Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) History
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[edit] General Information Upper Franconia
[edit] History of Upper Franconia
Nowadays Upper Franconia became part of the Kingdom of
Bavaria only in 1803/1806/1810 and 1920. Before that Upper
Franconia consisted a long time of separate sovereign states and
numerous ecclesiastical holdings. And in fact this was true for the
whole region of Franconia (Franken) - that never was a
united historical, political entity - which includes also Middle Franconia and
Lower Franconia.
In 1803 after the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss quite a few of these
smaller sovereign states (after the Mediatization) and ecclesiastical holdings (after
the Säkularisation) in this region lost their
sovereignty and were already incorporated into the Electorate of
Bavaria. For example the former Hochstift Bamberg (an
ecclesiastical principality of the catholic bishopric Bamberg) that
owned large parts of nowadays Upper Franconian area, was disolved
in 1803 and its holdings were incorporated into the Electorate
of Bavaria.
Yet large parts of Upper Franconian territory belonged in the
past also to the Franconian Markgrafschaft: Margravate
Brandenburg-Bayreuth, a principality consisting of the
so-called above Gebuergs and beyond Gebuergs parts.
The Margraves of Brandenburg-(Kulmbach)-Bayreuth were one
line of the Franconian lines of the House of Hohenzollern. They played for nearly 500
years a prominent role in Upper Franconias history and as well in
that of Franconia as a whole. The Margraves of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
were former Burggrafen of Nürnberg (1192) who became also
Electors of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (after acquisition of
Mark Brandenburg, 1415). The other Franconian line of the
Hohenzollern were the Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach
(Principality), who owned the territory that made up main parts of
nowadays Middle Franconia.
In 1769 after the Bayreuth-line of the Hohenzollern extinct the
Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach took over the other
Margravate too and ruled both Franconian Principalities
(Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth). In 1792 Margrave
Carl Alexander of Brandenburg-Ansbach sold both of his
protestant Margravates to the Kingdom of Prussia
(ruled by the Prussian line of the House of Hohenzollern). And so,
Margravate Brandenburg-Bayreuth, today a major part of Upper
Franconia, became for a short period in time Prussian
(1792-1806).
Meanwhile the Electorate of Bavaria (Kurfürstentum
Bayern), under pressure from French Emperor Napoleon became
part of the Rheinbund (Confederation of the Rhine). When in 1806
Prussia declared war on Napoleon (see:
Napoleonic wars, Fourth Coalition) the states within the
Rheinbund, amongst them Electorate of Bavaria, kept neutral.
Napoleon defeated Prussia and won the war. For his cooperation in
this conflict the Elector of Bavaria (a French ally) was raised to
King of Bavaria in 1806. And Napoleon awarded parts of the
territory of his Prussian enemy to the then Kingdom of Bavaria -
yet in 1806 only the Franconian Margravate of Brandenburg-Ansbach
(later part of Middle Franconia). The
Franconian Margravate Brandenburg-Bayreuth Napoleon
kept for himself and placed it under French military jurisdiction,
until finally in 1810 he handed it over to the Kingdom of Bavaria
too. So, for a short period in time parts of current day Upper
Franconia became French (1806-1810) and lastly in 1810
Bavarian.
That way most of the protestant areas of current day Upper
Franconia were incorporated into the Kingdom of Bavaria, to
whom until 1810 they had neither historical, political nor
religious bonds or relations. For most of the protestant
Franconians - who for centuries were hohenzollerisch and
since 1792 Prussian - the Kingdom of Bavaria at that time was a
foreign country and a pure catholic one too, plus an
ally of Napoleon. And the protestant Franconia (since 1527) did not
wanted to be dominated by the Bavarian Catholicism. The
Bavarian-Franconian contrast lead to deep-rooted ambivalent
feelings that influenced relations between the Franconians
(Franken) and the Old-Bavarians (Altbayern) in the
19th century and can sometimes even still be felt today.
In 1920 the meanwhile Free State of Bavaria (Freistaat
Bayern) was further enlarged. The newly formed so-called Free
State of Saxe-Coburg (Sachsen-Coburg) became an additional
(protestant) part of Bavaria. Until 1918 Sachsen-Coburg was
one of the duchies of the sovereign double - Duchy Saxe-Coburg and Gotha - (Herzogtum
Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), which declared and separated
itself into two Free states in 1919. In 1920 the
Sachsen-Gotha part was incorporated into Thuringia while the people of
Sachsen-Coburg voted to became part of Bavaria and with that became an area of the
Bavarian administrative district later called Upper
Franconia.
[edit] Other Links
see also:
- Oberfranken (Upper Franconia)#Historical Political Structure
- Upper Franconia, Maps - territory development
- Upper Franconia, Maps - past administrative organization
- Franconia Maps - 850 until today
- Franken (Franconia) Literature
- Franken (Franconia) Jewish
- Names of old Bavarian administrative regions
| Counties and Independent Cities in Administrative District |
|
Bamberg (City) | Bayreuth (City) | Schweinfurt (City) | Coburg (City) | Hof (City) | |
| Administrative Districts in the Federal State Bavaria |
|
Mittelfranken (Middle
Franconia) | Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria) |
Oberbayern (Upper Bavaria) |
Oberfranken (Upper Franconia)
| |
