Meckesheimer Cent

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The Meckenheimer centering was from the Middle Ages existing and the Electoral Palatinate upper office Heidelberg subordinate administrative unit and judicial district, the seat of their centering Court in Meckenheim and after 1346 in Neckargemünd had.

Preliminary remark

The original functions of the cents and their origins can hardly be recognized due to the few sources . In recent years, this legal institution has been defined as an old, pre- territorial entity and its change is seen in the process of territorialization . It is certain that the Zenten formed the basis of a military contingent. This is already documented for 1078 under King Heinrich IV , also for the lower Neckar . Initially, the Zenten only had lower jurisdiction and only gradually had higher jurisdiction from the 13th century .

history

Eschelbronn boundary stone of the Meckesheimer Cent (MC) from 1780

The place is attested from 1295 as the court of the Meckesheimer Zent. The Count Palatine Ruprecht I moved the district court to Neckargemünd in 1346. That is why one speaks of Neckargemünder Zent, ​​it is also called the lower cent . The Meckesheimer Zent was between the Kirchheimer and Stüber Zent , which is also known as Reichartshausener Zent. Meckesheimer and the Stüber Zent were part of the Dilsberg winery since the 15th century , d. H. a sub-office within the Heidelberg Upper Office.

The first documentary evidence of the Meckesheimer Zent comes from the year 1325, when Konrad V. and Engelhard Konrad von Weinsberg are attested in an inheritance division. The cent was the realm's pledge for the Lords of Weinsberg . Due to the relationship to Emperor Ludwig IV , the Count Palatine could redeem the pledge and take possession of the Weinsberg possessions on the lower Neckar in 1329/30. The Reich had reserved the right of redemption. When the Palatinate inheritance was divided in 1353, it remained in the hands of the Count Palatine in Heidelberg.

Spatial limitation

The Meckesheimer Zent extended between the Neckar near the city of Neckargemünd and on both sides of the Elsenz . In the south it was without natural borders and in the east the Finsterbach separated it from the Stüber Zent. The western border was partly formed by the Angelbach , which flows through the village of Baiertal and therefore divides the place between Meckesheimer Zent and Kirchheimer Zent.

Since the 15th century the centering villages Meckenheimer centering have survived: Bammental , Daisbach , Eschelbronn , Gaiberg , Gauangelloch , Langenzell , Lobenfeld , wall , Meckenheim, monk cell , Mückenloch , Reilsheim , Schatthausen , Spechbach , Waldhilsbach , Waldwimmersbach , Wiesenbach , Zuzenhausen and eastern part of Baiertal. Then there were the Hohenhardt , Maisbach (Nußloch) , Ochsenbach and Ursenbach farms .

Some places were temporarily or completely exempt from the central association, z. B. Mückenloch or the immunity area of the Lobenfeld monastery . The Dilsberg and the city of Neckargemünd also remained outside the center association.

The Meckesheimer Zent held their court in the town hall of Neckargemünd by 1430 at the latest and no longer in the meadows near the former Reichenstein Castle .

Functions and skills

The Meckesheim Weistum from 1430 is the oldest traditional wisdom of the Zent. As centering Mr of Palatine is called, which has the high jurisdiction and subjects liable for the war required. The Zentherr was the highest Vogt and lord of the Zent, ​​which is called the lantgericht . The permanent representative of the Count Palatine was his Vogt in Heidelberg . This held the court with his land clerk . The local lords within the center were only entitled to the court of the common village level .

The central autonomy expressed itself in the wisdom of 1430 in the supervision of measure and weight and also in the requirement to appear before the central court. The penalties were imposed by the Zentgraf or the Zentgericht. The central judges were exempt from personal charges and any subject could file a lawsuit with the central court. In the wisdom of 1538 the cases in which the central court is responsible are listed very extensively: murder, robbery, blasphemy, rape, wrong measure and weight and much more. In this wisdom, the next instance, the Palatinate court in Heidelberg, is mandatory. The lower aristocratic village lords were prohibited from further restrictions in their rights, such as being able to levy additional sentences.

The dispute between the noble local lords and the Count Palatine over taxation claims and the case law, which was conducted for years at the Imperial Court of Justice , resulted in a so-called central contract as a conclusion and amicable agreement of the parties in 1560. In this, the central power of the territorial lord, the Count Palatine in Heidelberg, was strengthened and the local landlords - these were mostly imperial knights - were granted the restriction of central jurisdiction. This autonomous, cooperative, decentralized administration in the form of Zenten was increasingly lost, and the centralized, sovereign-state area was able to develop more and more.

Over time, the Meckesheimer Zent sank completely to a territorial division of the Electoral Palatinate and remained so until its dissolution in 1803.

literature

  • Rüdiger Lenz: winery and sub-office Dilsberg. Development of a regional administrative body within the scope of the Palatinate territorial policy on the lower Neckar (publications of the Commission for historical regional studies in Baden-Württemberg, series B: Research, vol. 115), Stuttgart 1989.
  • Rüdiger Lenz: Territorialization of a "pre-territorial size" - The history of the Zent Meckesheim. In: Kraichgau. Contributions to landscape and local research. Edited by the Heimatverein Kraichgau . Episode 20/2007, pp. 31-45.