Upper County of Katzenelnbogen
The part of the County of Katzenelnbogen is referred to as the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen , which, geographically separated from the Lower County of Katzenelnbogen , was south of the Main around Darmstadt , on the Bergstrasse and in the Odenwald .
The administrative offices in the Upper County were the offices of Rüsselsheim , Dornberg , Darmstadt , Lichtenberg , Zwingenberg and Auerbach .
Settlement history
The southern Hessian area was settled early on. The numerous archaeological finds go back to the time of the agriculture and cattle-rearing band and cord ceramics (approx. 2500 to 1500 BC).
history
The lords of Katzenelnbogen, whose ancestral seat was at Katzenelnbogen Castle in the area of the later Lower County, gained more and more influence south of the Main through fiefdoms , inheritance, marriage and purchase. In 1138 Heinrich II. Von Katzenelnbogen was taken over by King Konrad III. raised to the rank of count and founded the count family.
Through the marriage of Hildegard von Henneberg , parts of the Bergstrasse came to Heinrich II von Katzenelnbogen around 1135 as a fiefdom from Kurmainz . Zwingenberg and Auerbach with Hochstädten formed an exclave surrounded by Kurmainz in the south and west, the dominion of Bickenbach in the north and the county of Erbach in the east.
Count Diether III. (Count from 1190 to 1214) married Bertha von Lichtenberg to Lichtenberg in the Odenwald. His son Diether IV still called himself Count von Lichtenberg in 1228. Diether IV began building a lower castle (the Zwingenberg moated castle ) in Zwingenberg , and later also two strongholds, the Upper Zwingenberg Castle and the Auerbacher Castle , via Auerbach, to protect the properties on Bergstrasse.
In 1222 ownership rights of the Katzenelnbogen family, which certainly went back to the 12th century and which they owned as a Würzburg fief, were first attested to around Darmstadt , Bessungen and Gerau . In the middle of the 13th century they built a moated castle on the site of the later Darmstadt residential palace near Darmstadt, which was then more of a village . As a defense, knights gradually settled south of the castle, whereby the original, rural population lived east of the castle.
In 1249 Diether V received the Palatinate Trebur with large imperial property from the anti-Staufer rival king Wilhelm of Holland for loyal service .
1260 a division of the county took place between the brothers Diether V and Eberhard I take.
Diether V. became the founder of the older line and had most of his property in the Lower Counties.
Eberhard I was the founder of the Younger Line and owned the majority of his property in the Upper County.
Zwingenberg was given town and market rights by King Rudolf von Habsburg under Count Diether V in 1274 , making it the oldest town on Bergstrasse.
In 1276, King Rudolf announced that in future he would no longer appoint any princes, counts or nobles against the will of the Burgmanns of Oppenheim as Burgmann after the Imperial Castle had approved the transfer of a castle fiefdom to Count Eberhard I. von Katzenelnbogen.
In 1312, Emperor Heinrich VII awarded his faithful Count Diether VI. von Katzenelnbogen (older line) as a reliable supporter of the empire for the loyal service rendered to him and the empire in Italy the grace that his Lichtenberg castle with the town of Bieberau below it and all its inhabitants due to his imperial authority the rights of town and citizens Oppenheim should enjoy. He also awarded the town of Bieberau a weekly market to be held on Tuesday, the visitors of which should be under his protection and that of market freedom. The emperor also allowed the count to keep twelve Jews in Lichtenberg-Bieberau.
In 1318 there was a further division between Eberhard II and Berthold III in the Upper County. instead of.
1354 was by the extinction of the descendants of Berthold III. the Upper County reunited under Diether VIII .
On July 23, 1330 Wilhelm I (older line) received city rights for Darmstadt from Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian . With the associated market law, the importance of the previously rather inconspicuous settlement grew rapidly, and the entire economy in the area was geared towards the Darmstadt market. The city rights for Zwingenberg were confirmed again.
On October 18, 1356 a severe earthquake shook the Upper Rhine Rift . Numerous cities, villages and castles were affected, many collapsed. On the Auerbacher Castle overthrew keep one and fell on some buildings. In the following period (from 1370) the Auerbach Castle was expanded into one of the most modern castle complexes of its time through major renovation and expansion measures (first bastion in Germany).
In 1399 the Counts Johann IV and Eberhard V built the fortress of Rüsselsheim against the resistance of Frankfurt and Mainz .
In 1402, through the death of Eberhard V ( older line ) and the marriage of his daughter Anna with Johann IV. ( Younger line ) in 1385, the upper and lower counties were reunited under a Count von Katzenelnbogen.
In 1431 the Katzenelnbogen family received the Rhine toll from Gernsheim with Gernsheim Castle under Johann IV .
In 1479 the von Katzenelnbogen family died out with Philip I in the male line, and the county came as heir to Landgrave Heinrich III with Philip's daughter Anna . of Hessen .
The upper county was the core of the later Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt .
Darmstadt Palace (1676)
Individual evidence
- ^ WebSite map of the County of Katzenelnbogen
literature
- Karl Wilfried Hamel: Auerbach Castle - Urberg Fortress - the most important castle complex in the Upper County of Katzenelnbogen. AAA-Verlag, Bensheim-Auerbach 1997, ISBN 3-9803139-0-5