The
Duchy of Magdeburg was a province of
Brandenburg-PrussiaBrandenburg-Prussia was a German monarchy established by the personal union between the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1618.The monarchy was ruled by the branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty that had earlier ruled Brandenburg...
from 1680–1807. It replaced the
Archbishopric of MagdeburgThe Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese within the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Magdeburg and it was located along the Elbe River....
after its secularization by Brandenburg. The
duchyA duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era...
's capitals were
MagdeburgMagdeburg , the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, is situated at the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor, lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death...
and
HalleHalle is the largest city in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
, while
BurgBurg bei Magdeburg is a town of about 23,000 on the Elbe-Havel-Canal in Germany, northeast of Magdeburg. It is situated around a former weir, the Sachsenschleusen...
was another important town. Dissolved during the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
in 1807, its territory was made part of the
Province of SaxonyThe Province of Saxony was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...
in 1815.
The
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
Archbishopric of MagdeburgThe Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese within the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Magdeburg and it was located along the Elbe River....
began to be administered by secular princes, mostly
LutheranLutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the 16th century German reformer Martin Luther. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
, in 1545 during the
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
.
The
Duchy of Magdeburg was a province of
Brandenburg-PrussiaBrandenburg-Prussia was a German monarchy established by the personal union between the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1618.The monarchy was ruled by the branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty that had earlier ruled Brandenburg...
from 1680–1807. It replaced the
Archbishopric of MagdeburgThe Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese within the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Magdeburg and it was located along the Elbe River....
after its secularization by Brandenburg. The
duchyA duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era...
's capitals were
MagdeburgMagdeburg , the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, is situated at the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor, lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death...
and
HalleHalle is the largest city in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
, while
BurgBurg bei Magdeburg is a town of about 23,000 on the Elbe-Havel-Canal in Germany, northeast of Magdeburg. It is situated around a former weir, the Sachsenschleusen...
was another important town. Dissolved during the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
in 1807, its territory was made part of the
Province of SaxonyThe Province of Saxony was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...
in 1815.
History
The
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
Archbishopric of MagdeburgThe Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese within the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Magdeburg and it was located along the Elbe River....
began to be administered by secular princes, mostly
LutheranLutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the 16th century German reformer Martin Luther. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
, in 1545 during the
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
. In the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, the archbishopric was promised to the
House of HohenzollernThe House of Hohenzollern is a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near...
of the
Margraviate of BrandenburgThe Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806. Also known as the March of Brandenburg , it played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe....
upon the death of its incumbent administrator,
August, Duke of Saxe-WeissenfelsAugust, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels , was a duke of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt, Administrator of the Diocese of Magdeburg and member of the House of Wettin....
. The city of Magdeburg was also required to pay homage to the
prince-electorThe Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors....
s of Brandenbug. In 1666, Elector
Frederick WilliamFrederick William was the Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Prussia from 1640 until his death. He was of the House of Hohenzollern and is popularly known as the Great Elector because of his military and political skill...
used his
developing armyThe Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War. Elector Frederick William developed it into a viable...
to install a permanent Brandenburger garrison in the city.
Brandenburg-Prussia inherited the Archbishopric of Brandenburg upon the death of August of Saxe-Weissenfels in 1680 and reorganized the secularized territory as the Duchy of Magdeburg, with the electors of Brandenburg as hereditary dukes. The Halle region (
SaalkreisSaalkreis was a district in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Neighboring districts were Mansfelder Land, Bernburg, Köthen, Bitterfeld, the district Delitzsch in the Free State of Saxony, and the district Merseburg-Querfurt...
), an exclave of the province, was surrounded by the Principality of
AnhaltAnhalt is a historical county in Germany, located between the Harz Mountains and the river Elbe in Middle Germany. It now forms part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.-Dukes of Anhalt:...
, the County of Mansfeld (acquired by Prussia in 1790), and the
Electorate of SaxonyThe Electorate of Saxony or Duchy of Upper Saxony was an independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806...
. Against the wishes of the duchy's Lutheran nobility, a Calvinist chancellor was appointed to govern the duchy. Through the leadership of
August Hermann Franckeframe|August Hermann Francke.August Hermann Francke was a German Protestant churchman.-Biography:Born at the German city Lübeck, Francke was educated at the gymnasium in Gotha before he studied at the universities of Erfurt and Kiel - where he came under the influence of the pietist Christian...
, Halle became the center of
PietismPietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to begin...
in Brandenburg-Prussia.
When Elector Frederick III crowned himself
Frederick IFrederick I , of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia in personal union. The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia...
,
King in PrussiaKing in Prussia was a title used by the Electors of Brandenburg from 1701 to 1772. Subsequently they used the title King of Prussia.The Prince-Elector of Brandenburg was a subject of the Holy Roman Emperor. In addition to his electorate which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, he also ruled the...
, in 1701, the Duchy of Magdeburg became part of the new
Kingdom of PrussiaThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918, until the defeat of Germany in World War I, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire...
. King
Frederick William IFrederick William I of the House of Hohenzollern, was the King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death. He is popularly known as "the Soldier-King"...
's 'allodification of the fiefs', or efforts to modernize feudal land ownership laws, was opposed by the duchy's
JunkerA Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung. Today "Junker" is often used as an...
nobility, which feared losing their tax-exempt status. The nobles received judgements from the
imperialThe Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman Emperor. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was Otto I, crowned in 962. The last was Francis II, who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during...
court in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
protecting their rights in 1718 and 1725.
Justus Henning BöhmerJustus Henning Boehmer was an outstanding German jurist, ecclesiastical jurist, Professor of the University of Halle and also Geheimer Rat, count palatine and chancellor of the Duchy of Magdeburg.- Career :After his time at school in Hanover Justus Henning Boehmer studied law at the University of...
became chancellor of the province in 1743.
With the creation of the General Directory in 1723 by Frederick William I, the Duchy of Magdeburg, the
Principality of HalberstadtThe Principality of Halberstadt was a state of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by Brandenburg-Prussia. It replaced the Bishopric of Halberstadt after its secularization in 1648. Its capital was Halberstadt. The principality was dissolved in 1807 and its territory made part of the Kingdom of Westphalia...
, and the Margraviate of Brandenburg were administered by the second department of the General Directory. A state-capitalized agricultural
credit unionA credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members, and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at reasonable rates, and providing other financial services to its members. Many credit unions exist to further community...
(
Landschaft) was created in the duchy in 1780 for the exclusive use of the nobility. Control over the Magdeburg lands gave the monarchy a lucrative
monopolyIn economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it...
over the Stassfurt and Halle
saltA salt, in chemistry, is an ionic compound, and can result from the neutralization reaction of acids and bases. Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
deposits.
The estates of
PomeraniaPomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East. It is inhabited...
voluntarily raised 5,000 troops for the Prussian Army during the
Seven Years' WarThe Seven Years' War lasted between 1754 and 1763 and involved all of the major European powers of the period. The war pitted Prussia and Britain and a coalition of smaller German states against an alliance consisting of Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony...
; their initiative was duplicated by the nobility of Magdeburg and neighboring provinces.
In the War of the Fourth Coalition, Prussia was defeated by
NapoleonNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
in 1806. In the
Treaty of TilsitThe Treaties of Tilsit were two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in July, 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman...
the following year, the Duchy of Magdeburg was dissolved. The ducal territory west of the
ElbeThe River Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in the Krkonose Mountains of northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
River, including the cities Magdeburg and Halle, were made part of the
Kingdom of WestphaliaThe Kingdom of Westphalia was a historical state that existed from 1807-1813 in parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoléon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. It was named after Westphalia, but had little territory in common...
, a client state of the
First French EmpireThe French Empire
, also known as the Greater French Empire or First French Empire, but more commonly known as the Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I in France...
. The ducal territory east of the Elbe remained in a drastically reduced Kingdom of Prussia.
Prussia reacquired the Magdeburg and Halle territories during the
War of the Sixth CoalitionIn the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers joined Russia,...
. In 1815 after the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
, the territory of the Duchy of Magdeburg, the
AltmarkThe Altmark is a region in Germany, between Hamburg and Magdeburg, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt . The region is rural and widely covered with forests...
, and territory annexed from the
Kingdom of SaxonyThe Kingdom of Saxony , 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...
formed the new Prussian
Province of SaxonyThe Province of Saxony was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...
.
External links