Administrative history of Mecklenburg
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The state system of Mecklenburg consisted of a feudal class system until 1918 . The sovereign princes in Mecklenburg were dependent on the participation of the state estates . The executive power of the Mecklenburg state lay with the state parliament, from which the sovereign princes in person were excluded.
Since the early modern period, the Mecklenburg Princely House has practiced various division of rule on the basis of house contracts, which led to the existence of various partial duchies or partial grand duchies ( Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Mecklenburg-Güstrow , Mecklenburg-Strelitz ) within the Mecklenburg state . In contrast to other states, absolutism never developed in Mecklenburg .
Through the constitution of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin of May 17, 1920 and the Basic Law of Mecklenburg-Strelitz of January 29, 1919 (May 24, 1923), both partial rule as free states became parliamentary - democratic republics and thus achieved political autonomy for the first time. On January 1, 1934, the Free States of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz were reunited to form Mecklenburg under pressure from the Nazi regime .
(Grand) Duchies (until 1918)
A modern administrative structure, such as that introduced in the Kingdom of Prussia after the wars of freedom , never existed in the Mecklenburg (grand) duchies. Medieval feudal conditions existed until the end of the monarchy and ultimately made Mecklenburg the most backward state in the German Empire .
Country building
The Mecklenburg state essentially consisted of three territories:
- the domanium , i.e. the sovereign (i.e. ducal, later grand-ducal) property (last separated according to the lines of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and -Strelitz),
- the knighthood , that is, the knightly possession with the monasteries,
- the landscape , that is, the cities and their urban land holdings and the associated combing goods.
The knighthood and landscape of both (partial) grand duchies - the so-called estates - formed a communal body from 1523, the " Union of Estates " or "Landstands Union" . The knighthood included all owners of the main chivalric estates in the Mecklenburg, Wendish and Stargardian districts capable of state parliament. The landscape consisted of the authorities of the 49 cities eligible for state parliament. In addition there were the secularized state monasteries and their areas as well as the maritime town of Wismar, which only belonged to Mecklenburg again since 1803. According to the threefold structure of the state, there were cities (eligible for state assembly) as well as domanial and knightly offices. Among the cities, in addition to the seaside city of Rostock, the so-called Vorderstädte ( Parchim , Güstrow and Neubrandenburg ) had special rights.
The domains, the knighthood and the landscape, however, were not connected, but randomly distributed over the whole country. There were no self-contained administrative districts such as in Prussia. Only the Domanium was divided into administrative groups, for which the respective Domanialamt was responsible. There were no administrative authorities in the knighthood area, only the offices that were responsible for collecting the hoof tax, the so-called knighthood offices. The cities administered themselves.
In political and historical terms, the (partial) Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was composed of five contiguous parts of the country: the so-called "Mecklenburg District" with the County of Schwerin and the Principality of Mecklenburg, the so-called "Wendish District" , the rule of Rostock and the rule of Wismar .
The (partial) Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was formed by the rule of Stargard (the so-called "Stargardic District" ) with the capital Neustrelitz and the Vorderstadt Neubrandenburg and the Principality of Ratzeburg .
Domanium
The domanium of the (grand) duchies was the direct property of the respective (grand) duke and comprised around 40 percent of the entire state in both parts of Mecklenburg. In the Schwerin region it covered 5,604.05 square kilometers and in the Strelitz region 1,652 square kilometers.
Rights of the sovereign
It had the character of a family entrustment and was inherited along with the sovereignty. Therefore it was always in the hands of the respective sovereign. The costs of the princely household were covered from the income of the domanium. The constitutional representation of the domanium and its population took over exclusively the landlord of the domanium, the duke.
The temporary separation of the Domanium into a part that was intended to cover the costs of the princely household and a larger part, which was converted into a state property only serving state purposes, was only significant insofar as in administrative terms between domains in the narrower sense and Domains of the grand ducal household (so-called house goods) was distinguished.
The sovereign was entitled to enlarge the domanium, but limited the sale by the rights of the agnates . In addition, there was no legal, but a factual restriction on the sale insofar as the income of the domanium was intended for the costs of the sovereignty according to the constitution and a sale therefore, insofar as a reduction in the country's income was to be feared, on the contradiction of the Stalls would have come across. However, the sovereign was entitled to so-called administrative sales, through which not the property, but a real right to use the land was sold. From 1869 onwards the creation of a domanial farmer class in Mecklenburg-Schwerin was based on this possibility with the help of long-term leases .
Conditions of the domanial farmers
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The former domanial farmers did not own any land, but were tenants of the land they cultivated at any time. In fact, it was the rule that the farmed land remained in the same family, but the peasant class was thus kept completely dependent and had no security or guarantees of stability in its economic situation.
In 1869, many farmers in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Domanium were transformed from time tenants to owners ( hereditary tenants ) by the state government , with which they acquired an inheritable real right of use and ownership of the land they cultivated. The leaseholds were inheritable , culpable and freely alienable subject to a sovereign right of confirmation and preemption . In return for the lease, the farmers paid a one-off so-called inheritance allowance and an annual lease. From then on, the free availability of the property was only limited to the extent that a division or amalgamation of the places once leased was not permitted. The leaseholder was able to determine the successor to the estate, the value and the compensation for the estate. With the approval of the sovereign, he was able to forbid the sale and indebtedness even for later successors and thus farmer fideikommisse could be set up.
However, the right to participate in the Landtag ( Landstandrecht ) was not associated with the leasehold property . The domanial farmers were therefore still excluded from public participation. The sovereign or the duke had exclusive sovereignty over the domanium. However, there was a significant difference between the factual conditions in the domanium and in the knighthood. The domanium was too big to be administered by the sovereign alone. General ordinances, service instructions and a sometimes benevolent civil service offered a certain guarantee for a loyal and correct handling of state authority .
Number of farms
In Domanium there were 1888 larger farms in the form of 230 farms of and 107 perpetual lease farms , mid consisting of 5337 Annual lease bodies 101 landlord points and small businesses consisting of 7222 Büdnerstellen and 7105 Häusler points .
Knighthood
The knighthood basically consisted of the lower nobility, who owned land as vassals , and later also the landed bourgeoisie and the monasteries. The knightly area comprised approx. 46% of the total area and was 6037.61 km² in the Schwerin region and 640 km² in the Strelitz region.
Affiliation
The knighthood included the owners of all properties recognized as belonging to the knighthood in 1755 . The so-called Incamerata also belonged to the knighthood. These were all leasable and allodial main estates of the three districts (the Mecklenburg, Wendish and Stargard districts), the monastery estates, the estates of the Rostock district, the estates of the Wismar rulership and those owned by the cities or the city churches but the city fieldmark goods not incorporated (so-called combing and economic goods).
Any property on which the knightly hoof taxes were levied and which was included in the knightly hoof cadastre was considered to be chivalrous.
Rights of knighthood
The right of the country estate was associated with the respective knightly property , ie the right to appear in person at the state parliament and to represent one's rights there vis-à-vis the sovereign. The landlords of the chivalric estates had local authority and administrative powers over the rear occupants. In addition, the landowners had written and chancellery residency , patrimonial jurisdiction and the local police power and certain privileges such as brewing and distillery rights without taxes, milling rights and patronage rights. In 1888 the knighthood consisted of 634 members.
However, the right of the country estate was only linked to a part of the goods as a permanent, inalienable right. Goods that were eligible for the state parliament could, however, be formed from secondary goods and parts of main goods with state and feudal approval. The prerequisite for this was that both the remaining and the separated goods had a size of at least two catastrophic hooves. The sale of parts of a good for incorporation into another good was only permitted from a certain minimum size. A sale for independent free property, however, was excluded. The knightly goods were partly allodial and partly feudal goods. Many of the goods of both types were also entails . Loan goods could be transformed into allodial goods according to the applicable regulations. For these all-modified feudal estates, there was an intestinal succession restricting the application of common inheritance law, while the inheritance of the feudal estates was carried out in accordance with the Mecklenburg feudal law.
To represent and regulate one's own knighthood affairs, there was a “narrow committee of the knighthood” in Rostock. He represented the top of the knighthood and was composed of the land marshals of the three districts, the district administrators and the knightly deputies with the help of two juridical Syndici .
Conditions of the knightly peasant class
The development of the peasant class on the knightly estates was less favorable in contrast to the development on the domanial estates. It was indicative of the fact that the endeavors of the domanial administration (the state government) were aimed at the maintenance and further training of the peasant class and that the knighthood sought to eliminate the peasant class ( laying the farms). Only after long efforts was it possible to come to an agreement whereby the preservation of the still existing farmers was secured. The laying of the farms could then only take place to a limited extent. Only the farm sites that had been built on earlier farm fields could then be laid at any time. The relationship between the knightly peasants and the owner was mainly that of the tenant. Hereditary leases that had arisen on the basis of free agreements were only available in small numbers. Due to a sovereign ordinance for the "regulation of rural conditions on the goods of the knights and landscape" from 1864, however, leaseholders could also obtain a limited right to permanent possession of their hooves. However, there was no compelling reason for the owner and an inheritance right to the hoof was often not granted, but only succession claims for the father's descendants and siblings. However, the transfer of ownership of the buildings and the courtyard guard could be contractually agreed.
The six so-called peasant groups held a special position. In the Buchholz estates near Röbel, Grabow and Zielow (today part of Ludorf ) in the district of the knightly office of Wredenhagen, in Niendorf in the district of the knightly office of Boitzenburg, in Rossow near Wittstock, today part of Brandenburg in the knightly district of Plau and in Wendisch Priborn im In the knightly district of Lübz, the farmers themselves had become owners of the knightly estates in question. They included 117 free farmers (co-owner) whose country status law of Schulze exercised as vassals. The Allod Buchholz with an agricultural area of 1,502 hectares , the Allod Rossow Dorf with 1,400 hectares and the Lehngut Wendisch Priborn with 1,995 hectares were among the largest farms in the Schwerin region.
Number of establishments
In 1888 there were 1018 main estates in the knighthood, which belonged to 634 owners; including 265 bourgeois and 300 noble owners and three princes. In 1908 it consisted of 639 members, including 316 civil and 292 noble owners. Six of these manors were in peasant hands, consisting of 117 co-owners. The main estates, together with the associated ancillary estates, were managed by several medium-sized to smaller businesses. These consisted of 34 farms of 823 points in leasehold property , 34 Lehnbauerstellen, ten Lehnkossätenstellen , eleven Lehnbüdnerstellen , 33 Lehnhäuslerstellen , 606 landlord points , seven Drittelhüfnerstellen , seven Viertelhüfnerstellen, 143 Büdnerstellen , two Halbbüdnerstellen and 66 smallholdings . The exact proportion of these holdings in the total area of knighthood property is not known. However, it can be assumed that this was lower than in the domanium and in the knightly area rather the large businesses were predominant.
landscape
The landscape was formed by the rural so-called seaside towns and country towns in Mecklenburg with their land subject to city law, which were freely owned by townspeople. It covered about 11.5% of the total area; 1519.95 km² in the Schwerin region and 296 km² in the Strelitz region.
The landscape goes back to the beginning of the 14th century, when the knighthood, which has gathered irregularly since the 13th century, called in representatives of the cities. Since the effective collection of taxes for state purposes, the revenue of which stemmed 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 state parliaments sought the approval of the countryside on tax issues.
City rights
There were no manorial rights attached to these goods as was the case with knightly goods. These rights were given to the municipal authorities. The municipal organs also had the right of the county . Wismar , which had only returned to the Mecklenburg State Association in 1803 (Swedish from 1648 to 1803), did not regain these rights until July 1, 1897. In 1908 the landscape consisted of a total of 47 cities. Rostock also had certain special rights, such as a seat on the select committee of the state parliament. Each city was represented by a deputy elected by the magistrate and its members, usually the mayor . The top of the landscape was formed by the three so-called “Vorderstädte” in Mecklenburg: Parchim , Güstrow and Neubrandenburg .
Number of establishments
The cities had 1888 39 rental houses, farms lease 17, 22 yards long lease, 222 perpetual lease bodies 81 landlord - Bauer and other bodies 250 Büdnerstellen and 176 Häusler points . With the exception of the leasehold farms, these holdings belonged to the medium-sized and smaller holdings.
Constitution
Legal sources
The legal basis of the constitution of Mecklenburg was primarily the " Land constitutional inheritance comparison " from 1755 (LGGEV), which was valid until 1918, and the land ownership, the so-called "real property", which was granted land lordship powers.
Origin and content of the LGGEV
As a result of a centuries-long battle of strength, the Mecklenburg dynasty had lost decisive powers to its political opponents - the estates consisting of knighthood and landscape . Regardless of all the division of power of the dynasty, the Mecklenburg estates formed a common indivisible body, the "Union of the Estates" or "State Union", since 1528. In contrast to other regions of the empire, there was no absolutist situation in Mecklenburg .
Since 1755 the (partial) duchies had with the " Land constitutional hereditary settlement " a common, estates constitution, by which the dukes were bound to the approval of the estates in the exercise of certain powers (legislation, taxation).
Until 1918 the constitution of the landed estates knew neither the modern separation of powers nor an exact separation of constitutional and private law . There was no separation of administration (executive) and judiciary (judiciary). The public law was treated as a private law, the exercise and sale of the relevant beneficiary, the landlord, was left. The administrative lawyer Erich Schlesinger formulated this relationship as follows: “By confusing and mixing up the terms state power and property, the state constitution linked constitutional powers as outflows of ancestral property (patrimony) to landed property (patrimonial principle). Violence is associated with property . Public law is viewed as private law, the exercise or non-exercise of which is at the discretion of the entitled person and whose sale is permitted. "
Tripartite property ownership
The so-called “real landed property” was divided into three parts: domanium , knighthood and cities ( landscape ). Constitutional powers in the form of real rights - rights to which only the respective owner of a particular piece of property was entitled - were bound to the property. Constitutional powers were therefore directly linked to the property and passed to the respective owner with the property. Every owner of a property with which the right of the rural estate was connected could appear in person at the Landtag and represent his rights there vis-à-vis the sovereign.
The landlords of the chivalric estates had local authority and administrative powers over the rear occupants. In addition, the landowners had the written and chancellery , the patrimonial jurisdiction and the local police power and certain privileges such as the lower hunting law , the brewing and distillery right without taxes, the milling right and the patronage right.
There were no manorial rights attached to the urban goods as with the knightly goods. These rights were distributed among the city authorities. The municipal organs also had the right of the county and were mostly represented by the mayor. Only the domanium represented the absolute domain of the dukes.
Originally the sole bearers of all property in Mecklenburg were the dukes, whose property ( domanium ) extended to almost the entire territory of the duchy. Later, through the award by the duke, chivalric , urban and ecclesiastical property was created. After the Reformation, with the associated secularization, the church property largely fell back to the Duke and became part of the Domanium. In this tripartite division of real estate into domination, knighthood and cities, the entire territory of Mecklenburg was exhausted. There was no room for other property - including peasant property.
Constitutional bodies
The legislature in the Mecklenburg state was the state parliament , a joint institution and highest political authority of the two parts of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. It was composed of the estates consisting of knighthood and landscape. As the executive branch of the Mecklenburg state, the select committee, with equal representation, was formed as the highest political body between the state parliaments. In Mecklenburg there was no separation of justice and administration until 1918.
House contracts of the ducal houses
In both parts of the country the throne was hereditary since 1701 according to the law of the firstborn and according to the ruler succession in the male line. Both (grand) ducal houses were connected by house contracts of 1701 and 1755, and in the event of one line becoming extinct, the other line followed. When both houses went out, the line of succession passed to Prussia. According to the house law of June 23, 1821, the Grand Duke came of age in Mecklenburg at the age of 19.
Citizens' Rights
Although since the 19th century all citizens had to be equal before the law and all state offices had to be accessible in the same way, the Mecklenburg subjects were largely without rights and had no rights to participate in public life. From the second half of the century they were able to participate in elections for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation and the German Reichstag; However, this remained largely ineffective on domestic political developments. In Mecklenburg itself the noble and bourgeois manor owners continued to have great real and personal privileges. In particular, they had the right to the state , the written and chancellery , the patrimonial jurisdiction (i.e. the lower jurisdiction in the first instance), the local police power and often also the patronage right . Only they and the representatives of the Mecklenburg cities were eligible for the state assembly and could pass or prevent laws in the state assembly. The regents themselves only had an indirect influence on legislation in the Mecklenburg state.
However , the stands were not representative of the other nationals of the country. They merely represented their land in relation to the sovereignty and thus at the same time their subordinate inmates , who, however, only came into consideration as an accessory to the property. It was only after the official abolition of serfdom in 1820 that the estates also became representatives not only of their own land, but also of their now vacant rearmates. The citizens were therefore initially only viewed as subjects and not as citizens in the current sense. The sovereigns, knights and cities predominantly represented their own interests and only disclosed as much of them as was necessary to obtain the approval of the other legislative powers. The laws were therefore nothing more than contracts between the sovereign and the estates, in which each part mainly pursued its own interests.
In the cities, the population had obtained a right to participate and thus indirectly gained a certain influence on legislation, even if this was significantly less than that of the mayor elected for life. In the knighthood and in the domanium, however, the population was excluded from any public participation and was subject to the extensive freedom of choice of the respective landlord. However, there was a significant difference in this regard between the factual conditions in the domanium and in the knighthood. The domanium was too big to be administered by the sovereign alone. General ordinances, service instructions and a sometimes benevolent civil service offered a certain guarantee for a loyal and correct handling of state authority. In the chivalric areas, however, there was a strong dependence of the population on the landlord. The knighthood regularly tried to maintain their position of power and their resulting advantages - tax privileges, usufruct of the state monasteries and the labor of their rearers.
In 1819, the state parliament in Sternberg decided to repeal serfdom (all subjects were to be free until 1824) and to set up a higher appeal court in Parchim as the highest appeal body . In 1822 the separation in the farming villages of the Domanium was arranged. The separated Bauerhufen should as far as possible in leasehold given. While the grand dukes had the final say in the domanium within the framework of the existing laws (they could only rule without restriction in the principality of Ratzeburg , which was not under the Mecklenburg state parliament), their influence on the development in the area of knighthood and the cities was limited to functions of the sovereign Supervision.
With few exceptions, farmers were tenants of the land they cultivated that could be terminated at any time. There were only a few rural locations that were given in leasehold ( empyteuse ). However, from 1869 onwards, many farmers in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Domanium were transformed from time tenants to owners ( hereditary tenants ) by the state government , with which they acquired an inheritable right of use and ownership of the land they cultivated. In the heartland of Mecklenburg-Strelitz this was only rarely introduced; different in the rural principality of Ratzeburg , where for historical reasons there were no knightly estates. In addition, the property of the domanium, the knighthood and the cities were subject to constitutional restrictions, so that completely free property in the sense of unrestricted freedom of disposal over it in Mecklenburg did not exist at all.
Attempts at reform
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century the Grand Dukes and their ministers of state made efforts to introduce a modern constitution in the country. They regularly failed due to the resistance of the estates.
Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV and his Minister of State Adolf Langfeld had prepared the promulgation of a new constitution for the Landtag to be convened in November 1918 . The legal basis for the introduction should be the medieval right of the sovereign to enact laws in emergencies. Due to the extinction of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz line in the male line capable of following the throne a few months earlier, the situation was favorable. The November Revolution also eliminated the monarchy in Mecklenburg and made these plans superfluous.
Parliament
The legislature in the state of Mecklenburg was the state parliament. The state parliament in Mecklenburg was a joint institution and the highest political authority of the two parts of the country. As part of the Mecklenburg state as a whole, the two (partial) duchies did not have their own parliaments. The knights and landscape of both parts of the country were allowed to hold their own conventions for decision-making, but these had no political powers and only served to represent and form opinions. The ordinary state parliament met once a year in autumn - mostly between November and December - since 1621, alternately in Sternberg and Malchin . It was not until the early 20th century that the state parliament was convened in the Rostock state house .
Composition and voting rights
The state parliament was made up of the knighthood and the landscape without the domanium and without the cities of Wismar , Neustrelitz and Ludwigslust . The convening of the state parliament was incumbent on the ruling duke (grand duke) of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin region. Although this convened the state parliament, neither of the two Mecklenburg (grand) dukes had voting rights in the state parliament. They were not allowed to be present in person, but were represented by their government officials. As representatives of the two sovereigns and their governments, three sovereign Landtag commissioners were sent, but they were also not allowed to take part in the negotiations of the Landtag. They handed over the sovereign templates to the hereditary land marshals of the Landtag directorate and discussed their business treatment with them.
Only the authorities of the knighthood and the countryside were entitled to vote in the state parliaments. The knighthood included all owners of the main knightly goods eligible for the Landtag in the three districts. The three districts consisted of the so-called "Mecklenburg District", the so-called "Wendish District" and the so-called "Stargard District" (the larger southeastern part of Mecklenburg-Strelitz). In 1908, the knighthood consisted of 639 members, including 316 civil and 292 noble owners. The landscape, which comprised 49 cities eligible for state parliament , exercised the state law through the municipal authorities of the cities, who usually sent the mayor employed for life to the state parliament. Every landowner had the same voting rights as every single town, but an overriding of the landscape was avoided by the fact that knighthood and landscape could separate for special resolutions ( itio in partes ).
The knighthood represented the peasants and the backseat at the same time and the citizens of the cities were represented in the state parliament by the countryside . However , there was little or no representative character of the stands for the peasants and the backcountry of the country. These ostensibly represented their own interests vis-à-vis the rulers. It was only after serfdom was abolished in 1820 that the estates also became representatives not only of their own land, but also of their now vacant ranks. The inhabitants of the Domanium - almost a third of the total population - were not represented in the Diet; This also applied (except for the owners of the three allodial estates Torisdorf , Horst and Dodow ) for the entire population of the Principality of Ratzeburg .
Directory of knights and landscapes
The directory of the knightly and landscape on state parliaments consisted of eight district administrators selected by the rulership from the indigenous or received nobility, four each from the parts of Schwerin and Güstrow, of three hereditary land marshals , also belonging to the nobility, according to the three districts, and from the Deputies of the City of Rostock. The business of the knighthood in the three districts (the Mecklenburg, Wendish and Stargard district) was run by the hereditary land marshals, the business of the countryside by the mayors of the three fore towns in the three districts: Parchim , Güstrow and Neubrandenburg . They also caused the composition of the commissions to discuss the drafts. The oldest directing district administrator presided over the state parliament. He was supported by an elected protocol conductor. There were no rules of procedure for the negotiations, and no list of speakers was kept. The session police were exercised by the hereditary marshals.
Attempts at reform
A modern parliament - consisting of democratically elected members - only existed in Mecklenburg-Schwerin during the period of the monarchy in a short interim phase in the course of the revolution of 1848/49 . While parliamentarians from the Mecklenburg-Strelitz part of the state also took part in this democratic renewal process, the Strelitz Grand Duke had given up on any further participation in this development after initial concessions. Logically, one in 1849 State Constitution proclaims only for the part of the country Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the one constitutional monarchy providing for a bicameral parliament. After the revolution had failed, the old legal status was restored in 1850 at the instigation of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and under pressure from Prussia with the Freienwalder arbitration award .
Justice and Administration
Up until 1918 there was no separation of the judiciary from the administration in Mecklenburg in terms of a separation of powers and also no separation of religion and state . However, with the formation of the Upper Church Council in Schwerin in 1850, the Lutheran church government and the exercise of the sovereign church regiment in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin part of the state were separated from the general grand ducal government. As early as 1763, Mecklenburg-Schwerin's monarchs recognized the Israelitische Landesgemeinde Mecklenburg-Schwerin as the status of Jews in the state and expanded the executive branch of the state community, the four-member council of deputies, in 1839 to include sovereign commissars and reconstituted them as the Israelite upper council .
The Select Committee
As the highest executive body of the knighthood and the cities of the Mecklenburg state, the "narrow committee" (or "narrow committee of knights and landscape" ) was formed. It was created after the second division of Mecklenburg in 1621 as a body to repay the ducal debts and initially formed a kind of auxiliary fund. In the 18th and 19th centuries it developed into a permanent body with which the Mecklenburg provincial estates were able to assert their own interests in the country. It became the highest political body between the state parliaments and formed the state co-government of Mecklenburg as a counterpart to the rulers of both parts of Mecklenburg. The select committee had its seat in the Rostock estate and was composed of knights and landscape. He was a permanent college presented to the entire knight and landscape. It consisted of two district administrators, three knightly deputies and three members of the magistrate of the Vorderstädte Parchim , Güstrow and Neubrandenburg as deputies of the landscape and a deputy of the city of Rostock. It served to prepare the state parliament bills and was responsible for the execution of the state parliament resolutions as well as for dealing with urgent matters before a meeting of the state parliament.
In addition, there was a “narrow committee of knighthood” in Rostock to represent and regulate one's own knighthood affairs . He represented the top of the knighthood and was composed of the land marshals , district administrators and knightly deputies with the help of two juridical Syndici .
The State Ministry
The State Ministry was the highest government and administrative authority in the state of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . While in Mecklenburg-Strelitz the old cameralistic state administration initially remained, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin new administrative structures of the state administration emerged as a result of the 1848 revolution. Since 1849, the Grand Ducal Government had a general ministry, which from 1853 was called the State Ministry and formed the center of the state administration. The ministries of foreign affairs , the interior , justice and finance existed . The ministries were headed by state councils as single heads . The Minister of State (comparable to a Prime Minister) chaired the entire Ministry . The Minister of State also led a specialist ministry, usually the Foreign Ministry. In addition, the State Ministry included the Secret and Main Archives, the Chamber and Forestry College for the administration of state domains and forests, the General Postal Directorate and the administration of taxes and customs duties. The lower administrative offices were formed by the domain offices, magistrates and patrimonial courts.
Judicial administration
The administration of justice was subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and the State Ministry in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. These authorities exercised the supervision of the entire administration of justice in the country, whereby the administration (executive) and the judiciary (judiciary) were linked to one another. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice was responsible for all spiritual, school and medical matters.
As the highest court or supreme authority existed since 1819, the Community for both parts of the country, from both Grand Dukes and Estates occupied Mecklenburg Upper Court of Appeal , which was first located in Parchim was and 1840 to Rostock was laid and from 1879 - as richly harmonized across - the designation Court of Appeal led . Both parts of the country also had the jury meetings in Güstrow in common.
In 1857 there were the judicial offices in Schwerin, Güstrow and Rostock as the middle instances, and in the lowest instance the city and office, patrimonial, monastery office u. Economy dishes. For "embarrassing matters" (criminal jurisdiction) there was a criminal college in Bützow for the whole country.
The intermediate and lower instances were later replaced by four regional courts (in Güstrow, Rostock, Neustrelitz and Schwerin) and 52 local courts (43 in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and nine in Mecklenburg-Strelitz). The patrimonial jurisdiction of the knightly landlords was later abolished - insofar as the ordinary disputed court cases were in question - and passed to the newly formed local courts. For the Domanium, the patrimonial jurisdiction was also dissolved for the voluntary jurisdiction and handed over to the local courts. In the cities and estates, however, it continued to exist for voluntary jurisdiction, albeit for the owners of the knightly goods with substantial restrictions on the scope of the jurisdiction to be exercised.
There was also a state penal institution in Dreibergen, a central prison in Bützow and an agricultural labor and penitentiary in Strelitz. In addition, there was the higher regional court in Rostock, which served both grand duchies together.
The main source of law for all areas of law was common German law , in addition to which in the Middle Ages modifications of Saxon law applied outside the cities and for knighthood . In Rostock and Hagenow, Luebian law applied , in Friedland and Neubrandenburg, Märkian law. Rostock, Schwerin, Parchim and Neubrandenburg and most other cities also had their own city statutes. Generally applicable state laws were the police order from 1516 (revised 1542), the state reversals from 1572 and 1621 and the state constitutional comparison of inheritance from 1755.
Tax and Customs Administration
The administration of customs duties and taxes was managed by the Tax and Customs Directorate in Schwerin under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance in Schwerin and the state government in Neustrelitz. These included four main tax offices: Güstrow, Neubrandenburg, Rostock and Schwerin. The principality of Ratzeburg belonged to the main tax office district of Schwerin.
The state taxes in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin were administered under the direction of the Ministry of Finance by the Tax and Customs Directorate Schwerin and the State Recipe and Stamp Directorate in Rostock, a joint Grand Ducal and Estates authority and the Select Committee of the Knights and Landscapes. The administrative bodies in Mecklenburg-Strelitz were the state government, the central tax office in Neubrandenburg (joint grand ducal and estate authority) and the select committee of the knight and landscape in Rostock.
Police administration
The sovereign police power was exercised in Mecklenburg-Schwerin by the Ministry of the Interior, in Mecklenburg-Strelitz by the state government. The stands were represented in the police authorities and institutions by deputies .
The local police functions were exercised in the domanium by the domanial offices, in the cities by the city magistrates (police colleges in Mecklenburg-Strelitz), in the monasteries by the monastery offices and in the knightly estates by the landowners themselves. The landowners often delegated their functions to the police offices they set up.
School administration
The school administration in Mecklenburg-Schwerin was directed by the relevant department of the Ministry of Justice, in Mecklenburg-Strelitz by the highest authority of the church, the consistory . At higher schools, Mecklenburg-Schwerin owned the Rostock State University , founded in 1419, with four faculties; Grammar schools in Güstrow , Parchim , Rostock , Schwerin , Waren (Müritz) and Wismar as well as secondary schools in Bützow , Güstrow, Parchim, Rostock and Wismar; there were also three municipal and a large number of private secondary schools. In Mecklenburg-Strelitz there were three grammar schools in Friedland , Neubrandenburg and Neustrelitz as well as two secondary schools in Neustrelitz and Schönberg (Principality of Ratzeburg) and four secondary schools for secondary schools.
In 1903 Mecklenburg-Schwerin also had 1226 elementary and community schools (1111 rural schools and 115 city and town schools) with 2150 classes, in which 94,971 students were taught by 2041 teachers. In the 42 cities and six towns there were trade schools, in which in 1903 264 teachers taught 4,255 pupils belonging to 88 types of trade. To train teachers, there was a grand ducal school teacher seminar in Neukloster for the grand ducal domains and the seminar for knightly school teachers in Lübenheen . In addition, there was an educational and care institution for mentally weak children near Schwerin, an institution for the blind in Neukloster and an institution for the deaf and dumb in Ludwigslust.
There were seafaring schools (navigation schools ) in Wustrow and Rostock and a navigation preparatory school in Dierhagen . There was an agriculture school in Dargun and finally two municipal building trade and technical schools in Neustadt and Sternberg . There was a mental hospital in Sachsenberg near Schwerin, a second in Gehlsheim near Rostock, and a mental hospital in Rostock.
In 1903 Mecklenburg-Strelitz also had 233 elementary and community schools, including 218 rural schools, in which in 1901 16,057 students were taught by 382 teachers; there was also a grand ducal school teacher seminar in Mirow .
Ministry of the Grand Ducal House
The Ministry of the Grand Ducal House , which was the administrative authority of the Grand Ducal Court, was not part of the State Ministry .
Post and telegraph administration
The post and telegraph administration was jointly managed for both countries by the imperial Oberpostdirektion in Schwerin. Under the Oberpostdirektion there were 15 post offices I class, 17 post offices II class, 36 post offices III in Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Class and 99 postal agencies in Mecklenburg-Strelitz two post offices I class, four post offices II class, five post offices III. Class and 18 post offices IV class. Mostly connected with the post offices there were 185 telegraph stations in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and 28 telegraph stations in Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Military administration
The military was directly subordinate to the Grand Duke. It was under the direction of the Grand Ducal Military Department , whose chief, a general , had a seat and vote in the State Ministry when it came to advising on military matters. The General Auditorium in Schwerin was responsible for the jurisdiction in military matters.
In military terms, both countries belonged to the IX district according to the military conventions of 1868 . Army Corps of the Prussian Army . Mecklenburg had two infantry regiments (No. 89 and 90), a Jäger battalion (No. 14), two Dragoon regiments (No. 17 and 18) and a field artillery division (1st division of the Holstein Field Artillery Regiment No. 24 in Güstrow and Neustrelitz). Mecklenburg provided the Landwehr regiments No. 89 and 90. For the purpose of recruitment , Mecklenburg-Schwerin was divided into twelve, Mecklenburg-Strelitz into three evacuation districts. The evacuation districts represented spatially contiguous parts of the country and were formed without the distinction between the domain of the domain, the knighthood and the cities resulting from the position in relation to property.
Church administration
The regional church of Mecklenburg was the Evangelical Lutheran regional church . In both countries, the sovereigns were also the upper bishops of the church until 1918. In Mecklenburg there was no separation of church and state as is common today . As church leaders Authority Mecklenburg-Schwerin was in December 1849 instead of the earlier Church Commission of Oberkirchenrat formed with headquarters in Schwerin. The highest authority of the church in Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the consistory . The Upper Church Council was also not assigned to the State Ministry, but was directly subordinate to the Grand Duke in his capacity as owner of the sovereign church regiment .
The church administration in Mecklenburg-Schwerin was divided into eight superintendents and 38 prepositions, and in Mecklenburg-Strelitz into six synods.
Municipal constitution
There was a municipal constitution only in the cities and in the Domanium. The parishes in the Domainium were only responsible for internal parish affairs. In the remaining areas, rural parishes existed only in church relationships. In the cities the municipal constitution was very different. Rostock and Wismar had important privileges as lakeside cities. In the rural towns there were one or two mayors and the council (magistrate) at the head of the administration, in the domanial parishes Schulzen , lay judges and advisory boards . To represent the citizenship, a citizens' committee was formed in the cities by election from among the citizens, in which, however, only the real citizens of the cities (mostly house and landowners) were represented, while the social middle and lower classes had no rights whatsoever.
Offices
For the purpose of general administration, the domain was divided into so-called domain offices. There were 26 such offices in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and four domain offices and one cabinet office in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. There was no real administrative authority for knightly goods. The division of goods into knightly offices mainly served the collection of taxes and state taxes. The cities had the right of self-government with far-reaching powers, while the powers of the rural communities were only subordinate. The monastery property, divided into three monastery offices, was administered by provisional monasteries and monastery captains under the control of the estates. In the Principality of Ratzeburg , the domains and villages were divided into five bailiwicks .
Mecklenburg-Schwerin region
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(DA = Domanialamt; RA = Knightly Office; KA = Monastery Office)
- Office Boizenburg (DA)
- Boizenburg Office (RA)
- Bukow Office (RA)
- Office Bukow (in Neubukow ) (DA)
- Office Bützow-Rühn (DA)
- Office Crivitz (DA)
- Crivitz Office (RA)
- Office Dargun-Gnoien-Neukalen (DA)
- Office Dobbertin (KA)
- Doberan Office (DA)
- Office Dömitz (DA)
- Office Gadebusch (RA)
- Office Gadebusch-Rehna (DA)
- Office Gnoien (RA)
- Office Goldberg (RA)
- Grabow Office (RA)
- Grabow-Eldena Office (DA)
- Grevesmühlen Office (RA)
- Office Grevesmühlen-Plüschow (DA)
- Office Güstrow (RA)
- Office Güstrow-Rossewitz (DA)
- Office Hagenow-Toddin-Bakendorf-Lübenheen (DA)
- Office Ivenack (RA)
- Office Lübz (RA)
- Office Lübz-Marnitz (DA)
- Malchow Office (KA)
- Mecklenburg Office (RA)
- Neukalen Office (RA)
- Neustadt Office (DA)
- Neustadt Office (RA)
- Office Plau (RA)
- Ribnitz Office (DA)
- Ribnitz Office (KA)
- Ribnitz Office (RA)
- Office Schwaan (DA)
- Office Schwaan (RA)
- Schwerin Office (RA)
- Office Stavenhagen (DA)
- Office Stavenhagen (RA)
- Sternberg Office (RA)
- Office Toitenwinkel zu Rostock (DA)
- Office and Abbey Office Schwerin (DA)
- Warin-Neukloster-Sternberg-Tempzin Office (DA)
- Wismar-Poel-Mecklenburg-Redentin Office (DA)
- Wittenburg Office (RA)
- Wittenburg-Walsmühlen-Zarrentin Office (DA)
- Wredenhagen Office (RA)
- Wredenhagen office (in Röbel ) (DA)
Mecklenburg-Strelitz region
(DA = Domanialamt; RA = Knightly Office; KA = Monastery Office)
- Cabinet Office (DA)
- Feldberg Office (DA)
- Office Landvogtei Schönberg (DA) , the administration of the office included the Vogteien Schönberg, Rupensdorf, Stove, Schlagsdorf, Mannhagen
- Office Mirow (DA)
- Office Stargard (DA)
- Stargard Office (RA)
- Amt Strelitz (DA) , the administration of the office also included the Fürstenberg district
- Office Strelitz (RA)
- Fürstenberg Office (RA)
Democratic Free States (1919–1934)
With the constitution of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin of May 17, 1920 and the Basic Law of Mecklenburg-Strelitz of January 29, 1919 (May 24, 1923), both countries became parliamentary - democratic republics .
Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1920–1934)
Parliament
The state parliament of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin had its seat in Schwerin. The first session was on February 21, 1919. The legislative period lasted three years. There was proportional representation , but with closed lists. The calculation methods were carried out using the D'Hondt method . There was only one constituency in total (this was the Free State itself).
government
The Mecklenburg-Schwerin State Ministry consisted of the Prime Minister and the Ministries for Foreign Affairs , Interior , Finance , Justice , Education, Art, Clergy and Medical Matters, and Agriculture, Domains and Forests . As a rule, the Prime Minister took over the Foreign Ministry and another specialist ministry at the same time. The cabinet then consisted of the prime minister and three ministers. Often a minister also headed two ministries, so that the government consisted of the prime minister and only two ministers. During the National Socialist era, the cabinet was further downsized (Prime Minister and a Minister of State).
Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1919–1934)
After the overthrow of the monarchy in 1918, Mecklenburg-Strelitz gained political autonomy as a free state for the first time in its history and, as an independent and independent state , remained a member of the German Reich (Section 1 of the Land constitution of May 23, 1923). The state election results are presented in the article Landtag of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz .
However, after a while, maintaining political independence as one of the smallest German states proved to be financially impossible. The state treasure left by the last Grand Duke was used up around 1926. First, the government sought a decision at the Reichsgericht in Leipzig to reach an agreement with Mecklenburg-Schwerin, but it failed. In a legal dispute over the joint disposal of the assets of former state monasteries and assets of the earlier estates, which the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz brought before the State Court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1926 before the State Court for the German Reich , Mecklenburg-Schwerin submitted the counter-motion to determine that the state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz fell into the state of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on February 23, 1918 and since then has legally formed part of it. Mecklenburg-Schwerin stated that after the Hamburg comparison of 1701 (see above) Mecklenburg-Strelitz with the death of its last Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich VI. fell to Mecklenburg-Schwerin on February 23, 1918. The State Court of Justice, however, did not allow this counter-motion for formal reasons.
Plans to join Prussia in 1932 had proven to be politically unenforceable.
National Socialist dictatorship (1934–1945)
On January 1, 1934, under National Socialist pressure, the free states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz were reunited to form Mecklenburg . Friedrich Hildebrandt , NSDAP, was Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter from 1934 to 1945 .
See also
literature
Laws, ordinances, contracts
- Policey and Landtordenunge Johann Albrechts I , Rostock 1562. ( digitized )
- Reformation and Court of Justice order our by the grace of God Johans Albrechte and Ulrichen brothers from Hertzog zu Meckelnburg. Rostock 1568. ( digitized version )
- Renovated servants, day laborers, farmers, shepherds, tax and victual regulations (so-called Mecklenburg servants regulations ) Adolf Friedrichs I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1654.
- Land constitutional comparison of inheritance (LGGEV) of 1755 ( extracts )
- Land constitutional hereditary comparison (LGGEV) from 1755. Full text from Hugo Sachsse: Mecklenburg documents and data. Rostock 1900, pp. 446-534. ( Digitized version )
Older literature
→ See also main article : Mecklenburg State Calendar
- Karl Hegel : History of the Mecklenburg Land estates up to 1555. Adler, Rostock 1856. [Reprinted several times.]
- Traugott Mueller: Handbook of real estate in the German Empire. The Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Rostock 1888. ( digitized version )
- Mecklenburg record book . Edited by the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology . 24 volumes + 2 supplementary volumes. Schwerin 1863-1913. (Supplements: 1936, 1977).
- Hugo Sachsse : Mecklenburg documents and dates. Rostock 1900 ( digitized version ).
- Erich Schlesinger : Constitutional and administrative law of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Schwerin 1908.
- Erich Schlesinger: The Mecklenburg laws of March 2, 1922 on administrative jurisdiction. 1922.
Newer literature
- Thomas Klein [Hrsg.]: Outline of the German administrative history 1815-1945. Row B: Central Germany. Volume 13: Mecklenburg. edit by Helge Bei der Wieden, Marburg 1976, ISBN 3-87969-128-2 .
- Helge bei der Wieden : The Mecklenburg Governments and Ministers 1918–1952. Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-412-05077-6 .
- Helge bei der Wieden: Brief outline of the Mecklenburg constitutional history. Six hundred years of the Mecklenburg constitutions. Ed .: State Center for Political Education Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schwerin 1994.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Traugott Mueller : Handbook of real estate in the German Empire - The Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Rostock 1888, p. XLI f.
- ^ Traugott Mueller: Handbook of real estate - Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Rostock 1888, p. XII.
- ^ Traugott Mueller: Handbook of real estate - Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Rostock 1888, p. XLVI.
- ^ A b Traugott Mueller: Handbook of real estate - Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Rostock 1888, p. 187.
- ↑ a b Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 13. Leipzig 1908, pp. 499–508.
- ↑ Cf. “ 3. Mecklenburg Land estates including knightly mansions and rural towns ”, on: State Main Archive Schwerin: Online Find Books , accessed on February 1, 2017.
- ↑ 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.
- ^ Traugott Mueller: Handbook of real estate - Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Rostock 1888, p. IX.
- ↑ a b c d e Erich Schlesinger : Constitutional and administrative law of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Schwerin 1908, p. 29 ff.
- ↑ see: Erich Schlesinger: Constitutional and administrative law of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Schwerin 1908, p. 30.
- ↑ According to Hamburg Comparison (1701) , § 8, confirmed by LGGEV (1755), § 146.
- ^ Traugott Mueller: Handbook of real estate - Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Rostock 1888, p. XIV.
- ^ Corps district of IX. Army corps, including the Mecklenburg evacuation districts (1914)
- ↑ See also Karl Schmalz: Church History Mecklenburgs. Third volume, Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 1952, p. 364f.
- ↑ Interim decision of the StGH of June 5, 1926, RGZ 113, Appendix p. 1 f.
