Kreis Oschersleben:

Gerichte and Samtgerichte

When the Bishop of Halberstadt took control of Oschersleben, several nearby villages remained in private hands and outside the system of Ämter. Three villages north and west of Oschersleben were controlled by the same family and constituted a single Gericht (Neindorf—not to be confused with Hausneindorf, which was a formal Amt further south). Of the other three villages, I assign the largest (Nienhagen) to its own Gericht. The other two small villages, one north of Oschersleben (Neubrandsleben) and one south (Güntersdorf), I assign to an artificial Quasi-Samtgericht.

 

At some point after Halberstadt’s 1701 absorption into the Kingdom of Prussia (I estimate 1753), the various Ämter and Gerichte were organized into Kreise. The Gerichte around Oschersleben were assigned to Kreis Oschersleben, where they remained until the end of the Holy Roman Empire, when the Oschersleben area was assigned to the Kingdom of Westphalia (a Napoleonic client state).

 

In 1816, beyond the scope of this project, Kreis Oschersleben was reestablished. All of the villages in these Gerichte were assigned to that Kreis until after World War II.