Linz diploma

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The Linz diploma

The Linz Diploma is a document issued on June 1, 1646 during the Thirty Years' War by the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation Ferdinand III. was exhibited in Linz . In it he confirmed and sealed the imperial immediacy of the city of Bremen .

History of the Linz diploma

Historical background

In 1186, Friedrich I. Barbarossa granted the first urban freedom rights through the Gelnhauser privilege . There were repeated disputes between the citizens of Bremen and the bishops about the influence of the bishop and the independence of the city. In the course of the 13th century the city of Bremen succeeded in pushing back the influence of the bishops until the city of Bremen was de facto independent. In 1304, Bremen's city law was codified. In 1358 Bremen joined the Hanseatic League . In 1404 the Bremen Roland was built, which was deliberately directed against the archbishop - it looks at the cathedral - and according to Bremen's understanding is supposed to be a symbol of freedom. In 1640, Ferdinand II invited Bremen for the first time in its history to a Reichstag in Regensburg . The archdiocese , which had meanwhile become Protestant, resisted it. There were reports and counter-reports. On 20 April 1641 the disputed Elector College , the Imperial City of Bremen. Bremen now had difficulties in proving its imperial immediacy. Documentary evidence of factual independence and thus of the status of a Free Imperial City did not exist until the Linz diploma was issued. This also seemed superfluous since Bremen was a member of the powerful Hanseatic League. However, the Hanseatic League and with it the support from Bremen fell into disrepair more and more. In addition, Sweden, as the strongest military power in Europe at the time , strove to rule over the bishopric of Bremen. In 1645, in the Treaty of Brömsebro , Denmark ceded its claims to the bishopric of Bremen to Sweden. With the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, Sweden was to finally obtain the bishopric later on. Naturally, Sweden also made claims on the city of Bremen.

Issuance of the certificate

While Sweden was interested in the greatest possible power position in northern Germany and thus the greatest possible influence on imperial politics, the emperor and numerous regional princes tried to keep this spread of power within limits. Therefore, the imperial draft of the peace treaty suggested that the city of Bremen should not be included in the future Duchy of Bremen (the former Archdiocese of Bremen). In order to obtain appropriate privileges, Bremen sent negotiators to the emperor.

The imperial negotiator Count Maximilian von und zu Trauttmansdorff presented the Bremen envoy Gerhard Coccejus with the demand for 100,000 thalers in return for the creation of a corresponding document. The reason for this demand was the considerable imperial need for money in connection with the Thirty Years' War. Despite the substantial sum at the time, the Senate of Bremen agreed. On June 1, 1646, Ferdinand III signed. hence the Linz diploma in the Castle of Linz. From the Bremen point of view, the decisive section was:

"We, Ferdinand the Third Roman Emperor, chosen by God's grace ... confess ... that the city of Bremen has been a direct free imperial city since ancient times of the Holy Roman Empire and is therefore subject to us and the Holy Empire alone and without an intermediary ... . given at our castle in Linz on June 1st in the 1646th year after Christ, our dear Lord and Savior, birth. "

Due to several delays - the entire sum could not be raised in cash immediately, and initially 1,500 thalers were missing - Count Trauttmannsdorff did not hand over the diploma to the Bremen negotiator Coccejus until August 25, 1646 in Münster, who immediately sent it to Bremen, where it arrived on August 31st.

Further struggle for Bremen's independence

The imperial immediacy documented by the Linz diploma was not recognized by the Swedish side. Sweden therefore moved twice against Bremen and besieged it, but could not overcome the newly built city fortifications. As a result of the two campaigns, peace came to habenhausen , in which Sweden recognized Bremen's independence. In return, Bremen agreed to take part during the Regensburg Reichstag, but otherwise to forego participation in the Reichstag until the end of the century. This was not a disadvantage for Bremen later, because the Reichstag lasted until the end of the Holy Roman Empire at the beginning of the 19th century. Since then, Bremen has always remained independent - apart from the period between 1811 and 1814 under the Napoleonic occupation as well as during the conformity with the “ Third Reich ”.

History of the Linz diploma since 1646

The Linz diploma has since been kept in the Bremen State Archives and later in the State Library. In 1942, during the Second World War , the document was moved to Bernburg an der Saale in order to protect it from bombing raids. In 1946 the Linz diploma was brought to Leningrad by Soviet occupation soldiers . From then on, it was initially considered lost.

In 1998 it turned out that it had been transported to the library of the Academy of Sciences in Yerevan in Armenia in 1948, together with other documents from Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen . At the beginning of May 1998, the Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskajan presented these 575 documents to the German Foreign Minister, Klaus Kinkel . On May 28, 1998, the Linz diploma returned to Bremen, where it has been kept in the Bremen State Archives ever since. On the occasion of the repatriation, it was briefly exhibited in the Upper Town Hall in Bremen Town Hall.

Significance of the Linz diploma

The state of independence of Bremen, which had actually been wrested from the archbishops since the 13th century, was sealed by the Linz diploma. This certification represents an important step in the development of Bremen's independence up to today's state of Bremen, even if independence was less dependent on the existence of this document than on factual circumstances. After all, participation in the Reichstag and thus in Reich politics was legalized.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Matzner : The silent returnees. In: Heimat-Rundblick. History, culture, nature . No. 101, 2/2012 ( summer 2012 ). Druckerpresse-Verlag , ISSN  2191-4257 , pp. 26-27.