Province of Fulda

The province of Fulda (1848–52 District Fulda ) was an administrative district of the middle level of the Electorate of Hesse and existed from 1821 until it was abolished as a result of the annexation of Electorate Hesse by Prussia in 1868.

history

In the course of the administrative reform of the Electorate of Hesse in 1821, after the assumption of government by Elector Wilhelm II , the administration of the state was restructured by an organizational edict . This replaced the administrative structure of Kurhessen that had been taken over from the 18th century. The country was divided into four provinces and 22 counties. One of these provinces created by ordinance of August 30, 1821 was the province of Fulda .

On October 31, 1848, as part of the March Revolution, the Hessian provinces and districts were abolished. They were replaced by nine districts and 21 administrative offices. The province of Fulda was converted into a "District of Fulda", which however included the same districts (now called "administrative offices") as the province before. On September 15, 1851, as part of the reaction of the now reigning Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, this was reversed and the administrative structure from 1821 was restored.

During the German War of 1866, the electorate was occupied by Prussia and finally annexed. For the annexed areas this meant that in 1868 they were given an administration based on the Prussian model. While rural districts represented a unit compatible with the Prussian administration and were therefore taken over unchanged, this did not apply to the provinces of the Electorate of Hesse. These were repealed without replacement, the former Kurhessischen districts directly subordinate to the administrative district Kassel .

Territory and structure

The territory of the province included

• the Grand Duchy of Fulda without the Salmünster office
• the principality of Hersfeld
• the county of Schmalkalden and
• the office of Friedewald

The province was 41 square miles in 1821, had 5 towns, 7 market towns, 285 villages, 15,438 houses and 112,748 residents.

structure

The provincial capital was Fulda . The province was divided into four districts :

• District of Fulda
• District of Hünfeld
• District of Hersfeld
• Schmalkalden district

District President

The administrative head of the province was the provincial government, at the head of which was the district president:

• 1816 / 1821–1823: Wilhelm August von Meyerfeld
• 1823: Georg Ferdinand von Lepel
• 1823–1832: Karl Emil Philipp von Hanstein
• 1832-1840: Carl Michael Eggena
• 1841–1846: Hermann Arnold
• 1846: Philipp Friedrich Karl Lotz
• 1846–1847: Karl Emil Heinrich Freiherr von Dörnberg
• 1848: Otto Heinrich Julius Leopold Volmar

After the restoration of the province of Fulda, the head of the administration bore the title of "Board member of the renewed government of the province of Fulda":

• (1851-1852): Justus Rang
• 1852-1856: Theodor von Heppe
• 1856–1865: Heinrich Wachs
• 1865: August Emil Wegner
• 1865–1866: Heinrich Wachs
• (1866–1867): Jakob Wilhelm Adrian von Specht

literature

• Thomas Klein: Hessen-Nassau (including predecessor states) (= Volume 11 of the outline for German administrative history 1815-1945, Series A: Prussia , edited by Walther Hubatsch ). Johann Gottfried Harder Institute, Marburg 1979, ISBN 3-87969-126-6 , pp. 94-96.

Web links

• Entry on the province of Hanau in the Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon, 1837
• Hanau . In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 7 . Altenburg 1859, p. 922 ( zeno.org ).

Footnotes

1. ^ Art. Grand Duchy of Fulda . In: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , Vol. 51: Fulcher - Fyzabad . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1850, pp. 22–23, here p. 23.