Saxon University of Nations in Transylvania
blue: Szekler ,
gray: Transylvanian Saxony according to the law of the golden charter ,
yellow: aristocratic county floor
The Saxon Nations University ( Latin : Concilium Transylvania Saxonicum ) was a political self-governing body of the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania , which functioned as an autonomous administration until the second half of the 19th century and as a foundation until its dissolution in 1937.
So was called "the meeting of senior officers from all classes and chairs of the Saxon nation, which arbitrates and judges national matters."
Word meaning
Nation university consists of the Latin components natio "the people, the tribe" and universitas "the whole". The word means “totality of the people” or specifically “totality of the Transylvanian Saxons ” in their ancestral territory.
Original function
The Transylvanian Saxons as an estate nation in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary had received extensive special rights and privileges as early as 1224 through a direct granting of rights by the Hungarian kings . In Golden Charter these were of King Andrew II. Securitized for the first time. However, this document was only the preliminary stage of a permanent corporate-political representation vis-à-vis the other two estates of Transylvania , the Szeklern and the Hungarian nobility. In the field of tension between the other two estates and the increasingly weakened Hungarian kings, the nation university was formed into an instrument of power under which the Transylvanian Saxons gathered until the 19th century. It was, so to speak, the political representation of the Saxon people, which enabled them to act as a community to the outside world. Inwardly, on the royal soil , on which the Transylvanian Saxons had de facto autonomy and their own law ( Eygenlandrecht ) , it was the institution that directed self-administration.
Politically involved in the medieval Principality of Sybenbuergen
The Principality of Transylvania has been politically divided into three classes since the high Middle Ages :
- Hungarian nobility
- This drew his power from the feudal lordship over hundreds of thousands of subordinate peasants, which was privileged but not very active economically. In addition to Romanians and Hungarians, the serfs also included many Saxons in Saxon villages on county soil to which the rights of the royal soil had not been extended.
- This ethnic group, which was settled in the east of Transylvania to protect the Hungarian imperial border around 1140 , had also received special rights from the King of Hungary and constituted itself as an autonomous natio . The Szekler areas were dominated by agriculture and mostly provided natural and semi-finished products for export.
- In terms of numbers, they are certainly the smallest group, but the economically most important. Their trade routes stretched from the Levant to the German states and so the most important trading centers and fairs were located in their permanent cities. Dozens of guilds were located there that produced the majority of the finished goods for export. The cities of the Königsboden provided the main tax burden of the principality and were therefore of outstanding importance. The state parliaments therefore took place there almost without exception. Otherwise, however, they hermetically sealed themselves off from the two other nations.
Practical design
Only these three state nations were involved in decisions. The Estates constitution guaranteed the Transylvanian Saxons a say in all matters in the state parliaments. The decisions made there were only valid with the seal of all three nations. However, the state parliaments were not democratic events in the modern sense. The majority of the population - the Romanians - were not represented at all and could not make their concerns heard. Until the end of the 18th century, the curia vote was valid , after each stand had only one vote and neither party could be outvoted by the other two. After the Klausenburger Landtag in 1792, this procedure was abolished and individual voting rights were introduced. As a result, the representatives of the Transylvanian Saxons were of course hopelessly in the minority, since they only represented a fraction of the population at that time. However, the veto right to refuse the national seal remained and was used by the Transylvanian Saxons.
The University of Nations was thus a guarantee for the independence of the Transylvanian Saxons for centuries, whose importance for the state was never based on their absolute number, but always on their performance, which was secured and at the same time only possible through historical, documented rights. For this reason they had the status of a state-supporting nation in the Principality of Transylvania. Their cities were the only urban centers until the 18th century, they controlled trade and handicrafts. They were irreplaceable for the economy of the state, yet their number never exceeded 300,000 people.
development
In 1690 Transylvania came under the Habsburg Monarchy and was declared a Grand Duchy. In the course of the 18th century there were several attempts to suspend the old estates constitution and to enact general laws in the empire. However, the estates of Transylvania managed to parry any attacks on their old law for almost 100 years. Not even the Pragmatic Sanction could change that. Especially Samuel von Brukenthal , governor of Transylvania, ensured through his influence at the Viennese court that there were no restrictions.
The first successful intervention in the autonomy of the estates came under the "revolution from above" initiated by Emperor Joseph II . The nation university and the entire estates constitution was abolished for the first time - but only for a short time. This was a huge shock for the Transylvanian Saxons , as they not only saw their centuries-old autonomy on the royal floor threatened, but also their position as the mainstay of the state association and thus their previous self-image was deeply shaken. After the death of the emperor in 1790, who had to undo all reforms (except for the Edict of Tolerance and the abolition of serfdom) on his deathbed, the old constitution and the national university were fully restored, but this did not last long.
After the March Revolution of 1848, Hungarian rebels conquered Transylvania and pushed the Austrian troops out of the country. This time the University of Nations and Königsboden were temporarily dissolved by Hungarian nationalists. 1849, the Austrians returned with Russian assistance and beat the Hungarian insurgents on July 31 in Sighisoara on the width devastating. For the next five years, Transylvania was in a state of siege. It was not until 1854 that the University of Nations could be restored, but no longer fully.
In the meantime, the problem of the Romanians immigrating in steadily larger numbers after the Turkish wars had become more and more urgent, because they now made up the majority of the population on the royal soil . In 1863, the state parliament in Sibiu was convened by Emperor Franz Joseph to a. to initiate equal rights for the Romanian language in the Crown Land of Transylvania. However, the event was boycotted by the Hungarian nobility and representatives of the Szeklers. For these nations, which by now had a strong Magyar national tendency, Austria (after the Turks) represented a second occupying power that prevented the long-awaited reunification of Transylvania with the Hungarian mother country. Nevertheless, the changes passed by the Saxon and Romanian state parliament members came into force on January 5, 1865. But again after a short time these promising beginnings were obsolete.
In 1866 Austria lost the Austro-Prussian War and in 1867 had to recognize the settlement with Hungary in order to preserve the state as a whole. With this step, Transylvania ceased to exist as crown land , and thus as a separate state entity. In 1868 the previous territories of the three estate nations were dissolved. However, the Saxon districts and chairs initially remained. A special law should regulate the rights of self-government and legal affairs of Königsboden and the University of Nations.
The Nation University as a foundation
In 1872 the first Saxon day took place in Mediasch . There specific proposals for maintaining autonomy were recorded in a national program. Nevertheless, all attempts were in vain. The estates constitution had expired, the national university no longer had any control or disposal. Consequence of this event: the Transylvanian Saxons had sunk from a state-supporting nation with extensive autonomy and its own rights to one of many ethnic and denominational groups.
In 1876, the central government in Budapest passed a law on the final demolition of the royal floor. A new territorial regulation came into force and the Nations University was converted into a foundation. Your only task now was to manage the not inconsiderable assets of the University of Nations and the Seven Chairs ( latifundia , forests, real estate, Brukenthal collection , cash desk) and to distribute the income to the cultural institutions of the residents of the former Königsboden. With these funds, a full German-language school system and a. with several grammar schools and all other secondary schools (e.g. the agricultural schools) maintained and massively expanded.
resolution
After the First World War , Transylvania came to Romania . In 1921 the extensive forests and all undeveloped land of the Nations University Foundation were expropriated without compensation by the first Romanian agrarian reform, which also eliminated an important source of funding for the German-speaking school system. In 1937, the foundation was also formally abolished. The Evangelical Church AB received the National Archives , the Agricultural School Mediasch as well as some important historical buildings in Sibiu and was thus declared as "resigned". All other properties were transferred to the Romanian Orthodox Church . With that, the University of Nations finally ceased to exist.
literature
- L. Binder, C. & E. Göllner, K. Gündisch: History of the Germans in the area of Romania. First volume: 12th century to 1848. Kriterion Verlag, Bucharest 1979.
- Carl Günther Ludovici : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts , volume 33. Leipzig and Halle 1742, column 432.
- Wolfgang Kessler (Ed.): Group autonomy in Transylvania. 500 years of the Transylvanian-Saxon University of Nations (= Transylvanian Archive. Volume 24). Böhlau, Cologne / Vienna 1990.
- Johann Georg Krünitz : Economic Encyclopedia , 129th part. Berlin 1821, p. 411.
- Georg Müller : The Saxon University of Nations in Transylvania. Your constitutional and administrative development 1224–1876. A legal historical contribution to the history of the oldest organized minority of the present (= contributions to the constitutional and administrative history of the Germans in Romania. Volume 2). Sibiu 1928.
Individual proof
- ↑ Quoted from: Johann Georg Krünitz: Oeconomische Encyclopädie, 129th part, Berlin 1821, p. 411.