Salt Office

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The Salt Office was a common authority in the Middle Ages that monitored salt mining and trade in salt and provided supplies. The salt trade was an important monopoly of the respective ruler ( salt monopoly ).

Salt office in the Berchtesgadener Land

For the Salzamt in the Berchtesgadener Land , a Hallinger named Henricus from 1286 can be proven as its first verifiable headmaster . The Hallinger was usually commissioned or elected by the Berchtesgaden monastery as its "most important administrative officer" . The monastery pen was not least because of its salt production in 1380 to Reichsprälatur to and 1559-1803 direct imperial Berchtesgaden Provostry been raised and the Berchtesgaden country a small but independent principality . If the first two were demonstrably lay people, the Hallinger was elected from the ranks of the Augustinian canons within the monastery from the "late Middle Ages " . First mentioned from 1334, the Hall Inger was mostly in personal union a "princely market Judge", which, however, only the " low jurisdiction exercised". Despite its salt income, the monastery monastery had very high debts for many years, which is why even the provost himself had to take over the office on behalf of the Prince Archbishopric of Salzburg in order to "pay homage" to the archbishop for the saline Schellenberg pledged to him as "his Hallinger".

Apart from the first six years, the seat of the Salt Office from 1292 for centuries was in Schellenberg , the second capital of Berchtesgadener Land after Berchtesgaden as the seat of the monastery . It was only in the course of a last, compulsory pledge of the Schellenberg and Frauenreuth salt works to the Electorate of Bavaria that the seat of the Salt Office was established as the Electoral Bavarian Main Salt Office in Adelsheim Castle in Berchtesgaden from 1795 .

After the secularization of 1803 and the associated incorporation of the Berchtesgadener Land into the Kingdom of Bavaria from 1810 , the seat of the Salt Office remained in Berchtesgaden as the first of seven "Main Salt Offices", which was then no longer a Hallinger, but a royal one Bavarian "Inspector" board member.

Salt offices in the Habsburg Empire

Due to their importance for the salt industry, which was extremely important in the Habsburg Empire, the salt offices were an authority directly subordinate to the ruling family.

The salt office in Gmunden administered the saltworks in one of the most important salt mining areas in Austria, the Salzkammergut in Upper Austria (a private property of the Habsburgs). It was located in the Kammerhof (built in 1450, now a museum) since the 15th century . With the court deputation resolution of the Empress Maria Theresa of May 22, 1745 , the salt chamber in Gmunden became Salzoberamt, subordinate administrative offices were Ischl , Ebensee am Traunsee , Stadl , Lambach , Wels, Zizlau , Enghagen , Mauthausen and Linz . The Linz Salt Office building is used as a studio building. The Freistadt Salt Office building, which was responsible for trade in the north towards Bohemia, the Salzhof .

The Salzamt in Vienna was 1500-1824 in addition to the Ruprecht Church , the Church of the salt Schiffer. There was direct access to the church from the Salt Office. Salzamtmann Georg Nagl had the already very dilapidated Ruprechtskirche restored in 1622, Salzamtmann Johann Baptist Bartolotti von Partenfeld financed the repair from 1701 to 1703.

The still existing Grazer Salzamtsgasse in the 1st district is reminiscent of the off the year 1784 located there Salzamt the Habsburg monarchy. After the former Dominican monastery was dissolved, the area was re-parceled out and the street was given its current name. The actual Salzamt was actually not in the extremely short Salzamtgasse, which had only seven house numbers, but at the corner of the intersection with Burggasse.

Salt offices were also in other countries of the monarchy, e.g. B. in Hungary / Transylvania (a famous salt office was located near the salt mine in Praid , in today's Romania ). The old Salzstadl still stand in Krems an der Donau and Weißenkirchen . In the Krems district of Stein a. d. Danube you can find Salzamtgasse next to the Salzstadl.

In Klagenfurt , the Salt Office building was on Tabakgasse, so it obviously also served the tobacco control room . The facade on Tobacco alley bears the only surviving Renaissance - sgraffito Klagenfurt.

In the 19th century the salt offices were dissolved, the Gmund Oberamt was converted by Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1850 into the kk Salinen- und Forstdirektion - the origin of the later Salinen Austria as well as the federal forests - the official seat was the official building built in 1838/39 at the monastery square.

"Salzamt" in today's parlance

The word “Salzamt” lives on, especially in Austria, as an expression for a non-existent authority. If there is no legal recourse against an official decision, you can “complain to the Salt Office”.

Ironically , the Provincial Administrative Court ( Independent Administrative Senate until 2013 ) for Styria is located in Graz's Salzamtgasse next to the former Salzamt building. Since this authority is responsible for complaints against official decisions, the verdict has a certain justification in Styria.

The literal Hungarian translation “sóhivatal” has a similar meaning (you can even send someone to the “sóhivatal” with nonsensical questions). The word was also used pejoratively for non-functioning, bureaucratic offices .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Walter Brugger , Heinz Dopsch , Peter F. Kramml: History of Berchtesgaden: Between Salzburg and Bavaria (until 1594) . Plenk, 1991. p. 919
  2. ^ Walter Brugger, Heinz Dopsch, Peter F. Kramml: History of Berchtesgaden: Between Salzburg and Bavaria (until 1594) . Plenk, 1991. p. 516
  3. ↑ geschichte.digitale-sammlungen.de Historical Atlas of Bavaria - Out of print volumes; Volume: Altbayern Series I, Issue 7: Fürstpropstei Berchtesgaden . Komm. Für Bayerische Landesgeschichte, Munich 1954. p. 31
  4. ^ Walter Brugger, Heinz Dopsch, Peter F. Kramml: History of Berchtesgaden: Between Salzburg and Bavaria (until 1594) . Plenk, 1991. p. 481
  5. ^ Walter Brugger, Heinz Dopsch, Peter F. Kramml: History of Berchtesgaden: Between Salzburg and Bavaria (until 1594) . Plenk, 1991. p. 509
  6. ^ Walter Brugger, Heinz Dopsch, Peter F. Kramml: History of Berchtesgaden: Between Salzburg and Bavaria (until 1594) . Plenk, 1991. p. 711
  7. ↑ The history of the Adelsheim castle , online at museum-schloss-adelsheim.de
  8. ^ I. Haupt-Salzamt Berchtesgaden in Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Kingdom of Bavaria, 1848. S. 150, 151
  9. ^ Georg Grüll : Salzoberamtsarchiv Gmunden . Inventory. Ed .: Upper Austrian Provincial Archives . Linz 1964 ( PDF ).
  10. ↑ Kurt Jakob: Verweseramt. In: Lexikon-Salzwirtschaft. Seeau Foundation, accessed in 2010 .
  11. ^ Karl A. Kubinzky, Astrid M. Wentner: Grazer street names: origin and meaning. Graz 1996.
  12. ↑ Ingrid Spitzbart: History of the Kammerhof building. An extract from the house chronicle. In: Kammerhof Museums Gmunden. City of Gmunden, accessed in 2010 .