Ortelsburg district

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District area around 1910
Location in East Prussia
Gut Jablonken around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

The district of Ortelsburg was a Prussian district in the administrative district of Königsberg (later Allenstein ) in the province of East Prussia . The seat of the district administration was the city of Ortelsburg , other cities were Passenheim and Willenberg . The district located in the south of the province existed from 1818 to 1945. Today this region belongs mainly to the Polish powiat Szczycieński .

geography

The Ortelsburg district was in the Galinden region in the central south of East Prussia on the border with Russian Poland and Poland . In the north it reached as far as the Baltic ridge , included the Allenstein Lake District and the Johannisburger Heide , and in the south it merged into the Masurian lowlands. The landscape is very wooded, the Great Schobensee was the largest lake in the district with around 860 hectares. With the Omulef , the Rosogga and the Szkwa three larger Narew tributaries touched the district.

The economy was mainly determined by agriculture and forestry . In the 19th century, a 2500 km² amber deposit east of the district town was exploited. The industrial infrastructure was made up of brickworks , mills and sawmills . A sand-lime brick factory had settled in Passenheim.

In terms of traffic, the district was opened up by the railway lines Allenstein-Ortelsburg-Johannisburg and Bischofsburg -Ortelsburg- Neidenburg and the Reichsstraßen 128 Königsberg- Ortelsburg-Poland and 134 Ortelsburg- Preußisch Eylau .

Administrative history

prehistory

Before the Teutonic Order entered the area in the second half of the 14th century, it was almost uninhabited and overgrown with jungle. As part of its settlement policy, the order founded numerous localities, and as early as 1386, Passenheim was the first settlement to be granted city rights. Ortelsburg and Willenberg, on the other hand, were only named towns in 1723. With a second settlement campaign, the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I opened up the east of the later district area by founding numerous new villages in the second quarter of the 17th century.

The foundation of the district during the administrative reform in 1818

While the first districts in the Duchy of Prussia were formed in connection with its constitution in 1525, the Ortelsburg district only came into being with the administrative reform of April 30, 1815. It was established with effect from February 1, 1818 through the spin-off of the three towns of Ortelsburg , Passenheim and Willenberg and their surrounding rural communities were formed from the Neidenburg district. With an area of ​​1,703 km² it was one of the largest districts in the province of Prussia, later East Prussia.

The new district included the parishes of Friedrichshof , Fürstenwalde , Klein Jerutten , Kobulten , Mensguth , Ortelsburg , Passenheim , Rheinswein , Theerwisch , Schöndamerau and Willenberg .

The district office was settled in Ortelsburg.

Referendum 1920

Through the Versailles Treaty of 1919, the Ortelsburg district was subject to a referendum on membership of East Prussia or Poland. On July 11, 1920, 48,204 voters in the district decided for and 511 votes against to remain in East Prussia.

Development until after the end of the Second World War

On September 30, 1929, a territorial reform took place in the Ortelsburg district in line with developments in the rest of the Free State of Prussia , in which, with the exception of four forest areas, all previous manor districts were dissolved and assigned to the neighboring rural communities.

On July 16, 1938, 50 parishes were renamed in the Ortelsburg district. For example, Jablonken (“Wildenau”), Piasutten (“Seenwalde”) and Wawronen (“Deutschheide”) were affected .

Towards the end of the Second World War , the district was conquered by the Red Army in January 1945 . In the summer of 1945, the Soviet occupying power placed the district together with the southern half of East Prussia under Polish administration in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement . in the following years most of the German and also many Masurian residents were expelled from the district by the local Polish administrative authorities .

Today the Powiat Szczycieński ( Ortelsburg district ) includes all the larger municipalities of the former German district. It is affiliated to the Polish Warmia-Masurian Voivodeship , which roughly corresponds to the Polish-administered southern part of East Prussia.

District administrators

At the time of its 128-year existence, the district only had seven district administrators. Both the first District Administrator Ritter von Berg (1818 to 1851) and Viktor von Poser and Groß-Naedlitz (1914 to 1945) had long terms in office.

1812–1818: from Berg in Passenheim
1818–1851: von Berg in Ortelsburg
1851–1852: from Berg from Groß Borken ( provisional )
1852–1868: Gustav Adolph August von Roebel (1822–1883)
1868–188 ?: Lily
188? –1892: from Klitzing
1892–1897: Hermann Baerecke (1861–1929)
1897–1914: Paul von Rönne
1914–1945: Victor von Poser and Groß-Naedlitz (1880–1957)

Communities

Both before and after the First World War , numerous incorporations were made. While there were 200 parishes in the 1908 district, there were only 166 parishes in 1931 and 164 parishes on January 1, 1945.

In 1939 the Ortelsburg district consisted of three towns, 157 municipalities and four manor districts (forests). Had more than 1000 inhabitants

In 1939 the district had a total of 72,146 inhabitants, of which 85.9 percent were Protestants and 12.1 percent were Catholics. In the 1900 census, 43.4% of residents said Masurian as their mother tongue. A relatively large Polish-speaking minority lived in the district with a share of 31.1 percent (1900).

Place names

In 1938 several places in the Ortelsburg district were given new names for political and ideological reasons to defend against foreign-sounding place names. Others have been renamed earlier and for other reasons:

Personalities

literature

  • Gustav Neumann : Geography of the Prussian State. 2nd edition, Volume 2, Berlin 1874, p. 24, item 20.
  • Prussian Ministry of Finance: The results of the property and building tax assessment in the Königsberg administrative region. Berlin 1966, Ortelsburg district, pp. 1–35.
  • Adolf Schlott: Topographical-statistical overview of the government district of Königsberg, according to official sources. Hartung, Königsberg 1861, pp. 181–190.
  • Contributions to the customer of Prussia. Volume 2, Koenigsberg 1819, pp. 499-500.
  • Max Brenk: The Ortelsburg district in the picture. 3. Edition. Rautenberg Verlag, Leer 1996.
  • Olaf Göbeler: Willenberg. The history of an East Prussian border region. Weber Druck GmbH, Gevelsberg 2004.
  • Hugo Krüger: The churches of the Ortelsburg district. Rautenberg Verlag, Leer 1989.
  • Joachim KH Linke: Four Hundred Years of Ortelsburg. Ortelsburg mosaic. Series of publications by the Ortelsburg district community, Volume 1. Rautenberg, Leer 1983.
  • Max Meyhöfer : The rural communities of the Ortelsburg district. 2nd Edition. Rautenberg, Leer 1984, ISBN 3-7921-0311-7 (326 pages).
  • Max Meyhöfer: The rural communities of the Ortelsburg district (supplementary volume). Unchanged new edition. Rautenberg Verlag, Leer 1995.
  • Victor von Poser, Max Meyhöfer: The Ortelsburg district. An East Prussian homeland book. New edition. Rautenberg Verlag, Leer 1995.
  • Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. East Prussia: Ortelsburg district. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
Genealogical literature
  • Heinz Rayzik, Bernhard Maxin, G. Jasinski, Bernd Blaudow: Ortelsburg district sheets 1842–1922 (= writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 12). Self-published, Seeheim-Malchen 1996.
  • Michael Bulitta, Martin Jend, Marc Plessa: Parish Passenheim: births, marriages, deaths according to certificates from the registry offices Passenheim and Passenheim-Land 1878–1945 (= writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 12). Historical lists of residents (HEV) for the former Southeast Prussia, self-published, Bonn 2005.
  • Martin Jend, Michael Bulitta, Marc Plessa: parish Friedrichshof in the Ortelsburg district, the families and their children in the 19th century. Vol. I – III (= writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 13). Historical register of residents (HEV) for the former Southeast Prussia, self-published, Bornheim 2006.
  • Martin Jend, Wilfried Monka: Parish Ortelsburg and Ortelsburg-Land. The families and their children in the 19th century. Vol. I – III (= writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 15). Historical register of residents (HEV) for the former Southeast Prussia, self-published, Bornheim 2007.
  • Werner Pachollek, Martin Jend, Reinhard Kayss, Bernhard Maxin, Marc Plessa: Amt / Kirchspiel Willenberg - Places, Dwellings and Their Inhabitants 1579–1945, Vol. I – III (= Writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 21). Historical registers of inhabitants (HEV) for the former Southeast Prussia. Self-published, Bornheim 2010.
  • Martin Jend, Marc Plessa: The parish of Jerutten. The families and their children (= writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 24). Historical register of inhabitants (HEV) for the former Southeast Prussia. Self-published by GeAGNO, Bornheim / Rhineland 2011.
  • Marc Plessa, Michael Bulitta, Martin Jend: The parish Passenheim in the Ortelsburg district (= writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 31). Historical registers of inhabitants (HEV) for the former Southeast Prussia. Self-published, Koblenz / Bornheim 2017.
  • Michael Bulitta, Martin Jend, Marc Plessa: The baptism, marriage and death register of the Catholic Church in Kobulten in the Ortelsburg district from 1894 to 1945 (= writings of the Genealogical Working Group Neidenburg and Ortelsburg, No. 32). Historical registers of inhabitants (HEV) for the former Southeast Prussia. 2016.

Web links

Commons : Landkreis Ortelsburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Kossert: Prussia, Germans or Poles? The Masurians in the field of tension of ethnic nationalism 1870–1956 . Ed .: German Historical Institute Warsaw . Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-447-04415-2 , p. 157 .