Saxon Landwehr
The Saxon Landwehr and the neighboring Hennebergische Landwehr are former defenses between the Saxon , Henneberg and Würzburg possessions. Their remains (ramparts and ditches) can be found today in the area south of the Thuringian Forest , the Saxon Landwehr completely in the Hildburghausen district in the south of Thuringia .
history
The establishment of the continuous Landwehr began after 1440, about 70 years after the maintenance of Coburg and with it the border regions Heldburger Land , Hildburghausen and Eisfelder Land had passed from Henneberg to Saxon ownership. At this time, the "Ortslande in Franken" had developed into a remote but important focus of the interests of the lineages of the electoral family and important noble families in the growing electorate of Saxony. Various members of the Wettin family resided in Coburg and Sonneberg . The Burgraves of Meißen from the Sterker von Wohlsbach family , the ancestors of the Meinheringers , had been wealthy in the Coburg region, but had lost their allodes to the Duchy of Merania , from whose inheritance they were passed on to the Hennebergers.
A contract between the Wettin Landgrave Wilhelm of Thuringia and the Count Georg von Henneberg-Aschach-Hartenberg from 1424 for better Frides, use and protection sake of our country Lute and rule , named as the reason for the construction of the complex border system , but the possibility should be levying tariffs on the trade routes between the prosperous market towns on both sides of the borders was at least as important a motive. In any case, the residents were asked to faithfully (to) preserve the passages (" Schlege ") and to let nymand through it, from whom they desolate, that it would harm or bring our country and Lüten to us . The oldest part of the Landwehr can be found in and near Zeilfeld on the border between the district of Hildburghausen and the Henneberg-Aschacher court Römhild , which the Aschacher Line has gradually developed into a residence . Likewise, as early as 1424 there was mention of a blow between Linden and Haubinda on the border from the Electoral Saxon office of Heldburg to Römhild and the branching off of the Henneberger Landwehr, which was also started in 1424 and was completed in 1518, and a blow near Gompertshausen on the border from the office of Heldburg to the diocese of Würzburg . Until 1518, the border sections from the offices of Eisfeld and Hildburghausen to the princes of Henneberg-Schleusingen, the offices of Schleusingen and Themar , were secured with blows on the busy roads near Poppenwind , Wiedersbach and Reurieth . In 1578 and 1598 (Principality of Saxony-Coburg ) and in 1842 ( Saxony-Meiningen to the Kingdom of Prussia , Henneberg district and the Kingdom of Bavaria ), the boundaries were re-petrified by the respective state authorities.
Construction
The Saxon Landwehr was built on the Electoral Saxon area and consisted of various combinations of ramparts, ditches and a so-called hag , which was understood to mean strips of bushes and forests. There were single and double trenches. The excavated earth was piled up to form walls. The trenches were so wide that a horse could not jump over them. The Landwehr with ditch and rampart was 8 to 15 meters wide, with double trenches even wider. The depths of the trenches varied and may have been more than two meters. In some sections the hag was 150 meters wide, and the kinking of the young shoots created impenetrable bushes.
There were numerous deviations from the real borderline, which led to border disputes. Passages at irregular intervals enabled border traffic, they could be closed by gates and barriers (there were also gates at the village entrances). A Landwehr rider, later a forest ranger, was responsible for operating the culverts. The maintenance of the plant was secured by Frondienst , which was reluctantly taken over. At times villages refused to work. The land defense systems fell into disrepair accordingly quickly.
location
The Saxon Landwehr began in the north near Lichtenau, today part of Biberau (municipality Schleusegrund ) east of Schleusingen , led via Wiedersbach , Ebenhards , Zeilfeld , Simmershausen , then between Schlechtsart and Linden on to Albingshausen and ended after 61 kilometers in the south between Poppenhausen (municipality Heldburg ) and Gleismuthausen . The Henneberg Landwehr branched off near Linden. In Brattendorf the name of the former Dampfziegelei "Red Hague" to the planted Landwehr recalled (see. Heege, Hag, Haag or "hedge"). The South Henneberg staggered dialect border runs along the Saxon Landwehr . It delimits the Itzgründische in the east from the Rennsteig to the south from the Hennebergische and Grabfeldischen .
At the time of the division of Germany, parts of the southern section of the old Landwehr became the inner-German border .
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the trail of the Saxon Landwehr see: Norbert Klaus Fuchs: Das Heldburger Land – a historical travel guide ; Rockstuhl Publishing House, Bad Langensalza, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86777-349-2
- ↑ E. Schaubach: The former Saxon Landwehr in the Hildburghausen district in: New contributions to the history of German antiquity of the Henneberg antiquity research association in Meiningen; Meiningen, 1909
literature
- Norbert Klaus Fuchs: The Heldburger Land - a historical travel guide; Rockstuhl Publishing House, Bad Langensalza 2013, ISBN 978-3-86777-349-2
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