The Electoral Circle (German : Kurkreis), which was renamed in 1807 as the Wittenberg Circle (Wittenberger Kreis), was a historical territory that mostly emerged from the heartlands of the former Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. The circle (or district) was created in the reign of Frederick the Wise of Saxony in 1499 and was part of the Electorate of Saxony. The German name Kurkreis referred to the electoral dignity or status of the Saxon prince electors (Kurfürsten) to whom this territory was linked.
The region of the Electoral Circle today falls largely within the states of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. A smaller portion is located in North Saxony.
The rivers Elbe, Black Elster and, for a short section, Mulde flowed through the Circle. The most important settlement in the Circle was the town of Wittenberg, where the Reformation started.
John Frederick the Magnanimous was defeated by Emperor Charles V in the Schmalkaldic War at the Battle of Mühlberg and was captured there on 24 April 1547. The emperor removed his electoral dignity and part of his electoral estates and enfeoffed them to his cousin Maurice of Saxony. As a result, Saxe-Wittenberg was transferred from the Ernestines to the Albertine line of the family.
Maurice of Saxony embarked on a reorganisation of his Electorate. Alongside six other circles, the Electoral Circle was formed, with its capital at Wittenberg. The Circle originated in the former Askanian estates, which comprised the Ämter (districts) of Annaburg , Belzig , Gräfenhainichen , Liebenwerda , Pretzsch / Elbe , Seyda and Wittenberg ; the old County of Brehna with its districts of Bitterfeld (1738), Schlieben and Schweinitz ; the Burgraviate of Magdeburg with the Gommern districts of Gommern , Elbenau , Ranies, Glinde, Plötzky; the County of Barby ; and the Lordships of Sonnewalde and Baruth .
After Elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony joined the Confederation of the Rhine and his realm became the Kingdom of Saxony in the Treaty of Posen, the Electoral Circle was renamed on 30 January 1807 to the Wittenberg Circle. That year the districts in the Burgraviate of Magdeburg and County of Barby were reassigned to the King of Westphalia, who annexed them to the Department of the Elbe .
In order to contribute to the "restoration of order and peace in Europe", on 18 May 1815 Prussia and Saxony entered a peace and friendship treaty in which Saxony ceded three-fifths of its territory to Prussia including the Wittenberg Circle. On 22 May 1815 the majority of the Wittenberg Circle became part of the Regierungsbezirk Merseburg of the new Province of Saxony, constituted from most of the Saxon territories it had acquired, along with territory returned to Prussia from Westphalia – the Altmark, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Eichsfeld, etc. – and various other territories acquired as a result of the Napoleonic wars; the remainder, including Belzig, Sonnewalde and Baruth (as well as the Weissenfels/Querfurt Ämter of Jüterbog and Dahme which were attached to the Electoral Circle), became part of the Province of Brandenburg. The Circle then comprised an area of 66 square German miles with 140,000 inhabitants.
The House of Ascania was a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Anhalt.
The history of Saxony-Anhalt began with Old Saxony, which was conquered by Charlemagne in 804 and transformed into the Duchy of Saxony within the Carolingian Empire. Saxony went on to become one of the so-called stem duchies of the German Kingdom and subsequently the Holy Roman Empire which formed out of the eastern partition of the Carolingian Empire. The duchy grew to become a powerful state within the empire, ruling over much of what is now northern Germany, but following conflicts with the emperor it was partitioned into numerous minor states, including the Principality of Anhalt, around the end of the 12th century and early 13th century. The territories of the Duchy of Saxony, the Principality of Anhalt, and their successors are now part of the modern German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Latin Catholic archdiocese (969–1552) and Prince-Archbishopric (1180–1680) of the Holy Roman Empire centered on the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe River.
The Duchy of Saxony was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804. Upon the 843 Treaty of Verdun, Saxony was one of the five German stem duchies of East Francia; Duke Henry the Fowler was elected German king in 919.
The Province of Saxony, also known as Prussian Saxony, was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg.
Eastphalia is a historical region in northern Germany, encompassing the eastern Gaue (shires) of the historic stem duchy of Saxony, roughly confined by the River Leine in the west and the Elbe and Saale in the east. The territory corresponds with modern southeastern Lower Saxony, western Saxony-Anhalt, and northern Thuringia. Together with Westphalia, central Angria, and Nordalbingia, it was one of the four main Saxon administrative regions.
The Duchy of Magdeburg was a province of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1680 to 1701 and a province of the German Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1807. It replaced the Archbishopric of Magdeburg after its secularization by Brandenburg, giving to the Elector another influential seat to the Reichstag’s College of Princes. The duchy's capitals were Magdeburg and Halle, while Burg was another important town. Dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars in 1807, its territory was made part of the Province of Saxony in 1815.
The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, was a reichsfrei duchy that existed from 1296 to 1803 and again from 1814 to 1876 in the extreme southeast region of what is now Schleswig-Holstein. Its territorial center was in the modern district of Herzogtum Lauenburg and originally its eponymous capital was Lauenburg upon Elbe, though the capital moved to Ratzeburg in 1619.
Bad Belzig, until 2010 Belzig, is a historic town in Brandenburg, Germany located about 70 km (43 mi) southwest of Berlin. It is the capital of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district.
The history of Saxony began with a small tribe living on the North Sea between the Elbe and Eider River in what is now Holstein. The name of this tribe, the Saxons, was first mentioned by the Greek author Ptolemy. The name Saxons is derived from the Seax, a knife used by the tribe as a weapon.
The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony, was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. Its territory included the areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz.
The Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg was a medieval duchy of the Holy Roman Empire centered at Wittenberg, which emerged after the dissolution of the stem duchy of Saxony. The Ascanian dukes prevailed in obtaining the Saxon electoral dignity until their duchy was finally elevated to the Electorate of Saxony by the Golden Bull of 1356.
The Treaty of Leipzig or Partition of Leipzig was signed on 11 November 1485 between Elector Ernest of Saxony and his younger brother Albert III, the sons of Elector Frederick II of Saxony from the House of Wettin. The agreement perpetuated the division of the Wettin lands into a Saxon and a Thuringian part, which in the long run obstructed the further development of a Central German hegemonic power in favour of Brandenburg-Prussia.
Saxe-Weissenfels was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire from 1656/7 until 1746 with its residence at Weißenfels. Ruled by a cadet branch of the Albertine House of Wettin, the duchy passed to the Electorate of Saxony upon the extinction of the line.
Bernhard, a member of the House of Ascania, was Count of Anhalt and Ballenstedt, and Lord of Bernburg through his paternal inheritance. From 1180 he was also Duke of Saxony.
Albert II of Saxony was a son of Duke Albert I of Saxony and his third wife Helen of Brunswick and Lunenburg, a daughter of Otto the Child. He supported Rudolph I of Germany at his election as Roman king and became his son-in-law. After the death of their father Albert I in 1260 Albert II jointly ruled the Duchy of Saxony with his elder brother John I, and thereafter with the latter's sons.
John II of Saxe-Lauenburg was the eldest son of John I of Saxony and Ingeborg Birgersdotter of Småland, a daughter or grandchild of Birger jarl. He ruled the Saxony jointly with his uncle Albert II and his brothers Albert III and Eric I, first fostered by Albert II until coming of age. In 1296, John II, his brothers, and their uncle divided Saxony into Saxe-Wittenberg, ruled by Albert II, and Saxe-Lauenburg, jointly ruled by the brothers between 1296 and 1303 and thereafter partitioned among them. John II then ruled the branch duchy of Saxe-Mölln, later extended to become Saxe-Bergedorf-Mölln. In 1314, he officiated as Saxon Prince-elector in an election of a German king.
Rudolf I, a member of the House of Ascania, was Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg from 1298 until his death. By the Golden Bull of 1356 he was acknowledged as Elector of Saxony.
The German Emperors after 1873 had a variety of titles and coats of arms, which in various compositions became the officially used titles and coats of arms. The title and coat of arms were last fixed in 1873, but the titles did not necessarily mean that the area was really dominated, and sometimes even several princes bore the same title.
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