Ingelheimer Grund
The change in name probably had a political background: for the administration of the Electoral Palatinate, the affected area was the Ingelheimer "Grund", which they had leased and then taken over entirely; the residents living here, who continued to insist on their privileges stemming from the imperial immediacy, were in their self-image still residents of an “imperial” area.