Territory controlled by the Bishop of Lübeck

Territory in the Bishopric of Lübeck was controlled by three different entities:

1. The Bishop,
2. The Cathedral Chapter (Domkapitel), and
3. The Eutin Collegiate Monastary (Kollegiatstift).

 

The territories controlled by the Bishop were divided between a northern section, centered on Eutin, and a southern section, centered initially on Kaltenhof. All were administered from Eutin until 1623, when administration of the southern section shifted to Kaltenhof. The seat of the southern section moved to Schwartau in 1640, but the Kaltenhof name was retained.

 

After the Bishopric was secularized and became the Principality of Lübeck, the administrative structure was retained and Eutin and Kaltenhof were established as formal Ämter. It is not clear whether they had that formal status as part of the Bishopric, but they certainly had that functional status, so I call them Ämter but add an * to signal the uncertainty.

 

In 1843, the administrative structure of the Principality was reorganized on a strictly north-south basis. Amt Eutin was left largely intact (adding Gothendorf, Fassensdorf, and Röbel), but Amt Kaltenhof was combined with the former territories of the Domkapitel and some territory from Holstein to form Amt Schwartau. (The vast majority of Amt Schwartau’s territory was occupied by France in 1806. Only the villages transferred from Holstein are recognized as part of Amt Schwartau in the database.)