Civil and military government for the provinces between the Elbe and Weser

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The civil and military government for the provinces between the Elbe and Weser rivers was a temporary institution of the Prussian territorial administration for the former provinces to the right of the Elbe, which were dissolved by the Prussian state on July 7, 1807, and the newly founded state in the course of the Napoleonic Peace of Tilsit Kingdom of Westphalia were transferred, where they were redistributed as departments based on the French model. Like the four military governments that were formed in the Kingdom of Prussia on March 15, 1813 in order to logistically support the beginning war with the French Empire , a military government for the Prussian provinces on the left bank of the Elbe was established on April 9, 1813 the aim of the revision of the Tilsit treaty was already clear. With the train of Russian troops on Kassel on September 18, 1813, Prussia announced the re-incorporation of the provinces into the Prussian state, with which a plan for the administration of the recaptured areas, which had been prepared since August 31, came into being. The civil and military government finally came into effect with the cabinet order of November 19, 1813, when the government was divided into the provinces between the Elbe and Weser and between the Weser and the Rhine with the advance of the Allied troops towards the Rhine . On July 12, 1815, the governorate was abolished. The successor organization on April 1, 1816, the Prussian Province of Saxony .

For the entire duration of the war, ministerial responsibilities were suspended in the military governorates and all military and civilian directives were assigned to a dual leadership composed of a military and a civil governor. The civil management was given by decree of April 9, 1813, the State Secretary Wilhelm Anton von Klewiz . Major General Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig von Krusemark became the military governor in October 1813 . He was followed by Major General Ludwig Wilhelm August von Ebra . The official seat of the governorate was initially Halle , and since December 1813 Halberstadt .

Territorial division

The civil and military government comprised the Duchy of Magdeburg , the Altmark , the principalities of Halberstadt , Eichsfeld and Erfurt , the counties of Blankenburg , Mansfeld and Hohnstein , the Quedlinburg monastery and the provinces of Halle, Merseburg and Weissenfels.

The city and fortress of Magdeburg were occupied by French troops under the division general Lemarrois until March 25, 1814. After the capture of Paris on April 14th and a negotiated armistice with the Count of Tauenzien , Lemarrois vacated the city from May 16 to 23, 1814 with 18,000 men. As a result, it became part of the civil and military government and the seat of the civil governor.

The military and civil government gained territory in 1815 after negotiations at the Congress of Vienna. Here, Prussia was assigned various enclaves in the rulership of its own provinces, which were incorporated in 1814, such as the Gommern office or parts of the Saxon county of Barby in the east, the Schwarzburg enclaves in the south, in particular the Großbodungen office and the Allerburg court and the former Hanover village of Rüdigershagen in Eichsfeld. The offices of Gieboldehausen, Lindau and Gerode, the court of Westernhagen and the city of Duderstadt were separated from the sub-district of the Principality of Eichsfeld in 1815 and added to the Kingdom of Hanover, which also regained the office of Hohnstein around Ilfeld and Neustadt.

In total, the area comprised a population of 1.2 million people.

Administrative division

Governors

The governing bodies of the civil and military government were the

Civil governor

  • April 1813 - March 1816: Wilhelm Anton von Klewiz (1760–1838)

and military governor

  • April 1813 - June 1813: Major General Philip of Ivernois (1754–1813)
  • October 1813 - November 1813: Major General Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig von Krusemark (1767–1822)
  • November 1813 - July 1815: Major General Ludwig Wilhelm August von Ebra (1759-1818)

Contrary to the legal stipulations of other Prussian military governors, civil and military governors in the provinces between the Elbe and Weser did not separate their business, but instead ran the office and registry together. Both governors decided on behalf of each other in the case of representation. If the two did not agree on one thing, the king decided by direct objection. At the side of the governors was a six-member government commission, which on the one hand acted as an advisor and on the other hand was responsible for specific administrative tasks since March 1814.

Departments and regional directorates

From the regional administrative level, the plan that Klewitz had presented on August 31, 1813 in preparation for the incorporation of the retaken Westphalian provinces in the cabinet was implemented. In the civil administration he provided for the three eastern departments of the Kingdom of Westphalia to be largely taken over in their area. The administrative units should keep the name Department and report to a country director. For Erfurt with the county of Blankenhain, a separate administration with its own vice regional director was set up, the III. Department was subordinate. The country directors were

I. Department (seat in Stendal)

II. Department (seat in Halberstadt)

III. Department (based in Heiligenstadt and Erfurt)

Although Klewitz tried to leave the old territorial division largely untouched and to take it into account, the new districts no longer coincided in many places with the old eastern departments of the kingdom. The I. Department should be modeled on the Westphalian Elbe department , the II. Should coincide with the Saale department and the III. should take into account the area of ​​the Harz Department with the special role of Erfurt. Especially the Duchy of Magdeburg in Department I was immensely enlarged by parts of the former Saale department and Old Prussian parts of the country on the right of the Elbe and reached in the south via Halberstadt to Wernigerode. The III. The department also no longer coincided with the Harz department because the Prussian cession to Hanover meant that the actual part of the Harz and the southwestern edge of the Harz was missing. It consisted of only three districts, one of which, the Mühlhausen district, was completely rebuilt from an old district.

The Klewitz territorial division subsequently proved impractical. The I and II departments were dissolved again in February 1814 and placed under the direct management of the civil governor. The III. The department, on the other hand, was so far away from Magdeburg and Halberstadt that it existed right up to the start of business in the Prussian province of Saxony.

Subordinate authorities

At the lower administrative level, von Klewitz left the territorial layout of the individual administrative units except for the Westphalian municipalities. The sub-prefects became district administrators and headed their districts with around 30,000 to 40,000 people. The cantons that were formerly subordinate to them became districts and their canton maires became district officials. The former Ortsmaires, who now became mayors, were subordinate to them.

Military authorities

In November 1813, the civil and military government set up a government war commissariat to provide food for the soldiers of the Prussian army. It existed until the business was closed in 1816. Its managers were

Governorate War Commissioner

  • November 1813 - February 1814 Rhades
  • February 1814 to March 1816 Lehmann

In addition, a surgical staff existed for supply issues in the hospital system until November 1815.

resolution

The civil and military government of the provinces between the Elbe and Weser was dissolved on July 12, 1815. After the new province of Saxony was formed on April 30, 1815, in which the old civil administration of the war and domain chambers was replaced by provincial governments, these received their later form with the division of the departments of the civil and military government. The administrative districts of Magdeburg, Merseburg and Erfurt emerged from them.

The military administration was transferred to the general command for the provinces between Elbe and Weser, the civil commissioner von Klewitz and also the third regional director Gebel remained provisionally in office until the appointment of the chief and regional president of the province of Saxony.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carl von Plotho, The War in Germany and France in the Years 1813 and 1814, Part 3, Berlin 1817, p. 514 f.
  2. ^ Nicola-Peter Todorov: L'administration du royaume de Westphalie de 1807 à 1813. Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires européennes, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-613-1-54964-9 , p. 552.
  3. ^ Nicola-Peter Todorov: L'administration du royaume de Westphalie de 1807 à 1813. Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires européennes, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-613-1-54964-9 , p. 552.
  4. ↑ Straubel, Rolf: Biographical Handbook of the Prussian Administrative and Justice Officials 1740 - 1806/15, Vol. 1, Munich 2009, p. 497f.
  5. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , pp. 275f., No. 1128.
  6. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff: Soldatisches Führertum. Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , pp. 329–331, no. 1152.
  7. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff: Soldatisches Führertum. Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , pp. 368-370, no. 1177.
  8. ^ Straubel, Rolf: Biographical Handbook of the Prussian Administrative and Justice Officials 1740 - 1806/15, Vol. 1, Munich 2009, p. 515
  9. ↑ Straubel, Rolf: Biographical Handbook of the Prussian Administrative and Justice Officials 1740 - 1806/15, Vol. 2, Munich 2009, pp. 857f
  10. ↑ Straubel, Rolf: Biographisches Handbuch der Prussischen Verwaltungs- und Judizbeamten 1740–1806 / 15, Vol. 1, Munich 2009, p. 541
  11. ^ Nicola-Peter Todorov: L'administration du royaume de Westphalie de 1807 à 1813. Le département de l'Elbe. Editions universitaires européennes, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-613-1-54964-9 , p. 552.