Kloster and Amt Ahrensbök

Gut Gronenberg and Gut Gnissau

The Ahrensbök monastery (Kloster) was founded in the late 14th century and began acquiring land shortly thereafter. In 1565, the spin-off Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg was created and the monastery was assigned to that duchy (the simplified name of which, when applied to Ahrensbök, is Holstein-Sonderburg). The Duke promptly closed the monastery and converted the lands into an Amt. I apply the term “Amt” to the Kloster, but add an * to signal that the designation was not always formal.

 

The Güter of Gronenberg and Gnissau did not belong to the Kloster, but later joined Amt Ahrensbök—Gronenberg in 1601 and Gnissau in 1681. (Because they joined the Amt before the creation of Güterdistrikte, I do not associate them with any district. Furthermore, the date span shown below for Middelburg under Amt Ahrensbök should be understood to exclude the 10-year span during which it belonged to Gut Gronenberg.)

 

In 1623, the secondary spin-off Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (or Holstein-Plön) was created and Amt Ahrensbök was assigned to that duchy until 1761, when the Duke’s line died out and his territory reverted to the core Duchy of Holstein (Holstein-Glückstadt until 1773, just Holstein thereafter). In 1843, an exchange of territory was carried out between Holstein and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in which Amt Ahrensbök lost several villages (Fassensdorf, Garkau, Gothendorf, Luschendorf, Schulendorf, and its portion of Gleschendorf) but gained others (Gießelrade, Kesdorf, and Travenhorst). (It also lost its portion of Schürsdorf and gained Tankenrade, but those villages were occupied by France in 1806 so those changes do not show up in the database.) In 1867, beyond the scope of this project, the entire Amt was transferred to the Grand Duchy, thereby connecting the Lübeck Landesteil’s northern and southern sections.