Imperial city of Münster in the Gregoriental

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Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor with haloes (1400-1806) .svg
Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial city of Münster in the Gregoriental
coat of arms
Coat of arms of the imperial city of Munster
map
Ten Cities Association - Décapole Alsace
Alternative names Ville impériale Munster; City and Valley of Münster; Monsters in Sankt Georgenthal (1521)
Arose from Imperial Abbey of Münster
Form of rule Imperial city Talschaft
Ruler / government Stettmeister ; Subordinate; Reichsvogt
Today's region / s FR-68
Parliament Imperial cities
Reich register on horseback on foot - 60 guilders (1521)
Reichskreis Upper Rhine district
District council Worms - Frankfurt am Main
Capitals / residences Muenster
Denomination / Religions first Roman Catholic , then Evangelical Lutheran
Language / n German ( Alsatian ), French
Residents 500 (mid-16th century)
Incorporated into France after 1648
See also Ten cities
Alsace-Lorraine 1648–1789 (cathedral in blue)

The imperial city of Münster in the Gregoriental (today Munster (Haut-Rhin) , Munster Val de Saint-Grégoire ) was a secular territory of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation from 1235 until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, in which sovereignty over the city was transferred to the Kingdom of France passed over. It should not be confused with the Imperial Abbey of Münster, which also enjoyed imperial immediacy and was represented among the prelates of the Upper Rhine District . The imperial city comprised the main town, named after the original monastery, and nine villages in the fork-shaped high valley of the Fecht . The population in the Münstertal was mainly German and Alemannic-speaking and was in direct contact with the Lorraine-Romance , secular territory of the Remiremont Abbey , which leased the vital alpine pastures of the Upper Vosges to the Münster shepherds of the high valleys.

Territorial delimitation

The location of the free imperial city of Münster in the Gregoriental

The imperial city of Münster in the Gregoriental was usually called Stadt und Tal in the Middle Ages , because it consisted of the town of Münster and two high valleys in the Vosges massif with a total of nine villages and their isolated hamlets. The entire upper valley from Münster upstream was an imperial city as a valley community and belonged to the ten- city league . Within the Decapolis, together with the two imperial cities of Türckheim and Kaysersberg, it formed an imperial bailiwick based in Kaysersberg. In the Fechttal, Münster serves as the gateway to two high valleys, which are popularly known as the Großtal and the Kleintal . Each village was represented by a Vogt , also known as a master .

  • The following villages were in the Großtal valley:
  • in the Kleintal:
  • In the vicinity of Münster there were three villages with the same master:
    • Luttenbach (with the hamlets of Froschweiler, Fronzel, Nagelstadt)
    • Eschbach
    • Hohrod

The landscape is predominantly shaped by the Vosges low mountain range in terms of climate, topography and settlement history and can be defined by the clear contrast between the deserted high elevations and the sparsely populated valleys. The lowest altitude is 341 m in Münster and rises to 1363 m on the Hohneck . The Münstertal lies in the lee of the Hohneck massif, i.e. on the leeward, lower-precipitation side. The Gregoriental facilitated communication downstream to the east in the direction of Colmar and from there through the entire Oberland on the border of Baden and the Swiss Confederation . In the north and south, the imperial city bordered the rule of Rappoltstein and the imperial abbey of Murbach , both territories of the Holy Roman Empire .

Due to the natural, long snow-covered barrier of the Vosges in the west and the steep, rocky slopes of the eastern flank, communication to Lorraine was limited to a few mule paths and side passes of the Vosges that could be walked on. The now very busy Col de la Schlucht between Gérardmer and Münster is one of the youngest pass roads among the current large Vosges passes . As the name suggests, the pass was initially a narrow gorge away from any traffic or trade routes or routes. There used to be only smugglers and timber trucks with their horn sledges . Lothringer and Munster, on the other hand, were not distrustful of each other. Münster maintained regular contact, especially with the town of La Bresse on the Lorraine side, primarily because of the Vosges alpine pastures that dairymen from both cultural communities shared in the summer, but also because an unspoken law by La Bresse encouraged young people to adopt theirs to look for future spouses over in the Münstertal. The same was true in Münster. After the introduction of the Reformation in Münster, the religious differences led to an interruption in the search for a spouse between La Bresse and the Gregoriental rather than the passes that had to be overcome. The residents of Ventron , too , had got used to transporting their locally produced cheese to the cities of the League of Ten on pack horses with the help of walking cheese merchants (locally called Cosson ) , regardless of whether the imperial cities were sovereign states of the Holy Roman Empire or Provinces of the French Kingdom were.

history

Panorama view of Münster (2008)

The imperial city of Munster can be traced back to the now destroyed Benedictine Abbey Munster St. Gregor and the related Staufer policy.

Merovingian and Carolingian founding times

According to oral tradition, in 634 some hermits settled in this valley under the protection of St. Gregory and accordingly named it the Gregoriental. A few decades later, the hermits had formed a community around the abbot Colduvinus, a presumed disciple of Columban of Luxeuil . The new monastery was called monasterium confluentis because of its location at the forked gate of two side valleys. King Childerich II presented the abbey with numerous goods and granted it privileges, which the brothers later did not want to do without. The subsequent Merovingian monarchs confirmed and expanded them, including Dagobert , who bequeathed his crown, scepter and coronation sword to the monastery. He granted the abbot or superior the rank of prince of the church and gave him permission to wear his own royal crown when taking office and taking the oath. All new abbots were allowed to alternately wear the Dagobert crown and the miter at their inauguration . This crown remained in the abbey's treasury until the French Revolution.

Some hamlets and scattered settlements emerged around the monastery and together with the abbey formed the so-called " Stat Münstertal ". As the capital became larger and more influential, it bore the sole name of Münster, derived from the Latin monasterium , while Romansh-speaking neighbors spoke of Moustier . In the 13th century the whole valley became an imperial city, although the city council met in the monastery until 1550. As compensation, the founding monastery was elevated to an imperial abbey with a seat on the Reichstag under the prelates .

The heyday of the imperial city

Munster town hall - the coat of arms of an imperial city with the two-headed eagle can be seen on the facade.

Forms of rule, jurisdiction and administration

During the Habsburg period, the Upper Austrian government of Ensisheim , which on behalf of Innsbruck handled all the foothills of the country , was the upper authority of the Landvogtei zu Hagenau , the councilors, the Zinsmeisteramt zu Hagenau and the Reichsvogtei zu Kaysersberg .

As was customary at the time, the imperial city of Munster had a magistrate at the head of its administration. The Stettmeister controlled this collegial body , which consisted of sixteen city councilors or lay judges : nine lay judges came from the city itself, six were provided by the villages in the greater and small valleys. The rural city council also fulfilled the function of bailiff, also known as master. The imperial abbey was allowed to appoint three of the nine municipal lay judges, although depending on the period they were not always allowed to be involved in administrative and political affairs. Before the Reichsvogt was recognized by the city and the abbey of Münster, he had to take the oath of homage: to let the abbot and his place of worship, city and valley of Münster, remain with all their freedoms and customs, also to comply with the citizens' judgment, admonitions of the City Council to add if he is reprimanded for possible violations in office .

The imperial city of Münster has repeatedly asserted an old law that it should not pay any counter homage or oath for the imperial bailiff. Since she could not show the emperor any conclusive document, she was refused. That did not prevent the city from refusing to take the oath every time the next bailiff took office. The Reichsvögte did not always put up with this and did not renew the city council. In 1616, the imperial city was not exempted from the oath of homage, despite a complaint or summons to the emperor, so the city council swore cum protestatione et reservatione of the old rights to recognize his graces as bailiff , to grant him the gradient and to protect the bailiwick in its old tradition .

The police and legal authority exercised the Reichsvogt von Kaysersberg , who was responsible for three free imperial cities: Kaysersberg , Münster and Türckheim . In the last two he was often represented by a subordinate. Vogt and Untervogt set taxes and collected them, they held court and punished offenses. The Reichsvogt was rewarded as patron of the Reichsubertanen in kind and with an annual official salary. The mayor and his wife were responsible for collecting and collecting all duties, taxes and fines. The central audit office in Hagenau , called the Zinsmeisteramt , administered all the income and earnings of the ten allied imperial cities, and the like. a. Münster in the Gregoriental.

With the help of the mayor and the woman, the imperial bailiff had the lower and the higher jurisdiction from the smallest courts to the largest city of the ten- city league . In Maleficent -Fällen or blood stuff the preliminary investigation (were inquisitio ) and possibly the detention ( incarceratio ) made the perpetrator by the City Council until the kingdom Vogt determined the "Malefiztag" and the court with civil aldermen occupied. Then he is not iudex , but prosecutor alongside a Stettmeister . The Reichsvogt should take the mayor and his wife from the citizens of the community for civil jurisdiction . All three were exempt from all civic community burdens, but were allowed to sit on the council and vote.

The city of Munster was always concerned about its privileges and insisted on the sovereignty of its authorities. The high jurisdiction in Münster differed a bit from that of the neighboring cities: Only a council in Münster has to decide whether the matter is malefic or concerns the blood. He also determines the maleficence day and occupies the law and defeated. The Reichsvogt von Kaysersberg only has to complain about the culprit, the subordinate has to hold the staff and the survey and, by virtue of his oath, has to let it remain with the judgment of the lay judges.

Another exception in the imperial city of Münster for the oath of homage was that the majority of the citizens of Münster were Protestants, both Lutherans , Calvinists and, occasionally and specifically for certain professional groups, Anabaptists and Mennonites . In the appointment document of the imperial bailiff, Count zu Fürstenberg, from the 17th century, it says that the ruling mayor swore him the oath, but left out the following words at the end of the oath because he belonged to the Calvinist denomination: "and all saints".

The bailiff's rights and thus the emperor's source of income through the intermediary of the Hagenauer Zinsmeisteramt are described in detail in the city archive. Every year the city of Münster gave the Reichsvogt “5 guilders at 12 cents and 5 tips ” “for protection and protection ”; She paid the subordinate “a pair of council trousers or 16.5 cents” annually. The bailiff also has all Malefizfrevel and half of sacrilege . As far as the villages are concerned, their citizens should give their respective masters and depending on the location in the large or small valley an autumn hen and a carnival hen. The abbot got them from the Kleintal and the Vogt from the Großtal. The master of each village or each village community was dispensed from this tax in kind.

Alliance treaties with other imperial cities

The city ​​federations to which the Alsatian cities joined were usually closed for five or ten years, sometimes extended by three years. In addition, some imperial cities, depending on their geographical location, joined another neighboring city union without revoking their membership in the first alliance. Münster in the Gregoriental did not belong to all alliances. From 1414 until the Peace of Westphalia , the imperial city no longer waived advantageous membership.

  • Beginning of the 14th century: In Alsace, only the three free cities of Strasbourg , Haguenau and Colmar initially merged. This was followed by numerous treaties of alliance, which were constantly being renewed or reaffirmed, whereby Strasbourg was often able to represent and defend itself independently because of its power. At that time it was about 13 imperial cities, which now and then united and swore to "be obedient and ready for all cheap things to the governor instead of our lords of the Kayser".
  • In 1328, all the imperial cities of Alsace, with the exception of Weißenburg, joined the Rhenish League of Cities .
  • 1342 included in Schlettstadt the imperial cities Schlettstadt, Obernai , Seltz , Colmar, Kaysersberg , Munster in Greg Oriental, Türckheim and Mulhouse a three-year Association of Cities, which was extended by three years 1346th
  • In 1354, on the recommendation of the later Emperor Charles IV, a new Alsatian league of cities with 9 member cities: Haguenau, Weißenburg, Schlettstadt, Obernai, Rosheim , Colmar, Münster in the Gregoriental, Türckheim and Mulhouse was established.

He was directly subordinate to the Landvogtei Hagenau, which was responsible less for the internal affairs of the free cities than for foreign policy on behalf of all ten imperial cities, especially during the imperial diets. All imperial cities undertook to unite against the whole world, except against the emperor himself. If a dispute should arise between them, the governor of Alsace and the ambassadors of the cities should meet in Schlettstadt for an arbitration.

  • In 1379, after the death of Charles IV, a new alliance between eight cities was signed for five years (Hagenau, Weißenburg, Schlettstadt, Obernai, Seltz, Colmar, Rosheim and Mulhouse). A chairman who presided allowed each quarter under the new city representatives decided by a committee of litigation, statuieren on membership of other cities and that should set to be delivered Reich contingent.
  • In 1381 Haguenau and Weißenburg joined the second Rhenish city union without dissolving the city union of 1379. In 1389 Schlettstadt, Obernai and Seltz joined them.
  • In 1408 King Ruprecht of the Palatinate formed an alliance with his son Ludwig, bailiff of Alsace, the free city of Strasbourg and eleven Alsatian imperial cities. for a period of 15 years.
  • In 1414, Emperor Sigismund von Luxemburg declared the alliance of his predecessor to be an everlasting league of cities under the “Pflege und Landvogtei Haguenau” or in Latin “Advocatia Hagenovensis”. When Mulhouse became a member of the Confederation in 1515, the number of member cities came to 10 and so the merger of the Alsatian imperial cities was called the League of Ten Cities .

At the request of the ten imperial cities, the emperor had to settle a dispute between the two economically and territorially important cities of Haguenau and Colmar at a Reichstag. It was about the "right of participation", that is, about the chairmanship of the ten cities. It was decided that both could chair the federal government. Because the bailiff had his residence in Hagenau , this city was able to gain the upper hand over the decades without it becoming official. In 1608 it was decided in Strasbourg that Münster in the Gregoriental, Türckheim , Rosheim and Kaysersberg should each pay for one eighth of the common taxes and expenses of the ten cities.

  • 1,651 of Décapole was despite French annexation formally continue, but the office of Alsatian Vogts was the governor ( Governor replaced) of Alsace. His name was Henri d'Harcourt .
  • In 1653 - 1662 the governor and the ten cities could not agree on the oath and the reversals. Relations between the two parties came to a head. In 1659, Cardinal Mazarin succeeded the Count of Harcourt, with the dispute getting worse than it was because the cardinal was an unconditional supporter and champion of the French kingdom. In 1661 the ten imperial cities refused to pay homage to the king. At most they were prepared to pay homage to his governor, which was a great concession for them, because in the period before the French annexation the governor was supposed to pay homage to the representatives of the imperial cities when he took office. On January 10, 1662 it was decided from above that the cities should pay homage first to the king, then to the governor. Then the governor would take his oath in front of the cities.
  • In 1664 the League of Ten cities complained to the Reichstag in Regensburg about the illegal situation in relation to the taking of the oath and homage and asked for an arbitration.
  • In 1672 French garrisons were stationed in the ten imperial cities in order to maintain France's position of power. In the Peace of Nijmegen , the emperor's envoys tried to incorporate the concerns of the League of Ten cities, especially the dispute over the priority of homage, into the final contract. However, the French king categorically refused.

The reunion policy had begun, and Alsace was to play a decisive role as the hub and starting point for numerous campaigns. So the Sun King was by no means willing to have his absolute authority within his kingdom questioned. A return to the sovereignty of the imperial cities was no longer on the agenda.

Reichsvögte zu Kaysersberg

Shortly after the founding of the Haguenau Landvogtei , the Reichsvogtei was created as a sub-authority: the Reichsvogt , with the support of his mayors and their wives, held the lower and higher jurisdictions. Before zealous French-speaking representatives of the French monarchy intervened for the purpose of reunification policy , bailiffs from the Alsace-Palatinate-Swabia region took over from:

  • 1408–1504: Under the Rhineland-Palatinate Reichslandvogtei Hagenau ;
  • 1504 - 1535: Under the rule of the Upper Austrian Empire, owned by the Habsburgs . Emperor Maximilian I withdrew the imperial bailiwick from the pledge holders, elector of the Rhine Palatinate , although the sons-in-law of Lützelmann von Ratsamhausen could have made a claim (Jakob von Hattstadt, Heinrich Wetzel). It is pledged to his court chancellor ;
  • 1535–1565: Second period of the Rhineland Palatinate Electors in possession of pledges . You pledge the Reichsvogtei on;
  • In 1565 Archduke Ferdinand , Oberlandvogt, Count of Tyrol and the Vorlande, relinquishes the Imperial Bailiwick to the Habsburgs again;
  • 1573–1674: In pledge possession of the Schwendi family ;
  • 1609–1616 Helene Eleonore von Schwendi with the bailiff knight Hans Werner von Raitnau;
  • 1616–1628 Jakob Ludwig von Fürstenberg, Count of Fürstenberg, Unterlandvogt, husband of E. von Schwendi;
  • 1636–1639 Philipp Nikolaus von Layen, baron, 2nd husband of E. von Schwendi |
  • 1739: Bailiwick transferred to the Andlau family as a man's back .

German-speaking Protestant country versus French Catholic Lorraine

Anti-welfare

When the magistrate of Münster forbade any marriage with a Welschen , the previously lively relationship with the Lorraine town of La Bresse fell asleep . Both cities traditionally exchanged young men and women. When the Catholics were able to live unhindered and peacefully in the Münstertal again in the 16th century, actually they were immigrants, Bresser and Münsterer were able to find their future spouses on the other side of the mountain ridge, even if only among Catholics. This anti-Welsche sentiment at the time of the religious split was strongly represented in Munster because Welsche were both Catholics and Francophones at the same time, but it was not specific to Munster, but to some cities in Alsace.

Around 1580 one reads the following text in the town charter of the neighboring imperial city of Schlettstadt , although it is in its golden age: «We have finally decided and arranged which man, junior woman or wittib can now go there without our knowledge and allow with the French would marry people that we would not give them the castle law more , especially man and woman who would instead want to reject » . In 1592, in the same city, the gatekeepers had to monitor and control the welsch people and hustlers , because they were only allowed to enter the city in broad daylight at the lower gate. The Free City of Strasbourg also tightened the law on the right and duration of residence of non-citizens, regionally called backseat , and especially against single backseat and foreign or French beggars .

A Protestant stronghold and an Anabaptist refuge

Over 90% Protestants lived in the imperial city of Münster in the 16th century. The abbey stood empty for a while because the abbots had also converted to the Lutheran faith. The imperial bailiwick under the Austro-Habsburg rule should always ensure that the word of God was proclaimed by the preachers and pastors in the sense of the Catholic Church, that all seductive doctrines and sects are erased and that the subjects are preserved according to the old Christian church customs. Numerous Catholic residents only settled in the valley again after the annexation by France, which was not without tension and conflict.

The Münster councilors and envoys at the Reichstag

Diet of Worms 1521
1640 Reichstag Augsburg reading aloud the Confessio Augustana

The representation of the imperial estates at the diets of the 16th century confirms a tendency that had already become apparent when the ten-city federation was founded: the cities rationalized their representation in supraregional bodies by not always sending one delegation, but by one or two allied cities. Among other things, it was about avoidable expenses. Since the ten-city federation was taxed as a whole for the regiment and kept centrally at the tax master's office in Haguenau, it was often unnecessary to represent the small imperial cities at a Reichstag when the governor, interest master and secretaries from the city of Haguenau went to the meeting place.

From 1521 to 1545, i.e. for the period of the reign of Charles V , the imperial city of Münster was represented differently, sometimes by the envoy from the imperial city of Hagenau, sometimes by the envoy from the imperial city of Colmar , sometimes by both of them at the same time, or it simply did not send a delegate . It could also happen that Colmar was represented by the imperial delegate from Hagenau. Once Colmar and Haguenau were represented by Speyer . Haguenau and Colmar have assigned a mayor, a town clerk or a secretary to the meetings, depending on the case. Now and then a secretary would come with his mayor. In the imperial register of 1521, Münster ranks 66th among the 69 free and imperial cities. Hagenau ranks 40th and Colmar 37th. The other member cities of the ten- city federation behaved like the imperial city of Münster, Stadt und Tal: they thus gave full power of attorney to the following envoys at the Reichstag:

  • 1521 in Worms : Philipp von Gottesheim (Haguenau), Vinzenz Wickram (Colmar), both had received representation permits from Münster;
  • 1522 in Nuremberg : Johan Hug (Haguenau, secretary), Colmar and Munster were represented by Hug;
  • 1523 in Nuremberg: Philipp von Gottesheim and Johan Hug (Haguenau), Vinzenz Wickram (Colmar), the three represented Münster;
  • 1524 in Nuremberg: Johan Hug (Haguenau), Johann Humel (Colmar, secretary), no reference to Münster;
  • 1525 in Augsburg : no rich presence for the ten-class federation;
  • 1526 in Speyer : Johan Hug (Haguenau), Johann Humel (Colmar, secretary), Munster stands behind the Colmarer Humel;
  • 1527 in Regensburg : Dietrich Drawel (Speyer, secretary), the imperial cities were represented by the Speyer Drawel;
  • 1529 in Speyer and 1530 in Augsburg: Bartholomäus Botzheim (Haguenau, Mayor), Hieronymus Boner (Colmar), Münster was represented by both;
  • 1532 in Regensburg: Johan Hug (Haguenau, secretary), Colmar and Munster were represented by Hug;
  • 1532 in Schweinfurt and Nuremberg: no imperial class presence for the ten class federation;
  • 1541 in Regensburg and 1542 in Speyer: Bartholomäus Botzheim (Haguenau, Mayor), Hieronymus Boner (Colmar), Münster was represented by both;
  • 1542 in Nuremberg: Bartholomäus Botzheim (Haguenau, Mayor) represents Colmar and Münster;
  • 1543 at Nuremberg: no imperial class presence;
  • 1544 in Speyer: Johann Stemler (Haguenau, mayor) also represents Colmar and Münster;
  • 1545 in Worms: Hans Reinwolt, Adam Gesoltzheim (Haguenau, 2 mayors), Mathias Gintzer (Colmar), Münster was represented by Haguenau.

The collegial representation of the Alsatian imperial cities was also used from 1645 for the negotiations of the Peace of Westphalia . Johann Balthasar Schneider was “the envoy of the city of Colmar and the Alsatian cities” in Münster and Osnabrück , in the years 1645–1646 and 1647–1648, respectively. With the Alsatian cities, the ten-city league was meant, including Münster, Stadt and Tal. It remains questionable whether this envoy had any real influence on what happened, and especially in relation to the indomitable will of Louis XIV to incorporate Alsace.

The gradual French annexation

Conseil souverain d'Alsace

Until the founding of the departments in 1790, the French administration hardly touched the local imperial city institutions. The titles and designations of the officials have been renamed, but basically the age-old administrative structure remains. The royal, principally centralizing policy of Louis XIV was rather noticeable at a higher, i.e. regional level: at the end of the 17th century the Intendance d'Alsace was established in Strasbourg and in Colmar (from 1678 to 1790 - previously in Ensisheim , in Breisach am Rhein , Neubreisach ) the Conseil souverain d'Alsace as the successor institution of the Reich Chamber Court, sometimes called the French-Royal Chamber Court; Both exercised a clearer control over the administration, the judiciary, the institutions and the business of the region than in the imperial period, when Alsatian free imperial cities enjoyed a quasi-autonomous status. Among other things, the Catholic religion came to the fore again, since not only the higher and lower officials of these bodies had to prove their Catholic faith, but also the provincial bailiffs, the subordinate and castle bailiffs of all annexed areas. This happened to the disadvantage of the imperial city of Munster, which, as is well known, was very much oriented towards the Lutheran faith. In 1680, Louis XIV ordered that Catholics and Protestants are equally represented in the Münster magistrate.

The Reunion Chambers, founded by Louis XIV in 1679 for the purpose of reunion policy, were to inquire about all the lands still to be annexed which, due to the Peace of Westphalia , the Peace of Aachen and the Peace of Nijmegen, depended on the lordships that had already been incorporated. In addition, Louis XIV was able to acquire the County of Vaudémont , Sarrebourg , the County of Saarbrücken , County Salm , part of Luxembourg , Homburg , part of Pfalz-Zweibrücken , the County of Mömpelgard , Weißenburg and Strasbourg .

All of these newly acquired territories by contract and without conflict were reversed in 1697 by the Peace of Rijswijk with the exclusion from Alsace and the League of Ten cities. The imperial city of Münster has remained under French rule since the Peace of Westphalia and was incorporated into the Haut-Rhin department in 1790 . From 1648 to 1789, the city and valley of Münster were able to administer themselves and thereby tolerate the patronage of the provincial bailiffs that had become French. In the Holy Roman Empire, the sub-bailiff presided over the magistrate, in the French kingdom he was called “préteur royal” (royal praetor), the Stettmeister or mayor called themselves “bourguemaîtres”. In 1789 there were two Catholic and two Protestant mayors on the city council, one Catholic and one Protestant subordinate city council, two Catholic and one Protestant adviser to the abbey, a lay judge for each of the 7 villages, a recorder or a syndic with his assistant.

The imperial city of Münster in the Westphalian Münster 1648

On October 24, 1648, it was decided in Münster that the French king should become Landgrave of Alsace as the legitimate successor of the emperor. The Austrian ruling family ceded their property in the Alsatian regions on the left bank of the Rhine to France. It was left to the peace-making parties to interpret how this territorial transfer was to be constitutionally understood in terms of state sovereignty. There was still a certain lack of clarity about the legal situation and the fate of the territories newly acquired by France.

The envoy of the city of Colmar and the Alsatian cities in Münster and Osnabrück between 1645 and 1648 was called Johann Balthasar Schneider (1612 - 1656). In paragraph 73 of the peace treaty it read as follows: Thirdly, the emperor goes for himself, for the entire most serene house of Austria and for the realm of all rights, all property, all lordships, possessions and jurisdictions, which have hitherto been given to him, the realm and the house Austria, namely to the city of Breisach, the Landgraviate of Upper and Lower Alsace and the Landvogtei over the ten imperial cities in Alsace, namely Hagenau, Kolmar, Schlettstadt , Weißenburg, Landau, Oberehnheim, Rosheim, Münster in the St. Gregoriental, Kaysersberg , Türkheim , as well as to all villages and other rights that depend on the aforementioned bailiwick, and transfers them all to the most Christian king and the kingdom of France, so that the aforementioned city of Breisach with the hamlets of Hochstatt, Nieder-Rimsingen, Harten and belonging to the municipality Acharren including the entire area that has existed since ancient times and the ban mile, however, are sufficient come the [p. 115] privileges and freedoms of this city obtained and maintained earlier by the House of Austria . The last sentence leaves any form of interpretation open, which meant that the strongest parties could interpret the text in their own way.

Article 88 states how the House of Habsburg wants to be compensated: The most Christian king will be given 3 million livres Tournois to the aforementioned Archduke Ferdinand Karl in the following years, namely 1649, 1650 and 1651, on the festival as compensation for the areas ceded to him of St. John the Baptist, one third each year, in common coins in Basel to the Archduke or his agent .

Unclear sovereignty

Despite the annexation, the imperial city of Münster was able to continue to exist provisionally as a relatively autonomous imperial city with a certain constitutional compromise. However, this triggered a legal confusion, which was conspicuously reflected in the behavior of the emperor on the one hand and the French king on the other. On July 4, 1651, three years after the Treaty of Munster , Emperor Ferdinand III confirmed and renewed . In Vienna, despite all the clauses of the Peace of Westphalia, all rights, privileges, freedoms and wisdoms of the ten Alsatian imperial cities that had been given to them by his predecessors.

In February 1652, for example, the Reich Chancellery in Regensburg announced that the Swedish government had applied for and approved 5 million guilders as war compensation. As a result, the emperor demanded an extraordinary tax from the estates and imperial cities, which should help to repay this heavy debt. The Swedish occupation forces would not gradually leave the occupied territories until the entire amount had been paid. Based on this resolution, the imperial city of Münster in the Gregoriental was taxed at 6,408 guilders. The Swedish tax collector, Mr von Smoltzky, had opened a collection authority in Benfeld and one in Strasbourg for this tax collection . A local bailiff, Jean-Caspard Bissinger, was able to order seizure of salaries and income since 1649 for security purposes and to confiscate cattle from private households and cities that were late in paying their special tax.

This tax collection could objectively surprise the residents of the Gregorian Valley, since the Swedish troops actually fought in the service of the French king after the Peace of Westphalia (using the example of Reinhold von Rosen ) and above all because the Münster Treaty ceded the cities of the Ten-City League to France. Indeed, at the same time, the administrator of the Sundgau and the Breisgau , Herr von Girolles, was induced by the French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Henri-Auguste de Loménie de Brienne , to collect the ordinary and extraordinary taxes that the King called upon the agreements of the Peace of Westphalia should be due to the royal reign of Alsace. The king himself commissioned the governor of Breisach , Margrave Gabriel de Cassagnet, Herr von Tilladet to inquire about all the taxes and duties that were legitimately due to him in the newly acquired Alsace.

On December 20, 1652, the Breisach Regency Council had posters throughout the area stating that it was strictly forbidden to come to the aid of the Duke of Lorraine, an ally of the Habsburg emperor. In fact, the Duke of Lorraine could not yet return to his sovereign state because it was occupied by the French as long as no peace treaty could be concluded at international level. However, the Westphalian peace text indicated that the settlement of the Lorraine dispute should be achieved without weapons if possible.

The duke stayed in the Free County of Burgundy on the other side of the Vosges mountain range in the south. His troops also occupied Alsatian cities, from where they organized raids, looting and raids on neighboring cities (including Kaysersberg , Reichenweiher , Türckheim , Rufach and Münster). The latter, although long allied with the Duke of Lorraine, suffered so badly that the city burned down completely, the abbey was destroyed and the civilian population was mistreated. The Lorraine mercenaries moved on to Erstein and Rosheim .

Another source of confusion was the status of mayor . In fact, according to the Munster Treaty, the French Sun King had the rights to the Haguenau bailiwick. In the strict sense, however, this clause did not annul the imperial immediacy of the mayors in every imperial city, who acted as mediators and representatives of the emperor. According to the treaty, these imperial cities had acquired the right to continue to administer themselves after 1648 under the protection of the bailiff or governor.

Cultural connections with Switzerland and Austria

Immigration from Switzerland

Distribution area of ​​the Alemannic dialects

The Münstertal as well as the entire Alsace, but especially the Oberland , has experienced a regular population exchange with the northern federal areas since the 15th century. This is due to several favorable factors:

  • On a spiritual level, the Oberland belonged to the diocese of Basel . The ruling rulers of Munster Abbey or the neighboring imperial abbey of Murbach were therefore prelates and confreres of the Bishop of Basel who sat together in the College of Prelates on the Diet.
  • The people of Munster speak a Lower Alemannic dialect that is closely related to the High Alemannic dialects of northern Switzerland. The interpersonal communication was possible without much effort. This linguistic affinity did not prevent people from recognizing one another clearly: there was the Unterländer, the Oberländer or the " Frembden ". The pronunciation of the I-sound differs in the Münstertal from the Swiss-High Alemannic velar pronunciation, so that a Swiss could easily be recognized phonetically.
  • The agricultural products of the Alsatian plain, first and foremost wine, were sold in the greater Baden-Rheinebene-Schweiz area, which is still symbolically marked today by the three-country corner of Basel.
  • The German renaissance started from the Rhine and especially from Basel. The Upper Rhine regions were in regular contact and exchanged their scholars, students and craftsmen. Schlettstadt , a twin town of Münster in the Ten City League , developed into a center of this renaissance.
  • In the Middle Ages, the economy in Alsace flourished, so that day laborers or seasonal workers from neighboring countries such as Baden or Switzerland came to Alsace to find work.
  • After the introduction of the Reformation in some Alsatian rulers, including in the imperial city and abbey of Munster, a religious affinity arose in addition to the cultural sense of community, which made immigration easier.
  • The Rhine was not a border, but a traffic artery; some free cities between Alsace and the Swiss Confederation concluded economic-military alliances in order to maintain their prosperity.
  • In the end, the natural landscapes in the high valleys of the Vosges did not play a minor role: In the Lower and High Vosges there are some regions or localities with the surrounding area that the locals call "Little Switzerland". This is not only due to the Swiss settlers, who presumably immigrated in large numbers, but also to the fact that the relief and forest area reminded the immigrants of their homeland. The same is actually true for immigrants from the Black Forest , but astonishingly there is no Vosges region that would be called the “Little Black Forest”, whereby the percentage of immigration from Baden-Württemberg into Alsace exceeded that of the Swiss by far.

Alpine farming

Vosges breed cows
Munster cheese production
Ascent to the Col de la Schlucht
Alms of the Hohneck

Through the documented, so-called "Marquart Agreement" of February 3, 1339 between the superior of the abbey and the townspeople, the imperial abbot granted the Münster shepherds a right of use of his property so that the inhabitants of the Gregorian Valley can take their flocks to the alpine pastures of the Lorraine dukes and the Abbey of Remiremont on the other side of the First. The Vosges high pastures were leased or sub-leased to them. The dairy and wine industry was the undisputed source of income for the valley.

With the population decline during and after the Thirty Years' War , the alpine pastures remained empty and partially reforested. Although the imperial city of Münster in the Gregorian Valley was formally ceded to France, the French authorities allowed German and Alemannic-speaking settlers to come to repopulate the valley with culturally closely related ethnic communities. The only difference to immigration before the religious wars was that the French king invited Catholic immigrants as far as possible. Abbots, the magistrate and the French governor agreed from 1680 on the reclamation of the former sowing and grazing areas, including the vineyards, so that the land could return to the state of the district from around 1630. In the account book of the city of Münster for the post-war period in the 17th century it is recorded that the magistrate asked all citizens, around 600 people, for help in clearing the adjacent abandoned pastureland. Without this, the local cattle and dairy industry would not have been able to get started.

The redevelopment and redevelopment of the high valleys of the Vosges from 1660 to the middle of the 18th century was not limited to the Munster valley, but affected all neighboring areas that also depended on dairy and forestry, such as La Bresse or Gérardmer . Since the successive wars of the 17th century, the alpine pastures had also been neglected or abandoned by the Lorraine people, due to the lack of labor or the high price of cattle, but also because of the poor safety that prevailed in remote parts of the mountains. This ruined the high pastures. Trees and bushes grew so bad that they were in extremely bad shape. The residents of Gérardmer gradually came to a new small herd in 1655 and applied for a new start in the earlier alpine farming. The high pastures were leased to them from January 1, 1656, whereby the authorities expected the mountain farmers to tear up the forests and bushes that had overgrown the wasens since the last wars.

In the Münstertal, as in the opposite Lorraine high valleys, sales to middlemen had become commonplace from the 17th century: The scattered settlement and the trend towards individual self-sufficiency of mountain farmers in the Münstertal prevented the opening of dairies. Since at that time more was produced than consumed, a market economy emerged that was detrimental to the ranchers. The cheese ripening was not done by the farmers themselves because they sold the cheese fresh to traders called Cossons, who regularly stopped by and offered groceries, bran or schnapps.

The alpine pasture with the Abtriebfest is still maintained today. Herdsmen with leather caps ( locally called Malkerkappela ) march through Muhlbach or Munster with their herd and the ringing of cow bells. Some of the alpine dairies run by Munster are still in operation, although most of them have by necessity diversified and serve as mountain restaurants with bedrooms for hikers, the so-called Fermes-auberges . They serve the Malker meal with hash browns and Muenster cheese. There are currently nine alpine pastures with Münster cows.

Sledging of heating and long wood

Toboggan in the Vosges
"Schlitteurs des Vosges", a watercolor by Théophile Schuler
Sondernach coat of arms
Sledge museum in Mühlbach

One of the main professional activities of the imperial subjects of the Münster Valley was the sledge . Tobogganers carried logs or split logs down from the mountain to Schlittelwacken to a certain place, sometimes to be rafted further.

What Swiss, Austrians and Black Forests say and write about sledding in their area also applies to woodworkers from Vosges and Alsace. The toboggan technique spread in the Vosges massif in the former imperial territories such as the County of Dagsburg , the County of Salm , the Duchy of Lorraine , the Lordship of Rappoltstein , the Abbey of Murbach or the County of Mömpelgard .

The wood had to be transported across the high and steep mountain slopes down to the valley to the main roads across the Alpine and low mountain ranges. The worker carried the sledge uphill on his back. Downhill he used toboggan runs (in the Münster dialect: toboggan wagons ) either directly on the lightly prepared ground or on self-made tracks that were 1.20 to 1.50 m wide. The steeper the slope, the more difficult it is to make the wood. On steep slopes, the lumberjack leans his back against the wood, puts his feet forward, braces himself against the cross struts of the wooden rail with force in order to inhibit the speed of the descent.

The trestle sledge was used for the long timber, on which the timber rests partially and is otherwise pulled. In the Vosges as well as in the Alps, two sledges linked together, named Bock and Geiß, were used. The trestle sledge had horns at the front, which is why it is also called a horn sledge, and at the rear it was provided with strips and long runners. The smaller goat sledge had no extended runners at the front and no side sections either, so that the long timber could be placed on it more easily.

The relatively young city coats of arms of the former villages of the imperial city of Münster use the alphorn as an example for Soultzeren to reflect the vital traditional activities of the former valley inhabitants: Sondernach's municipal coat of arms adorns a golden horn sledge on a red background.

Making and using the alphorn

Soultzeren coat of arms

Although this tradition is only documented in writing at the beginning of the 19th century, there is no doubt that the production and use of the alphorn by Münster herdsmen on Voscian alpine pastures can be traced back to the Swiss or Tyrolean immigration to the devastated valley. It took several centuries for this introduced know-how to establish itself permanently in the valley of the Fecht and to have developed so far that local production also began with other materials such as glass or tinplate. Traditionally and according to oral tradition, the alphorn was used in the Münstertal by herdsmen for interpersonal communication or to call for grazing cows. Each horn had its own recognizable melody for the lead cow, so that she can identify her master and lead the herd to the stable. The alphorn would play the same role here as the cowbell.

The two alphorns on Soultzeren's coat of arms , formerly in the small valley of the imperial city of Münster in the Gregoriental, are a reminder of this musical tradition. The "international alphorn meeting" took place on September 14, 2008 in Munster. Another will take place there on September 13 and 14, 2014.

See also

literature

Most of the more modern reference works of necessity appeared in French directly via the city of Münster. Some publications in German were mainly written during the Wilhelmine era. However, papers, certificates and documents from the Munster City Archives, mostly in German, are used by all current researchers and historians in their publications and are mentioned as sources.

  • Joseph Becker: The Reichsvogtei Kaysersberg from its origin to the French Revolution . 'Alsatian' printing press, Strasbourg 1906 ( online ).
  • Annales de l'Académie d'Alsace, Francois Antoine d'Andlau dernier Reichsvogt de Kaysersberg

Ed. Académie d'Alsace, No. 7, 1985, brief description on [6]

  • Georges Bischoff: Une minorité virtual. Être Welsche en Alsace dans les coulisses du siècle d'or (1477-1618) . In: Cahiers de sociolinguistique 10, 2005, pp. 87-105 online
  • Jean Matter: Anthroponymie et immigration. La traduction des noms de famille français dans la vallée de Munster aux XVIe et XVIIe s. In: Revue d'Alsace 1948, pp. 24–30.
  • Prévôté impériale de Kaysersberg. - Seigneurie de Haut-Landsberg, XVIIIe siècle . Catalog général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France. Departments - Tome LVI. Colmar, 1-1127, N ° CGM: 631
  • Rodolphe Reuss: L'Alsace au XVIIème siècle au point de vue géographique, historique, administratif, économique, social, intellectuel et religieux . Vol. 1 (= Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études , Vol. 116), Bouillon, Paris 1897.
  • Henri Riegert, Jeannette Munschi: Le Journal historique de l'Alsace , Presses de l'ALSACE, Imprimerie Commerciale SA, Mulhouse, 4th edition 1997, 2 volumes.
  • H. Dierstein: Les origines de Mittlach, du Tyrol et d'ailleurs , in: Annuaire de la Société d'Histoire du Val et de la Ville de Munster 2004. pp. 119-133.
  • Histoire des dix villes jadis libres et impériales de la préfecture de Haguenau , based on the works of Johann-Daniel Schöpflin, Ed. JH Decker, Imprimeur du Roi, Colmar, 1825. (For Munster pp. 254–274. For Kaysersberg and the Reichsvogtei pp. 275–296).
  • Alban Fournier: Les Vosges du Donon Au Ballon d'Alsace , EST Libris, 1994
  • Emmanuel Garnier: Terres de conquêtes. La forêt vosgienne sous l'Ancien Régime , Fayard, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-213-61783-X
  • Odile Kammerer: Entre Vosges et Forêt-Noire: pouvoirs, terroirs et villes de l'Oberrhein, 1250-1350 , Publications de la Sorbonne, Paris 2001

Web links

Information in the wiki sister projects

Commons : Münster (Alsace)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Topographia Alsatiae: Münster  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Haguenau  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. City Archives Münster, report on the Vogteirechte, 1526.
  2. E. Garnier 2004, p. 438 note 3 quotes an archive item (ADV B 55989) with the following note: they wore snowshoes to walk in the snow, as was the custom there .
  3. E. Garnier 2004, p. 438 reports on a certain Nicolas Grivel and his servant, who were found dead in March 1762 at the Thanneck -Alm; they wanted to sell butter and wooden shoes in the Munster market
  4. Alban Fournier, p. 403, 5th part, chap. 4th
  5. E. Garnier, p. 437, chapter "Survivre en montagne". Garnier cites Ventron City Archives No. CC4: “ ils vont avec des chevaux de bât en Alsace pour trafiquer les fromages ”.
  6. ↑ The same Romanesque form can also be found in Alsatian or Lorraine place names such as Moyenmoutier or Marmoutier , but also in the Ladin Müstair in Graubünden.
  7. Riegert, pp. 413-417.
  8. Becker, p. 39 Note 1.
  9. ^ Munster, City Archives AA 43 Requisition slip - Vogteirechte.
  10. See Becker, p. 5, also Innsb. Statth.-Arch. “Confess” to 1566 or AC Colmar Liasse 5: In 1566 the bailiff received 200 Rhenish guilders, 22 quarters of rye, 4 quarters of barley, 40 quarters of oats, 2 loads of wine, 1 load of servants' wine, salt, cheese, peas, beans and hay.
  11. Becker, p. 65.
  12. Becker, p. 63.
  13. Quotation from a document in the Munster City Archives 1C.
  14. ^ Munster, Stadtarchiv AA 43 requisition slip.
  15. "He has free access to the council, if and when he wants," says a document in the Munster City Archives AA 44.
  16. ^ Munster City Archives AA 43.
  17. Becker 1906, p. 60.
  18. According to the DRW, German Legal Dictionary [1] , Section I 3, the use of the word "pants" as a tax (interest and tax, I 3b, or penance, I 3c) has been documented several times in history, including in Tyrol , Seat of the foothills on which the uplands of Alsace depended. Quote: “he wants to have ain par hosen and ain antzal kaß for ain herrlichkait” in: Sources on the history of the peasant war in German Tyrol 1525. - Sources on the prehistory of the peasant war: complaint article from the years 1519–1525 / ed. by Hermann Wopfner. Innsbruck 1908. S.?. - Another quote: “The defense men each have a pair of pants” in: Journal of the Historical Association for the Württemberg Franconia 1847–1875, partly in: Journal of the Historical Association for the Wirtemberg Franconia 1871. S.?.
  19. Munster City Archives AA 44: a citizen with a child prayer gave his hen, but the woman gave it back after he had strangled her.
  20. Henri Riegert, Jeannette Moonshee: Le Journal historique de l'Alsace ., Presses de l'ALSACE, Imprimerie Commerciale SA, Mulhouse, 1997, 4th Edition Volume 2, page 143.
  21. Nine envoys represented their cities: 2 for Haguenau and Colmar respectively, and 1 representative for the other cities.
  22. Haguenau , Weißenburg , Schlettstadt , Obernai , Seltz , Colmar , Rosheim, Münster im Gregoriental, Türckheim , Kaysersberg and Mulhouse
  23. Op. cit. P. 20.
  24. Op. cit. P. 24.
  25. Riegert, p. 417.
  26. ^ Joseph Geny: Schlettstadt city rights. Winter, Heidelberg 1902, p. 402.
  27. ^ Joseph Geny: Schlettstadt city rights. Winter, Heidelberg 1902, p. 949.
  28. Prof. Jean-Pierre Kintz: La Société Strasbourgeoise 1560-1650 , Ophrys 1984th
  29. Becker 1906, p. 65.
  30. ^ R. Aulinger, S. Schweinzer-Burian, Habsburg and wealthy presence on the imperial days of Emperor Charles V (1521-1555) as reflected in the imperial register of 1521 . In: F. Hederer, C. König, KN Marth, C. Milz (eds.): Spaces of action. Facets of Political Communication in the Early Modern Era . Festschrift for Albrecht P. Luttenberger on his 65th birthday, Munich 2011, pp. 109–164.
  31. The following names are taken from the study by R. Aulinger and S. Schweinzer-Burian, op. Cit.
  32. Born in Colmar on July 9, 1612 and died in Colmar on April 5, 1656.
  33. Histoire des dix villes jadis libres et impériales de la préfecture de Haguenau , 1825, p. 268, note 1 (with the names of the officials).
  34. Published in the Internet portal 'Westfälische Geschichte' ", [2] , last accessed: July 13, 2014.
  35. Riegert, Vol. 2, p. 239.
  36. ^ Henri Riegert, Volume 2, p. 240: "Pour les percepteurs, les Alsaciens sont encore des Allemands, ... et déjà Français".
  37. Op. cit. P. 240
  38. [§ 4] The Lorraine dispute should either be brought before arbitrators, who are to be appointed by both parties, or be settled amicably in a Franco-Spanish treaty or in some other way; the emperor as well as the electors, princes and estates of the empire should be free to support and promote the settlement by bringing about an amicable settlement ( compositionem amicabili interpositione ) and by other acts serving peace, but not with weapons or military means - Published on the Internet portal 'Westphalian History', [3] , last review: July 13, 2014.
  39. The other diocese was the Strasbourg for the Nordgau.
  40. The text can be read in the appendix to the article by Odile Kammerer, p. 389, [4] .
  41. Chapter 2.6. and images of the doctoral thesis by Stéphanie Goepp, Origine, histoire et dynamique des Hautes-Chaumes du massif vosgien , University of Strasbourg 2007, p. 80ff
  42. See E. Garnier 2004, p. 496, chapter “défricher et mettre en valeur”, in note 3, archive piece ACM, CC 66, sheet 12 front and sheet 14 front.
  43. Garnier refers to the document of the ACG City Archives, BB 1 No. 83.
  44. Xavier Rochel, Gestion forestière et paysages des Vosges d'après les registres de martelages du XVIIIeme siècle , dissertation, Université de Nancy 2004, vol. 2, pp. 160–161: The author refers to the department archive piece ADMM B2791 with the title " Repli des Chaumes 1655 - decline of the high pastures.
  45. The following quote from the Inventaire-sommaire des archives départementales. Vosges , by Léopold Duhamel, Vosges dépt, 1867, mentions on p. 117 how far Cossons can go. B. to Mirecourt (seat of the governor of the Vosges): "Défense à tous les cossons, revendeurs et autres (...) de vendre et décharger chez les hôteliers, boulangers ou cabaretiers, et ordre de les apporter sur le march." (Roughly summarized , market traders are forbidden to sell their products directly to hoteliers, bakers or landlords, but only at the market.)
  46. In the work of Elise Voïart, Jacques Callot, 1606 à 1637 , Vol. 1, published by Dumont, 1841, p 171, the flight of the famous engraver is Jacques Callot described which in Luneville countless in this country Cossons met dealers referred to, the butter , Poultry and cheese from the Vosges and went home [5] .
  47. For the whole section, Pierre Brunet, Histoire et geographie des fromages: actes du Colloque de geographie historique, Caen, 1985, Université de Caen, 1987, p. 73.
  48. Almwirtschaft in Munster with video ( memento of the original from July 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vallee-munster-transhumances.fr
  49. Official website of the Munster tourist office: Map of alpine up and downhill trails in the Münstertal, Alsatian Vosges Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vallee-munster-transhumances.fr
  50. ^ Dictionary network, Alsatian, University of Trier, to be read online (last accessed on July 30, 2014).
  51. ^ Dictionary network, Alsatian, University of Trier, to be read online (last accessed on July 30, 2014).
  52. This information on the width of the toboggan run is also confirmed by the Austrian quarterly journal for forestry 1901: wood is transported into the valley by sledge, the path is 1.50 m wide, p. 70.
  53. After the training course for Swiss sub forester Franz Frank Hauser, Guide for Switzerland: by rangers and spell Wait courses, F. Semminger, 1905.6 pages.
  54. to read statements by Guy Buecher, ensemble of Cors des Alpes du Hohnack Walbach online, part history Historique ( Memento of 31 July 2014 Internet Archive )
  55. H. Dierstein, p. 120 he tells, for example, the branch of the Latscha brothers from Délémont in the canton of Jura in Mittlach in the Rothenbach high valley.
  56. The Swabian alphorn maker Bernhard Köhler confirms it in his travel report “Report International Alphorn Bläsertreffen” on September 14, 2008 in Münster / Alsace to Munster: “Before we went to the hospitable Sennhütte, I unpacked my alphorn and let it down into the valley and closed resound around the alpine pastures, with echoing responses. The landlord and the herdsman came in at once and disappeared briefly. He wiped his sleeve over a dusty picture that showed the hut in Steinwasen, in front of which a young herdsman was blowing the alphorn. It was an alphorn made of sheet metal without an extra mouthpiece. 'Now the herdsmen would have to answer from the alpine pastures around, but there are no longer any people who blow the alphorn.' ”Quotation from the website alphornkoehler.de report" International Alphornbläsertreffen "on September 14, 2008 in Münster / Alsace ( memento from 1. November 2014 in the Internet Archive )