Nievenheim district

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The Nievenheimer Gau ( pago niuenhem / niuenem ) or Neusser Gau ( pagus nivesum or pagus minor ducatus Ripuariorum ) was a Merovingian - Carolingian Gau in Ripuarien . It was mentioned several times in documents from 796 onwards.

Name and geographic location

It takes its name from the place Nievenheim , which is near Zons . It reached south to Cologne ( Kölngau ), north to Krefeld-Gellep ( Gilde- / Keldagau ), to the west it was bounded by the Niers ( Mühlgau ). On the right bank of the Rhine opposite the Nievenheimer Gau was an area that appears as Ruhr or Duisburggau , but is now called Duisburg-Kaiserswerther Grafschaft by recent research . The area between Gillbach and Erft (administered by Hülchrath) is also known as Gillgau from the 10th century , the area between Niers and Erft later as Neuss Gau.

The central place of the Nievenheimer Gaus was Hülchrath in the early days and later the city of Neuss . In later times it is therefore also referred to as the Neuss Gau. It belonged to Ripuarien in the early Middle Ages . Other historical places were parts of the County of Liedberg, which included the area between Erft and Niers, and the County of Hülchrath , south of the Erft to the Kölngau. Around 800 there was the land between Niers and Erft with widely dense forest and a lot of swamp. For this region, neither a district nor a county could be proven for the early Middle Ages. Jakob Bremer assumes that this area “was state property in both Roman and Franconian times and was closely related to the ruling families,” both Saint Helena and Queen Plectrudis had donations here. A part of this forest (from Büttgen to Holzheim) was named Hamarithi (= Hammerrecht) by the holy Liudger in 793, where according to old Germanic law the property boundaries were determined with a hammer consecrated to the god Donar. The place Holzheim was assigned to the Nievenheim Gau in the Werdener records. Up to the year 1000 the northern Gau area was opened up by the Kaiserswerth monastery, then by the Gerresheim monastery .

Already in the 9th century the Gau area was fragmented - in which more and more land and people were withdrawn from the Gau and immunities, then territorial lords ("dominium)" developed by powerful landlords. The Gau area later became part of the Hülchrath and offices Liedberg of the Electorate of Cologne, as well as in the dominions Dyck , Myllendonk and Elsen .

District courts, free county and free market co-operatives

Old Gau courts passed u. a. in Anrath and Kleinenbroich. As the settlement progressed, the counts of the "Nivenheimer Gaus von Hülchrath extended their power to the south of the area and set up a count's court in Kleinenbroich (" on the common Broiche near the slums of Hofstatt "), the Count's Bank. The Gaugericht in Kleinenbroich, which is Kleinenbroich , Büttgen, Glehn with Lüttenglehn, Epsendorf and Scherfhausen, Kapellen and Gilverath, was called Count's Bank from 1369, Count's Court in 1404 and Count's Land since 1539. According to old documents, this was a free county (libera iurisdictio) The forerunner of the Kleinenbroich district court was the Dingstätte Danner (Danner court) or the Danner manorial rule, which goes back to the Merovingian period (450–500) and, according to the wisdoms, comprised many special rights of the residents. In this area, which in old documents as "closed , free community "(una libera comecia) or free market cooperative , there were" none unfree people, no dutiful taxes or services of any kind, no compulsory meals, etc. ”. The historian Jakob Bremer, who has evaluated all local archives for decades, described this special legal type as a “free peasant republic” on Franconian soil, where conditions were similar to those in the original cantons of Switzerland. The legal disputes regarding the special rights went well into modern times. As recently as 1746, residents of Pesch (today the town of Korschenbroich) referred to themselves as "immediate subjects of the Reich".

Places of the Nievenheim Gaus

According to older studies, the area of the Nievenheimer Gau on the left bank of the Rhine corresponds to the area of ​​the old dean's office in Neuss. These include:

Rheinkassel, Longerich, Grevenbroich, Worringen, Dormagen, Zons, Nievenheim, chapels, Norf, Neuss, Holzheim, Husterknupp , Grefrath, Glehn, Korschenbroich, Büttgen, Willich, Kaarst, Anrath, Süchteln, Krefeld, Linn, Büderich near Neuss, Heerd, Üdesheim and Grimlinghausen.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gottfried Eckertz: The expansion of the Franconian Ripuarland on the left bank of the Rhine. 1854, pages 11-12
  2. ↑ Jakob Bremer. Millendonk. 1939, p. 19
  3. ↑ Jakob Bremer: The imperial direct rule Millendonk. 1939, p. 11
  4. ↑ Lacombelt Th.J .: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine. 1840 to 1858, page 20
  5. ↑ Jakob Bremer. The imperial direct rule of Dyck. 1959, page 24
  6. ↑ Jakob Bremer: The Electoral Cologne Office Liedberg. 1930, page 49
  7. ↑ History of the different Bocholtz families and the old conditions on the Lower Rhine: with special consideration of the old geography, legal, moral and cultural history of the Lower Rhine, Volume 11, 1863, page 270
  8. ↑ Jakob Bremer: The imperial direct rule Millendonk. 1939, p. 19
  9. ↑ Jakob Bremer. The Electoral Cologne Office of Liedberg. 1930, pages 208 and 212
  10. ↑ H. Aubin. The wisdom of the Rhine province. Office Hülchrath 1913. Pages 47 to 56
  11. ↑ Jakob Bremer. The imperial direct rule of Dyck. 1959, page 23
  12. ↑ Jakob Bremer. The imperial direct rule of Dyck. 1959, page 23
  13. ↑ Jakob Bremer. The imperial direct rule of Dyck. 1959, page 24