Victory department

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The Sieg department was an administrative unit in the Grand Duchy of Berg on the right bank of the Rhine, which existed from 1806 to 1813 .

The department mainly comprised those lands that were added to the Grand Duchy of Berg formed from the "Duchies of Kleve and Berg" under Napoleon's brother-in-law Joachim Murat in the course of the formation of the Rhine Confederation on July 12, 1806 . This mainly concerned the Nassau-Orange principalities of Siegen , Dillenburg , Hadamar and Beilstein, which fell victim to mediatization . This stretch of land was added externally like a hook-shaped appendix to the Grand Duchy of Berg in the southeast, which had been upgraded in its status.

With the introduction of the departmental structure in the Grand Duchy by a decree of Napoleon of November 14, 1808 by the Imperial Commissioner Jacques Claude Beugnot , the Sieg department comprised around 133,000 inhabitants over 39 square miles. The administrative seat ( chief lieu ) was not the industrial capital Siegen , but the former Nassau-Orange government seat Dillenburg .

Characteristic was and remained the very heterogeneous and peripheral location of the country. In the context of the Grand Duchy, it probably benefited the least from Napoleon's administrative reforms, which in any case were quite volatile in relation to the annexed area on the left bank of the Rhine . Presumably as a result - but also due to the fundamentally difficult structural basic conditions - the dissatisfaction of the population with the conditions was greater here than elsewhere.

The department of Sieg comprised the two arrondissements (districts) Siegen and Dillenburg.

The Arrondissement of Dillenburg had 58,044 inhabitants and was divided into seven cantons (population 1808):

  1. Canton Dillenburg (11,524 inh.) With the Mairien: Dillenburg, Eibach, Haiger and Ebersbach
  2. Canton Driedorf (7,621 inh.) With the Mairien: Driedorf, Mengerskirchen and Elsoff
  3. Canton Hadamar (11,311 inh.) With the Mairien: Hadamar, Offheim, Zeuzheim, Lahr and Frickhofen
  4. Canton Herborn (8,039 inh.) With the Mairien: Herborn, Hörbach, Bicken and Eisemroth
  5. Canton Rennerod (10,959 inh.) With the Mairien: Rennerod, Marienberg, Höhn and Emmerichenhain
  6. Canton Runkel (3,867 inh.) With the Mairien: Schupbach and Schadeck
  7. Canton Westerburg (4,723 inh.) With the Mairien: Westerburg and Gemünden (the former county of Westerburg )

On December 17, 1811, the canton of Westerburg was incorporated into the canton of Rennerod and the canton of Runkel into the canton of Hadamar.

The Arrondissement of Siegen had 75,026 inhabitants and was divided into seven cantons (population 1808):

  1. Canton Eitorf (12,147 inh.) With the Mairien: Eitorf, Herchen, Ruppichteroth and Much
  2. Canton Gummersbach (13,697 inh.) With the Mairien: Gimborn, Gummersbach, Marienheide, Neustadt, Ründeroth
  3. Canton Homburg (9,163 inh.) With the Mairien: Drabenderhöhe, Marienberghausen, Nümbrecht, Wiehl
  4. Canton Netphen (11,783 inh.) With the Mairien: Ferndorf, Hilchenbach, Irmgarteichen and Netphen
  5. Canton Siegen (11,194 inh.) With the Mairien: Freudenberg, Siegen, Weidenau, Wilnsdorf
  6. Canton Waldbröl (14,358 inh.) With the Mairien: Dattenfeld, Denklingen, Eckenhagen, Morsbach and Waldbröl
  7. Canton Wildenburg (2,684 pop.) With the Mairie: Friesenhagen

The canton of Wildenburg was merged with the canton of Siegen in 1811.

Since April 7, 1809, Johann Anton Schmitz was prefect of the department. This replaced Count von Borcke.

See also

literature

  • Rudolf Göck: The Grand Duchy of Berg under Joachim Murat, Napoleon I and Louis Napoleon 1806–1813. A contribution to the history of French rule on the right bank of the Rhine , Cologne 1877 [strongly anti-French tendency]
  • Charles Schmidt : The Grand Duchy of Berg, 1806-1813. A study on French supremacy in Germany under Napoleon I , Neustadt / Aisch 1999 [Dt. Translation u. Reprint of the Paris 1905 edition], ISBN 3-87707-535-5
  • Anton Joseph Weidenbach : Nassau Territories; In: Annals of the Association for Nassau antiquity and historical research , Volume 10, 1870, pages 309-310

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Josef Scotti: Collection of laws and ordinances ... , Volume 3 (Grand Duchy of Berg), Düsseldorf: Wolf, 1822, p. 1151 ( Bonn State Library )
  2. ^ A b Heinrich Berghaus : Germany for a Hundred Years , Second Section - First Volume, Verlag Voigt & Günther, 1861, p. 345 ff ( Google Books )
  3. ^ A b Heinrich Berghaus: Germany for a Hundred Years , Second Department - Third Volume, Verlag Voigt & Günther, 1862, p. 356 ff ( Google Books )
  4. ↑ a b Georg von Viebahn : Statistics and Topography of the Government District Düsseldorf , Volume 1, Schreiner, 1836, p. 70 ( Google Books )