Upper Hesse (Province of Hesse-Darmstadt)

Hesse, 1900. Yellow: Upper Hesse

The province of Upper Hesse within the People's State of Hesse , 1930

Official sign of the province of Upper Hesse in the people's state of Hesse, Hohhaus Castle

The province of Upper Hesse (initially: Principality of Upper Hesse ) was one of four provinces of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt and one of three of its successors, the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the People's State of Hesse and the upper level of administration in these states. It existed from 1803 to 1937.

Geographical location

The province of Upper Hesse was separated from the greater part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse by the region around Frankfurt am Main . In the north and east of the province of marginalized Kurhessen , in the south to 1866 to the Free City of Frankfurt , in the southwest of the country county Hesse-Homburg , west to 1866 to the Duchy of Nassau and to the Prussian Rhine province belonging Kreis Wetzlar . After the Prussian annexation of the neighboring states in 1866, Upper Hesse was completely surrounded by Prussian territory, which from 1868 onwards was mainly combined into the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau .

history

Consolidation 1803–1823

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803

In the Principality of Upper Hesse , the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt combined the old and new areas north of the Main after the territorial gains through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803 . The territorial gains were initially modest and included:

• the office Rockenberg and
• half of Vilbel ,

everything from Kurmainzer property and

• the city of Friedberg (initially without Friedberg Castle ).

This new administrative unit was named after the historical name "Upper Hesse", which denoted both a region and historical, political sub-units of the Landgraviate of Hesse .

→ Main article : Upper Hesse (region)

Rhine Federation Act 1806

In 1806, under threat of an invasion , Napoleon forced the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (and 15 other states) to leave the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , the Confederation of the Rhine by these states and high military contingents to be placed in France. In addition to raising the rank of the Landgraviate to the Grand Duchy, this was "sweetened" with territorial gains. It should be noted, however, that all of the territories gained through the Rhine Confederation Act were subject to the state sovereignty of the Grand Duchy, but the sovereign rights of the previous sovereigns, the larger now class lords , were retained to a considerable extent. The territorial increase for the Principality of Upper Hesse through the Rhine Confederation Act consisted of the areas that have now become class lords:

• the Burgraviate of Friedberg ,
• the rule of Ilbenstadt ,
• the share of the rule Stolberg-Gedern in the county of Königstein ,
• the rule of Riedesel , as far as it bordered the Grand Duchy,
• Parts of the possessions of the princes and counts of Solms

and the former imperial knighthood areas listed below :

• Possessions of the Löw von Steinfurth :
  • Steinfurth and
  • Wisselsheim .
• Possessions of those von Frankenstein :
  • Ockstadt and
  • Oberstrassheimer Hof
• Melbach ( called von Carben by Wetzel ).
• Beienheim ( Rau von Holzhausen ),
• Höchst (from Günderrode ),
• Lindheim (from Specht ),
• the inheritance of Staden with
  • Staden ,
  • Ober-Florstadt ,
  • Unter-Florstadt and
  • Stammheim as well
• the possessions of the commander of the Order of Malta in Nieder-Weisel .

After the territorial gains of 1806, the province had 233,000 inhabitants, 84,000 of whom, however, lived in the sovereign lands and were therefore only subject to limited sovereignty.

Further territorial gains

Further territorial gains came in the following years. On May 11, 1810, the Grand Duchy and the French Empire signed a state treaty with which France gave territories to the Grand Duchy that it had taken from Electorate Hesse in 1806. The treaty concluded in May was not signed by Napoléon until October 17, 1810. The Hessian occupation patent is dated November 10, 1810. The Grand Duchy acquired in this way for the province of Upper Hesse

• the Dorheim office ,
• the Herbstein office ,
• ⁷ ⁄ ₁₂ from Heuchelheim ,
• the Munzenberg Office ,
• the office of Ortenberg and
• the Rodheim office

The conclusion of the Congress of Vienna in 1816 again brought territorial gains. In the same year the principality was renamed "Province" as part of an administrative reform.

Offices

Until the administrative reforms from 1820 to 1823, the province was divided into offices . Since the Middle Ages, offices have been a level between the municipalities and the sovereignty . The functions of administration and jurisdiction were not separated here. The office was headed by a bailiff who was appointed by the rulers.

→ Main article : Office (historical administrative area)

The division of office was largely unchanged from the predecessor states. As a result, the offices were completely different in scope. The range ranged from just one municipality (City of Friedberg , also "Friedberg Office") to 45 municipalities ( Blankenstein Office ). In addition, in these years there were also civil sovereignty rights in addition to the state . There were "Domaniallands", in which the state possessed full sovereignty, but also "sovereign lands", in which landlords exercised sovereign rights to varying degrees in the areas of administration and jurisdiction.

The state was keen to standardize this and enforce a state monopoly on the use of force . After the end of the Napoleonic wars up to 1821, individual offices were therefore initially merged.

→ Main article : List of offices in the Grand Duchy of Hesse

Reform of 1821

In a large-scale regional reform in 1821, the offices in the provinces of Upper Hesse and Starkenburg were largely dissolved and at the same time administration and jurisdiction were separated at this level. District districts were created for the administrative tasks previously performed in the offices, and district courts for the first instance jurisdiction. The districts were:

• Battenberg
• Büdingen
• Butzbach , later: Friedberg district council
• to water
• Gladenbach
• Grünberg
• Herbstein , later: Lauterbach district administration
• Hunger
• Kirtorf
• Nidda
• Romrod / Alsfeld
• Bulkheads
• slot
• Vilbel
• Vöhl

Experiments 1823-1852

Even before 1832, district districts were merged in individual cases, followed by a new territorial reform in 1832: the units were enlarged by creating districts and combining districts within them. These were the counties:

• Alsfeld
• Biedenkopf (1866 to Prussia)
• Friedberg
• Giessen (north-western part of the district in 1866 to Prussia)
• Grünberg (until 1874)
• Hungen (1841 to 1848)
• Nidda (until 1874)

Provinces, counties and administrative districts of the Grand Duchy were abolished in the course of the March Revolution on July 31, 1848 and replaced by administrative districts. In the area of ​​Upper Hesse these were the

• Alsfeld administrative district
• Biedenkopf administrative district
• Friedberg district
• Giessen administrative district
• Nidda administrative region

In the subsequent reaction time, this was reversed on May 12, 1852, and in principle the district division from the time before the revolution was restored. The civil sovereignty that had been abolished in the revolution was not restored. From these areas three further, new districts were formed, plus one around Vilbel :

• Büdingen (since 1852)
• Lauterbach (since 1852)
• Scots (since 1852)
• Vilbel (1852-1874)

Holdings 1852–1937

In the German War of 1866, the Grand Duchy sided with the losers against Prussia . In contrast to its neighbors, who were completely annexed by Prussia, Hesse only had to cede areas. With regard to the province of Upper Hesse, this affected the Hessian hinterland with the districts of Biedenkopf and Vöhl and the north-western part of the district of Gießen. On the other hand, the province also received territorial gains through the peace treaty of September 3, 1866 , mainly exclaves of the neighboring states annexed by Prussia, namely

• the Nassau office of Reichelsheim with the communities of Dorn-Assenheim and Reichelsheim
• the community of Harheim of the Nassau Office Höchst
• the former Kurhessische court Katzenberg with the communities Ohmes , Ruhlkirchen , Seibelsdorf and Vockenrod of the district Kirchhain
• the former Kurhessische Amt Dorheim with the communities Dorheim , Nauheim , Rödgen and Schwalheim of the district Hanau
• the former Hessian community of Massenheim in the Hanau district
• the former Hessian community of Treis on the Lumda of the Marburg district
• the Frankfurt rural communities Dortelweil and Nieder-Erlenbach

For the province of Upper Hesse, the Grand Duchy of Hesse joined the North German Confederation in 1867 , while the entire state then joined the newly formed German Empire in 1871 . In 1874 the Grand Duchy of Hesse reformed its district constitution based on the Prussian model and dissolved the districts of Grünberg, Nidda and Vilbel on July 1, 1874, whose communities were assigned to neighboring districts. The structure of the province of Upper Hesse created at that time existed until its dissolution. A provincial assembly for the province of Upper Hesse was set up in 1874 as a representative body at the provincial level.

As a result of the November Revolution of 1918, the People's State of Hesse was created, but this did not change the function of the Province of Upper Hesse within the state association. On April 1, 1937, the Hessian provinces were abolished.

Aftermath

In 1945 the area of ​​the former province of Upper Hesse became part of the new state of Greater Hesse and, together with the previous province of Starkenburg, formed the new administrative district of Darmstadt .

Provincial Directors

• 1866–1870: Theodor Goldmann
• 1870–1871: Julius Rinck von Starck
• 1871–1877: Franz Ludwig Emil Roeder von Diersburg
• 1877–1888: Karl Boekmann
• 1898–1899: Hermann von Bechtold

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

• L. Ewald: Contributions to regional studies . In: Grand Ducal Central Office for State Statistics (ed.): Contributions to the statistics of the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Jonghaus, Darmstadt 1862.
• Eckhart G. Franz , Peter Fleck, Fritz Kallenberg: Grand Duchy of Hesse (1800) 1806–1918 . In: Walter Heinemeyer , Helmut Berding , Peter Moraw , Hans Philippi (ed.): Handbook of Hessian History . Volume 4.2: Hesse in the German Confederation and in the New German Empire (1806) 1815–1945. The Hessian states until 1945 = publications of the historical commission for Hesse 63. Elwert. Marburg 2003. ISBN 3-7708-1238-7
• Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies (ed.): Historical Atlas of Hessen . Marburg 1960–1978.
• Arthur Benno Schmidt : The historical foundations of civil law in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Curt von Münchow, Giessen 1893.

Remarks

1. ↑ The other provinces of Hesse were Starkenburg (capital: Darmstadt ), Rheinhessen (capital: Mainz ) and the fourth province was the Duchy of Westphalia (capital: Arnsberg ), the latter only from 1803 to 1816, only to fall to Prussia .
2. ↑ In 1932 the Wetzlar district was added to the Hesse-Nassau province. Since then, the Hessian province of Upper Hesse has been completely enclosed by the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau.
3. ↑ The rest of Heuchelheim belonged to Stolberg-Gedern and had been in the possession of the Grand Duchy since 1806.
4. ↑ Exceptions were initially a few purely civil offices. The dismantling of the civil rights dragged on until 1848.
5. ↑ It was about the communities of Bieber , Fellingshausen , Frankenbach , Hermannstein , Königsberg , Krumbach , Naunheim , Rodheim an der Bieber and Waldgirmes .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schmidt, p. 17.
2. ↑ Art. 21, 24 Rhine Confederation Act .
3. ↑ Ewald, p. 56.
4. ↑ Schmidt, p. 24.
5. ↑ Schmidt, p. 24.
6. ↑ Ewald, p. 56.
7. ↑ Ewald, p. 56.
8. ↑ Ewald, p. 56.
9. ↑ Ewald, p. 56.
10. ↑ Ewald, p. 56.
11. ↑ Ewald, p. 56.
12. ^ Franz / Fleck / Kallenberg: Grand Duchy of Hesse , p. 693.
13. ^ Text (in French ) in: Schmidt, p. 30ff, note 100.
14. ↑ Schmidt, p. 30.
15. ↑ Schmidt, p. 33.
16. ^ Heuchelheim, Wetteraukreis . In: LAGIS: Historical local dictionary ; As of October 16, 2018.
17. ^ Contributions to the statistics of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, volumes 1–5. Volume 3, p. 32 ( digital view ).
18. ↑ Ordinance on the division of the country into district councils and district councils of July 14, 1821 . In: Hessian Government Gazette of July 20, 1821, p. 409.
19. ^ Contributions to the statistics of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, volumes 1–5. Volume 3, p. 33 ( digital view ).
20. ^ Ordinance on the division of the country into districts and district courts of July 14, 1821 . In: Hessisches Regierungsblatt, p. 403ff.
21. ↑ Law on internal administration and representation of the counties and provinces of June 12, 1874 (Government Gazette 1874, page 251)