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Documents - Theory and Practice of the German Territorial States (apart from Austria and Prussia)
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1.   Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, Excerpts from Teutscher Fürsten-Staat (1656)
The standard German work on administrative-bureaucratic practice, Teutscher Fürsten-Staat [German Princely State] went through twelve editions by the year 1754. Author Veit Ludwig von....
2.   Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt, Political Testament (June 4, 1660)
Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt (r. 1626-61) weathered the Thirty Years War and an embittered succession dispute. According to historian Volker Press, he was a “pious man, who took pride in....
3.   Electoral Saxony: Report of the Official Thomas Baron von Fritsch to Saxon Prime Minister Heinrich von Brühl on Administrative Reforms and Appointments (April 4, 1762)
Thomas Baron von Fritsch (1700-75) headed the Saxon Restoration Commission [Restaurationskommission] (1762-63), which recommended reforms aimed at healing the country from the deep wounds,....
4.   Maximilian von Montgelas, "Ansbach Memorandum." Proposal for a Program of State Reforms (September 30, 1796)
Maximilian von Montgelas (1759-1838) composed this reform program for Duke Max IV Joseph of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, who went on to become Elector Max IV Joseph of Bavaria and the Rhine Palatinate....
5.   Bavarian Elector Max IV Joseph, Directive on Reforming the Training of State Officials (June 25, 1799)
Following his accession in 1799, the new elector issued the following directive, thereby implementing the portion of Montgelas’s reform program that focused on improving the education and practical....
6.   Bavarian Elector Max IV Joseph, Ordinance on "the Circumstances of State Servants, especially regarding their Status and Salary," cosigned by Montgelas (January 1, 1805)
The provisions of this Bavarian ordinance influenced the practices of other German states and advanced a process that had been evident in Germany since the 1770s: the move to give state officials....
7.   Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse-Darmstadt, Edict on the "Abolition of the Previous Estates-System" (October 1, 1806)
In the aftermath of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, many surviving territorial principalities acted on the absolutist or state-centralizing impulse to abolish centuries-old representation....
8.   "Constitution of the Kingdom of Westphalia," proclaimed by Napoleon Bonaparte in Fontainebleau (November 15, 1807)
The Kingdom of Westphalia, a French satellite state ruled by Napoleon’s brother Jérôme [Hieronymus], comprised previously unconnected lands in central Germany east of the Rhine. Intended as a model....
9.   "Constitution of the Kingdom of Bavaria," issued by King Maximilian I, cosigned by Ministers Montgelas, Hompesch, and Morawitzky (May 25, 1808)
Montgelas secured the proclamation of this constitution (which in some of its provision mirrors that of the Kingdom of Westphalia) to forestall a tighter incorporation of Bavaria into the French-dominated....
10.   "Edict on Communal Affairs," issued by King Maximilian I, cosigned by Ministers Montgelas, Hompesch, and Morawitzky (September 24, 1808)
This edict introduced a new, moderately liberal, and elected urban and municipal self-government partly in order to subordinate the recently acquired, formerly autonomous Imperial cities to an effective....
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