Higher Court of Leipzig
The Oberhofgericht Leipzig was a legal instance in the Electorate and then in the Kingdom of Saxony from the 15th century to 1831.
Up until the 15th century, the Saxon court was tied to the elector and, depending on requirements, was mobile in the country. In 1483 the Elector Ernst and his brother Duke Albrecht set up a court with a permanent seat in Leipzig as the Oberhofgericht. It was occupied by nobles and commoners . It was the first independent authority in Electoral Saxony, detached from the prince and court.
The court was founded as an all-Saxon court, but after the Leipzig division of the Wettin countries from 1485 to 1493 and from 1547 it was only responsible for the Albertine countries including the subsidiary lines . This did not apply to the Kurkreis , for which the Wittenberg Court Court was established in 1529 . From 1493 to 1547 the Court of Appeal held alternately in Leipzig and Altenburg and was responsible for both Albertine and Ernestine Saxony.
In 1488 the court had nine assessors. Later the total cast was increased to twelve people. At the beginning of the 19th century there were six members of the nobility including the court judge and six scholars ( doctores ) with the full professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Leipzig, as well as a number of unpaid extraordinary assessors on both sides.
The Oberhofgericht was primarily responsible for civil matters and to some extent also for feudal cases . In contrast, administrative, police, criminal and church matters remained outside of his jurisdiction. It was the first instance only for the members of the Wettin royal house which schriftsässigen landlords, universities, schriftsässigen cities and the holders of certain offices and posts. So only they could turn to the court directly. For the remaining inhabitants of Saxony it was an appeal body .
In 1822 the Oberhofgericht lost its role as a court of appeal. With the state reform initiated in the Kingdom of Saxony in 1831, there was also a gradual restructuring of the judiciary, in the course of which the Higher Court was repealed.
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- Main State Archive Dresden
- German legal dictionary
- Manfred Wilde : Proceedings before the Saxon High Court in Leipzig , in The sorcery and witch trials in Saxony . Cologne: Böhlau, 2003, ISBN 3-412-10602-X , p. 79
- Christian Gottfried Kretschmann: History of the Electoral Saxon High Court in Leipzig from its creation in 1483 to the end of the 18th century: together with a brief description of its current constitution , Leipzig: Crusius, 1804, p. 243