State Elder
In the early modern period, state elders were representatives of the states , who had different competencies from country to country. The official designation was mainly used in the various territories of northern Germany. For example, there were state elders in the Margraviate of Brandenburg and in the two Lusatia , but also in Silesia . In the Prussian provinces the office existed until the abolition of the monarchy in 1918.
In Upper Lusatia , state elders are proven as early as the 15th century. In the then still Bohemian margravate, they represented the interests of the knighthood as elected representatives. Together with the members of the Lord stand and the representatives of the spiritual founders they formed the Committee of the Parliament, the meetings between the parliament together with the Royal Governor and the Office captains formed the actual government of Markgraftums. In the two halves of the state Budissin and Görlitz, two state elders were elected for one year by the knighthood. Frequent re-election was possible and usual. Among other things, the Upper Lusatian state elders were responsible for collecting the tax rate applicable to the knighthood. In this context, they also had to register and confirm the fiscal self-assessment of their peers. In the absence of the governors, they also led regional assemblies of estates. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the office of state elder often stood at the beginning of the career of an Upper Lusatian nobleman. If someone had held this office to the satisfaction of the estates and the sovereign, he was not infrequently the official or governor , some also got a post at the court in Prague or later in Dresden.
After the Peace of Wroclaw in 1742, three state elder offices were created for Austrian Silesia ; in Weidenau for the Principality of Neisse Austrian share, in Teschen for the Principality of Teschen and Bielitz and in Opava for the Principality of Opava and Jägerndorf .
In the Prussian provinces, the tasks of the state elders were less extensive. But even there, in the older times, they were primarily entrusted with the management of the autonomous corporate tax and finance system. When the Prussian kings made tax administration a largely state task in the 18th century, the state elders were left with the administration of the common property of the communal estates and official dealings with the state government in the representation of corporate interests.
The state elders were elected in the districts of the Prussian provinces from the respective estates there. Since the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, confirmation from the government was necessary. If such existed, the state elders presided over the respective provincial parliaments and it was not uncommon for them to represent the nobles of their district in the provincial parish.
In Prussia this item also led members of the district councils , which from the countryside to the estimation of the goods in terms of their lending against mortgage bonds were assigned.
literature
- Johann Benedict Carpzov : Newly opened Temple of Honor of Merck-worthy Antiques of the Marggraffthum Ober-Lausitz. Leipzig u. Budissin 1719.
- Christian Knauthe : Kurtze historical news of which I. types of government in Ober-Lausitz, II. Gentlemen official captains, III. Lord state elders of the principality of Görlitz. Goerlitz 1776.
- Hermann Knothe : Documentary basis for a legal history of Upper Lusatia from the earliest times to the middle of the 16th century. Goerlitz 1877.
- Pückler-Burghauss : The state elder in his rights and duties. Wroclaw 1890.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Faustin Ens : The Oppaland or the Opava district, according to its historical, natural history, civic and local peculiarities. Volume 3: Description of the Oppaland and its inhabitants in general . Vienna 1836, p. 110