Division of the Kingdom of Saxony

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The division of the Kingdom of Saxony was Austria's counter-proposal to the complete Prussian annexation of the Kingdom of Saxony, which was forced by the Kingdom of Prussia with the support of the Russian Empire, in the run-up to and within the framework of the Congress of Vienna in 1814/1815. It was finally enforced by Austria and the United Kingdom , ultimately allied with the restored Kingdom of France , against Prussia's long and energetic resistance, which insisted on the full annexation of Saxony, and whose insistence plunged the Congress of Vienna into one of its deepest diplomatic crises. After two proposals for division, a third agreement was finally reached on February 8, 1815 on the border of "core Saxony" - on the one hand Austria's military interests not to have another common border with Prussia, and on the other hand Prussia's fiscal interest in acquiring as many new taxpayers as possible To secure subjects, considered.

The Saxon King Friedrich August I , who, at Prussia's instigation, had not been involved in the negotiations and had been imprisoned in Friedrichsfelde Palace until February 22, 1815, had to accept this result: Despite his resistance, he had no choice to make this assignment in " Peace and Friendship Treaty ”between Prussia and Saxony on May 18, 1815 in Pressburg as a dictated peace . After the treaty came into force on May 21, 1815, Prussia already took possession of the ceded parts of the country with over 850,000 inhabitants on May 22, 1815 (hence the name of the inhabitants in the vernacular as "Booty Prussia").

The ceded areas were given the name Duchy of Saxony by Prussia . On the administrative side, Prussia formed the " Province of Saxony " from the areas to the west of "Core Saxony" and including other areas of Prussia . The areas to the north of the remaining Saxony came to the province of Brandenburg and those to the east to the province of Silesia , whereby the common Saxon identity was lost over time. Part of the ceded area of ​​Electoral Saxony with around 50,000 inhabitants was passed on from Prussia to the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach .

The demarcation of the boundary took several years to complete: In 1818 territorial exchanges were carried out because the actual contract contained several inaccuracies.

Revised 1893–1901 and re-marketed and apart from an exchange of territory with Thuringia in 1928, this border remained in place until July 5, 1945 (Order No. 5 of the SMAD ), when the state of Saxony around the parts of the former Saxon area west of the Neisse and since 1815 the Prussian administrative district Liegnitz was expanded on the one hand, but on the other hand had to give the southeasternmost tip east of the Lusatian Neisse around Reichenau to Poland.

In the course of a comprehensive district reform in the GDR, some areas came back to Saxony in 1952. When the Free State of Saxony was re-established in 1990, the borders were shifted again (see Chapter 9).

Territorial status of the Electorate of Saxony before the Congress of Vienna

With the Peace of Hubertusburg in 1763, the electorate of Saxony was completely restored in its territory, the annexation of Saxony by Prussia, which was already sought during this war, ended with a complete defeat of Prussia with regard to this war goal. Nevertheless, the will of Frederick II continued to apply within the Prussian crown and its highest-ranking representatives , who considered an annexation of Saxony to be desirable (the will was only made public in 1890 by Prince Otto von Bismarck ).

A change resulted from the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French occupation of Germany: This changed the balance of power in Germany at that time fundamentally. The Peace of Posen  - ratified by Napoleon Bonaparte on December 12, 1806 - brought the then Elector Friedrich August III, his ally, the title of king and the prospect of the Kottbuser circle , which was initially a Brandenburg and, since 1701, a Prussian exclave in Lower Lusatia lay. For this purpose, the electorate had to cede to a principality still to be created an area which was located between the principalities of Eichsfeld and Erfurt and was to be described in more detail and which was equivalent in terms of population and other circumstances. While this part came into force immediately after ratification, the Kottbuser Kreis was only handed over to the Kingdom of Saxony with the Peace of Tilsit on September 12, 1807.

The now Kingdom of Saxony ceded to the now Kingdom of Westphalia on the basis of this contract :

This was agreed in the contract of July 22, 1807, but was only carried out between March 9 and 19, 1808. The offices Artern , Voigtstedt and Bornstedt remaining from the Saxon part of the county of Mansfeld near Saxony were assigned to the office of Sangerhausen .

As early as 1813 with the start of the wars of liberation, an alliance between Prussia and Russia was formed. Although there was no mention of the incorporation of Saxony into Prussia in the relevant treaty or in the two secret articles of the Treaty of Kalisch , Prussia was already offered Saxony in the subsequent talks on Russian territorial gains in Poland. In a letter dated February 21, 1813, State Chancellor Hardenberg wrote to the Prussian ambassador at the Russian court, Karl Friedrich von dem Knesebeck : “Saxony would undoubtedly be a very important and favorable acquisition for Prussia. One must not reject this idea, which can be realized through the vicissitudes of war ... "

In March 1813 General Blücher finally occupied the Kottbuser Kreis again and since the Prussian-Russian Convention of Wroclaw, which was concluded on March 19, 1813, the deposition of Friedrich August I from the throne was seriously considered.

According to the historian Winfried Müller, the fact that Prussia would be compensated with Saxony for the parts of the territory to be ceded to Russia in Poland could only succeed if the Saxon king was discredited as an unshakable French collaborator .

This is one of the reasons why Friedrich August I was captured by Tsar Alexander on the afternoon of October 19, 1813, immediately after the Battle of Leipzig, on his own territory, contrary to all conventions at the time , and then brought to Berlin.

The Kingdom of Saxony was treated as a defeated country and occupied by Russian troops. The "General Gouvernement of the High Allied Powers" created by the Allied Powers was under the direction of Prince Repnin-Wolkonski , who in turn was answerable to the Prussian Minister Reich Freiherr vom und zum Stein . The seat of the governorate was initially Leipzig and after the withdrawal of the last French troops on December 9, 1813, finally Dresden.

Before the Congress of Vienna

Already in the diplomatic run-up to the Wars of Liberation , Prussia and Russia had agreed in the Treaty of Kalisch in February 1813 that in the event of a victory over Napoleon Bonaparte, Prussia should be restored to full territorial integrity. Prussia in turn gave Russia a promise that Tsar Alexander would receive most of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw . Alexander wanted a formally independent kingdom of Poland , which should be linked in a personal union with Russia. Since Prussia would in turn lose territories from the 2nd and 3rd partition of Poland , at the end of the wars of liberation it was now obvious to compensate Prussia with the annexation of Saxony.

In January 1814, Metternich actually considered, in order to free Prussia from close ties with Russia, to allow Saxony to be annexed by Prussia, in order to isolate Russia and to reject its efforts to expand its power to Central Europe.

The Prussian annexation plan was also supported by the Russian Governor General Repnin-Wolkonski, who already handed over the administration of the General Government directly to Prussia, namely Eberhard Freiherr von der Recke and Leopold von Gaudi , during the Vienna Congress on November 8, 1814 : According to the words of the Handing over the administration to Prussia was only a matter of time before this would also be formally confirmed legally (which at that time no longer corresponded to the congress realities). Despite their continued formal independence, they took positions alongside Stein and, according to Repnin-Wolkonski, that they viewed this period as a transitional period from the outset and that all of Saxony would soon be incorporated into Prussia.

With the beginning of the Congress of Vienna, which met at the invitation of Emperor Emperor Franz I of Austria and Prince Metternich from September 1814 to undertake a comprehensive reorganization of Europe, it seemed only a formal question to implement this annexation. On October 11, 1814, the representative of England, Robert Viscount Castlereagh , approved this annexation in a note.

Prussia relied on Austria's approval of this annexation, which was not confirmed at the beginning of the congress. In a note to von Hardenberg dated October 22, 1814, Metternich formulated in a passing subordinate clause whether a core of the Kingdom of Saxony could not be preserved - this would save the king of Saxony having to compensate in other ways. Hardenberg ignored this subordinate clause, believing that he was finally in possession of Austria's consent.

The background was that the Austrian Johann Freiherr von Wessenberg had written a memorandum in October 1814 in which he summarized the arguments against a complete annexation of Saxony from an Austrian point of view and for the first time brought up a division of the country: Lower Lusatia and the Wittenbergers should be the King of Prussia District , the offices of Gommern , Barby , Querfurt and Jüterbog , the Saxon part of the county of Mansfeld and from the Thuringian district the offices of Eckartsberga , Freyburg , Sangerhausen , Weißensee , Langensalza and Sachsenburg with a total of 432,400 inhabitants. Another direct border between Austria and Prussia should be prevented.

Metternich finally followed this position, initially internally, so that the alliance between Prussia and Austria broke up.

1. Proposal for division

The dispute over the Saxon question, which could not be debated separately from the Polish question, intensified in November and December 1814. On December 10, 1814 Metternich submitted a note in which the complete annexation of Saxony was now rejected and a partition was proposed. As the (1st) division proposal, the areas were listed as Wessenberg had presented in his memorandum in October 1814. This meant that Saxony should lose a fifth of its territory with 432,400 inhabitants to Prussia. Metternich pursued the idea of ​​a "buffer state". In addition, he was reluctant to remove a monarch who was related to the House of Habsburg because both grandmothers of Friedrich August were ultimately daughters of Joseph I. The first proposal for division was based on the office boundaries of the Kingdom of Saxony.

On December 19, 1814, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the representative of France, who was initially not admitted to the negotiations, handed over a letter to Metternich in which he welcomed the proposal for partition and said that a "force d'aggression" ( ie power of aggression, diplomatically phrased it meant Prussia) permanent peace could not be achieved on the border with Bohemia.

Castlereagh, as the British representative, also agreed to the partition of Saxony and offered himself as a mediator: on December 19 and 20, 1814, he visited Hardenberg as the Prussian representative and Adam Jerzy Czartoryski as the representative of Russia. Prussia, however, insisted on a complete annexation of Saxony and compensation for the Saxon king in Westphalia or on the left bank of the Rhine. Castlereagh, who was ready to make further concessions (considerable other parts of northern Saxony including the fortresses Wittenberg and Torgau as well as Lower Lusatia as well as Upper Lusatia ), resorted to a trick: Since Prussia always talked about sufficient compensation for the areas to be ceded, he did so Proposal to set up a technical commission that should first determine the population figures in order to compensate for them (and not the area). This commission was quickly occupied by Austria, Prussia, Russia, France and Great Britain, brought into being within four days and met for the first time on Christmas Eve 1814.

At the same time, however, on December 27, 1814, the Russian envoy Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumowski requested a joint meeting of the four powers Russia, Prussia, Austria and Great Britain for the final solution to the Saxon question, which, however, brought no result: as a result, the Prussian Hardenberg threatened openly in the Meeting on December 31, 1814 that the non-consent to the Prussian annexation of Saxony would be seen as a declaration of war on Prussia (and Russia). Thereupon on January 3, 1815 Austria, France and Great Britain founded a military alliance directed against Prussia and Russia as a threatening gesture to Prussia, which had to give way.

2. Division proposal

Prussia continued to refuse to allow the Saxon king to further negotiations, which Hardenberg believed should be settled with Rhenish areas. Metternich in turn followed Castlereagh and made another proposal on January 12, 1815 (he referred to it as a "counter-proposal", although it was a new proposal): This second proposal for division now deviated considerably. Compared to the first proposal for partition, Prussia was awarded additional areas: it was in parts less oriented towards administrative structures, but included the rivers Elbe , Schwarze Elster and Saale as border lines and made further concessions to Prussia.

The border line initially followed the Wittig and Lusatian Neisse (which Görlitz  - with the exception of its eastern suburb  - would have remained on the Saxon side), then south of Rothenburg / Upper Lusatia , which came to Prussia, via Königswartha and Wittichenau to Pulsnitz and along Pulsnitz and Schwarzer Elster to the limits of the 1st proposal for division, whereby Ortrand and Torgau would have remained Saxon. North of Leipzig, the line was artificially drawn south of Eilenburg , Delitzsch and Landsberg , all of which would have become Prussian. The Saale was supposed to form the border west of Leipzig, so that Merseburg fell to Prussia, while Naumburg (Saale) , Weißenfels and Zeitz would have remained Saxon.

With this proposal, the Prussian king was offered, in addition to the areas already granted in the 1st partition proposal, also (among other things) half of Upper Lusatia, large parts of the Leipzig district and the county of Henneberg : 782,249 of a good 2 million inhabitants would be under Prussian sovereignty in this way got.

With this demarcation, Metternich did not follow the idea of ​​Castlereagh, but wanted to continue pursuing the idea of ​​keeping Prussia away from the Austrian border with the division of Upper Lusatia. The Austrian military also pushed for the larger cities ( Dresden , Bautzen , Zittau and Leipzig ) and the Torgau fortress to be preserved for the smaller Saxony.

Urged by the sudden counter-alliance against the total annexation of Saxony, Prussia entered negotiations to partition Saxony: On January 13, 1815, Hardenberg indicated that he could agree to a greatly reduced Saxony. On January 19, 1815, however, the technical commission published the determined population figures: It came to the conclusion that, according to Metternich's counter-proposal, which did not only affect Saxony, instead of the 780,000 inhabitants of Saxony, only 723,311 inhabitants would have come under the Prussian crown. In general, it emerged that this counter-proposal, including the areas in northern and western Germany, resulted in a deficit of 264,311 fewer inhabitants to the disadvantage of Prussia, so that further assignments of areas were necessary, not only with regard to Saxony.

Hardenberg's notes, which were attached to the congress files on February 8, 1815, also showed that Hardenberg complained on behalf of the Prussian side that only eight of the 28 largest cities in Saxony were to come to Prussia: Suhl , Lauban , Wittenberg, Eisleben , Merseburg, Guben and Neugersdorf , the latter being a mistake by Hardenberg, since this place should not fall to Prussia in any of the partition proposals. He also demanded Leipzig or Dresden for Prussia.

Unification of the great powers (3rd proposal for division and final division)

Castlereagh in particular was active and achieved that Austria would forego the fortresses Torgau and Erfurt in favor of Prussia if Leipzig stayed with Saxony. However, Hardenberg insisted on Leipzig and the entire Upper Lusatia in favor of Prussia, the latter supported by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia, who did not want to renounce the incorporation of Leipzig into Prussia. Castlereagh agreed to that, but Metternich did not follow suit. The Russian Tsar Alexander I, where nothing was farther than at one end of the negotiations on the division of Saxony, finally offered to the way in which he on the status of the fortress Thorn as "neutral territory", its design similar to the Republic of Krakow provided was, renounced and left the city to Prussia. For military-strategic reasons Prussia accepted the offer: In favor of a Vistula fortress with only 20,000 inhabitants (including the surrounding area), Prussia renounced Leipzig with (statistically) 30,796 inhabitants. The necessary population compensation was now carried out in the north and west of Saxony with deep interventions in the “core population”.

On February 8, 1815, the five great powers agreed on a proposal for division on the Saxon question , which contained a further downsizing of "Rests Sachsen". Compared to the second proposal for division of January 12, 1815, it now provided that additional areas with a total of 131,469 inhabitants should be assigned.

In addition to the second proposal for partition, Prussia was awarded the area around Görlitz , but not southern Upper Lusatia . In addition, there were larger proportions of the offices of Großenhain , the offices of Torgau and Delitzsch , almost the entire office of Weißenfels , the offices of Merseburg and Zeitz and the entire office of Mühlberg . If the 2nd proposal for division still provided for a border drawing along the Elster, Elbe and Saale rivers, the border has now been pushed so far into the Saxon core area that the cities of Görlitz, Elsterwerda , Mühlberg , Torgau , Eilenburg , Delitzsch , Weißenfels , Naumburg ( Saale) , Merseburg and Zeitz came under Prussian sovereignty. Prussia achieved gains in terms of area and population, especially in the area of ​​the Saale with the Naumburg and Merseburg monasteries, as well as on the Mulde and in Upper Lusatia. Throughout the assignment area of the Kingdom of Saxony to Prussia now lived 855,305 inhabitants. Prussia agreed to this (and thus to Leipzig and about half of Upper Lusatia in "Restsachsen").

The boundary line was formulated as follows [Note: notation based on the specimen copy] and later adopted in Article 2 of the concluded contract:

“This line will rise from the Bohemian frontier, at Wiese in the Seidenberg area , where it follows the river bed of the Wittich brook until it flows into the Neisse. From the Neisse she will turn to the Eigenschen Kreis , going through between Tauchritz , which comes to Prussia, and Bertschoff , who keeps Saxony; then it will follow the northern limit of the Eigenschen Kreis to the angle between Paulsdorff and Ober-Sohland ; from there it will go on to the border that separates the Gorlitz district from the Bautzen district, so that Upper, Middle and Lower Sohland, Ohlisch and Radewitz remain with Saxony.
The great post road between Görlitz and Bautzen will be Prussian to the limit of the two districts mentioned. Then the line will follow the boundary of the district to Dubrauke , then over the heights to the right of the Löbauer water , so that this brook with its two banks and the neighboring villages to Neudorff , including this village itself, remain in Saxony.
This line then turns over the Spree and the Schwarzwasser ; Liska , Hermsdorff , Ketten and Solchdorff become Prussian.
From the black Elster near Solchdorff you will draw a straight line to the limit of the Königsbrück rule near Groß Gräbchen . This rule remains with Saxony, and the line follows the northern limit of this rule to the limit of the office of Großenhayn, in the area of Ortrand . The edge of the town and the road from this place via Merzdorff , Stolzenhayn and Gröbeln to Mühlberg with all the villages through which this road passes come to Prussia in such a way that no part of the road mentioned remains outside the Prussian area. From Gröbeln on, the line will be drawn as far as the Elbe near Fichtenberg , and that of the Mühlberg office will follow. Fichtenberg becomes Prussian.
From the Elbe to the border of the Merseburg Monastery , the line will be determined in such a way that the offices of Torgau, Eilenburg and Delitzsch will become Prussian, while the offices of Oschatz , Wurzen and Leipzig will remain with Saxony. The line will follow the boundaries of these offices, but cutting off some enclaves and half enclaves. The road from Mühlberg to Eilenburg will be entirely on Prussian territory. From Podelwitz , which belongs to the Leipzig office and remains with Saxony, to Eytra , which also remains with it, the line will cut through the Merseburg Abbey in such a way that Breitenfeld , Hänichen , Groß- and Klein-Dolzig , Mark-Ranstädt and Knaut- Nauendorf remain near Saxony, Modelwitz , Skeuditz , Klein-Libenau , Alt-Ranstädt , Schköhlen and Zietschen fall to Prussia.
From then on, the line will cut through the Pegau office between the Floßgraben and the white Elster. The former becomes in its entire course from the point where it separates itself from the white Elster below the town of Crossen , which belongs to the Heinsburg district, to the point where it joins the Saale below the town of Merseburg between these two cities and with its two banks belong to the Prussian area. From there, where the border meets that of the Zeitz Abbey, it will follow this up to the Altenburg border near Luckau . The boundaries of the Neustädter Kreis , which goes entirely to Prussia, remain unchanged. The Voigtland enclaves in Reuss, namely Gefäll , Blintendorf , Sparenberg and Blankenberg , are included in the proportion of Prussia. "


- Peace and friendship treaty between Sr. Majesty the King of Prussia and Sr. Majesty the King of Saxony. May 18, 1815.

This text was finally adopted as Article 15 in the final act of the Congress of Vienna on June 9, 1815.

Effect during the Congress of Vienna

These negotiations did not go unnoticed by the princes of other German medium and small states present and caused considerable unrest: As early as October 1814, Bavaria and Hanover spoke out against the complete annexation of Saxony by Prussia. Building on this, it was the French ambassador, Talleyrand, who still saw France as excluded from the circle of the great powers and recognized that the "Saxon question" was suitable for exerting pressure on his part. His uncompromising stance against the "general annexation" of Saxony by Prussia secured him the support of the German medium and small states, which in turn led to the demonstrative handover of the occupied General Government of Saxony from Russia's Repnin-Wolkonski to the two Prussians von Recke and von Gaudi on August 8th. November 1814 on the one hand, but on the other hand no longer corresponded to the realities of the Vienna Congress. Three days later, Metternich assured the Hanoverian representative Herbert Ernst Graf Münster that he would not give in on the Saxon question. Emperor Franz spoke out in a closer circle against the annexation and against the "compensation" offered by Prussia to King Friedrich August with an area around Münster or on the left bank of the Rhine with 350,000 inhabitants, which reflects his understanding of legitimacy against one of the oldest German princely dynasties, which also with the House Habsburg was related several times, completely contradicted. Ultimately, the Saxon king must retain his capital Dresden and at least for that reason an area with at least 500,000 inhabitants, Castlereagh said as British envoy.

The growing, also public sympathy for Saxony and the Saxon King Friedrich August I and the serious mistakes of the Prussian diplomacy finally led Metternich to his note of December 10, 1814 and the second proposal for partition. Metternich could be sure of the princely majority, since the anti-Prussian agitation of Austria and the resulting image of a protective and defensive power in favor of the German small and medium-sized states had an effect "against the power- and land-hungry Prussians". However, it plunged the Congress of Vienna into the deepest diplomatic crisis of its course: personally met, Tsar Alexander first challenged Chancellor Metternich to a duel .

However, the overcoming of this escalation was again thanks to the indulgence of Tsar Alexander I, "whose interest in the Saxon question did not exceed his will for peace". The result was partitions: for Poland the fourth within half a century, for Saxony after the (voluntary) division of Leipzig in 1485 the second and for Albertine Saxony the first in the history of the country. King Friedrich August said that these conditions were still negotiable. But the arduous compromise, as well as Napoleon's landing in France from his exile and the rule of the Hundred Days from March 1, 1815, gave his representative, Count Einsiedel von der Schulenburg, no more opportunity to deal with the Saxon-Polish question and the compromise reached in the third proposal for partition the great powers continue to negotiate. Any efforts by Friedrich August von Sachsen were now in the background: Ultimately, he had no other choice than to sign the dictated peace .

"Peace and Friendship Treaty"

Representatives of Saxony did not take part in negotiations in Vienna. The dividing line therefore largely did not take into account developed landscapes, historical rights or landscape contexts. In the end, the 3rd Partition Plan took no account of this, but was solely committed to a compromise between the great powers. In addition, it was drawn up on outdated map material (which, for example, makes the naming of villages conspicuous) and which should cause considerable difficulties in the implementation of the division. The phrase “in a straight line” also indicates that the border should only serve as a compromise between the five great powers.

The Saxon King Friedrich August, who is still in Prussian captivity, sent Friedrich Albrecht von der Schulenburg to Vienna as an agent, but he was only allowed to hold talks as a “private person”.

After a laborious agreement on the partition plan on February 8, 1815, Friedrich August was released in Friedrichsfelde and traveled to Pressburg that month at the invitation of the Austrian emperor . When he arrived there, he was appalled by the result: Saxony's king initially did not want to respond to the demand for the cession of important Saxon territories and at least wanted to formulate conditions in a further step. The great powers rejected both. When he was finally told that if he did not agree, he would lose everything (which was not wanted at the moment, but Friedrich August could not know in detail, especially since he knew the liquidation of principalities in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803 too well), he steered a: On May 3, 1815, "peace negotiations" began between Saxony, Prussia, Austria and Russia, as a result of which the Saxon king could only agree to the division and the prepared treaty ( dictated peace ). According to the principle of legitimacy , the appearance should be preserved to the outside world that the king decides as sovereign.

The concluded “Peace and Friendship Treaty” signed on May 18, 1815 by von Hardenberg and von Humboldt on the Prussian side , von der Schulenburg on the Saxon side and Hans August Fürchtegott von Globig , and, as was the diplomatic practice at the time, in French was written, regulates in a preamble and 25 articles (whereby most of the articles concern tax, fiscal and trade issues) that between the King of Prussia and the King of Saxony, "their heirs and successors, their mutual states and subjects" now "for always peace and friendship ”(Article 1). The demarcation took place finally and largely independently, also through closed rulership and administrative districts, manors and parishes. Article 2 of the treaty states that "His Majesty the King of Saxony ... for eternity, for himself and all your descendants and successors in favor of His Majesty the King of Prussia" renounces all provinces, districts and areas or parts of the territory of the Kingdom of Saxony, which lie outside the line that is to form the future border between Prussia and Saxony. With the occupation of the territories incorporated by Prussia with the name “Duchy of Saxony” (Article 4), the title “Duke of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave of the two Lusatia” was taken over by the Saxon king including that of a “Count of Henneberg “Withdrawn and added to the title of the King of Prussia. The Saxon king was limited to the title of "Margrave of Upper Lusatia", whereby dynastic claims were not excluded: Prussia was now sitting like a dynastic spider in the web of the Thuringian-Ernestine states.

After the (forced) ratification by the Saxon King, the treaty came into force on May 21, 1815 and the next day King Friedrich Wilhelm III. through a patent ownership of the assigned part of Saxony and thus also the title. By announcement of May 28, 1815, the relocation of the administration to Merseburg was announced until June 6, 1815, where the "Generalgouvernement of the Duchy of Saxony" was established. In 1815 Prussia was still administratively forming the "Province of Saxony" from the areas in the west of "Core Saxony" (including other areas of Prussia). Those of the remaining Saxony to the north came to the province of Brandenburg , those to the east to the province of Silesia . The area around Suhl was initially run as the "Province of Henneberg".

Subsequent assignments of former areas of the Kingdom of Saxony of Prussia to other German states

Immediately after the division of Saxony between the two kingdoms of Saxony and Prussia, Prussia ceded part of the land area and population it had gained to the allied Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach . Already on June 1, 1815, Carl August von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach received almost the entire Tautenburg office from Prussian Saxony and several Prussian (formerly royal Saxon) exclaves that were in the area of ​​Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. Until then you had belonged to the Weißensee office in the Thuringian district. On September 22, 1815, the ceded area was expanded by two thirds of the former royal Saxon Neustädter Kreis, so that the cities of Neustadt / Orla , Triptis , Auma , Weida and Berga / Elster as well as other localities of the offices of Naumburg , Pforta , Eckartsberga, Wendelstein and Weißensee came to the Grand Duchy. With the 27,000 inhabitants promised from the liquidation of the Fulda department , the Grand Duchy received a further increase in area and tax citizens.

The Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen , for its part, had other claims that were only indirectly related to the actual demarcation: Although the Ebeleben office was owned by the Princely House, the feudal sovereignty had belonged to Electoral Saxony since 1651 and had passed to Prussia. On June 15, 1816, the Ebeleben office was incorporated into the state of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, but without the municipality of Bothenheilingen , which remained with Prussia. As compensation, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen received the former Saxon exclaves, the villages of Bendeleben and Großfurra from the Weißensee office in the Thuringian district, assigned by Prussia.

History after 1815/1818 until today

Although after the dictated peace of the "Peace and Friendship Treaty" the border should be drawn within three months, it dragged on for three years: it was not until 1818 that the last final protocols on the specific course of the border were ratified.

This border remained until the border revision and re-marking in 1893–1901, which brought only minor changes: the existing boundary stones, which are now consistently classified as monuments, remind of both events, from 1815, the re-marking of the 1890s or both at the same time.

Exchange of territory with Thuringia in 1928

In 1928 an exchange of territory and a border adjustment between the Free State of Saxony and the State of Thuringia was agreed: The inaccuracies that still existed from the treaty of 1815 were regulated by a treaty between the two countries. Since the citizenship issues were a matter of the Reich, the Reichstag had to approve by law: This happened in the session on March 22, 1928, it came into force on April 1, 1928. A total of 1115  ha with 4890 inhabitants came to Saxony and 1778 ha with 2900 inhabitants to Thuringia. Saxony received in particular the former exclaves of the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg of the parishes of Russdorf near Oberfrohna and Neukirchen near Waldenburg , but also the parishes of Wickersdorf, Waldsachsen and part of the parish of Ponitz, the Gosel corridor. Near Plauen , among other things, the Caselwitz corridor , part of the Greiz municipality, the Görschnitz municipality and corridor, and part of the Schönbach municipality and corridor were assigned to Saxony. In exchange, the Saxon exclave Liebschwitz near Gera came to Thuringia with the communities and corridors Lengefeld, Liebschwitz, Lietzsch, Niebra, Pösneck and Taubenpreskel as well as the neighboring communities Hilbersdorf, Loitzsch, Rückersdorf, Thonhausen and Grobsdorf. In addition, the municipality of Bocka near Altenburg and Kauritz near Meerane as well as Flur Frohnsdorf of the municipality of Ziegelheim and parts of the municipality and corridors of Obergrünberg were incorporated into the state . Near Greiz came the Stelzen corridor (part of the Reuth municipality), part of the municipality and Noßwitz corridor, the Sachswitz corridor (part of the Elsterberg municipality ) and partly the Cunsdorf corridor (part of the Reichenbach municipality ).

History 1945–1990

The border of the Free State of Saxony, established in 1928, remained in place until July 5, 1945 (Order No. 5 of the SMAD ).

The state of Saxony, formed in 1945 within the 1928 borders, was expanded by this order to include parts of the former Saxon area west of the Lusatian Neisse and the Prussian administrative district of Liegnitz, which had been Prussian since 1815, but the southeasternmost tip east of the Neisse around Reichenau was given to Poland .

The State of Prussia (as the successor to the Kingdom of Prussia from 1815) was declared dissolved by the “ Control Council Act No. 46 - Dissolution of the State of Prussia” of February 25, 1947. The areas that belonged to him and that were under the sovereignty of the Control Council at that time were given the status of states or were incorporated into existing states, which subsequently legitimized the assignment of the Prussian annexed areas from 1815 west of the Neisse back to Saxony in 1945 .

On July 23, 1952, the "Law on the further democratization of the structure and functioning of state organs in the countries in the German Democratic Republic of July 23, 1952" came into force. This led to an extensive district reform and then to the dissolution of the states and the formation of districts. Ten of the municipalities in the Leipzig area ceded in 1815 came to the Leipzig-Land district . the Saxon areas of the Delitzsch , Torgau and Eilenburg districts that were up until 1815 were assigned to the new Leipzig district , while the Upper Lusatian and, since 1815, Silesian districts of Hoyerswerda and Weißwasser were incorporated into the newly formed Cottbus district. The Dresden district in turn received the remaining part of northeastern Upper Lusatia around Görlitz, which, like Hoyerswerda and Weißwasser, had to be ceded to Prussia in the third proposal for division in 1815.

History since 1990

The (GDR) districts of Hoyerswerda, Weißwasser, Delitzsch, Eilenburg and Torgau came to what is now the Free State of Saxony in 1990 after citizen surveys and subsequent district council resolutions , and the ten communities in the Leipzig area (i.e. the formed GDR district Leipzig) remained with Saxony. Although referendums in the Bad Liebenwerda, Senftenberg and Altenburg districts voted for incorporation into the (future) Free State of Saxony, the respective district councils decided in favor of incorporation into the state of Brandenburg or the newly established Free State of Thuringia .

The state of Brandenburg in turn prevented the return of areas around the outskirts to Saxony, although the Senftenberg district, with the exception of an insignificant northeastern part that belonged to the Kottbus district of Prussia, almost exclusively comprised former Saxon territory and it was included in the decisions made by the district council to remain in Brandenburg Citizens' debates were only about the outskirts itself.

After 1990 some communities around Pausa , Mühltroff and Elsterberg moved from Thuringia to Saxony.

For purely political reasons, a " Lower Silesian Upper Lusatia District " was formed during the 1994 district reform in Saxony . This existed until 2008 and then merged into what is now the district of Görlitz : purely historically, this (including the city of Görlitz, which it enclosed) only comprised areas that were part of the Saxon district before this division. The spatial assignment of this area to Lower Silesia is historically incorrect, as the provincial assignment of this area from Prussia to the Province of Silesia in 1815 was a purely administrative act and from Prussia, historically, this area never as part of Silesia, but always as part of the Division in 1815 newly formed "Duchy of Saxony" (ie the divided areas of Saxony) was seen.

The fact that the city of Görlitz (and its surrounding area) is "marketed" as Lower Silesia , or that it is also marketed itself as such, is historically incorrect: Görlitz and its surrounding area were Electoral Saxon territory until 1815, which only fell more or less by chance to Prussia due to the division and just as coincidentally as administratively efficient, it was then assigned to the province of Silesia : A possible "country team" affiliation of this part of Upper Lusatia to Silesia is a construct from the expulsion of the Germans from Poland , in which many (real) Silesians directly west of the Neisse River Found a (new) home: The federal states, districts and today's Free State of Saxony have until today (as of 2020) in the matter itself from the former Kingdom of Prussia (and the division of 1815) only affiliated to what was previously the territory of the Electorate of Saxony.

literature

  • Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle / Saale 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 (including map of the division proposals).
  • Isabella Blank: the punished king? - The Saxon Question 1813–1815. Dissertation at the University of Heidelberg, 2013. Digitized version (with numerous original evidence of the public debate at the time).
  • A map to draw the boundaries in the respective division proposals can be found in Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 30–31.
  • For the detailed work of the border commissions, see Frank Reichert: Basic maps for establishing, marking and documenting the Saxon-Prussian division border from 1815 . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 96-103.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wladimir P. Koslow, Horst Möller, Sergei W. Mironienko, Alexandr O. Tschubarjan, Hartmut Weber (eds.): SMAD manual: The Soviet military administration in Germany 1945-1949. Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58696-1 , p. 38, footnote 157 ( limited book preview at google.books.de , accessed on December 23, 2019)
  2. ^ Michael Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806-1918: A collection of documents and introductions. 1st volume. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-540-26013-4 , pp. 515-518. ( limited book preview at google.books.de , accessed on October 7, 2018)
  3. ^ Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. Mitteldeutscher verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here p. 22.
  4. ↑ Text in: Nouveau recueil de traités: d'alliance, de paix, de tréve, de ..., Volume 3: 1808–1818 included, Dieterich, Göttingen 1818, pp. 237–238 (French) limited book preview on google. books.de , accessed on October 7, 2018
  5. ↑ Winfried Müller : Dialogue and Rivalry. Saxony and Prussia from the end of the old empire to the Congress of Vienna. In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. Mitteldeutscher verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 9-20, here p. 19.
  6. ↑ Winfried Müller: Dialogue and Rivalry. Saxony and Prussia from the end of the old empire to the Congress of Vienna. In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Pp. 9-20, here pp. 19-20.
  7. ↑ Reiner Groß: From Moscow to Leipzig - Saxony on Napoleon's side and under Russian sovereignty. In Dresden History Association (ed.): Russia and Saxony in History (= Dresdner Hefte - contributions to cultural history. No. 74, 2/2003). Dresden 2003, ISBN 3-910055-67-2 , pp. 20-26.
  8. ↑ Isabella Blank: The punished king? - The Saxon Question 1813–1815. Dissertation at the University of Heidelberg, 2013. Digitized version (with numerous original evidence of the public debate at the time). P. 160.
  9. ^ Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here pp. 23–24.
  10. ^ Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here p. 24.
  11. ^ Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here p. 25.
  12. ^ Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here p. 26.
  13. ^ A b c Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialist colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here p. 27.
  14. ↑ Peace and friendship treaty between Sr. Majesty the King of Prussia and Sr. Majesty the King of Saxony. From May 18, 1815. In: Collection of Laws for the Royal Prussian States, No. 8, p. 53. Issued in Berlin on June 15, 1815 (French on the left, German translation on the right, text above corresponds to the German text). Legal Collection Office, Berlin 1815. Digitized version , accessed on December 17, 2019.
  15. ^ Final Act of the Vienna Congress, of June 9th, 1815, and Federal Act or Basic Treaty of the German Confederation, of June 8th, 1815. Both in the original language, critically corrected, with preliminary report, overview of the content and display of various readings, completely edited by Johann Ludwig Klüber. JJ Palm and Ernst Enke, Erlangen, 2nd edition, thoroughly corrected and increased with many new comments. Palm and Enke, Erlangen 1818. Digitized version of the digital collections, accessed on December 21, 2019.
  16. ^ Jonas Flöter: Balance and Legitimacy - Saxony and the Saxon Question at the Congress of Vienna. In Dresdner Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Austria and Saxony in the history (= Dresdner Hefte - contributions to cultural history. No. 83, 3/2005). Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-910055-78-8 , pp. 51–58, here p. 54.
  17. ^ Jonas Flöter: Balance and Legitimacy - Saxony and the Saxon Question at the Congress of Vienna. In Dresdner Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Austria and Saxony in the history (= Dresdner Hefte - contributions to cultural history. No. 83, 3/2005). Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-910055-78-8 , pp. 51–58, here pp. 54–55.
  18. ↑ a b Jonas Flöter: Balance and Legitimacy - Saxony and the Saxon Question at the Congress of Vienna. In Dresdner Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Austria and Saxony in the history (= Dresdner Hefte - contributions to cultural history. No. 83, 3/2005). Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-910055-78-8 , pp. 51–58, here p. 56.
  19. ↑ a b Jonas Flöter: Balance and Legitimacy - Saxony and the Saxon Question at the Congress of Vienna. In Dresdner Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Austria and Saxony in the history (= Dresdner Hefte - contributions to cultural history. No. 83, 3/2005). Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-910055-78-8 , pp. 51–58, here p. 58.
  20. ^ Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here p. 28.
  21. ^ Matthias Donath : How Saxony was divided, The Saxon question at the Congress of Vienna . In: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Ed.), Birgit Richter (Red.): The Vienna Congress 1815 and the consequences for Saxony. Specialized colloquium of the Saxon State Archives on April 22, 2015, Series A, Volume 18. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-577-2 , pp. 21–31, here p. 29. However, with the note, that Donath describes the process exactly reversed in time. This article reproduces the version as it results from the contract of September 22, 1815, see Article 2 of the contract “Convention territoriale entre SM le Roi de Prusse et SA Royale le Grand-Duc de Weimar signée à Paris le 22 Sept. . 1815 ". In: Georg Friedrich von Martens : Nouveau recueil de traités d'alliance, de paix, de trêve, de neutralité, de commerce, de limites, d'échange etc.: et de plusieurs autres actes servant à la connaissance des relations étrangères des puissances et Etats de l'Europe… depuis 1808 jusqu'à présent Volume 3 (1808–1818 inclusive), Dieterich, Göttingen 1818, online . Pp. 323-331.
  22. ↑ 407th session. Thursday, March 22, 1928. First, second and third deliberations on the draft law on the exchange of territory between Saxony and Thuringia. Accessed January 2, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Law on an exchange of territory between Saxony and Thuringia. Accessed January 2, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Map with the exchange areas. Accessed January 2, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Wladimir P. Koslow, Horst Möller, Sergei W. Mironienko, Alexandr O. Tschubarjan, Hartmut Weber (eds.): SMAD manual: The Soviet military administration in Germany 1945-1949. Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58696-1 , p. 38, footnote 157 ( limited book preview at google.books.de , accessed on October 7, 2018)
  26. ↑ Online version , accessed on December 21, 2019
  27. ↑ Law on the further democratization of the structure and functioning of the state organs in the states in the GDR of July 23, 1952. Online at www.verfassungen.de, accessed on January 2, 2020.