Cent Heppenheim

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The Zent Heppenheim was a judicial and administrative district in the south of today's state of Hesse . It should originally have included the southern Upper Rhinegau of the Duchy of Franconia . The Upper Rhinegau was later called Rhine Franconia in the Duchy of West Franconia. The kingdom of Lorsch Abbey had its freedoms and the donations of the Great Charles to 772 the jurisdiction held in the centering before 1232 the Archdiocese of Mainz was assumed. Kurmainz then exercised sovereignty in the district from 1424 to 1623 , except for the time it was pledged to the Electoral Palatinate . The extent of the Zent decreased sharply in the 13th to 15th centuries due to changes in rule and the splitting off of smaller Zenten. However, in most cases the central court in Heppenheim continued to exercise the high level of jurisdiction or remained the upper court of the split-off Zenten. In 1782, as part of an administrative reform, the Zent had to surrender competencies to the newly established offices of Heppenheim , Bensheim , Lorsch and in 1803 with the transfer to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt , as a result of the Napoleonic Wars , the offices of the Zent were completely taken over.

The drawing from the court book of Bailiff Sebastian Zollner (1589/96) shows the court in Memmelsdorf (east of Bamberg) at a hearing

history

The function of the Zenten as an administrative unit was diverse and changed over time. The center was always connected to a jurisdiction that was exercised by the center court . Usually, the Zentgraf acted as chairman at the negotiations , but the verdict was pronounced by lay judges . But other administrative tasks such as the recruitment of military units, the establishment and monitoring of units of measurement, the maintenance of execution places, the administration of the dominalia ( cellar ), the catering of officials and other things were imposed on the center and organized and monitored by the centre.

The first documentary mention of Heppenheim comes from the year 755 as a copy of a deed of donation in Codex Laureshamensis , the list of possessions of the Lorsch Monastery , when a Marcharius transferred his household in Weinheim along with the associated property to the Church of St. Peter in Heppenheim.

When exactly the "Zent Heppenheim" was set up is unknown, it may have initially covered the entire southern part of the Upper Rhine Valley , as the central borders were essentially based on the Gau borders of the Franconian Empire and the church administrative borders . The oldest written record about a court in Heppenheim, which first met in the churchyard and later on the Landsberg (or Landberg; between Heppenheim and Bensheim), dates from 1222. The place of jurisdiction on the Landsberg has been clearly demonstrable since 1224.

With the clearing of the large forests of the Odenwald, the framework for new central areas was created. For example with the donation of the "Mark Heppenheim" and Heppenheims in 772 by Charlemagne and the Mark Michelstadt in 819 by Einhard to the imperial monastery of Lorsch . The main aim of these donations was to promote the urbanization of the Odenwald , which at that time still largely consisted of primeval forest. Through many other donations, the monastery reached its greatest power in the 9th and 10th centuries before its decline followed in the 11th and 12th centuries. This ultimately led to Emperor Friedrich II submitting the monastery to the Archdiocese of Mainz for reform in 1232 . Due to the freedom of the imperial monastery, the monastery bailiffs were administrators and court lords within the monastery property. This office came into the possession of the Count Palatine around 1165. From this constellation, serious disputes developed between the Archdiocese of Mainz and the Electoral Palatinate as the owner of the bailiwick . These disputes could not be settled until the beginning of the 14th century through a contract in which the possessions of the monastery were divided between Kurmainz and Electoral Palatinate and the bailiwick rights of the Count Palatine were confirmed.

The castle Starkenburg above Heppenheim was built in 1065 as a protective stronghold of Lorsch. A burgrave was mentioned for the first time in 1267 and the "Amt Starkenburg" has been spoken of since the merger of the supervisory authority over all Lorsch slopes and the supreme jurisdiction in the hands of the burgrave of Starkenburg Castle , whereby it functioned as a judicial and camera office .

The waiter in Heppenheim was first mentioned in 1322. He had his seat in the official court of Heppenheim and was the highest financial and judicial officer after the burgrave.

From 1424, a comparison between Count Johann von Katzenelnbogen and Archbishop Konrad von Mainz has come down to us, in which it was agreed that all outrages outside of Zwingenberg and Auerbach should be tried on the Landsberg in Heppenheim and also "the poor people of the Count Palatine and the Schenken von Erbach should be shown her right here ”. In 1430 the rights of Archbishop Konrad and Count Palatine Ludwig were established on the Landsberg by 13 alderman at the request of the Vogts von Heidelberg , Knight Weiprecht von Helmstatt, and Burgrave of the Starkenburg, Junker Hans von Habern.

In the course of the Mainz collegiate feud , which was fateful for Kurmainz , the Starkenburg office was pledged redeemable to Kurpfalz and then remained in the Palatinate for 160 years. Count Palatine Friedrich had the “Amt Starkenburg” pledged for his support from Archbishop Dieter - in the “Weinheimer Bund” concluded by the Electors on November 19, 1461 - whereby Kurmainz received the right to redeem the pledge for 100,000 pounds. This gave the Electoral Palatinate sovereignty over the "Zent Heppenheim". The Electoral Palatinate introduced the Reformation in 1556 and, as a result, abolished Lorsch Monastery in 1564.

In the course of time there were several spin-offs of new Zenten from the "Heppenheimer Zent", but some of them remained dependent on the "Heppenheimer Zent" and formed its Oberhof. The Heppenheimer Cent continued to exercise the high jurisdiction of these Centers. The only exception was the " Zent Fürth ", which had its own high court. Through the Landshut War of Succession (1504/05), the independent "Zent Zwingenberg" was formed from the Hessian area around Zwingenberg ( Zwingenberg , Auerbach , Hochstätten , Beedenkirchen , Schwanheim , Großhausen , Langwaden and Groß-Rohrheim ). An exchange of territory between the county of Erbach and the Electoral Palatinate from 1561 formed the basis for the "Neu-Zent" of the Palatinate Office of Lindenfels . The high level of jurisdiction over “theft, screams of murder, throwing stones, robbers and heresy” remained in Heppenheim until 1716. Documents prove that the "Neu-Zent" already existed in 1613 and that in 1665 legal cases were appealed to the Central Court in Mittershausen and from then to the Court Court of the Electoral Palatinate. Even the small "Zent Birkenau" was founded around 1600 from aristocratic property. However, places remained with the Zent until the end of the 18th century, such as the Erbachsche Rimbach, which no longer belong to the territory of Mainz.

During the Thirty Years' War , Spanish troops of the “Catholic League” conquered the region in 1623 , bringing the “Zent Heppenheim” under Kurmainzer rule. The Reformation introduced by the Count Palatine was largely reversed and the population had to return to the Catholic faith. Although the Spanish troops withdrew from the approaching Swedes after 10 years, after the catastrophic defeat of the Evangelicals in the Nördlingen in 1634, the Swedes also left the Bergstrasse and with the Swedish-French War began the bloodiest chapter of the Thirty Years' War from 1635. The chroniclers of that time report from the region: "Plague and hunger rage in the country and decimate the population, so that the villages are often completely empty". With the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the redemption of the pledge was finally established.

In 1782, on the occasion of a restructuring of the Kurmainzer Amt Starkenburg, the four new sub-offices Fürth, Heppenheim Bensheim and Lorsch were founded, to which many of the Zenten's powers were transferred, while the "Amt Starkenburg" was now referred to as the Oberamt. The central courts in Fürth , Mörlenbach and Abtsteinach previously subordinated to the “Zent Heppenheim” as Oberhof were subordinated to the new Fürth office, while the locations of the “Zent Heppenheim” in the administrative areas were assigned to the offices of Heppenheim, Bensheim and Lorsch. Although the central order with the central school was formally in place, it could only carry out the orders of the higher authorities. The “Oberamt Starkenburg” belonged to the “Lower Archbishopric” of the Electorate of Mainz .

The Kurmainzer period ended in 1803, when the Holy Roman Empire (German Nation) perished with the Napoleonic Wars and with the dissolution of Kurmainz the “Oberamt Starkenburg” fell to Hesse. The individual sub - offices were continued in the principality of Starkenburg of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt and from 1806 in the newly founded Grand Duchy of Hesse as Hessian administrative bailiffs.

In the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt , the judicial system was reorganized in an executive order of December 9, 1803. The “Hofgericht Darmstadt” was set up as a court of second instance for the Principality of Starkenburg . The jurisdiction of the first instance was carried out by the offices or the landlords . The court court was the second instance court for normal civil disputes, and the first instance for civil family law cases and criminal cases. The superior court of appeal in Darmstadt was superordinate . With this, the Zent and the associated courts had definitely lost their function.

With the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1806, this division was retained until 1821. After the Grand Duchy had received a new constitution in 1820, the administrative reform in 1821/22 saw the separation of jurisdiction and administration for the first time. Regional courts were created for the jurisdiction of the first instance, from which today's local courts emerged in 1879.

Circumference of cent

A description of the Zent is known from 1563. Thereafter, 14, judging centering Schöffengrund , of which 7 are from Heppenheim Bensheim. The place of justice was on the Landsberg and the place of execution was the gallows near the Landsberg. Zent included :.

literature

  • Meinrad Schaab: The Zent in Franconia from the Carolingian era to the 19th century. Online [PDF; 1.6 MB] ( Memento from February 6, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
  • Eckhardt, Albrecht: On the history of the Zenten in the southern Odenwald. In: Archive for Hessian History and Archeology, NF 35 (1977), pp. 305-312. Editor: Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt in connection with the Historical Association for Hesse
  • Konrad Dahl: Historical-topographical-statistical description of the principality of Lorsch, or church history of the Upper Rhinegau. Darmstadt 1812. ( Online at Google Books )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Konrad Dahl, pp. 175f and 240ff
  2. ↑ Glöckner, Karl, Codex Laureshamensis 2nd volume - copy book, Part I Upper Rhine, Lobden, Worms, Nahe and Speiergau , Darmstadt 1933, p. 109, no. 429 (Reg 1)
  3. ↑ Meinrad Schaab, p. 353
  4. ↑ Meinrad Schaab, p. 353
  5. ↑ a b c d Wilhelm Müller: Hessisches Ortnamesbuch - Starkenburg , Darmstadt 1937, pages 309-314
  6. ↑ Christoph Friedrich Moritz Ludwig Marchand: Lindenfels. A contribution to the local history of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Darmstadt, 1858 ( online at Google Books ) p. 40ff
  7. ↑ Meinrad Schaab, p. 357
  8. ^ Friedrich von Thudichum: Rechtsgeschichte der Wetterau , H. Laupp, 1867, p. 323f ( online at Google Books )