Defense mastery
Wehrmeisterei is the name of a forest administration district and the smaller Wehrmeisterei office located in it in the county of Jülich (previously Jülichgau, later Duchy of Jülich , then Düren office ).
The forest areas of the counts, later dukes, of Jülich in the North Eifel were administratively divided into the Obergewäld, which was headed by the forest master (in Monschau ), and the Untergewäld or the forest administrative district Wehrmeisterei, whose border is from Jüngersdorf , Derichsweiler , Kreuzau , Bergstein , Vossenack , Red woe and woe went back to Langerwehe . The subdivision of a forest was called “hat” (from “to guard”, see “forest guard”). The forest administrative district Wehrmeisterei comprised the Dürener Hut (area Hürtgenwald and Vossenack), the Vennhut (between Lammersdorf , Jägerhaus and Zweifall ), the Rackerscheider Hut (from Roetgen to Konzen , partially reaching into the Venn area ) and the Bauler Hut (between Kalltal and today's Rurtalsperre to Woffelsbach ). The Wehrmeisterei office also included Schevenhütte , Zweifall east of the Hasselbach and the Vicht (the other part belonged to the Montjoie (Monschau) office) and Vicht (east of the Vicht to Vichter Leuwstraße). The part of Gressenich east of the Omerbach belonged to the Wehrmeisterei office and to the west to the imperial abbey Kornelimünster . The Abbot of Kornelimünster and the Duke of Jülich made a special agreement in 1532 for the development to the left of the old street from Gressenich (so-called Gracht), which ran via Krewinkel, Fleuth and Leuwstraße to the Vicht.
At the head of the office stood the Wehrmeister (probably from "Grant", he had no defense duties; or from Wehr-Meister, so the highest administrator of the water weirs / water distribution rights), whose administrative seat in both functions was later Düren . Initially, the military master of the "Wehrmeisterei Office" sat at Graefenhaus in today's Hürtgenwald forest district. The seat of the superordinate regional forest office Rureifel-Jülicher-Börde in Hürtgenwald is still based on this today. The Wermeister was not only the bailiff of the Office Duren, but also took on behalf of the Jülich regent whose rights true that from the forestry authority showed u. a. Hunting, fishing, charcoal burning , water and milling rights. Twelve hereditary foresters supported the Wehrmeister . Up until the 16th century, mining law was also the responsibility of the military master. Then it was further subdivided regionally. So was z. B. the mountain master from Gressenich, who previously settled the income from the mountain shelf with the military master , the Eschweiler mountain bailiff . The first remaining armed forces accounts date from 1525. Most of them are in the main state archive in Düsseldorf.