German mediatization

German mediatization (German: deutsche Mediatisierung) was the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region (until 1806 the Holy Roman Empire) by means of the mass mediatization and secularization[1] of a large number of Imperial Estates: ecclesiastical principalities, free imperial cities, secular principalities and other minor self-ruling entities that lost their independent status and were absorbed into the remaining states.

In the strict sense of the word, mediatization consists in the subsumption of an immediate (German: unmittelbar) state into another state, thus becoming mediate (mittelbar), while generally leaving the dispossessed ruler with his private estates and a number of privileges and feudal rights, such as low justice. For convenience, historians use the term mediatization for the entire restructuring process that took place at the time, whether the mediatized states survived in some form or lost all individuality. The secularization of ecclesiastical states took place concurrently with the mediatization of free imperial cities and other secular states.

Map of the Holy Roman Empire in 1789, showing the large mix of states
The Rhineland in 1789: The annexation of the entire left bank of the Rhine by the French Republic set in motion the mediatization process

The mass mediatization and secularization of German states that took place at the time was not initiated by Germans. It came under relentless military and diplomatic pressure from revolutionary France and Napoleon. It constituted the most extensive redistribution of property and territories in German history prior to 1945.[2]

The two highpoints of the process were the secularization/annexation of ecclesiastical territories and free imperial cities in 1802–03, and the mediatization of secular principalities and counties in 1806.

The German Confederation after 1815, the result of German mediatization during the Napoleonic Wars

Final Recess of February 1803

The Final Recess of the Reichsdeputation (German: Reichsdeputationshauptschluss; Latin: Recessus principalis deputationis imperii) was a resolution passed on 25 February 1803 by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. It proved to be the last significant law enacted by the Empire before its dissolution in 1806.

First page of the Final Recess of February 1803

Based on a plan agreed in June 1802 between France and Russia,[3] and broad principles outlined in Article 7[4] the Treaty of Lunéville of 1801, the law established a major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Empire, to compensate numerous German princes for their possessions to the west of the Rhine that had been annexed by France as a result of the wars of the French Revolution. The Treaty had referred only to the compensation of "hereditary princes", which excluded from any claim to compensation the ecclesiastical princes (prince-electors, prince-bishops, imperial abbots), Free Imperial Cities and Imperial Knights who had also been dispossessed.

Deed granting the secularized abbey of Ochsenhausen to Count Georg Karl von Metternich

The Final Recess was ratified unanimously by the Imperial Diet in March, 1803, and was approved by the emperor, Francis II, the following month. However, the emperor made a formal reservation in respect of the reallocation of votes within the Imperial Diet, as the balance between Protestant and Catholic states had been shifted heavily in the former's favour.

The redistribution was achieved by a combination of two processes: secularization of ecclesiastical principalities, and mediatization of nearly all the free imperial cities.

Secularization

From the re-establishment of the Holy Roman Empire by the Salian and Saxon Emperors in the 10th and 11th centuries, the feudal system had turned Germany and northern Italy into a vast network of territories of various sizes each with its own specific privileges, titles and autonomy. To help administer Germany in the face of growing decentralization and local autonomy, many bishoprics, abbeys and convents throughout Germany were granted temporal estates by successive Emperors. The personal appointment of bishops by the Emperors had sparked the investiture controversy, and in its aftermath the emperors were unable to use the bishops for this end. Following this, some of the bishops and abbots had begun to run their territories as temporal lords as opposed to spiritual lords. In the course of the Reformation, several of the prince-bishoprics were secularized, mostly to the benefit of Protestant princes. In the later 16th century the Counter-Reformation attempted to reverse some of these secularizations, and the question of the fates of secularized territories became an important one in the Thirty Years War (1618–48). In the end, the Peace of Westphalia confirmed the secularizations which had already occurred, but also stabilized the situation.

The prince-bishoprics on the eve of secularization

In 1794, the armies of revolutionary France overran the Rhineland, and by the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, the Holy Roman emperor, Francis I of Austria, recognized French annexation of all imperial territories west of the Rhine river. By granting them new realms, the emperor sought to compensate the now stateless or diminished monarchs who lost their lands. The only available lands were those held by the Prince-Bishops, so most were secularised and dispersed amongst the monarchs of Germany.

The territory of secularized ecclesiastical principalities was usually annexed whole to a neighboring secular principality or, in the case of several prince-abbeys, granted to one of the princes or imperial counts whose lands on the west bank of the Rhine had been annexed by France. Only three survived for a relatively short time as non-secular states: the Archbishopric of Mainz, which became the Archbishopric of Regensburg, incorporating the latter bishopric and part of the archbishopric, and the lands of the Teutonic Knights and Knights of Saint John. Also of note is the former Archbishopric of Salzburg, which was secularised as a duchy with an increased territorial scope, and was also made an electorate.

Austrian soldiers and monks at Salem Abbey at the time of secularization

Monasteries and abbeys lost their means of existence as they had to abandon their lands, and most were closed. The remaining ecclesiastical states were also secularized after the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. The lands of the Knights of Saint John were secularized in 1806, Regensburg was annexed by Bavaria in 1809, and in the same year Napoleon dissolved the Teutonic Knights and gave their lands to neighboring princes, particularly the King of Württemberg. The outcome of the Final Recess of 1803 was the most extensive redistribution of property in German history before 1945. Approximately 73,000 km2 (28,000 sq mi) of ecclesiastical territory, with some 2.36 million inhabitants and 12.72 million guildens per annum of revenue was transferred to new rulers.[5] The rationale behind the Final Recess had been to compensate those rulers who had lost territory to France, but considerably more territory was gained through massive secularization: Baden received over seven times as much territory as it had lost, Prussia nearly five times. Hanover gained the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück, even though it had lost nothing. Austria also did very well.[6]

The position of the established Roman Catholic Church in Germany, the Reichskirche, was not only diminished, it was nearly destroyed. The Church lost its constitutional role in the Empire; most of the Catholic universities were closed, as well as thousands of monasteries; and many Catholic foundations closed down. The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss did to German land ownership what the Revolution had done to France.[7]

Secularized states

Abbeys, convents, and provostries


Annexed free imperial cities

See also: Free imperial city
The mediatization of Schwäbisch Hall in contemporary imagery

The only free cities in Germany not abolished in 1803 were:



Mediatization

See also: Mediatized Houses
Württemberg doubled its size after it had absorbed some 15 Free Imperial Cities (in orange) as well as many prince-abbeys, principalities and other small territories during the mediatizations and territory transfers of 1803–06 and 1810.

Although the number of German states had been steadily decreasing since the Thirty Years' War, there still remained approximately 200 states by the advent of the French republic. The defeat of the First Coalition resulted in the secularization of the ecclesiastical states and the annexation by France of all lands west of the Rhine.

Allies of Napoleon obtained gains in both territory and status on a number of occasions in the following years.

Mediatization transferred the sovereignty of small secular states to their larger neighbours. In addition to about 100 principalities, all but a handful of the Imperial cities would also be annexed to their neighbours.

In 1803, most of the free cities in Germany were mediatised. On 12 June 1806, Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine to extend and help secure the eastern border of France. In reluctant recognition of Napoleon's dismemberment of imperial territory, on 6 August 1806, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II declared the Empire abolished, and claimed as much power as he could retain as ruler of the Habsburg realms. To gain support from the more powerful German states, the former Holy Roman Emperor accepted, and Napoleon encouraged, the mediatisation by those that remained of their minor neighbouring states.

Before the Battle of Waterloo and the final abdication of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna was held from 1814 to 1815 by the Great Powers to redraw the borders of Europe. It was decided that the mediatised principalities, free cities and secularised states would not be recreated. Instead the former rulers which held a vote within the Imperial Diet were to enjoy an improved aristocratic status, being deemed equal to the still-reigning monarchs for marital purposes, and entitled to claim compensation for their losses. But it was left to each of the annexing states to compensate mediatised dynasties, and the latter had no international right to redress if dissatisfied with the new regime's reimbursement decisions. In 1825 and 1829 those houses which had been designated the "Mediatized Houses" were formalised, at the sole discretion of the ruling states, and not all houses that ruled states that were mediatised were recognised as such.

Mediatized principalities and counties

Hesse-Homburg was never considered sovereign by Hesse-Darmstadt and therefore was not technically mediatised, and Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) was annexed into the Kingdom of Westphalia but later had its sovereignty restored.

Most of the mediatizations occurred in 1806 after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine. Also mediatised 1806–1814 were several states created by Napoleon for his relatives and close allies. These include:

Later mediatizations were:

Consequences

The mediatization brought about a massive change to the political map of Germany. Literally hundreds of states were eliminated, with only around forty surviving. A number of the surviving states made significant territorial gains (most notably Baden, Bavaria, and Hesse-Darmstadt); and Baden, Hesse-Kassel, and Württemberg gained status by being made electorates (to replace three that had been lost in the changes). Of the imperial cities, only Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, and Lübeck survived as independent entities.

Area and population losses or gains (rounded)
Losses Gains
 Prussia 2,000 km²
140,000 people		 12,000 km²
600,000 people
 Bavaria 10,000 km²
600,000 people		 14,000 km²
850,000 people
 Baden 450 km²
30,000 people		 2,000 km²
240,000 people
 Württemberg 400 km²
30,000 people		 1,500 km²
120,000 people

See also

Sources

  • Texts on Wikisource:
  • Arenberg, Jean Engelbert. The Lesser Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in the Napoleonic Era. Dissertation, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1950 (later published as Les Princes du St-Empire a l'époque napoléonienne., Louvain: Publications universitaires de Louvain, 1951).
  • Gollwitzer, Heinz. Die Standesherren. Die politische und gesellschaftliche Stellung der Mediatisierten 1815–1918. Stuttgart 1957 (Göttingen 1964)
  • Reitwiesner, William Addams. "The Meaning of the Word Mediatized".
  • Fabianek, Paul: Folgen der Säkularisierung für die Klöster im Rheinland – Am Beispiel der Klöster Schwarzenbroich und Kornelimünster, 2012, Verlag BoD, ISBN 978-3-8482-1795-3

References and notes

  1. ↑ In the present context, secularization means "the transfer (of property) from ecclesiastical to civil possession or use" (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989
  2. ↑ Whaley, J., Germany and the Holy Roman Empire (1493–1806), Oxford University Press, 2011, vol. 2, p. 620.
  3. ↑ William L. Chew III. Imperial Recess (1803) in: Gregory Fremont-Barnes (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History, ABC-CLIO, 2006, vol. 3, p. 477.
  4. ↑ Art. 7. "And since the transfer of territory from the Empire to the French Republic has dispossessed in whole or in part several Princes and Imperial Estates, and since it is the collective responsibility of the Holy Roman Empire to bear the losses resulting from the provisions of this treaty, it is agreed between H.M. the Emperor and King, in his name and on behalf of the German Empire, and the French Republic, that, in accordance with the principles formally established at the Congress of Rastatt, the Empire will be required to grant to the hereditary princes who lose their possessions on the left bank of the Rhine a compensation that will be taken from within the said Empire, according to the terms of an arrangement to be determined later".
  5. ↑ Whaley, J., Germany and the Holy Roman Empire (1493–1806), Oxford University Press, 2011, vol. 2, p. 620.
  6. ↑ Whaley, p. 621
  7. ↑ Whaley, p. 623.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Mediatization.
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