Oberfreistuhl (Arnsberg)
The Oberfreistuhl in Arnsberg was an important late medieval and early modern court and meeting place of the Feme jurisdiction . The Arnsberg Reformation of 1437 resulted in a widespread codification of the rights and competences of the Veme courts. As an Oberfreistuhl, the court had been the appellate instance for the other vem courts since 1483.
development
The first indications of the existence of a corresponding court for the county of Arnsberg come from 1174. In a document, the Free Count Gevehardus confirmed donations to the new Oelinghausen monastery. It seems that in the early days there was only one free count for the entire area up to Bilstein-Fredeburg and beyond Soest. Even after the transfer of the county of Arnsberg to the Archbishops of Cologne in 1368, the Arnsberg free chair was of no great importance. Rather, the free county of Heppen and the free county of Balve were separated from the area of responsibility.
The Vote Courts benefited in 1371 from the land peace for Westphalia issued by Emperor Charles IV . In close connection with these, the importance of the Vote courts grew. At times, Landfriede and Feme appeared almost identical in Westphalia because of the similar procedures and penalties.
The Cologne electors, as sovereigns in the Duchy of Westphalia , with a secondary residence in Arnsberg, began to influence the remote jurisdiction with increasing importance. As early as the 14th century they succeeded in enforcing important control rights in the appointment of exempt officers (judges). Finally, they were as a representative of the Emperor, the supreme chair men of the entire Femewesens. Since 1422 the electors officially had the right to summon the exempt counts for general chapters (meetings) to clarify general questions and solve problem cases.
During this time the importance of the Arnsberg free chair began to grow. As early as 1420, the first large meeting had taken place in Arnsberg to settle a dispute. 15 exemptions from different parts of Westphalia, 31 aristocratic freischöffen, more than 200 freischöffen from other estates and representatives from cities took part. Another meeting took place in 1426 to clarify the question of whether the summons of the Elector of Cologne himself was justified before a free chair, which the meeting denied. The first general chapter, however, took place in Soest in 1430 and then in Dortmund .
The Arnsberg Reformation
In 1437 the meeting took place again in Arnsberg. The fact that Archbishop Dietrich II. Von Moers , his brother Heinrich II. Von Moers , Bishop of Münster, and a number of counts and lords from Westphalia were present speaks for the importance of the meeting . There, with the so-called “Arnsberg Reformation”, the rights and institutions of the free courts were better defined. Together with other Arnsberg Weistümern , the Arnsberg Reformation, which is available in numerous copies, formed a central source of law for the Feme courts. A copy also went to Emperor Sigismund. It is not known whether this confirmed the Reformation.
From Emperor Friedrich III. the Reformation was first recognized. In 1440, he ordered the Arnsberg Reformation to be presented to the next Reichstag. Later he took on more critical voices against the distant. His attempt, referred to as the "Frankfurt Reformation" in 1442, to reorganize the procedure of the Vote Courts in a civil peace law met with little success, as the courts concerned questioned his jurisdiction. In 1483 the emperor decided that in future the chapter days of the free courts could only take place at the Arnsberger free chair. This established an already common practice, since the annual meetings between 1438 and 1463 had all taken place in Arnsberg.
Due to the importance of the chapters and the legal sources emanating from Arnsberg, the free chair became of paramount importance. Arnsberg replaced Dortmund. As early as 1438, the Reichstag of Nuremberg had proposed appeal bodies. This only happened in 1483, when the Arnsberg free chair was built by Friedrich III. as the upper free chair or a little later as the Oberfemegericht zu Arnsberg. The veek courts had their peak in the 1430s and 1440s. The Arnsberg court still claimed supra-regional importance at the time of the ex - count Gerhard Struckelmann . Although efforts to standardize imperial law existed with the establishment of the Reich Chamber Court in 1495, the Westphalian Veme courts were able to maintain their level for a while. A second general chapter took place in Arnsberg in 1490. There were 21 lords of the chair, 23 free counts, hundreds of free judges and numerous free coins as well as ten mayors from cities in the Duchy of Westphalia. Negotiations of this kind continued until the end of the 16th century.
Decline
The decline of the Feme and thus also of the Oberfreistuhl had long since begun, because the sovereigns and the empire created competing courts. Responsibility and scope were therefore constantly decreasing. The end of the Oberfreistuhl in Arnsberg finally came with the death of the last Oberfreigrafen Franz-Wilhelm Engelhart from Werl. In 1783 he was appointed chief liberator. He was active as such until 1826. He died in 1835. The last judgment took place on August 19, 1786 at the Feme court in Kracht near Allendorf.
monument
The open-air court area is a tree-lined hollow near the Oleypforte below the Arnsberg Castle . The area measures 18 × 35 m and contains a replica of the judges' table.
The court area was acquired by the heirs of a former burgrave for the Prussian state as early as 1819 at the instigation of Friedrich Wilhelm IV . The site was subsequently leased with the condition that no changes were made to it. Today the preservation of the monument is done by the city of Arnsberg in cooperation with the Arnsberger Heimatbund. Since 1986 the area has been included in the list of monuments of the city of Arnsberg.
Individual evidence
- ^ Theodor Lindner: The Veme. Paderborn, 1888 p. 105f.
- ^ Theodor Lindner: The Veme. Paderborn, 1888 p. 106
- ↑ Eberhard Fricke: The Veme jurisdiction in the Electoral Cologne Duchy of Westphalia. In: Harm Klueting (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia, Vol. 1: The Electoral Cologne Westphalia from the beginnings of Cologne rule in southern Westphalia to secularization in 1803, Münster 2009 p. 289
- ↑ Eberhard Fricke: The Veme jurisdiction in the Electoral Cologne Duchy of Westphalia. In: Harm Klueting (Hrsg.): Das Herzogtum Westfalen, Vol. 1: The Electoral Cologne Westphalia from the beginnings of Cologne rule in southern Westphalia to secularization in 1803, Münster 2009 p. 291
literature
- The monuments of the city of Arnsberg. Data collection period 1980 - 1990. Arnsberg, 1990. pp. 169f.
- Karl Feaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg . Arnsberg, 1895. [Reprint: Werl, 1983] pp. 131-151
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 23 '59.9 " N , 8 ° 3' 39.8" E