Landtag (historical)

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Landtag ( Latin dietas ) was the name given to the gatherings of the politically justified estates of a country - the estates - in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period .

designation

Since originally one was only together for one day and within that one day all common affairs of the country people had to be negotiated, the meetings were called “country day”. The Latin name is derived from this 'day' in the same way .

tasks

The state parliaments often developed from the court assemblies of the state parish. Its most important function was the approval of taxes, which the sovereign was not allowed to order without the consent of the estates.

Attendees

In the state parliaments, different states, the so-called state estates, were represented depending on the time and region . This could be: the prelates (bishops, chapters, monasteries), the nobility (often divided into lords and knights), the sovereign cities. The princely markets were also represented in the Archduchy of Austria , and the rural communities in Tyrol . In the state parliament itself, members of the same class were grouped together in curiae or banks. The nobility formed the so-called knighthood in the state parliaments. As a rule, three curiae were distinguished: prelates, knighthood and cities. The first estate - and thus the first curia of the state parliament - were either the prelates or the lords. The totality of the estates in a certain territory was also called a landscape .

The members of the state parliaments were not determined by elections. Rather, participation was either a personal prerogative of the personally free owners of an estate (often of a certain minimum size) or tied to an office (e.g. for the abbots of the state parliament ). The emissaries of the cities were usually determined by the respective city council, so they were not elected. It was in keeping with this composition of the Landtag that the earlier estates initially only represented the rights of their own estate and could only indirectly also be considered to represent the entire country.

Voting procedure

The votes in the state parliaments did not take place according to today's majority principle . As a rule, voting was carried out according to the voting right of the curia. This means that an agreement was first reached within the individual curiae (the majority principle could certainly be applied) and then the resolutions of the curiae compared with one another. In some countries a consensus then had to be established so that a state parliament decision could be reached. In other territories it was sufficient if the majority of the Curia gave their consent, although the consent of the respective leading class (mostly the high nobility ) was absolutely necessary. In some countries particularly powerful members of the estates also had their own personal vote and were not tied to any curia.

See also

literature

  • Gerhard Buchda: Imperial estates and estates in Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries , in: Heinz Rausch : The historical foundations of modern popular representation. The evolution from medieval corporations to modern parliaments . Volume 2: Imperial and Land estates . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1974, ISBN 3-534-06911-0 , ( Paths of Research , Vol. 469), pp. 211-241.
  • Dietrich Gerhard (ed.): Estates in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries . 2nd unchanged edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1974, ISBN 3-525-35332-4 , ( Publications of the Max Planck Institute for History , Vol. 27), ( Studies presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions 37).
  • Kersten Krüger: The country-class constitution . Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-55017-9 ( Encyclopedia of German History , Vol. 67).
  • Marcus Weidner: The registers of the houses of the Principality of Münster that are eligible for the state parliament (and 'dubious') from 1704. Causes of origin - test procedures - function - directory (with a list of the members of the Münster knighthood enrolled in the state parliament around 1655) , in: Westfälische Zeitschrift 147, 1997 , Pp. 93-178.

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