Palatinate colony

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The Palatinate Colony was a separate community within the city of Magdeburg .

The colony existed from 1689 to 1808 as one of three, spatially not delimited, civil parishes in the city. Its members were religious refugees who had fled to Magdeburg and were under electoral protection. The Palatinate colony had its own town hall, mayor, courts and also its own civil guard.

history

immigration

In 1688 France invaded the Palatinate under King Louis XIV . Many residents of the Palatinate who belonged to the Reformed faith had to leave their homeland. Among them were Huguenots who had previously fled France. At the end of 1688, French troops occupied the city of Mannheim , which had a strong Reformed community. At the beginning of March 1689, the French occupiers began to demolish and blow up churches and houses as well as the fortifications. An application for admission of this Reformed community was on April 13, 1689 by Elector Friedrich III. approved. On May 25, the elector in Osterwieck granted the " refugees from the Palatinate " the same privileges as the Huguenots in the Edict of Potsdam . After visiting the cities of Prenzlau , Halle (Saale) and Magdeburg, the refugees chose Magdeburg as their new home. With the exception of Mayor Theodor Timmermann, who directed the fortunes of the city from Heidelberg, almost the entire Mannheim municipality, including preachers and councilors, moved to Magdeburg. It was a unique event on this scale. The first 400 refugees arrived in Magdeburg as an orderly train on June 21, 1689.

This wave of immigration from the Palatinate was already the second major immigration for the citizens of Magdeburg within three years. However, it was received in a much more friendly way than the previously immigrated French who had founded the French colony in Magdeburg . Since the Mannheim Reformed, which in part consisted of Protestants from the Netherlands and France who had fled to Mannheim earlier, had been socialized in Germany for a long time, they appeared less foreign to the local population. A third of the Magdeburg population had immigrated in a very short time and belonged to a religious community that had not previously been rooted in the region.

Immigration from the economically more developed regions had a positive effect on Magdeburg's economy. Unlike the other colonies in Brandenburg-Prussia, the Palatinate colony paid off for the state treasury after just ten years.

There were now three civil parishes within the city, with their own town halls, mayors, civil guards and courts. In addition to the old town, there was the so-called French colony and the Mannheim colony . The associated difficult questions of competence and the benefits for the colonists based on the privileges led to frequent conflicts. More Walloons and Palatinate residents settled there until 1704 , so that in 1704 2022 Walloons and 400 Palatinate people were counted. The colony was now referred to as the Palatinate or Walloon Colony . In contrast to settlements in other cities, Magdeburg did not have a closed settlement area for the individual communities. The Palatinate colonists settled in the northern part of the city and in the Neustadt upstream to the north, but apart from that the apartments were spread over the whole city.

Practice of religion

The church of the former Augustinian monastery, later called the Wallonerkirche , was made available to the Palatinate Colony . Until the building was refurbished, the hall of the guild house of the clothing tailor merchants on the old market was used temporarily (from June 30, 1689), as the Lutheran congregations refused to support it . From August 1690, the services took place in the Marienkirche of the monastery Our Dear Women , until the 2nd December 1694 the Wallonerkirche was inaugurated. Until 1790, services in the Walloon Church were held exclusively in French. A German Reformed congregation was founded for the Palatinate people of German origin .

Organization of the colony

The organization of the colony adhered to the system already practiced in Mannheim. Since the Palatinate colony was a stable community from the beginning, just in a new location, it also differed significantly from the French colony, which consisted of refugees of various origins. The colony's language of correspondence was French . In the Palatinate colony there was a magistrate composed of a syndic and six councilors (three French and three Germans). Two of the councilors acted alternately as mayors . In the course of the 119 years between 1689 and 1808 - z. Sometimes repeated - the family names: Coqui, Dohlhoff, Sandrart , Schwartz and Timmermann.

The organs of the colony were chosen by herself. The mayor, however, had to be confirmed by the elector and from 1701 by the king. He also appointed teachers and preachers. In administrative matters, however, one was subordinate to the Berlin-based colony commission . The superior tribunal , which was responsible for judicial matters, was also in Berlin . The colony operated its own council scales on the Breite Weg and also an Elbe ferry near the Neustadt. The Palatinate town hall first existed on Breite Weg, later, with a council cellar and prison cell, on Georgenstrasse .

Mayor and Councilor of the Palatinate Colony of Magdeburg

  • 1689–1709: Robert I. Boquet from Mannheim
  • 1689–1700: Jakob I. Granda from Frankenthal
  • 1691–1699: Josias Maret from Mannheim
  • 1691–1718: David de la Vigne from Metz
  • 1692 –____: Abraham Rummel from Frankenthal
  • 1692–1709: Peter Bamberger from Mannheim
  • 1695–1732: Jobst Heinrich Bauer from Heidelberg
  • 1695–1700: Theodor Timmermann from Mannheim
  • 1699–1702: Johann Philipp Kast from Strasbourg
  • 1699–1719: Jean Martin from Metz
  • 1700–1722: Peter Sandrart from Strasbourg
  • 1701–1722: Charles Grammont from Frankenthal
  • 1702–1722: Friedrich Cattoir from Heidelberg
  • 1709–1734: David Zellikofer v. A. from St. Gallen
  • 1709–1730: Heinrich Rummel from Frankenthal
  • ____– 1723: Philipp le Brun from Mannheim
  • 1719–1759: Philipp Riquet from Frankenthal
  • 1723–1742: Philipp Schwartz from Zweibrücken
  • 1723–1735: Johann David Raulin from Mannheim
  • 1723–1742: Jakob II. Grandam from Frankenthal
  • 1732–1747: Franz Christoph Bauer from Heidelberg
  • 1735–1774: Abraham Heinecke from Bremen
  • 1735–1742: Robert II. Boquet from Mannheim
  • 1742–1787: Dr. Johann Daniel Kessler
  • 1748–1763: Johann Georg Sandrart from Magdeburg
  • 1748–1763: Ph. Christian Schwartz from Magdeburg
  • 1759–1786: Johann Friedrich Reclam from Magdeburg
  • 1763–1796: Dr. Joh. Christian Pauli
  • 1763–1777: Abel Jaime from Hanau
  • 1774–1794: Georg Philipp Dohlhoff from Magdeburg
  • 1777–1806: Heinrich Sulzer from Winterthur
  • 1783–1783: Johann Isaak Schwartz from Magdeburg
  • 1784–1788: Georg Philipp Sandrart from Magdeburg
  • 1786–1788: Johann Philipp Riquet from Magdeburg
  • 1787–1789: Jean Panhuis from Magdeburg
  • 1788–1807: Ernst Jakob Schwartz from Magdeburg
  • 1788–1808: Johann Kaspar Coqui from Magdeburg
  • 1789–1801: Abraham Bailleu from Magdeburg
  • 1794–1806: Karl Heinrich Kayser from Zerbst
  • 1796–1808: Joh. HI Costenoble from Magdeburg
  • 1801–1808: Abel Prévôt from Magdeburg
  • 1806–1808: Johann Karl Bonte from Magdeburg

Abolition of the special status

In the course of time, however, the colonies lost their importance, be it through marrying into native families, the extinction of important families of the immigrants or emigration to other regions. The last mayor of the Palatinate colony was Johann Kaspar Coqui, who had held this office since 1788. In 1808, the special status of the colonies was abolished by Jérôme Bonaparte .

literature

  • Helmut Asmus: 1200 years Magdeburg - the years 1631 to 1848. Halberstadt 1999, ISBN 3-933046-16-5
  • Henner Dubslaff: The Magdeburg Reformed, 1666 to 2005. A search for traces . Magdeburg 2005
  • Johannes Fischer: The Palatinate Colony in Magdeburg. In: Magdeburg cultural and economic life. No. 19, Magdeburg without a year (1939)