Archbishopric/Duchy of Bremen

Landesteil Bremen

The ecclesiastical Bishopric of Bremen dates to 788. It was combined with the Archbishopric of Hamburg as a dual bishopric in 870, but Bremen retained primacy, becoming the seat of the new Archbishopric, and quickly dropping Hamburg from the name.

 

In the 11th century, the Archbishopric began acquiring secular control over most of the territory between Bremen and Hamburg that was not on the North Sea coast (even including some territory ecclesiastically linked to the neighboring Bishopric of Verden.) Over time, the city of Bremen became a hostile environment for the Archbishop and he moved his administrative functions out of the city, eventually landing in Vörde (now called Bremervörde). To distinguish the Archbishopric from the Imperial City (and for the sake of brevity), I use the simplified country name of Bremen-Vörde for the Archbishopric. (For the Imperial City, I use “Bremen” alone.)

 

Within the Archbishopric, there were several monasteries that exercised secular authority over their territories. Those included the monasteries of St. Georg and St. Maria in Stade, Altkloster and Neukloster near Buxtehude, as well as those at Harsefeld, Himmelpforten, Zeven, Osterholz, Lilienthal, and Neuenwalde. Furthermore, other territories over which the Archbishop was sovereign were administered by the nobility as Gerichte. As of the beginning of the 13th century, most of the territory administered directly by the Archbishopric was organized as Amt Bremervörde and was subdivided into so-called “Börden” (a term usually associated with geomorphology, but commonly used in place of “Vogtei” within the Archbishopric of Bremen). Another piece of territory immediately to the southeast of Bremen was administered from Langwedel castle, which morphed into Gohgericht Achim in 1450.

 

Direct administrative control over additional territories (each of which retained its identity) was acquired as follows:

 

13th Century

• County of Stade (including Altes Land)
• Amt Neuhaus
• Amt Hagen
• County of Ottersberg

14th Century

• Vogtei Altenwalde (previously a monastery)

16th Century

• Land Kehdingen
• Land Wursten
• Gericht Deichsende (previously noble)

 

I begin the database for the Archbishopric in 1567, when the first Lutheran Archbishop was installed. During the Thirty-Years War, the Archbishopric was occupied by Sweden. Under the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the war, the Archbishopric’s territory was secularized and converted to a Duchy under Swedish sovereignty. Because Bremervörde had been largely destroyed during the war, Sweden set up its capital in Stade from which it also administered the newly-secularized Principality of Verden. The territory ruled from Stade became known as the Duchy of Bremen-Verden, but because Bremen and Verden remained members of different circles of the Holy Roman Empire, I continue to recognize them as distinct entities, with the simplified country names of Bremen-Stade and Verden-Stade.

 

After a war with the Imperial City of Bremen, the Duchy acquired Amt Bederkesa, Amt Blumenthal, and Gericht Lehe in 1654. However, the Imperial City continued to administer Amt Blumenthal, so for that Amt I use the simplified country name of Bremen-Bremen—the first “Bremen” referring to the sovereign Duchy and the second “Bremen” referring to the administering Imperial City.

 

In 1712, sovereignty was turned over to Denmark, which sold both Bremen and Verden to the Electorate of Hannover (which was in personal union with the United Kingdom) in 1715. From that point on, I refer to the Duchy as a Landesteil of Hannover. In 1741, after another war with the Imperial City, the Landesteil assumed administrative responsibility over Amt Blumenthal (except for Vegesack). In the 1760s and the 1790s, certain villages were exchanged between the Landesteile of Bremen and Verden. The Electorate of Hannover was occupied by Napoleonic France in 1803, and I end the database then. (After the Napoleonic Wars, Hannover was elevated to a Kingdom and any meaningful distinction between the Landesteile of Bremen and Verden was eliminated. They were combined, along with Hadeln, into Landdrostei Stade in 1823. When Hannover was acquired by Prussia in 1866, the Landdrostei was converted to a Regeierungsbezirk—an entity that persisted until 1978.)