Joke dishes

The Witzlebischen courts were territorial administrative units of the Ernestine duchies . They consisted of several places, all of which were initially under the patrimonial jurisdiction of the Lords of Witzleben . Some places subsequently came under the jurisdiction of other masters. The places belonged to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha from 1640 , from 1672 to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and from 1826 to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .

Until the administrative reform in the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha in 1830, these aristocratic courts formed the spatial reference point for claiming sovereign taxes and compulsory services , for the police , judiciary and military service .

Geographical location

The locations of the witty dishes were on the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest and in its foreland. Striking mountains in the area were u. a. the Hohe Warte (765 m) the Rumpelsberg (799 m) near Elgersburg and the Gräfenrodaer Berg (506 m). Rivers in the territory were the Wilde Gera with its tributaries Lütsche and Gissel, the Zahme Gera with its tributaries Reichenbach and Körnbach , the Wipfra and the Ilm , which forms the eastern border.

Neuroda, Traßdorf and Kettmannshausen were located as exclaves east of the other places between the Saxon-Weimar Office of Ilmenau and the lords of the principalities of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen . Today the area is in the center of the Free State of Thuringia in the southwest of the Ilm district .

Adjacent administrative units

Since the founding of the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg in 1672 and the division of the country in 1680, the places of the Witzlebischen courts bordered on the following administrative units:

North: Wachsenburg Office (Duchy of Saxony-Gotha)
Northeast: Schwarzburg-Sondershäuser Oberherrschaft (Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen)
East and southeast: Amt Ilmenau (County of Henneberg, after 1660 exclave of the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar)
West and Southwest: Black Forest Office (Duchy of Saxony-Gotha)

The area was almost completely divided into a northern part (with Graefenroda, Liebenstein, Frankenhain and Rippersroda) and a southern part (Elgersburg, Gera and Manebach) by the Schwarzburg special houses exclave Geschwenda and the Schwarzburg-Rudolstädter exclave Angelroda .

The places Kettmannshausen, Neuroda and Traßdorf formed an exclave of the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha, which was east of the core area. This was bounded in the west by the Sachsen-Weimarischen Amt Ilmenau. In the north was the Arnstadt office , which belonged to the Schwarzburg special houses suzerainty, and its office in Gehren was in the south . The principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt bordered the Saxon-Gotha area around Traßdorf with the Stadtilm office belonging to its supremacy in the west and with the Bücheloh exclave in the south.

history

The places in the southeast of the later Duchy of Saxony-Gotha were originally all under the jurisdiction of the Lords of Witzleben , whose family was mentioned in a document as early as the 12th century. In 1434 the Lords of Witzleben came into the possession of Liebenstein Castle through an exchange . In 1437 they bought the place and the Elgersburg Castle from the Landgraves of Thuringia. In the same year they received the feudal and patronage rights over the place Gera . Graefenroda was originally owned by the Counts of Kevernburg and Schwarzburg . In 1446, half of the town came under the jurisdiction of the witzlebian, which meant that Gräfenroda remained divided until 1819.

After 1445 the noble family von Witzleben divided into different lines, which named themselves after their ancestral seat (including Graefenroda, Elgersburg, Liebenstein). State sovereignty over the Witzlebischen court places came in 1640 to the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha and in 1672 to the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg , with which it remained after the Gotha main recession of 1680. Through the real division of the former county of Henneberg in 1660, the place Manebach, west of the Ilm, came under the jurisdiction of the Lords of Witzleben zu Elgersburg. The Witzlebische share of Graefenroda had gone to Count Günther von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen in 1610 . After 1660, the Duke of Saxe-Gotha and the Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen had joint jurisdiction over the place until 1819.

In 1746, Liebenstein Castle and the towns of Liebenstein, Frankenhain and Rippersroda, which belong to its judicial district, came to the ducal-Württemberg State Minister Heinrich Günther Reinhard von Röder zu Geschwenda . The place Kettmannshausen, which was an exclave in the Blackburg suzerainty , originally also belonged to the Lords of Witzleben zu Liebenstein. Around 1726 he came to the privy council director Johann Friedrich II. Bachoff von Echt . Chamberlain and Colonel August von Berbisdorf bought it from his heirs . In 1802 the ducal chamber of Saxe-Gotha bought the Elgersburg castle and estate from the lords of Witzleben with the courts of Elgersburg, Gera, Manebach and the enclaves Neuroda and Traßdorf.

After the Saxon-Gotha-Altenburg line had died out, the Hildburghausen Partition Treaty of November 12, 1826 resulted in a comprehensive restructuring of the Ernestine duchies . The former Witzlebischen court places came as part of Saxe-Gotha to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , whose two parts of the country were governed from now on in personal union. In the administrative reform that took place in 1830, the former Witzlebischen courts were dissolved and incorporated into the newly founded “Liebenstein Justice Office”, to which the places Arlesberg, Dürrberg and Lütsche were joined by the Black Forest office and in 1856 the place Gossel by the Wachsenburg office with Ichtershausen . The Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha was divided into independent cities and district offices in 1858. The Liebenstein Justice Office was subordinated to the Ohrdruf District Office in administrative tasks . In 1879 the Liebenstein Justice Office was converted into the Liebenstein District Court .