history of kingdom of saxony

This lent influence out of proportion to the small area of the state. When in 1356 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV issued the Golden Bull, the fundamental law of the empire which settled the method of electing the emperor, the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg was made one of the seven electorates and promoted to become the Electorate of Saxony. [15], A Bill of Rights was included in the constitution. During the summer months about 15,000 to 20,000 Catholic labourers, called Sachsengänger, came into the country; they were Poles from the Prussian Province of Posen, from Russian Poland, or Galicia. At the end of the Seven Years' War, Saxony once again became an independent state. The Kingdom of Saxony (German language: Königreich Sachsen ), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. [12] He was permitted to dissolve the Diet, though new elections for the lower house had to be held within six months; he was also permitted to convoke extraordinary sessions of the legislature at his discretion.[13]. However, in the 18th century Frederick Augustus I converted to Roman Catholicism to be crowned King of Poland as Augustus II. [24], The Diet was required to consider any business laid before it by the king, before proceeding to any other business. His name then was August II. the Kingdom of Saxony became a member of the German Confederation as a result of the Congress of Vienna. Saxony, state, eastern Germany. [37] Following this Saxony participated in Reichstag elections from February 1867. In 1756, Saxony joined the coalition of Austria, France and Russia against Prussia. Wilhelm I's grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918 after Germany's defeat in the First World War.King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony followed him into abdication and the Kingdom of Saxony became the Free State of Saxony inside the newly-formed Weimar Republic. Saxony (Saxons) (Germans) The Germanic tribes seem to have originated in a homeland in southern Scandinavia (Sweden and Norway, with the Jutland area of northern Denmark, along with a very narrow strip of Baltic coastline). But then I had a second more in-depth look and saw it was issued 1910, for a Lieutenant with name Fritz Eulitz from the 5th Infantry Regiment “Kronprinz,” No. This article lists dukes, electors, and kings ruling over different territories named Saxony from the beginning of the Saxon Duchy in the 9th century to the end of the Saxon Kingdom in 1918. The history of Saxony consists of what was originally a small tribe living on the North Sea between the Elbe and Eider River in the present Holstein. ), The king was given sole power to promulgate laws, and to carry them into effect, and only by his consent could any proposal for a law be advanced in the Diet. In the wake of the tumultuous 1848 revolutions, Saxony's Landtag extended voting rights (though still maintaining property requirements) and abolished voting taxes. Only a few of these buildings still belong to the Catholic Church. After the founding of the German Empire on 18 January 1871, the deputies were returned to the Reichstag of the German Empire. In company with the tribe of Angles from Schleswig, a part of the Saxons settled on the island of Britain from which the Romans had withdrawn, where, as Anglo-Saxons, after having accepted Christianity about 600, they laid the foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilisation and the present Great Britain. The first king of Saxony was the former Elector of Saxony of the HRE, Fredrick Augustus I, of the House Wettin. The king was named as head of the nation. After a bloody struggle that lasted thirty years (772-804), the Saxons were finally brought under Frankish supremacy by the great Frankish ruler, Charlemagne. King John was followed by his son King Albert (1873–1902); Albert was succeeded by his brother George (1902–04); the son of George is King Frederick Augustus III. (This was united after 1945 with Anhalt to form the state of Saxony-Anhalt.) [6] He was also given supreme power over religious matters in Saxony. As the entire native population had become Protestant these monasteries were only maintained by the immigration of Catholics who, from the time of the Treaty of Westphalia, though in small numbers, steadily came into the country; thus there arose around the monasteries small Catholic communities. However, as regards customs and peculiarities of speech, the designation Lower Saxony was still in existence for the districts on the lower Elbe, that is, the northern part of the Province of Saxony, Hanover, Hamburg, etc., in distinction from Upper Saxony, that is, the Kingdom of Saxony, and Thuringia. (See Saxon dynasty.) The selected leader was followed by the other chiefs until the war ended.[1]. (In 1909: Social Democrats won 27% of seats, Conservatives won 31% of seats, National Liberals won 31% of seats). Parishes were established within the old judicial districts. Saxony (Sachsen) is federal state in the east of Germany. His ridicule is understandable. Otto I laid the basis of the organization of the Church in this territory by making the chief fortified places which he established in the different marks the sees of dioceses. Its capital was the city of Dresden, and its modern successor state is the Free State of Saxony. After the dissolution of the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the name Saxony was first applied to a small part of the duchy situated on the Elbe around the city of Wittenberg. The parliament of the kingdom had two chambers known as the Ständekammer. From 1871 it … In 1871, Saxony was incorporated into the German Empire and more voting rights were gradually extended. He could not, however, change the constitution itself or the electoral laws in this manner. Frederick II of Prussia chose to attack preemptively and invaded Saxony in August 1756, precipitating the Seven Years' War. The hundred years of war waged by the family of Guelph with the Hohenstaufen emperors is famous in history. It was believed that if peace was to be permanent the overthrow of the Saxons must be accompanied by their conversion to Christianity. Henry the Lion refused to aid the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in his campaign against the cities of Lombardy in 1176, consequently in 1180 the ban of the empire was proclaimed against Henry at Würzburg, and 1181 the old Duchy of Saxony was cut up at the Diet of Gelnhausen into many small portions. The name Saxons is derived from the Seax, a knife used by the tribe as a weapon. John, as Saxony's incumbent king, was subordinate and owed allegiance to the Emperor, although he, like the other German princes, retained some of the prerogatives of a sovereign ruler, including the ability to enter into diplomatic relations with other states. [4], Any acts or decrees signed or issued by the king had to be countersigned by at least one of his ministers, who thus took responsibility for them. Saxony was known as the “Red Kingdom," when in 1903 with universal suffrage, 22 of 23 Reichstag deputies were Social Democrats. German Maps & Facts for Genealogy. The Frankish king Clovis I (481-511) united the various Frankish tribes, conquered Roman Gaul, and with his people accepted Christianity. Before 1806, Saxony was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a thousand-year-old entity that had become highly decentralised over the centuries. From 1697 the Electors of Saxony became Roman Catholic in order to accept the crowns of Poland and Lithuania, of which they were kings until 1763. The only one of these names that has been preserved is Westphalians, given to the inhabitants of the Prussian Province of Westphalia. Saxony nevertheless joined the Prussian-led North German Confederation the next year. The royal family remained Roman Catholic, ruling over a domain that was 95% Protestant. [28] Conversely, no new law could be enacted, without the Diet's consent. [2] The crown was hereditary in the male line of the royal family through agnatic primogeniture, though provisions existed allowing a female line to inherit in the absence of qualified male heirs. Among the successful missionaries were also St. Willehad, the first bishop of Bremen, and his Anglo-Saxon companions. These Wends, who number about 120,000 persons and live in Saxon and Prussian Lusatia, are entirely surrounded by a German population; consequently owing to German influence the Wendic language, manners, and customs are gradually disappearing. These were subsequently known as Kreishauptmannschafts. At different times the Saxon wars of Charlemagne have been called "religious wars." By the early 1900s, Saxony's local politics had settled into a niche in which Social Democrats, Conservatives, and National Liberals were splitting the share of votes and Landtag seats three ways. Brief History. [10] He was permitted to veto laws passed by the Diet (though he was required to give his reasons for so doing, in each instance), or to send them back with proposed amendments for reconsideration. It incorporated:[16], The Diet, or legislature was divided into two houses, which were constitutionally equal in their rights and status, and neither house was to meet without the other. At the Battle of Leipzig(16–18 October 1813), when Napoleon was completely defeated, the greater part of the Saxon troops deserted to the allied forces. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony from the Albertine branch of the Wettin kin, better known as August the Strong (1670 - 1733), was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania by the Polish nobility in 1697. With Prussia's victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the members of the Confederation were organised by Otto von Bismarck into the German Empire, with William I as its emperor. Wilhelm I's grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918 as a result of a revolution set off in the days before Germany's defeat in World War I. Towards the south the Saxons pushed as far as the Harz Mountains and the Eichsfeld, and in the succeeding centuries absorbed the greater part of Thuringia. In the east their power extended at first as far as the Elbe and Saale Rivers; in the later centuries it certainly extended much farther. The monasteries were all suppressed during the great secularization of the beginning of the 19th century, and thirteen parishes were formed, for which the State provided a fund from a part of the property of the monasteries. Originally there were four: Following the North German Confederation Treaty the Kingdom of Saxony entered the North German Confederation in 1866. Voter participation was high (82% in 1909). In attempting to reach Gaul by land the Saxons came into violent conflict with the Franks living on the Rhine. Medieval Duchy of Saxony and Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg (880–1356), Thus the Saxon (arch)bishops turned into prince-(arch)bishops, such as the, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Saxony&oldid=985663759, Articles needing additional references from May 2009, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from May 2009, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2017, Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with no article parameter, Articles incorporating text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with no article parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 October 2020, at 06:14. The Diet of Gelnhausen is of much importance in the history of Germany. Saxony finally got in line with all the other German states in 1870. Without the ministerial countersignature, no act of the king was to be considered valid. The Polish-Saxon union and dual state continued until the death of Augustus III in 1763. The Kingdom of Saxony has an eventful history: a story about impressive rulers and their magnificent buildings, an eternal quarrel (with a neighbor) and a growing industrial state in the empire. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. [11] He was permitted to issue extraordinary decrees to obtain money for state expenditures refused by the Diet, through the Supreme Court, though such decrees could only last for one year. The rulers of the Electorate of Saxony of the House of Wettin had held the title of elector for several centuries. It became a free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War I and the abdication of King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Saxons fought their way victoriously towards the west, and their name was given to the great tribal confederation that stretched towards the west exactly to the former boundary of the Roman Empire, consequently almost to the Rhine. The new Frankish kingdom was able to bring all German tribes except the Saxons under its authority and to make them Christian. Before 1806, Saxony was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a thousand-year-old entity that had become highly decentralised over the centuries. The Kingdom of Saxony, lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The Confederation was dissolved in 1866 after the Austro-Prussian War, and was succeeded in turn by the North German [29], Bills could be passed by a simple one-third-plus-one vote in both houses of the Diet; a majority vote was not necessary in either house. Prince Maximilian (born 1870), a brother of the present king, became a priest in 1896, was engaged in parish work in London and Nuremberg, and since 1900 has been a professor of canon law and liturgy in the University of Freiburg in Switzerland. [30] Any bill rejected or amended must contain a statement of why it was rejected or amended. The assertion, which cannot be proved, has been made that Pope Adrian I had called upon Charlemagne to convert the Saxons by force. [23], Members of the Diet must be at least 30 years of age; electors must be 25 years of age, not have been convicted of any offense in a court of law, not have their personal estate financially encumbered in any way, and not be under guardianship. Following the adoption of the 1831 constitution, by the Order of April 6, 1835 District Directorates (Kreisdirektionen) were established. The name of this tribe, the Saxons (Latin: Saxones), was first mentioned by the Greek author Ptolemy. At the Battle of Leipzig (16–18 October 1813), when Napoleon was completely defeated, the greater part of the Saxon troops deserted to the allied forces. The first churches built near these castles were plain buildings of wood or rubble-stone. The kingdom, however, was obliged to join the North German Confederation of which Prussia was the head. The Kingdom of Saxony (German: Königreich Sachsen), lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany.From 1871 it was part of the German Empire.It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War I and the abdication of King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxony. Henry I had been both King of Germany and Duke of Saxony at the same time. [26] Members were granted full freedom of speech in the chambers, but were not permitted to insult each other, the king, any member of the royal family, or the parliament. Many Anglo-Saxon Christian missionaries sought to convert the Saxons, some were killed, some driven away; the names of only a few of these men have been preserved, as St. Suitbert, St. Egnert, the saint called Brother Ewald, St. Lebuin, etc. With the generous aid of Charlemagne and his nobles large numbers of churches and monasteries were founded, and as soon as peace and quiet had been re-established in the different districts, permanent dioceses were founded. There is also a large Wendic population in the city of Bautzen, where among 30,000 inhabitants 7,000 are Wends. Friedrich August III (May 25, 1865 – February 18, 1932) was the last King of Saxony(1904–1918) and a member of the House of Wettin. They made the mistake of keeping their units intact rather than mixing them up. The chief mountain range is the Ore Mountains and the capital is Dresden. Whole Saxon units deserted. [36] As a consequence, the Kingdom returned Deputies to the Reichstag. When in 1806 Napoleon I's French Empire began a war with Prussia, Saxony at first allied itself to Prussia, but afterwards joined Napoleon and entered the Confederation of the Rhine and the electorate became the Kingdom of Saxony with Elector Frederick Augustus III becoming King Frederick Augustus I. [17], The upper chamber consisted of the following:[18], Members of this house held their seats so long as they remained qualified to do so under the constitution, or in certain cases until they had reached the age of sixty or participated in three sessions of the Diet. Following the battle, in which Saxony – virtually alone of all the German states – had fought alongside the French, King Frederick Augustus I was deserted by his troops, taken prisoner by the Prussians,[1] and considered to have forfeited his throne by the allies, who put Saxony under Prussian occupation and administration. One deputy representing four other Schönburg family estates; Twelve proprietors of manorial estates in the kingdom, possessed of a minimum income of at least $2000 per year from rentals, chosen for life from amongst themselves; Ten more persons of the proprietary class, possessed of a minimum income of at least $4000 per year from rentals, chosen by the king for life; Six other town magistrates chosen by the king, with the provision that the monarch should try to see that all sections of the kingdom were represented. The work of converting Saxony was given to St. Sturmi, who was on terms of friendship with Charlemagne, and the monks of the monastery of Fulda founded by Sturmi. The King of Saxony was taken as a Prussian prisoner to the Castle of Friedrichsfeld near Berlin. After his death Stanislaw Leszczynski was made the Polish king from 1733 until 1735. The history of the powerful Saxon tribe is also the history of the conversion to Christianity of that part of Germany which lies between the Rhine and the Oder, that is of almost the whole of the present Northern Germany. The last elector of Saxony became King Frederick Augustus I. The Kingdom of Saxony had left only an area of 5,789 square miles (14,990 km2) with a population at that era of 1,500,000 inhabitants; under these conditions it became a member of the German Confederation that was founded in 1815. In 1910 the population amounted to 5,302,485; of whom 218,033 were Catholics; 4,250,398 Evangelical Lutherans; 14,697 Jews; and a small proportion of other denominations. The territory of the old duchy never again bore the name of Saxony; the large western part acquired the name of Westphalia. Following the Thirty Years' War, Saxony's rulers and population were Lutheran. Only the Kingdom of Saxony had it in reverse among all the German states. The Kingdom also joined the German Confederation, the new organization of the German states to replace the fallen Holy Roman Empire. Besides fourteen monasteries that continued in existence, there were in Halberstadt a number of benefices in connexion with the cathedral and the collegiate Church of Sts. Postage stamps issued by the Kingdom of Saxony, between 1850 and 1867, before the incorporation of the post authority in the Post of North German Confederation on 1 January 1868. The province had an area of 9,746 square miles (25,240 km2), and in 1905 had 2,979,221 inhabitants. This page was last edited on 29 January 2021, at 09:37. At the same time it is true that various measures taken by Charlemagne, as the execution of 4,500 Saxons at Verden in 782 and the hard laws issued to the subjugated, were shortsighted and cruel. The original Duchy of Saxony was the lands of the Saxon people in the north-western part of present-day Germany, namely, the modern German state of Lower Saxony as well as Westphalia and Western Saxony-Anhalt, not the modern German state of Saxony. The Prussian Province of Saxony was formed in 1815 from the territories, about 8,100 square miles (21,000 km2) in extent, ceded by the Kingdom of Saxony, with the addition of some districts already belonging to Prussia, the most important of which are the Altmark, from which the State of Prussia sprang; the former immediate principalities of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and of the Bishopric of Halberstadt, which Prussia had received by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) at the close of the Thirty Years' War; and the Eichsfeld, with the city of Erfurt and its surroundings. The old saw, "Gennany is the heart of Europe, Saxony the heart of Germany," Treitschke derided as that "favorite, self­ congratulatory phrase" parroted by reactionary Saxons. The Kingdom of Saxony (German: Königreich Sachsen), lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. Saxony passport war department . From the 8th century, the Saxons were divided into the four subdivisions (gau): Westphalians, between the Rhine and Weser; the Engern or Angrians, on both sides of the Weser; the Eastphalians, between the Weser and Elbe; the Transalbingians, in the present Holstein. The ministry was defined in the constitution as consisting of six departments, all of which were made responsible to the Diet:[14], Members of the ministry had the right to appear in either chamber of the Diet at will, and there to participate in debate, but upon a division of the house they had to withdraw. Posts about Kingdom of Saxony written by liamfoley63. [27] The Diet could propose the formation of new laws or changes in existing ones, but no bill could be brought forward without the king's express consent. Duke of Saxony, Henry the Fowler, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of East Francia, Kingdom of Germany, Kingdom of Lothringia, Kingdom of West Francia, Otto the Great, Treaty of Verdun Heinrich The Fowler (876 – July 2, 936) was the duke of Saxony from 912 and the elected king of East Francia (Germany) from 919 until his death in 936. Saxony (German: Sachsen, Low German: Sassen), fofficially known as the United Kingdom of Saxony, is a sovereign state located in Central Europe.The nation is bordered in the north by Denmark, in the east by Prussia, in the south by Hesse, and in the west by Belgium and the Netherlands.. The Emperor Otto I was also for the greater part of his reign Duke of Saxony. About 50,000 Wends live in the Kingdom of Saxony; of these about 12,000 belong to the Catholic Church; some fifty Wendic villages are entirely Catholic. During the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, Saxony sided with Austria, and the Saxon army was generally seen as the only ally to bring substantial aid to the Austrian cause, having abandoned the defense of Saxony itself to join up with the Austrian army in Bohemia. Saxony was a hereditary constitutional monarchy with four votes in the Bundesrat and twenty-three deputies in the Reichstag. Members who violated any of these rules could be disciplined by their respective house, up to and including permanent expulsion with ineligibility for re-election. [21] Each representative was elected for nine years; however, approximately one-third were required to resign their seats every three years (the exact figures were set in the constitution, and determined by lot at the commencement of the first session of the Diet), though all were eligible for immediate re-election. These took the place of the numerous petty tribes with their popular tribal form of government. Up to 1802 the Eichsfeld and Erfurt had belonged to the principality of the Archbishopric of Mainz; a large of the population had, therefore, retained the Catholic Faith during the Reformation. After St. Sturmi's death (779) the country of the Saxons was divided into missionary districts, and each of these placed under a Frankish bishop. As regards ecclesiastical affairs the Province of Saxony had been assigned to the Diocese of Paderborn by the papal bull De salute animarum of 16 July 1821. The other parishes in the governmental Department of Magdeburg were created after the middle of the 19th century, when, in consequence of the development of the manufacture of sugar, increasing numbers of Catholics came into the country; the St. Boniface Association gave the money to found these parishes. Kingdom of Saxony. The Kingdom of Saxony had lasted only 112 years. The first Saxon duke was Otto the Illustrious (880-912) of the Liudolfinger line (descendants of Liudolf); Otto was able to extend his power over Thuringia. The kingdom sided (1866) with Austria in … Of its population 230,860 (7.8%) were Catholic, 2,730,098 (91%) were Protestant; 9981 hold other forms of Christian faith, and 8050 were Jews. The judiciary was made independent of the civil government. Even here there is no continuous Catholic district, but there are a number of villages where the population is almost entirely Catholic, and two cities (Ostritz and Schirgiswalde) where Catholics are in the majority. In addition, electoral status required succession based on primogeniture, which precluded the division of the territory among several heirs and the consequent disintegration of the country. Saxon "pirates" had been raiding the eastern seaboard of Britain from here during the 3rd and 4th centuries (prompting the construction of maritime defences in eastern Britain called the Saxon Shore) and it is thought that following the collapse of the Roman defences on the Rhine in 407 pressure from population movements in the east forced the Saxons and their neighbouring tribes the Angles and the … Otto I brought the Slavonic territory on the right bank of the Elbe and Saale under German supremacy and Christian civilization. Note that creation of the Kingdom of Saxony … The greater share of its western portion was given, as the Duchy of Westphalia, to the Archbishopric of Cologne. In the end, 40% of the Kingdom, including the historically significant Wittenberg, home of the Protestant Reformation, was annexed by Prussia, but Frederick Augustus was restored to the throne in the remainder of his kingdom, which still included the major cities of Dresden and Leipzig. This era produced architecturally fine churches of the Romanesque style that are still in existence, as the cathedrals of Goslar, Soest and Brunswick, the chapel of St. Bartholomew at Paderborn, the collegiate churches at Quedlinburg, Königslutter, Gernrode, etc. He was required to follow the provisions of the constitution, and could not become the ruler of any other state (save by blood inheritance) without the consent of the Diet, or parliament. [34] The High Court of Judiciature, created in Sections 142 to 150, was also given authority to rule upon "dubious" points in the constitution; its decision was decreed to be final, and was protected from royal interference.[35]. The Catholic population of Saxony owes its present numbers largely to immigration during the 19th century. [9] He equally had authority to issue emergency decrees and even to issue non-emergency laws that he found needful or "advantageous", though such instruments required the counter-signature of at least one of his ministers, and had to be presented to the next Diet for approval. Outside of Berlin it contains the two largest and most important cities in eastern Germany, Leipzig and Dresden.

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