Kreis Ermsleben:

Amt Winningen (formerly part of Regenstein)

Winningen became the property of the Abbey of Michaelstein in 1282. Michaelstein, in turn, was in the County of Regenstein-Blankenburg—a fief of the Bishop of Halberstadt. When Regenstein-Blankenburg was permanently partitioned in 1599, Winningen nominally reverted to Halberstadt. However, the Bishop of Halberstadt was also the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and it was not until 1616 that administration became unambiguously the responsibility of Halberstadt. Then, beginning in 1623, ownership and administrative responsibilities for Amt Winningen were turned over to other parties. In succession, that role was filled by the Prince of Anhalt-Köthen (1623), the Count of Königsmark (who also administered the Swedish Duchies of Bremen and Verden out of Stade–1643), and the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg (1663). Homburg retained ownership until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

 

At some point after Halberstadt’s 1701 absorption into the Kingdom of Prussia (I estimate 1775), the various Ämter were organized into Kreise. Amt Winningen, along with some Ämter and Gerichte south of Aschersleben, was assigned to Kreis Ermsleben, where its villages remained until the end of the Holy Roman Empire, when the Ermsleben area was assigned to the Kingdom of Westphalia, a Napoleonic client state.

 

In 1815, beyond the scope of this project, the Kreise were reestablished and the villages of the former Amt Winningen were placed in Kreis Aschersleben, where they remained until 1901.