Kingdom of Westphalia

The Kingdom of Westphalia was created by Napoleon in 1807 by merging territories ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia in the Peace of Tilsit (including the Altmark, the part of the Duchy of Magdeburg west of the Elbe river, Paderborn, Hildesheim), the territories of Hanover, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and the Electorate of Hesse. Hesse's capital Cassel (modern spelling Kassel) then fulfilled the same function for Westphalia, and the king kept his court at the palace of Wilhelmshöhe, renamed Napoleonshöhe. The state was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine.^[2][3]Napoleon chose to make his brother Jérôme the king of Westphalia.

Intended as a model Napoleonic state, a constitution was promulgated on 15 November 1807 and enacted by King Jérôme on 7 December 1807 shortly after his arrival in Cassel. The constitution has often been regarded as the first modern-style constitution in a German monarchy.^[4][5] It granted equality before the law to male citizens, abolished serfdom, emancipated Jewish subjects, and ended many feudal obligations.^[6][7]

The Napoleonic Code was introduced, eliminating guild restrictions and facilitating the development of a more liberal economic order. Administrative reforms included the introduction of the metric system of weights and measures and the rationalization of state institutions according to French models.^[8][9]

On its creation, the Kingdom of Westphalia comprised the following territories:^[10]

• The Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, with Schaumburg, excluding Hanau, Schmalkalden and Catzenellnbogen;
• The principalities of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Hildesheim, Halberstadt, Quedlinbourg, Osnabrück, Paderborn and Minden;
• The counties of Mansfeld, Stolberg, Ravensberg, Rietberg and Hohnstein;
• The cities of Halle, Goslar, Mühlhausen and Nordhausen;
• The parts of the Altmark and the Duchy of Magdeburg west of the Elbe;
• The Eichsfeld with Treffurt;
• The principalites of Göttingen and Grubenhagen, with the enclaves of Hohnstein and Elbingerode.

The new state was divided into departments, districts, and communes, similarly to France.^[11] Departments received names based on watercourses (Elbe, Saale, Weser, Fulda, Leine, Oker) and mountains (Harz), regardless of their traditional names. These departments were generally composed of territories taken from a number of petty states. Compared to the departments of France itself, the Westphalian departments were relatively small and sparsely populated.^[12]

While administrative divisions (departments, districts and cantons) were certainly less unequal than the previous territorial divisions, uniformity does not appear to have been a determining factor in their creation.^[12] The desire to break from the past, and not just from the random territorial divisions of the former manorial justices, especially influenced the cantonal distribution.^[12] In December 1810, the short-lived coastal and northern départements Nord ("North", capital Stade) and Niederelbe ("Lower Elbe", capital Lüneburg) were ceded to the French Empire.

Departments

More information Department, Capital ...

Department	Capital	Dates	Population (1807)[13]
Elbe [de]	Magdeburg	1807-1813	252,507
Fulda [de]	Cassel	1807-1813	254,845
Harz [de]	Heiligenstadt	1807-1813	202,891
Leine [de]	Göttingen	1807-1813	144,350
Oker [de]	Brunswick	1807-1813	270,486
Saale [de]	Halberstadt	1807-1813	240,195
Werra [de]	Marburg	1807-1813	255,237
Weser [de]	Osnabrück	1807-1810	330,213
Aller [de]	Hanover	1810-1813	N/A

Close

Following the French example, Jewish congregations in the Kingdom of Westphalia were reorganised under a central administrative body, and a Royal Westphalian Consistory of the Israelites was established to supervise Jewish religious life.^[14] The Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel court financier and reformer Israel Jacobson was appointed president of the consistory, assisted by a governing board.^[15][16] Jacobson sought to promote religious reform among Jewish communities in the kingdom. He established a house of prayer in Cassel in which elements of liturgical reform were introduced, building upon earlier reforms he had initiated at Seesen.^[17][18]

A significant burden on the kingdom was the requirement to supply troops and financial support for the Napoleonic Wars. A Westphalian contingent took part in the Russian campaign of 1812. King Jérôme initially had a key role as the commander of the right wing for the invasion, but was reprimanded by Napoleon for his poor performance at the Battle of Smolensk, so he abandoned his command and returned to Wesphalia. By the end of the campaign, his troops had been practically decimated: out of the initial 25,000 soldiers and 800 officers of the Kingdom of Westphalia, only 600 and 18 returned, with 600 others defecting to Russia.^[19] In January 1813, revolts against conscription broke out in Düsseldorf and Hanau.^[19] Nevertheless, Jérôme managed to raise 27,000 men for the German campaign of 1813, one of the highest mobilisation rates in Europe, and the Westphalian troops fought steadfastly on the French side until the end of the campaign.^[20]

In September 1813, Russian general Alexander Chernyshyov led a raid on Cassel with 1,200 to 2,300 regular cavalrymen and Cossacks, along with four to six artillery pieces. He captured the city by surprise on the night of 28 to 29 September, causing Jérôme and his staff to flee; however, Chernyshyov, lacking the infantry to hold Cassel, evacuated the city with prisoners and loot. The French retook Cassel on 7 October.^[21] Prussian troops occupied Westphalia on 26 October, following the French defeat at the Battle of Leipzig on 19 October.^[21] The kingdom was then dissolved and the status quo of 1806 was restored, except for the counties of Rietberg and Stolberg-Wernigerode, which were annexed by Prussia.

The arms reflect the incorporated territories. The first quarter shows the silver horse of Westphalia; the second the lion of Hesse over the counties of Dietz, Nidda, Ziegenhain and Katzenelnbogen; the third was newly designed for non-specified territories around Magdeburg; and the fourth combined Brunswick, Diepholz, Lüneburg and Lauterburg.^[22][23]Around the shield are the Order of the Crown of Westphalia and the French Grand Aigle of the Légion d'honneur. Above is Napoleon's star. Typical of Napoleonic heraldry are the crossed sceptres.^[24][25]

In 1808, court architect Peter Joseph Krahe produced a design for a flag to be flown at the ducal palace in Braunschweig that depicts a white–blue field with royal emblems, offering contemporary evidence that Westphalia used white and blue as state colours—at least for official building display.^[26] The draft describes the flag as the national flag is the same as the royal flag; but without the imperial eagle.

• Duchy of Westphalia
• Province of Westphalia
• Karl Keller, prominent court musician of the Kingdom of Westphalia