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The Imperial Limes Commission (German : Reichs-Limeskommission) or RLK, was set up to work out the route of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, the Roman frontier north of the Alps, and the location of its associated forts at the time of the Roman Empire. It was the first institution to engage in a cross-border, historical project after German Unification in 1871.
The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, constructed around 100 AD, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005, and has been of interest in scholars since the 16th century as the outer border of the Roman Empire. Aventinus (fl.c.1500) was the first to deal with a presumptive part of the limes at Eichstätt, which he ascribed to the Emperor Probus. Until the 19th century, theories were repeatedly proposed about the Limes. Special mention is deserved by Christian Ernst Hanßelmann, who recognized connections between the Rhaetian wall in Bavaria and remains of walls in the Taunus in the 18th century. Increasingly, the archaeological remains were inventoried and protected. In particular by the Association for Ancient History (Verein für Altertumskunde) in Ellwangen, which began major investigations in 1819.
In 1852, the commission was founded to study the Limes Imperii Romani. Several associations tried to conduct the research systematically and across state borders. However, the still independent states of the German Confederation wanted to maintain their cultural sovereignty even after the unification of their territory into the Reich. Thus, in 1877 and 1888 in the Kingdom of Württemberg, and in 1880 in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and in the Grand Duchy of Baden State Limes Commissions were appointed, which would successfully identify the course of the Limes in several places. However, these individual researches could not answer all questions by far.
In 1883 a circle of researchers and interested parties led by the ancient historian Theodor Mommsen, which had demanded the organization and financing of centralized Limes research since the founding of the Reich, proposed a solution. A first attempt in 1873 failed due to the personnel issues, a second attempt in 1878 at least led to an organizational plan. Among those who pushed the project were, in addition to Mommsen, retired Major General Karl Johann von Veith, representative of the Prussian General Staff, Heinrich von Sybel, Georg Waitz, and Richard Schöne. The work was carried out by officers with the support of local experts. The cost was originally estimated at 150,000 Reichsmarks. However, the project finally failed in 1882 in the Reichstag, because the deputy Wilhelm Oechelhäuser had taken offense over the direction by the General Staff and the Berlin dominance of the project.
Mommsen failed to make further advances because he had fallen into political opposition to Otto von Bismarck and had lost his backing.
After Mommsen had enlisted his colleagues in the southern countries of the Reich, especially Heinrich von Brunn, through their various contacts the five states involved came to an agreement. On December 28, 1890, there was a Limes conference in Heidelberg. All five states sent their own representatives. Baden was represented by Karl Zangemeister and Ernst Wagner, Bavaria by Karl Popp and Heinrich von Brunn, Hesse by Friedrich Kofler, Prussia by Friedrich Wilhelm von Leszynski, Heinrich Nissen and Mommsen, and Württemberg by Ernst von Herzog and Eduard Paulus. In addition, Wilhelm Conrady and Louis Jacobi participated. Indirectly, the selection had been controlled by Mommsen. All those who had been called had previously dealt with Limes research. Binding decisions were not possible, but the recommendations were made to set up a commission of eight people. One representative from each of the five affected states, one member each of the Royal Prussian and Bavarian Academy of Sciences and a second representative from Württemberg, which had the longest stretch of the Limes. The base of the commission would be Heidelberg. the Limes was divided into sections ("Strecken"), which were to be numbered and assigned to volunteer section directors ( Streckenkommissaren ). Directors should preferably be high school teachers, heads of local clubs, and army officers. For the project, five years and a budget of 130,000 Reichsmarks were estimated. The next day this amount was raised as a precaution to 200,000 Reichsmarks. The work program was approved without objection.
Everything seemed to go according to plan, and the first installment was paid in September, 1891. But then the budget committee of the Reichstag rejected further assumption of the costs for financial reasons. However, personal motives also played a role. On January 16, 1892, there was a debate in the Reichstag, during which Mommsen was accused of plagiarizing the ideas of Karl August von Cohausen and personally attacked. Rudolf Virchow defended Mommsen and eventually the budget was restored.
The first meeting of the Limes Commission was held April 7 to 9, 1892, in Berlin. The participants were the same as those of the Heidelberg meeting plus Jacobi and Paulus. Hesse now sent Wilhelm Soldan, Prussia Cohausen, who had not been invited to the Heidelberg meeting. In addition, the Düsseldorf state director Wilhelm Klein and the Chief Education Minister Friedrich Althoff as well as a representative of the interior minister of the imperial privy council Schroeder took part. The decisions of the first meeting were largely confirmed, the most important innovation being the establishment of a managing committee, which included Zangemeister as chairman, plus Herzog and Popp. With the consent of the governments involved, the statute was enacted on May 17. On June 6 and 7, 1892, the constituent meeting of the commission took place in Heidelberg. Mommsen was elected chairman, Brunn elected his deputy. After decades of preparation, work could begin. Until 1898, the archaeological head of the investigations was Felix Hettner, the director of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier. [1]
The commission's work has been very productive, with more than four decades of research into Limes-forts. From 1902 Ernst Fabricius (Professor of Ancient History in Freiburg im Breisgau) was head of the Reichs-Limeskommission. The publication series, the "Limeswerk", Der obergermanisch-raetische Limes des Roemerreiches , appeared between 1894 and 1937 as 56 separate parts. [2]
The Saalburg is a Roman fort located on the main ridge of the Taunus, northwest of Bad Homburg, Hesse, Germany. It is a cohort fort, part of the Limes Germanicus, the Roman linear border fortification of the German provinces. The Saalburg, located just off the main road roughly halfway between Bad Homburg and Wehrheim is the most completely reconstructed Roman fort in Germany. Since 2005, as part of the Upper Limes, it forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. In the modern numbering system for the limes, it is ORL 11.
Theilenhofen is a municipality in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. An important part of the local history is the Roman camp Iciniacum, near the Limes Germanicus. This fortification and Roman village was erected around 100 AD and destroyed c. 260 AD by the Germanic Alemanni. Today you can see only the Roman Military Bath in this area. It was first found in 1820.
Heinrich Nissen was a German professor of ancient history.
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Ernst, 7th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was a German aristocrat and Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. He served as the Regent of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha during the minority of his wife's cousin, Duke Charles Edward, from 1900 to 1905.
Ernst Christian Andreas Martin Fabricius was a German historian, archaeologist and classical scholar. Between 1882 and 1888 he participated in excavations in Greece and Asia Minor and also pioneered German research on the Roman Empire border defenses known as the Limes Germanicus.
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The Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, or ORL, is a 550-kilometre-long section of the former external frontier of the Roman Empire between the rivers Rhine and Danube. It runs from Rheinbrohl to Eining on the Danube. The Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes is an archaeological site and, since 2005, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Together with the Lower Germanic Limes it forms part of the Limes Germanicus.
The Roman fort at Weissenburg, called Biriciana in ancient times, is a former Roman ala castellum, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located near the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes. It lies in the borough of Weißenburg in the Middle Franconian county of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in Germany. Today the castellum is one of the most important sites of research in the Roman limes in Germany. The site contains partly subterranean building remains, a reconstructed north gateway, large thermal baths and a Roman Museum with an integrated Limes Information Centre.
The Neckar-Odenwald Limes is a collective term for two, very different early sections of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, a Roman defensive frontier line that may have been utilised during slightly different periods in history. The Neckar-Odenwald Limes consists of the northern Odenwald Limes (Odenwaldlimes), a cross-country limes with camps, watchtowers and palisades, which linked the River Main with the Neckar, and the adjoining southern Neckar Limes (Neckarlimes), which in earlier research was seen as a typical 'riverine limes', whereby the river replaced the function of the palisade as an approach obstacle. More recent research has thrown a different light on this way of viewing things that means may have to be relativized in future. The resulting research is ongoing.
Pfünz Roman Fort, Castra Vetoniana or Vetonianae, was a Roman cohort camp near Pfünz, a village in the municipality of Walting in the county of Eichstätt, Bavaria. It was built in about 90 A. D. on a 42-metre-high Jurassic hillspur between the valley of the Altmühl and that of the Pfünzer Bach stream. it is a component of the Rhaetian Limes which was elevated in 2005 to the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Of historical importance are the remains of the double V-shaped ditches hewn out of the rock in front of the position, the one on the western rampart being the best preserved. In 1998, as part of the construction of a high pressure water system, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection carried out further test excavations. The archaeological record and rich finds from Pfünz, some of which are very rare, are seen as reasons for further studies in the future.
The Main Limes, also called the Nasser Limes, was built around 90 AD and, as part of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, formed the frontier of the Roman Empire in the area between the present day villages of Großkrotzenburg and Bürgstadt. In this section the limes adjoined the River Main (Moenus), which forms a natural boundary for about 50 kilometres here, so "Main" refers to the river.
The Trennfurt Roman Fort is a castrum in the village of Trennfurt at the river Main in Bavaria. It belongs to the Main Limes as a part of the Unesco world heritage site Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes and has the number ORL 37.
Kastell Wörth was a Roman limes numerus fort located on the north-western edge of today's Wörth am Main in the German state of Bavaria. The fort was probably part of the defenses of the Main Limes, and also, as part of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, but also of the older Odenwald Limes section of the Neckar-Odenwald Limes, but this has not been definitively proven archaeologically.
Franz Schnabel was a German historian. He wrote about German history, particularly the "cultural crisis" of the 19th century in Germany as well as humanism after the end of the Third Reich. He opposed Nazism during the Second World War.
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