Oberamt Starkenburg

The Oberamt Starkenburg (at times also: Amt Starkenburg ) was an office initially in the Electoral Palatinate , later in the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt .

Geographical location

The area of ​​the Oberamt Starkenburg extended from the Hessian Ried to the Odenwald and extended along the Bergstrasse .

designation

The name was given by the Starkenburg , whose lord held the rulership in the district. In 1267 a burgrave was first mentioned on the Starkenburg. The term “Amt Starkenburg” has been used since the consolidation of the supervision of all Lorsch slopes and the supreme jurisdiction in the hands of the Burgrave of the Amt Starkenburg .

history

prehistory

In the administrative district of the Oberamt Starkenburg possessions were combined that originally belonged to the imperial monastery Lorsch . The Electoral Palatinate had held the bailiwick here since around 1165. The collapse of power of the monastery at the turn of the high and late Middle Ages had two main winners: the Archdiocese of Mainz , to which the monastery was subordinated in 1232, and the Electoral Palatinate as owner of the bailiwick. The competition for extensive ownership of the monastery led to serious disputes between the Archdiocese of Mainz and the Electoral Palatinate in the 13th century. It was not until 1308 that an agreement was reached between the Count Palatine Ludwig IV and Rudolf I on the one hand and Archbishop Peter von Aspelt , in which the goods of the Lorsch Monastery were divided between both parties and the bailiwick rights of the Count Palatine were confirmed. The areas that fell to the Electoral Palatinate were assigned to the Palatinate Oberamt Lindenfels .

Mainz and Palatinate

The area that fell from the division of Mainz was now consolidated as the Mainzisches Amt Starkenburg . It was pledged from 1461 to 1650 to the Electoral Palatinate , which exercised sovereign rights there until 1623.

In the Oberamt Starkenburg the Mainz land law , which was last formally reintroduced in 1755, was considered a particular law . The common law also applied, as far as the Mainz land law did not contain special regulations for a matter. This special rights retained its validity and throughout the 19th century during the affiliation of the area to the Grand Duchy of Hesse and was only on January 1, 1900 by the same across the whole German Reich current Civil Code replaced.

Hesse

In 1803 the Upper Office of Starkenburg was awarded to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (and the associated dissolution of Kurmainz) . The Oberamt Starkenburg gave its name to the new Principality of Starkenburg (from 1816: Province of Starkenburg ) of the Landgraviate to which it was assigned. The sub- offices of the old Starkenburg upper office continued to exist as the Hessian administrative bailiffs.

The Oberamt Starkenburg was dissolved in 1805.

Internal organization

middle Ages

The Oberamt Starkenburg had a middle level, made up of three - at times four - sub-units, in each of which a number of villages were combined. These were

• the Zent Heppenheim in the narrower sense
• the Zent Bensheim and
• the Lorsch chief contractor , as well as temporarily
• the Hirschhorn winery .

The jurisdiction exercised here centering dishes out. The central court in Heppenheim had a prominent position, as it exercised the high level of jurisdiction and acted as the upper court for the other central courts. At the end of the Middle Ages, other territorial powers also took over property that had originally belonged to the Starkenburg office. On a case-by-case basis, the jurisdiction remained with the original central courts or their upper court remained with the Heppenheim central court. As a result of the Landshut War of Succession (1504/05), the places originally associated with the “Zehnt Heppenheim” in the Hessian office of Zwingenberg were eliminated from the judicial district.

Administrative reform in 1782

In 1782 Kurmainz carried out an administrative reform in which the "Amt Heppenheim" was divided into four sub-offices or administrative bailiffs and the "Amt Heppenheim" was designated as the Oberamt. The four magistrates were:

• Heppenheim with the city of Heppenheim and the six locations of the Heppenheim market community
• Bensheim with Bensheim and some places of the "Zent Heppenheim"
• Lorsch
• Fürth , formed from the cents Fürth, Abtsteinach and Mörlenbach .

The Hirschhorn winery was separated and continued as an independent Hirschhorn office . The Zente had to largely surrender their powers. Although the central order with the central school was formally in place, it could only carry out the orders of the higher authorities. The “Oberamt Starkenburg” was subordinate to the “Lower Archbishopric” of the Electorate of Mainz . The burgrave of the Starkenburg was still a senior bailiff, but his powers were severely curtailed by the addition of a senior administrator and a magistrate. Supreme jurisdiction was now exercised by the chief magistrate and the officials from Heppenheim and Bensheim as assessors.

End in Hessen

After the transition to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt, the judicial system was reorganized with the implementing ordinance of December 9, 1803. The jurisdiction of the first instance was carried out by the offices. The “Hofgericht Darmstadt” was set up as a court of second instance for the Principality of Starkenburg. It was the second instance for civil disputes and the first instance for civil family law cases and criminal cases. The superior court of appeal in Darmstadt was superordinate . With this, the central courts finally lost their function.

literature

• Konrad Dahl: Historical-topographical-statistical description of the principality of Lorsch, or church history of the Upper Rhinegau . Darmstadt, 1812 ( online at google books )
• Arthur Benno Schmidt : The historical foundations of civil law in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Curt von Münchow, Giessen 1893.

Web links

• Map of the Upper Office Starkenburg. University of Heidelberg, archived from the original . 

Remarks

1. ↑ "Zent Heppenheim" denotes both a subdivision of the (upper) office Starkenburg and a judicial district of the same name, which extended beyond the area of ​​the (higher) office. See also “Extent of Cent Heppenheim” .
2. ↑ This concerned the places Großhausen , Großrohrheim , Langwaden , Schwanheim , Zwingenberg , Auerbach and Hochstädten .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Konrad Dahl, 1812, p. 176ff
2. ^ Schmidt, pp. 15, 109.
3. ↑ Konrad Dahl, 1812, p. 178ff.
4. ^ Schmidt, p. 15, note 47.