Union of the Estates

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Ratification document of the Union of the Mecklenburg Lands, so-called Great Union

The Union of the estates in Mecklenburg, also Landständische Union or (shortened to the knighthood) and Union of Mecklenburg knighthood called, was an agreement dated August 1, 1523, located in the estates of Mecklenburg banded together for an everlasting covenant. This formed the basis of the Mecklenburg corporate state for more than four centuries .

Emergence

The state estates in Mecklenburg were formed since the 13th century, when initially the knighthood, the totality of the vassals in Mecklenburg, were called together in certain matters (e.g. in 1275 the vassals were called together in full in a guardianship dispute). The landscape , the representation of the rural cities (cf. Landstadt in Mecklenburg ), goes back to the beginning of the 14th century, when the knighthood invited representatives of the cities to their meetings.

Since the effective collection of taxes for state purposes, the revenue of which came primarily from the commercial turnover of city merchants and from the wages of free city dwellers, required the cooperation of the city tax authorities, the introduction or change of each individual tax was subject to the approval of the Mecklenburg state parliaments. The representatives sent there represented the landscape, knighthood or, since the beginning of the 15th century, prelates , who all three together made up the estates. "Their further formation took place in the constant power struggle with the state rulers." Since the unification of Mecklenburg under Heinrich IV. The Fat in 1471, the respective estates of the three partial rulers Mecklenburg (Mecklenburg District), Wenden ( Wendish District ) and Stargard ( Stargard District ) gathered increasingly to joint state parliaments.

When Duke Magnus II died in November 1503, he left three sons and a brother entitled to co-government. There was no Primogenitur regulation in Mecklenburg; Magnus had recommended, however, that the management of state affairs should be left to his eldest son Heinrich V (1479–1552).

Heinrich ruled jointly with his brothers Erich (1483–1508) and Albrecht VII (1486–1547) and his uncle Balthasar . The latter died on March 16, 1507 and Erich on December 22, 1508, both without heirs, so that Heinrich and Albrecht came into possession of the entire country. They also ruled jointly at first, although Albrecht repeatedly advocated a division of the country.

In the Neubrandenburg house contract of May 7th, 1520 it was stipulated that Heinrich should rule in Schwerin and Albrecht in Güstrow . The domanium was divided into two halves, the monastery property and the cities remained under joint government. This led to continued disputes between the brothers and ultimately to a strengthening of the independence of the estates. They were alarmed by the partition plans and feared for their privileges. Added to this were the disputes in the empire in the wake of the Reformation and the end of the Kalmar Union in the north with the forced abdication of King Christian II in Denmark and Norway in January 1523 and the election of Gustav I Wasa as King of Sweden on 6. June 1523. The estates therefore decided on the fringes of the regular Landtag in Sagsdorf in 1523 to form a union. They also came together on the day of Vincula Petri ( Petri chain celebration , August 1st) 1523 in Rostock .

content

Contracting parties were the prelates (clerical dignitaries), men (knights) and towns in the regions of Mecklenburg, Werle , Rostock and Stargard .

In this treaty, the estates took an oath to give each other advice, assistance and compensation and to preserve peace and justice with unity. All free residents (i.e. not the rural population subject to serfdom ) of each district should have the same rights, privileges and freedoms and be governed in both secular and ecclesiastical matters according to the same laws, ordinances and treaties.

A committee of 22 members was appointed to represent the estates and to resolve disputes, from which the Select Committee later developed as the executive organ of the estates.

The prelates were last represented in the Landtag in 1549; as a result of the Reformation, their land was added to the princely domanium. After that, the estates were divided into the corps of knighthood and the corps of the countryside . The knighthood included the owners of main estates suitable for the state assembly, and all the rural towns in Mecklenburg that existed in 1549 were part of the landscape . Belonging to the knighthood was based on land ownership eligible for Landtag, not on descent. For the exercise of estate self-administration, the entire estates were divided into three circles as knights and landscapes . In their designation: Mecklenburg, Wendish and Stargard districts, the three medieval lordships lived on, but in their demarcation they kept to the borders created in 1621 by the second division of Mecklenburg . The Mecklenburg district corresponded to the Duchy of Schwerin , the Wendish to the Duchy of Güstrow without the Land Stargard, which formed its own district and from the Hamburg comparison (1701) formed the main part of the new partial duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz . Its other, western part, the Principality of Ratzeburg , did not take part in the Union, as it was not part of the Domanium as a secularized church property until 1648. The circles were subdivided into knighthood offices for self-administration purposes.

The seaside towns of Rostock and Wismar achieved a special position in the landscape corps ; they did not belong to any of the circles. Wismar's history was also shaped in a special way by the Swedish sovereignty from 1648 to 1803. After Wismar's de facto reorganization in 1803 and Sweden's de jure renunciation in 1903, the city belonged to Mecklenburg under international law. The landscape gave way to the resumption of Wismar in its center on July 1, 1897. The rural towns were each led in a circle through a Vorderstadt: Parchim was at the head of the Mecklenburg towns , Güstrow the Wendish and Neubrandenburg the Stargard towns.

The planned division of the country is not mentioned at all, but it is clear that the union was founded above all to remain a closed country by invoking privileges and rights and thereby minimizing the consequences of any division of power, a real -To make it impossible to divide the country and to preserve the overall class structure in Mecklenburg in the long term.

consequences

From 1523 the estates formed a permanent, unified, and thus powerful rural corporation; The development of the state constitution and organization that was so decisive for Mecklenburg began.

Regardless of the division of power by the dynasty, the Mecklenburg estates remained a common, indivisible body. The growing political and economic power of the rural union prevented the sovereign rulers from implementing absolutist rule. The prelates as representatives of the monasteries and collegiate colleges in the country lost their importance in the course of the Reformation. In 1549, prelates were last called to a Landtag and were no longer recognized as eligible for a Landtag in 1552. Three monasteries (henceforth the so-called state monasteries Dobbertin , Malchow and Ribnitz ) passed into the control of the knighthood and landscape as Lutheran fräuleinstifte in 1572 . Since the departure of the prelates, the knighthood and landscape formed the state estates of Mecklenburg.

The knight and landscape developed into the strongest political force of the Mecklenburg state, which it held together as an iron bracket for centuries. This association, the old union , has subsequently been called into question several times, but has been renewed again and again. In 1733 the estates affirmed it as the New Union . The dukes' attempt to divide by a convention in 1748 met with open resistance and protests.

Finally, the dukes had to confirm the Union in the Land constitutional comparison of inheritance of 1755, in which the text from 1523 as Annex 8 was part of the inheritance comparison. From 1763, the dukes in Schwerin recognized Mecklenburg-Schwerin's rural Jewry as a representative body without legislative powers but with internal autonomy, while the knighthood and landscape rejected their existence. Since the attempt to transform Mecklenburg-Schwerin into a constitutional monarchy in 1848 failed with the Freienwalder arbitration award , the union was revived after a short interruption and remained a formative force in Mecklenburg's constitutional and administrative history until the end of the monarchy in Mecklenburg in 1918 .

Repeal

As a consequence of the November Revolution of 1918, the Estates were abolished as corporations under public law by decree of December 3, 1918 . However, they continued to exist as private corporations for their corporate affairs and civil law institutions such as the Ritterschaftlichen Kreditverein , the Ritterschaftliche Brandkasse , the Ratswitwenkasse and the Städtische Brandversicherungsgesellschaft with their previous agencies on the condition that a new corporate name was adopted. A government office, which was subordinate to the State Ministry and existed until February 10, 1921, was set up to handle the business. Until 1927 there were legal disputes over assets, in particular over the state monasteries, which were brought before the State Court for the German Empire .

Lore

The Union has been ratified in two copies . Both documents have been in the Mecklenburg State Main Archive in Schwerin since the takeover of the State Archives in 1924 .

Great union

The Great Union , a calligraphic executed parchment -Urkunde of 37.7 × 74.3 cm, is sealed by five prelates, 23 knights and six cities. The signatories were:

Prelates

as plenipotentiary and commander, on behalf of and on behalf of all prelates

Knight

Authorized commanders of all crews were

Cities

Small union

In addition, there is little Union as Accessionsurkunde in which gemeyne prelates, husband and Stede taken out by their agents and be made Erbvereinigung for themselves, their race, Erven unde Nakamen recognized. It was signed and sealed by over 280 members of the knighthood and 8 cities.

  • List of the signatories of the Small Union

  • List of Signatories of the Small Union (continued)

  • List of signatories of the Small Union (final)

memory

In the atrium of the Rostock estate house (today Rostock Higher Regional Court ) there is a mosaic that is reminiscent of the Union: under the three coats of arms of the knightly circles Mecklenburg (bull head), Wenden (Greif) and Stargard (arm with ring) are the dates: 1523 1 August (Union of Estates) and 1755 April 18th ( Land constitutional comparison of inheritance ).

literature

expenditure

  • Reprint of the old Union of Mecklenburg State Estates, and the same ratification, De Anno 1523. August 1st: in the Platteutscher language, with the attached High German translation. - o. O., around 1720
  • Big Union: full text without the names of the signatories at Hugo Sachsse : Mecklenburg documents and dates. Rostock, 1900. pp. 214–216 ( digitized version )
  • Small Union: Full text without the names of the signatories at Hugo Sachsse: Mecklenburg documents and dates. Rostock, 1900. pp. 216–217 ( digitized version )

Secondary literature

  • Carl Hegel: History of the Meklenburg estates up to 1555. With an appendix to documents . Rostock, 1856. ( Digitized copy from Princeton University )
  • Uwe Heck, Gerhard Heitz: The Union of the Estates from 1523. Event and consequences . In: Wolf Karge (ed.): A millennium of Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. Rostock 1995, pp. 134-142.
  • Uwe Heck: History of the state parliament in Mecklenburg. A demolition . Rostock, 1997. ISBN 3-929544-48-2 .

Web links

Commons : Union of Estates  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Cf. “ 3. Mecklenburg Land estates including knightly manors and rural towns ”, on: State Main Archive Schwerin: Online Find Books , accessed on February 1, 2017.
  2. ↑ 2 prelates: the abbot of Doberan and the provost of Schwerin, 4 deputies each from the three knightly circles Mecklenburg, Wenden and Stargard and 2 each from the cities of Rostock, Wismar, Neubrandenburg and Güstrow. The front town of Parchim did not appear in the list of towns at this point in the treaty!
  3. ↑ Places that were later given city rights, including the royal cities of Neustrelitz and Ludwigslust , were not part of the landscape.
  4. ↑ Cf. “Mecklenburg”, in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon : 20 vol., Leipzig and Vienna: Bibliographisches Institut, 1902–1908, Volume 13 'Lyrik - Mitterwurzer' (1906), pp. 499-508, here p. 503.
  5. ↑ Cf. “Mecklenburg”, in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon : 20 vol., Leipzig and Vienna: Bibliographisches Institut, 1902–1908, Volume 13 'Lyrik - Mitterwurzer' (1906), pp. 499-508, here p. 501
  6. ↑ The new so-called Union, of the Mecklenburg Land estates: from November 20th. 1733. [Rostock], 1733
  7. ↑ Right-based, most moderate idea, what an expertise it had with the von Beyder now ruling Messrs Hertzieh zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Strelitz Hochfürstl. Hochfürstl. Passage between themselves, to separate their united Mecklenburg Land and Land estates, sub dato August 3, 1748. Convention established: With Beylagen sub Num. I to Num. LXXXV. Printed in 1749.
  8. ↑ Mecklenburg estates including knightly manors and rural towns  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Inventory history, State Main Archive Schwerin@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / 193.175.55.226  
  9. ↑ Signature: Landstandisches Archiv 1
  10. ^ Horst Alsleben : Compilation of all personalities of the Dobbertin monastery. 2010-2013.
  11. ↑ From a copy of the old Union of Mecklenburg State Estates, and the same ratification, De Anno 1523. August 1st: in the Platteutscher language, with the attached High German translation. o. O., around 1720