Metadata: Imperial palace and patrimonial court of Lustenau
Collection
- Country:
- Austria
- Holding institution:
- National Archive of Vorarlberg
- Holding institution (official language):
- Vorarlberger Landesarchiv
- Postal address:
- Kirchstrasse 28; 6900 Bregenz
- Phone number:
- +43 5574 511 45 012
- Email:
- landesarchiv@vorarlberg.at
- Reference number:
- Rh. u. Pg. Lustenau
- Title:
- Imperial palace and patrimonial court of Lustenau
- Title (official language):
- Reichshof und Patrimonialgericht Lustenau
- Creator/accumulator:
- Administration of the imperial palace and the patrimonial court of Lustenau
- Date(s):
- 1625/1866
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 48 boxes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Reichshof (imperial palace) holds various types of documents. The imperial palace of Lustenau was ruled successively by the imperial counts in Hohenems and the Habsburgs in Vienna until it became a part of the Kingdom of Bavaria after the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 was ratified.
The collection therefore holds mainly decrees of the administration of the imperial counts in Hohenems and imperial administration in Vienna respectively Vorarlberg. Besides that, the collection holds a large amount of correspondence between the local authorities and the patrimonial court in Hohenems and the Austrian district court in Dornbirn. Most of the fascicles contain trial protocols and correspondence referring to the administration of Lustenau, the church and the debts of residents of Lustenau (mainly to citizens of Hohenems).
Among this vast amount of documents are several files concerning the Jewish community. Said files can be separated into two clusters. The first cluster contains mainly files of three trials that took place in the 1780s. In all three trials, members of the Jewish community of Hohenems had to go to court against residents of Lustenau. Leibmoss of Ems for example was sued by Johann Jakob Hämmerle in 1785-87, while Abraham Moos sued Gregori Vetter in 1783-84. A third trial regarding a member of the Jewish community is to be found in the “Konkursakten” (files of insolvency). The file contains the accusal of Abraham Mayer Moos, who sued the widow of Jos Hollenstein in 1786-87, because she did not pay the debts of her late husband.
The second cluster contains obligations. The first part of these “Judenschulden” (debts to Jews) contains files from 1780 to 1792. The second part is called “Schuldbriefe” (obligations) and is to be found in a bundle of documents called “Juden” (Jews). These files are chronologically numbered from 1700 to 1806 and labelled with the name of the debt holders, the debtors and the borrowed sum of money.
- Archival history:
- The collection was probably acquired shortly after the Second World War. The exact date is not known.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Reichshof (imperial palace) of Lustenau was ruled by the imperial counts of Hohenems until the male line ended with the death of Franz Wilhelm III. After the death of Franz Wilhelm III. Lustenau became a disputed territory. Maria Theresa of Austria and Maria Rebekka, the inheritor of the Hohenems family, negotiated for years about who had the right to own and rule the imperial palace. A definite solution was struck in 1830 when the Hohenems family ceded the patrimonial jurisdiction to Austria. From that day, Lustenau became a full part of Vorarlberg and Austria.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Hirsch-Levy
- Leibmoss
- Levi
- Mayer
- Mayr
- Moos
- Moos, Abraham
- Moos, Abraham Mayer
- Schlesinger
- Uffenheimer
- Ullmann
- Access, restrictions:
- No restrictions on access.
- Finding aids:
- There is one finding aid called “Reichshof und Patrimonialgericht Lustenau Akten” (files of the imperial palace and the patrimonial court of Lustenau), which has a quite detailed list of the files included in this collection.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht, Jewish Museum of Hohenems, 2017