Landpfennigmeister

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The Landpfennigmeister or Landespfennigmeister was the early modern title of a head of the estate financial administration appointed by the estates of a territory. This function existed in various northern German areas and in ecclesiastical states such as the bishopric of Münster or the Duchy of Westphalia belonging to Kurköln .

General

In territories with strong estates, taxes had to be approved by the estates. In a number of spiritual states in particular, it was not the sovereigns but the estates that received most of the taxes . This administered the pfennigkammer. Their chief was the land pfennig master. He was appointed and paid by the estates . The sovereign had no direct authority over him.

The office in the Duchy of Westphalia

In the Duchy of Westphalia such an office was first recorded in 1587, but it is likely to be older. In order to prevent abuse and self-enrichment, the future incumbent had to provide a large deposit . In the 18th century this was at least 20,000 thalers in the Duchy of Westphalia . He had to take up residence in Arnsberg .

The estates obliged the land penny master to supervise the tax collector. He was accountable to the corporate bodies. He was also responsible for transferring the monies granted to the sovereign to the court chamber . For these services connected with trips to Bonn , in the 18th century he received expenses from the estates and a small salary from the sovereign, although this actually contradicted his function as an estate official.

Even at the height of electoral influence and tough disputes around 1766, the estates did not succeed in dispute their right to appoint.

A central element of the provincial pfennig master capitulations regulating the office was that instructions on the pfennig chamber were only allowed to be issued by corporate bodies, but not by the sovereign or, in the case of a vacancy, by the cathedral chapter . The Landpfennigmeister was not allowed to follow the instructions. The estate rights were never really called into question by the sovereign.

The state bill drawn up by the Landpfennigmeister, which provided important information about the state of the country, was not made available to the sovereign until the last few years before the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss .

literature

  • Johannes Rathje : The official organization in the former Electoral Cologne Duchy of Westphalia . Dissertation, Heidelberg, 1905, p. 85 ff.
  • Landpfennigmeister . In: Former Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 8 , issue 4 (edited by Heino Speer and others). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1987, ISBN 3-7400-0007-4 ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de ).