District Administrator (Pomerania)

The district administrator was the representative of the estates in the Duchy of Pomerania . He secured the privileges and the right to have a say in the estates vis-à-vis the sovereign. While the district administrators in Swedish Pomerania were involved in the state administration, the title of district administrator in the Brandenburg - Prussian part of Pomerania was transferred to the district directors as administrative officials in the 18th century.

Duchy of Pomerania

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the estates had a significant influence on the politics of the ruling Greifenhaus . In order to be able to exercise their privileges outside of the Estates assemblies, a Estates committee was appointed. This “common council”, for which the name “district administrator” became common in the second half of the 16th century, was involved in important governmental acts from the beginning of the 15th century.

Duke Bogislaw X. connected the Committee of Estates with the College of his Court Councilors. This enabled him to reduce the influence of the representatives of the estates and to oust the cities from the committee. The importance of the estates increased again under his successors. In 1614, Duke Philipp Julius von Pommern-Wolgast had the district administrators reappointed from the three classes of prelates , knights and cities. For each of the twelve district administrators - a prelate, eight knights and a mayor each of the Vorderstädte Stralsund , Greifswald and Anklam - the estates had to present him with two candidates, one of whom he selected and appointed. In Pomerania-Stettin, the council of district administrators did not consist of all three classes again until 1634. The model for the composition was Pommern-Wolgast, with the municipal district administrators from Stettin, Stargard and Stolp. The cities of Kolberg and Köslin were represented in the rural community in the Cammin monastery.

Swedish-Pomerania and Brandenburg-Prussia

After the Thirty Years War , the Duchy of Pomerania was divided between Sweden and Brandenburg. In Swedish Pomerania to the beginning Vorpommern and a strip of land of Eastern Pomerania east of Oder and Dievenow included, the number of district administrators was in the regiment form of 1663 reduced and in the instruction for the district administrators of 10 April 1669 originally twelve to ten. In addition to two prelates and four district administrators from the knighthood, the cities of Stralsund, Stettin, Greifswald and Anklam each had one district administrator. The number was later reduced to nine, Greifswald and Anklam had to jointly present their candidates, among which the Swedish government in Pomerania selected one each. After the Great Northern War there were still three knightly and two urban district administrators in the significantly reduced territory of Swedish Pomerania.

Even under the griffin dukes, the district administrators were allowed to meet at least once a year, or more frequently if necessary, at the convocation of the land marshal . In both the Swedish and Brandenburg parts of Pomerania, these rules were confirmed in the second half of the 17th century, with the Land Marshal having to obtain permission from the government beforehand. The points for discussion, from which it was not allowed to deviate from at the convention, had to be indicated. The government was free to send a commissioner to these deliberations, who had to be heard at all times. In the Brandenburg part, the assemblies of the district administrators took the place of the general state estates, which were no longer convened in state parliaments under Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg and King Friedrich I of Prussia.

While Brandenburg-Prussia reduced the involvement of the Pomeranian district administrators to the tax and contribution system, in particular the administration of the land caste, the district administrators in Swedish Pomerania were further involved in the state administration. This included matters relating to the Holy Roman Empire and the Upper Saxon Empire , the establishment of the Hufenmatrikel, the administration of the land caste, the visitations of the Wismar tribunal , the Greifswald consistory , the court and the churches. In 1720 a knightly and a municipal district administrator were appointed curators of the University of Greifswald . The noble ladies' pens in Barth and Bergen on Rügen were solely under the supervision of the knightly district administrators.

From the representative of the estates to the administrative officer

In its part of Pomerania in the 18th century, the Brandenburg-Prussian government had appointed a district director as sovereign administrator in addition to the district administrator as the representative of the estates of his district. The knighthood of the respective circle nominated candidates for both positions, which were ultimately united in one person. The estate title of district administrator was thus passed on to the administrative officials. With the transfer of Swedish Pomerania to Prussia, the Prussian form of administration was also transferred to New Western Pomerania .

literature

Robert Klempin : Introduction. In: Gustav Kratz : The cities of the province of Pomerania: Outline of their history, mostly according to documents. A. Bath, Berlin 1865, S. LXXIII ( Google books ).

Individual evidence

^ Norbert Buske : Pomerania: territorial state and part of Prussia. Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 1997, ISBN 3-931185-07-9 , p. 42.
^ Norbert Buske : Pomerania: territorial state and part of Prussia. Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 1997, ISBN 3-931185-07-9 , p. 55.

[1] Norbert Buske : Pomerania: territorial state and part of Prussia. Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 1997, ISBN 3-931185-07-9 , p. 42.

[2] Norbert Buske : Pomerania: territorial state and part of Prussia. Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 1997, ISBN 3-931185-07-9 , p. 55.