Government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse

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Seal of the Grand Ducal Hessian State Ministry

The government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse was the executive branch of the Grand Duchy of Hesse from 1806 to 1918.

organization

From the founding of the Grand Duchy to the March Revolution

In the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , the Secret Council had existed since 1617 , and from the 18th century it also acted as the Secret Ministry as a government (subordinate to the Landgrave). In addition there was the Lehenhof and the Rentkammer.

With the organizational edict of October 12, 1803, the government of the new Grand Duchy was reorganized. The head of government was the Grand Duke. The ministerial departments for foreign affairs, interior (to which the judiciary was also assigned) and finances were newly created. The heads of department and the Grand Duke formed the government as a college. There was also an independent war ministry.

The finance department took over the task of the rent chamber. There was no need for an independent Foreign Ministry in the Landgraviate, as foreign policy was predominantly played out in the committees of the HRR and was therefore a top priority.

The Constitution of 1820 regulated in Article 4, that the Grand Duke all rights of state power in Himself unites and exercises. Details of the government organization were not made. By a joint resolution of both chambers of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse , a ministerial indictment before the Darmstadt Higher Appeal Court was possible.

The government was not responsible to the Landtag, but to the Grand Duke.

With an ordinance of May 28, 1821, the government (now referred to as the "State Ministry" or "Total Ministry") was headed by a President of the united ministries . Three independent ministries were set up: the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of War was still organizationally separate and remained so until the end.

From 1829, Karl du Bos du Thil no longer held the title of President of the United Ministries , but that of Conducting Minister of State .

The March government

On March 14, 1848, the March Revolution led to the appointment of the March Ministry . In terms of organization, it was essential that the interior and justice departments were separated. The Ministry of the Grand Ducal House , which Heinrich von Gagern took over in personal union, was newly created . The title of Conducting Minister of State was changed to President of the entire Ministry on September 9, 1848 . The principle of collegiality was also strengthened again by introducing a joint lecture to the Grand Duke on essential issues.

From the Reaction Era to the November Revolution

In 1852 the designation Prime Minister was introduced for the chairman of the entire ministry. The founding of the Reich in 1870/71 led to a significant loss of importance for the Foreign Ministry. With the ordinance of August 22, 1874 it was therefore determined that the Prime Minister is Minister of Foreign Affairs and of the Grand Ducal House at the same time.

The ordinance of March 12, 1879 stipulated that the Ministry of State , headed by the President of the Ministry of State , should also include the interior and justice departments. In addition, only the Ministry of Finance continued to exist as a separate ministry. In 1910 the Ministry of the Interior became independent again.

The history of the government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse ended with the November Revolution. Its task (after the revolutionary turmoil) was taken over by the government of the People's State of Hesse .

Official titles

In many cases, the ministers initially held the title of director of their department. To make them stand out, the Grand Duke could give them the title of President or even Minister of the Department. These were just titles; the ministers' powers were independent of the respective title. The ministers are therefore listed in the ministerial lists regardless of their respective titles.

Social origin of the ministers

With the exception of the war ministers, who were all high officers, the majority of the civil cabinet ministers came from the civil service . The literature therefore speaks of an official government . Typical of the curriculum vitae were the origin from a civil servant family, the study of law and a civil servant career, which was crowned with the role as a state councilor and finally a minister. Only a relatively small part of the ministers came from the nobility . And the noble ministers also had a career as a civil servant and were not appointed ministers primarily because of the nobility. A number of the ministers were ennobled for the merits they had earned.

The March ministers were an exception. Here the proportion of nobles predominated and there was no administrative experience.

The ministers also usually did not appear as politicians beforehand (e.g. in the estates). Georg Kempf is an exception in this regard, but his political positions were contrary to the majority of the state parliament.

From around 1900, Feodor Gnauth and Wilhelm Küchler were the first local politicians to take on the role of ministers.

In all, there were only 37 ministers in the nearly 100 years between 1820 and 1918. The reason for this is that the terms of office of the ministers were relatively long and the ministers were often responsible for several departments.

The Council of State

In 1821 a State Council was established. It included the princes of the Grand Ducal House, the ministers, the secret councils of state and other councilors of state. The State Council advised on bills and organizational issues and dealt with conflicts between the judiciary and the administration. It was chaired by a minister named President of the Council of State . In 1875 the institution was abolished.

President of the Council of State:

President of the entire ministry

Official Term of office Remarks
Friedrich August Freiherr von Lichtenberg 1805-1819 de facto head of government
Karl von Grolman 1821-29 First President of the United Ministries since the Constitution came into force
Karl you Thil 1829-48 The “du Thil'sche system” of decades of rule by the state minister in charge shaped the politics of his time conservatively.
Heinrich von Gagern 1848 Prime Minister for three months during the March Revolution , member of the Frankfurt National Assembly
Carl Wilhelm Zimmermann 1848 In the summer of 1848 in office for a few weeks
Heinrich Karl Jaup 1848-50 Member of the Committee of Seventeen and the Frankfurt National Assembly
Reinhard Carl Friedrich von Dalwigk 1852-71 Under Ludwig III. , Dismissed in 1871 under pressure from Prussia
Friedrich von Lindelof 1871-72 Under Ludwig III.
Karl Wilhelm Hofmann 1872-76 Under Ludwig III.
Philipp Freiherr Rinck gen. Starck 1876-79 Under Ludwig III, after his death in 1877 under Ludwig IV.
Jakob Finger 1884-98 Under Ludwig IV, after his death in 1892 under Ernst Ludwig
Carl Rothe 1898-1906 Under Ernst Ludwig
Christian Wilhelm Carl Ewald 1906-18 Under Ernst Ludwig, until the November Revolution

Individual ministries

Home Office

Seal of the Grand Ducal Hessian Ministry of the Interior

The Grand Ducal Hessian Ministry of the Interior and Justice was the higher authority for the provincial governments of the three provinces of Upper Hesse , Starkenburg and Rheinhessen as well as the district councils and later the district offices . In 1848 it was split into a Ministry of the Interior and a Ministry of Justice. The Home Office was responsible for schools and other educational institutions, churches, charities, and public health. From 1875 he was responsible for the gendarmerie corps , in 1877 for the mining and calibration authorities and in 1879 the accounting chamber.

The Ministry of the Interior was based on Mathildenplatz in Darmstadt.

Ministry of Finance

Seal of the Grand Ducal Hessian Ministry of Finance

From 1821 to 1879, the Obersteuerdirektion Darmstadt was subordinate to the Ministry of Finance as the higher authority.

Ministry of Justice

Before 1848, the Ministry of Justice was part of the Ministry of the Interior.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of the Grand Ducal House

The Ministry of the Grand Ducal House was created in 1848 as part of the March Revolution and was largely co-chaired by the President of the State Ministry.

War Department

The War Ministry of the Grand Duchy of Hesse played a special role in several ways. For one thing, it was organizationally separated from the entire ministry. The minister reported directly to the Grand Duke. On the other hand, the ministers were consistently high officers and noblemen and not civil servants as in the other departments. With the establishment of the German Empire , the department ceased to exist on January 1, 1872, after it had lost powers due to the military treaties with Prussia of 1868.

The Ministry was initially referred to as the Oberkriegskolleg, from July 4, 1821 as the War Ministerial Department and from May 14, 1823 as the War Ministry.

The War Ministry was divided into three sections:

  1. The first section dealt with purely military questions: formation, service and exercise of the troops, officer personnel, reports, military training institutions and military orders
  2. The second section was responsible for the military police and discipline, military criminal legislation, military courts and penal institutions, desertion processes, military widows and orphanages, the institute for invalids, military churches and schools
  3. The third section took care of the war chest, drew up the budget, managed the military construction and audited the accounts.

Each section had a section head.

literature

  • Eckhart G. Franz : Hessen-Darmstadt 1820-1935. In: Klaus Schwabe (Ed.): The governments of the German medium and small states. 1815-1933. (= German leadership classes in modern times. Volume 14 = Büdinger research on social history. Volume 18). Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1983, ISBN 3-7646-1830-2 , pp. 103-112 and pp. 295-303.
  • Dagobert Karenberg: The development of the administration in Hessen-Darmstadt and Ludewig I. (1790-1830). 1964.
  • Ferdinand Koob:  INNENMINISTERIUM  (= Repertories Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt ) holdings G 11 (PDF; 492 kB). In: Archive Information System Hessen (Arcinsys Hessen), as of September 11, 2008, accessed on September 15, 2016.
  • Heinrich Karl Wilhelm Berghaus: Germany for a hundred years: History of territorial division and the political constitution of the fatherland, Volume 2, 1861, p. 299, online

Web links

Commons : Sealing stamps of government of Grand Duchy of Hesse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karenberg: The development of the administration ..., pp. 24-30
  2. ↑ Law of July 5, 1821 concerning the responsibility of ministers and the highest civil servants; Reg.Blatt 1821, pp. 387-388, online
  3. ↑ Section IX. and X. Ordinance on the Organization of the Supreme State Authority of May 26, 1821. In: Großherzoglich Hessisches Regierungsblatt No. 14 of June 1, 1821, pp. 179–188 (184).
  4. ↑ Karenberg: The development of the administration ... P. 129-130.