Metadata: Bailiwicks of Osnabrück district administration
Collection
- Country:
- Germany
- Holding institution:
- State Archives of Lower Saxony - Osnabrück Branch
- Holding institution (official language):
- Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv - Standort Osnabrück
- Postal address:
- Schlossstraße 29, 49074 Osnabrück
- Phone number:
- +49 531 33162 0
- Reference number:
- Rep. 360
- Title:
- Bailiwicks of Osnabrück district administration
- Title (official language):
- Vogteien der Landdrostei Osnabrück
- Creator/accumulator:
- District administration of Osnabrück
- Date(s):
- 1671/1901
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 1,727 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- In addition to the core period from 1813 to 1883 the collection also contains files of the older bailiwicks (before 1803), from the predecessor authorities in the French period and the transitional authorities from 1815 to 1823. Of particular relevance are: No. 12 Civil and religious circumstances of the Jews in the bailiwick of Osnabrück, 1816-1848; No. 540 State lottery and concessions for college appointment in Wittlage, 1817-1852; No. 31 Jews residing in the Wittlage administrative district, their protection and trade, 1816-1851; No. 32 Settlement petition of Meyer Goldschmidt from Lemförde in Bomte (Wittlage district), 1843; No. 145 Fairs in the bailiwick of Osnabrück, Jewish merchants, 1817-1863; No. 17 Fairs in the bailiwick of Badbergen, 1825-1846.
- Archival history:
- Although the bailiwicks had their own registries, they did not reach the State Archive Osnabrück in their original context. Rather, after the abolition of the bailiwicks, the bailiwicks' documents were incorporated into the district registries and submitted via the district administrative offices to the State Archives after 1885. There, the bailiwicks' files were again separated as far as possible and formed into separate collections. However, this was not the case for all bailiwicks that existed between 1819 and 1883 – the current collection only includes files from 28 bailiwicks. In addition, in some cases there are very few files, which is also due to archival accumulation of the collection. These circumstances mean that bailiwicks' files can also be expected to be found in the collections of the administrative districts (Rep 350).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In the Landdrostei (district administration) of Osnabrück, the bailiwicks were, as the lowest level of administration, subordinated to the administrative districts and primarily responsible for enforcing public security and order. After French rule ended in 1813 the bailiwick administration was restored in Osnabrück and Bentheim and newly introduced in Lingen, Meppen and Emsbüren in 1819/20. However, the bailiwicks of the 19th century are not to be equated with those of the early modern period, their territorial jurisdiction usually extended to the area of a parish and they were factually responsible, as subordinates of the district administrators, for policing and the treasury. The duties and powers of the bailiffs in the Landdrostei were regulated by the order of 18 April 1823. Accordingly, they were responsible for the order, security, fire, road, construction, poor, health and industrial police, supervised the tax system, accounting of the communities, supervision of the domanial, church and school system, affairs of the Jews, military system (keeping lists of conscripts, billeting) and the voluntary jurisdiction and Brüchtengerichte (inferior courts of law). In 1829, there were 45 bailiwicks in the administrative area of the Landdrostei. In 1852, the division of administrative districts was reformed, the bailiwicks were reduced and henceforth existed only as auxiliaries; the bailiffs were assigned equal status to assistant clerks. After the reform of the administrative districts was reversed in 1859, the bailiwicks also had their responsibilities returned but their number was gradually reduced to eight in 1882. With the Provincial Administration Act in 1885, the bailiwicks were finally phased out.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Goldschmidt, Meyer
- System of arrangement:
- There is no system or arrangement. The material is kept in order of accession.
- Finding aids:
- A database is available.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.arcinsys.niedersachsen.de/arcinsys/start.action?oldNodeid=
- Yerusha Network member:
- Institute for the History of German Jews
- Author of the description:
- Meike Buck