Rheinhessen (province)

Hessen, 1900, Rheinhessen on the left bank of the Rhine in the southwest

The three provinces of the People's State of Hesse, 1930

Rheinhessen was the smallest of three provinces of the Grand Duchy and later the People's State of Hesse . The province existed from 1816 to 1937. The provincial capital was Mainz , which was also the largest city in the entire Grand Duchy. The name of the province has been preserved for the region to this day .

geography

All areas of Hessen-Darmstadt on the left bank of the Rhine (i.e. west of the Rhine ) belonged to the province, as well as the districts of Mainz on the right bank of the Rhine ( Amöneburg , Kastel and Kostheim ). From 1930 Bischofsheim , Ginsheim and Gustavsburg were added. After the straightening of the Rhine , the provincial border was not changed, so that the Kühkopf, now to the right of the shipping channel, remained part of the province of Rheinhessen.

Rheinhessen was the smallest province of Hesse in terms of area. It bordered in the east on the Hesse-Darmstadt province of Starkenburg , in the south on the Bavarian Palatinate , in the west on the Prussian Rhine Province and in the north until 1866 on the Duchy of Nassau and then on the now Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau . The borders to Hessen-Nassau and Starkenburg formed, with the exceptions mentioned, the Rhine, the border to the Rhine province largely followed the Nahe river .

history

prehistory

The area of the later province of Rheinhessen belonged to France from 1798 to the beginning of 1814. French administration was carried out here and French law applied. When it was introduced in France, the Cinq codes , the civil code since 1804, also applied in the area of the later province of Rheinhessen. Common law and particular rights were thus abolished.

The area was part of the Donnersberg département with the standard subdivision of a French département . Due to the law of the 28th Pluviôse of the year VIII (February 17th, 1800), the internal structure of the départements was divided into arrondissements and cantons , prefectures , sub-prefectures and general councils were created. Classical sovereignty that existed alongside those of the state no longer existed here, the size of the administrative units was relatively uniform, jurisdiction and administration were separate at all levels - which in the rest of the Grand Duchy of Hesse did not happen until 1821.

At the transition to the Grand Duchy of Hesse - and in contrast to its other two provinces - Rheinhessen had a highly modern administration and an equally modern legal system.

Transfer to Hessen

After the Allies took the Left Bank of the Rhine , the region was administered from 1814 to 1816 by the Austrian-Baier Community Provincial Administration Commission . At the Congress of Vienna (1815), the Grand Duke of Hesse was awarded 140,000 souls in the former Donnersberg department as compensation for the Duchy of Westphalia, which had ceded to Prussia . Due to the turmoil caused by the rule of the Hundred Days , the return of Napoleon from exile, Austria , Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Hesse only concluded the State Treaty on June 30, 1816, which regulated the details.

On July 8, 1816, the area on the left bank of the Rhine was seized by the Grand Duchy of Hesse.

Rheinhessen as a province

Conditions at establishment

The administrative and legal relations that arose during the French period were largely retained by the new state power. She was not interested in re-establishing pre-revolutionary conditions, as Rheinhessen was the only province in the state in which the state had undivided sovereign rights - while in the other two provinces, Upper Hesse and Starkenburg , the state shared sovereignty in areas with patrimonial court lords and Standesherren had to share. Here residents and the government had a common interest in not reviving the old conditions.

On the Hessian side, the province was initially administered by a "General Directorate on the left bank of the Rhine". On January 1, 1817, a new government commission was entrusted with the administration, which on March 25, 1818 was renamed "Provincial Government". The first president of this government was Ludwig von Lichtenberg . The mayor's offices were directly subordinate to the provincial government .

The cantons of the French administrative structure were also retained. However, they only had the function of judicial districts for the justice of the peace . It was the cantons of the former arrondissement of Mainz , with the exception of the canton of Kirchheim , which fell to the Bavarian Palatinate . The justices of the peace were responsible for certain areas of contentious civil and criminal jurisdiction. Other such matters were negotiated by the district court , which in some cases also spoke law as a second instance . The Voluntary Jurisdiction practicing notaries from. A higher court was set up in Mainz on January 10, 1817 as an appeal body that spanned the entire province .

By grand-ducal decree of August 11, 1818, the Départementalrat, now under the title "Provinzialrat", was set up again at the insistence of the Rheinhessen.

Changes

Overview

Canton	origin	Circle 1835	Government district 1850	Circle 1852	annotation
Canton of Alzey	Arrondissement de Mayence	Alzey district	Worms administrative district	Alzey district
Canton of Bechtheim Canton of Osthofen	Arrondissement de Mayence	District of Worms	Worms administrative district	District of Worms	1822 renamed "Kanton Osthofen"
Canton of Bingen	Arrondissement de Mayence	Bingen district	Mainz administrative district	Bingen district
Canton of Mainz	Arrondissement de Mayence	Mainz district Mainz district	Mainz administrative district	Mainz district
Canton Niederolm	Arrondissement de Mayence	Mainz district	Mainz administrative district	Mainz district	1852: additionally Budenheim and Mombach from the canton of Oberingelheim
Canton of Oberingelheim	Arrondissement de Mayence	Bingen district	Mainz administrative district	Bingen district	1852: Budenheim and Mombach to the Mainz district
Canton of Oppenheim	Arrondissement de Mayence	Mainz district	Mainz administrative district	Oppenheim district
Canton of Pfeddersheim	Arrondissement of Speyer	District of Worms	Worms administrative district	District of Worms
Canton of Wöllstein	Arrondissement de Mayence	Bingen district	Mainz administrative district	Alzey district
Canton of Wörrstadt	Arrondissement de Mayence	Alzey district	Worms administrative district	Oppenheim district
Canton of Worms	Arrondissement of Speyer	District of Worms	Worms administrative district	District of Worms

1835

With the edict of February 4, 1835, the internal structure of the province of Rheinhessen was adapted to that introduced in 1832 for the provinces of Starkenburg and Upper Hesse. The lower level of state administration, the eleven cantons, was initially replaced by four districts , but a few days later the city of Mainz was spun off into its own urban district on February 16, 1835 . With the edict of February 4, 1835, the provincial government was also abolished. Their powers fell to the government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the newly formed circles. The district council in Mainz also received some competences at the provincial level in police and military matters and carried the title of "provincial commissioner".

1848-1852

Counties and district districts of the Grand Duchy were abolished in the course of the March Revolution on July 31, 1848 and replaced by administrative districts, with the administrative district of Mainz initially comprising the entire former province of Rheinhessen. In 1850 it was divided and the administrative district of Worms was created, which consisted of the former districts of Worms and Alzey.

In the subsequent reaction time, this was reversed on May 12, 1852 and the district division from the time before the revolution was in principle restored, although the new district of Oppenheim was formed. The Mainz district was reintegrated into the Mainz district.

Reform of 1874

In 1871 the Grand Duchy of Hesse became part of the German Empire. In 1874 it reformed the district constitution based on the Prussian model. In Rheinhessen, the five districts of Alzey, Bingen, Mainz, Oppenheim and Worms remained unchanged. This lasted for more than six decades.

As a result of the November Revolution in 1918, the People's State of Hesse was created, but this did not change the function of the Province of Rheinhessen within the state association.

The End

In 1936 the provincial and district assemblies, which were superfluous according to the National Socialist leader principle , were dissolved. On April 1, 1937, the Hessian provinces were also abolished.

Aftermath

Under the French occupation the term "Rheinhessen" was used to name the administrative district , "Rheinhessen", created from the vast majority of the former province of Rheinhessen , which was part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate .

Provincial Directors

The district council of Mainz perceived some competencies for the entire province in police and military matters and carried the title of "provincial commissioner". His competencies were gradually expanded in the following years and in 1860 independent provincial directors were created, headed by a "provincial director" appointed by the Grand Duke, who was also chairman of the provincial assembly .

Service title	District Council	Term of office
District Council	Privy Councilor Carl Schmitt	1852-1874
District Council	Privy Councilor Theodor Goldmann	1874-1877
District Council	Ludwig Roeder of Diersburg	1877-1881
District Council	Friedrich Küchler	1881-1891
District Council	Karl Rothe	1891-1898
District Council	Maximilian Freiherr von Gagern	1898-1908
District Council	Friedrich von Hombergk zu Vach	1908-1910
District Council	Andreas Breidert	1910-1913
District Council	Wilhelm Best	1913-1922
District Director	Karl Usinger	1922-1929
District Director	Wilhelm Wehner (District Director)	1929-1937

literature

Johann Philipp Bronner : Viticulture in the province of Rheinhessen, in the Nahethal and Moselthal. Heidelberg 1834.
Johann Andreas Demian: Description or statistics and topography of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. 2nd Department, Mainz 1825, Rheinhessen, from p. 109.
Eckhart G. Franz : Introduction . In: Georg Ruppel and Karin Müller: Historical place directory for the area of the former Grand Duchy and People's State of Hesse with evidence of district and court affiliation from 1820 to the changes in the course of the municipal territorial reform = Darmstädter Archivschriften 2. Historical Association for Hesse. Darmstadt 1976.
Joseph Jérome: Statistical yearbook of the province of Rheinhessen for the year 1824. Mainz, Theodor von Labern.
Rainer Polley : Law and Constitution . In: Winfried Speitkamp (ed.): Population, Economy and State in Hessen 1806–1945 = Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 63.1 = Handbook of Hessian History 1. Marburg 2010. ISBN 978-3-942225-01-4 , Pp. 335-371.
Georg Wilhelm Justin Wagner : Statistical-topographical-historical description of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Volume 2, Province of Rheinhessen, Darmstadt 1830.

Remarks

↑ A fourth province, the Duchy of Westphalia (capital: Arnsberg ), belonged to Hesse only from 1803 to 1816, and then - in exchange for Rheinhessen - fell to Prussia .
↑ The other provinces were Upper Hesse (capital: Gießen ) and Starkenburg (capital: Darmstadt ).
↑ See also French departments in Central Europe from 1792 to 1814 .
↑ In the other parts of the country, however, there was between the provincial government and communities have an intermediate level: Up 1,821 offices and then to 1832 district districts .
↑ The few parts of the former province of Rheinhessen located on the right bank of the Rhine came to the state of Hesse .

Individual evidence

^ Polley: Law and Constitution , p. 344.
↑ Ordinance on the division of the country into district councils and district courts of July 14, 1821 . In: Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette No. 33 of July 20, 1821, p. 403ff.
↑ Official Journal of the KK-Österreichische and K.-Baierischen Community Landes-Administrations-Commission zu Kreuznach , 1816, p. 368 ( online )
↑ Article 47 of the main treaty of the Congress of European Powers, Princes and Free Cities assembled in Vienna on June 9, 1815, Article 97, page 96 ( online )
↑ Arthur Benno Schmidt : The historical foundations of civil law in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Curt von Münchow, Giessen 1893, p. 39.
↑ ^a ^b Wilhelm Hesse: Rheinhessen in its development from 1798 to the end of 1834 . Kupferberg, 1835, p. 119 ( online ).
^ Franz: Introduction , p. 8.
^ Franz: Introduction , p. 9.
^ Franz: Introduction , p. 9.
^ Collection of Grand Ducal Hessian Laws and Ordinances , Volume 3, v. Zabern, 1835, p. 198.
↑ Edict, the organization of the government authorities in Rheinhessen on February 4, 1835. In: Großherzoglich Hessisches Regierungsblatt No. 6 of February 6, 1835, pp. 37-44.
^ Announcement concerning the formation of the districts in the province of Rheinhessen from February 16, 1835. In: Großherzoglich Hessisches Regierungsblatt No. 8 of February 23, 1835, p. 49.
↑ Ordinance on the division of the Grand Duchy into circles of May 12, 1852. In: Großherzoglich Hessisches Regierungsblatt No. 29 of May 28, 1952, pp. 224–228 (228).
↑ Provincial Commissioner u. a .: Repertories of the Hessian State Archive Darmstadt: Government of the Province of Rheinhessen. (Inventory G 14 C), 2005, page V. In: Archive information system Hessen (Arcinsys Hessen).

[1] A fourth province, the Duchy of Westphalia (capital: Arnsberg ), belonged to Hesse only from 1803 to 1816, and then - in exchange for Rheinhessen - fell to Prussia .

[2] The other provinces were Upper Hesse (capital: Gießen ) and Starkenburg (capital: Darmstadt ).

[4] See also French departments in Central Europe from 1792 to 1814 .

[11] In the other parts of the country, however, there was between the provincial government and communities have an intermediate level: Up 1,821 offices and then to 1832 district districts .

[18] The few parts of the former province of Rheinhessen located on the right bank of the Rhine came to the state of Hesse .

[3] Polley: Law and Constitution , p. 344.

[5] Ordinance on the division of the country into district councils and district courts of July 14, 1821 . In: Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette No. 33 of July 20, 1821, p. 403ff.

[6] Official Journal of the KK-Österreichische and K.-Baierischen Community Landes-Administrations-Commission zu Kreuznach , 1816, p. 368 ( online )

[7] Article 47 of the main treaty of the Congress of European Powers, Princes and Free Cities assembled in Vienna on June 9, 1815, Article 97, page 96 ( online )

[8] Arthur Benno Schmidt : The historical foundations of civil law in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Curt von Münchow, Giessen 1893, p. 39.

[besitzergreifung-9] Wilhelm Hesse: Rheinhessen in its development from 1798 to the end of 1834 . Kupferberg, 1835, p. 119 ( online ).

[10] Franz: Introduction , p. 8.

[12] Franz: Introduction , p. 9.

[13] Franz: Introduction , p. 9.

[14] Collection of Grand Ducal Hessian Laws and Ordinances , Volume 3, v. Zabern, 1835, p. 198.

[15] Edict, the organization of the government authorities in Rheinhessen on February 4, 1835. In: Großherzoglich Hessisches Regierungsblatt No. 6 of February 6, 1835, pp. 37-44.

[16] Announcement concerning the formation of the districts in the province of Rheinhessen from February 16, 1835. In: Großherzoglich Hessisches Regierungsblatt No. 8 of February 23, 1835, p. 49.

[17] Ordinance on the division of the Grand Duchy into circles of May 12, 1852. In: Großherzoglich Hessisches Regierungsblatt No. 29 of May 28, 1952, pp. 224–228 (228).

[19] Provincial Commissioner u. a .: Repertories of the Hessian State Archive Darmstadt: Government of the Province of Rheinhessen. (Inventory G 14 C), 2005, page V. In: Archive information system Hessen (Arcinsys Hessen).