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53-571: Five other municipalities surround Altach: Hohenems in the district of Dornbirn , Götzis and Mäder in the district of Feldkirch , and Oberriet and Diepoldsau in the Swiss canton St. Gallen . The Habsburgs ruled over the villages in Vorarlberg alternately from Tyrol and Further Austria . In 1801 Altach was separated from neighboring Götzis; from 1805 to 1814 Altach belonged to Bavaria , then reverted to Austria. Altach has been part of

106-529: A 630 m (2,066 ft) runway, is located within the municipal borders Hohenems was one of the locations in the Swiss-Austrian film Akte Grüninger . The town is the site of the climax of Dennis Wheatley 's novel about the 1914 outbreak of the First World War, The Second Seal (1950). Bernard Levin mentions Hohenems in his book Conducted Tour (1982) as being the location of

159-498: A broad range of senses, rather than the modern connotation of a high-ranking politician or administrator . The origin of the ministerial pedigree is obscure. A mediaeval chronicler reported that Julius Caesar defeated the Gauls and rewarded his Germanic allies with Roman rank. Princes were awarded senatorial status and their lesser knights ('minores...milites') received Roman citizenship. He assigned these 'knights' to princes but urged

212-429: A charter in 1617. Soon thereafter a synagogue , a ritual bath ( mikvah ), a school and a poorhouse were built. A cemetery was established on the southern outskirts of town. Jewish economic activity in the town resulted in the first coffee house in 1797, and in 1841, the first bank and insurance company in Vorarlberg. The Hohenems Jewish community celebrated its golden era around 1862, with nearly 600 Jewish citizens, 12% of

265-791: A fixed amount of coin or by a portion of the proceeds of mills, road or bridge tolls, or ferry fees or port taxes. As the need for such service functions became more acute (as, for example, during the Investiture Controversy ), and their duties and privileges, at first nebulous, became more clearly defined, the ministeriales developed in the Salian period (1024–1125) into a new and much differentiated class. They received fiefs , which to begin with were not heritable, in return for which they provided knightly services. They were also allowed to possess, and often did hold, allods : ownership of real property (land, buildings and fixtures) that

318-493: A form of administrative apprenticeship program. This may be the origin of ministerials as individuals in a set position. It was Emperor Conrad II (990-1039) who first referred to ministerials as a distinct class. He had them organized into a staff of officials and administrators. In documents they are referred to as ministerialis vir , or ministerial men. Ministeriales (or "ministerials", as Anglicized by Benjamin Arnold) of

371-414: A merchant. By the 12th century a distinction was made between greater ministerials ( ministeriales maiores ) who had their own vassals and lesser ministerials ( ministeriales minores ) who had no vassals of their own. During the 12th century the old free nobility of Salzburg even found it a wise strategy to surrender their freedom in return for the safety of Salzburg's patronage. Around 1145, Ulrich I of

424-422: A military obligation didn't necessarily mean riding off with the army. The archbishops of Cologne differentiated between his poorer and wealthier vassals. Ministerials with an annual income of 5 marks or more were required to go on campaign in person, but those with smaller incomes were offered the choice to go on the march or to give half the income of their fief that year as a military tax. Ministerials fulfilled

477-546: A music festival where all the works of Franz Schubert were performed in chronological order. Hohenems has twinned with [REDACTED] Bystré and Polička in the Czech Republic (since 1997) Ministerialis The ministeriales (singular: ministerialis ) were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in

530-534: A necessity recruited bailiffs, administrators and officials from among their unfree servants who could also fulfill a household warrior role. From the 11th century the term came to denote functionaries living as members of the knightly class with either a lordship of their own or one delegated from a higher lord as well as some political influence ( inter alia the exercise of offices at court). Kings placed military requirements upon their princes, who in turn, placed requirements upon their vassals . The free nobles under

583-458: A prince may have a bond of vassalage that let them get out of serving, so kings, princes, bishops and archbishops were able to recruit unfree persons into military service. Such a body made up the group called ministeriales . There were two sorts of ministerials: casati , who administered lands and estates for a liege and were paid from the proceeds of the land and non-casati , who held administrative and military positions but were paid in either

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636-736: A range of offices that ran their lieges' fiefs for them. They were found in the four traditional offices of a household: chamberlain , marshal , butler and seneschal . Conrad II von Kuchl served his succession of archbishop lieges as a financial adviser for forty years, Werner von Lengfelden was master of Hohensalzburg Castle 's huge kitchen, and Ulrich II served as vidame of Salzburg in 1261, then, at various times, as marshal between 1270 and 1295, and as burgrave of Tittmoning in 1282. Ministerials could also be assigned to claim unused or poorly defended border areas, as with Laudegg Castle and Hohenwerfen Castle . Greater ministerials considered themselves above trading in money, as did many nobles of

689-405: A synagogue were removed or destroyed. In 2001 the synagogue was renovated and it now used as a cultural centre. The Jewish quarter, which has had historical preservation status since 1996, includes numerous townhouses and mansions surrounding the synagogue. Along with the former Christengasse ("Christian Lane"), renamed Marktstrasse (Market Street), it forms the urban core of Hohenems. In 1991,

742-481: Is 29 square kilometres (11 sq mi), of which 42% is covered with forest. The oxbow lake of the river Rhine in the west, forming the border of Austria as well as EU to Switzerland, and the mountainside in the east is at the narrowest point of the Austrian Rhine valley. The Schlossberg ("castle mountain"), elevation 740 metres (2,428 feet), offers a distinctive backdrop to the town center. Hohenems

795-518: Is divided into the neighborhoods of Markt (centre), Oberklien and Unterklien (north), Hohenems-Reute (east), Schwefel (south) and Herrenried (west). It is surrounded by six other communities, Lustenau and Dornbirn in the Dornbirn district (north and east), Fraxern , Götzis and Altach in the Feldkirch district (south) and Diepoldsau in the Swiss canton St. Gallen (west). The summit of

848-446: Is independent of any superior landlord, but it should not be confused with anarchy as the owner of allodial land is not independent of his sovereign. Ministerials were found holding the four great offices necessary to run a great household: seneschal , butler , marshal and chamberlain . They were vidames ( vice dominus , or runners of estates) or castellans, having both military and administrative responsibilities. Conrad II of Kuchl

901-628: The Arlberg Railway line to Innsbruck and beyond. The railway station is served by the S1 service of Vorarlberg S-Bahn . This Vorarlberg location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hohenems Hohenems ( High Alemannic : Ems ) is a town in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg in the Dornbirn district . It lies in the middle of the Austrian part of

954-796: The Holy Roman Empire . The word and its German translations, Ministeriale(n) and Dienstmann , came to describe those unfree nobles who made up a large majority of what could be described as the German knighthood during that time. What began as an irregular arrangement of workers with a wide variety of duties and restrictions rose in status and wealth to become the power brokers of an empire. The ministeriales were not legally free people, but held social rank. Legally, their liege lord determined whom they could or could not marry, and they were not able to transfer their lords' properties to heirs or spouses. They were, however, considered members of

1007-587: The Jewish Museum Hohenems was opened in a mansion in the center of the Jewish quarter. The museum commemorates the history of the Jewish community in Hohenems. The many remaining objects it exhibits bear witness to the former flourishing Jewish community in Hohenems. As part of its remembrance culture, a section of the museum is dedicated to the memory of the darkest chapter in Vorarlberg history –

1060-601: The Rhine valley. With a population of 16,946, it is the fifth largest municipality in Vorarlberg and currently has the fastest population growth in the state. Hohenems' attractions include a Renaissance palace dating back to the 16th century, a Jewish history museum, and the old town center. The town is located at 432 metres (1,417 feet) above sea level, about 16 km (10 miles) south of Lake Constance . Hohenems extends for 5.5 km (3.4 mi) from north to south and 8.2 km (5.1 mi) from west to east. Its total area

1113-520: The Schlossberg rock, within 45 minutes walk from the town center, is crowned by the ruins of Alt-Ems , a castle dating back to the 9th century CE. From the 12th century it was among the largest fortifications in the south of the German kingdom . The stronghold was very extensive, with a length of up to 800 m (2,625 ft) and a width of 85 m (280 ft). It reached its peak of fame from

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1166-455: The ministeriales formed an intrinsic part of the lower nobility, and in the 15th century formed the core of the German knightly class ( Ritterstand ). Other regions were not as open, for as late as the fifteenth century the documents of the Dutch province of Gelderland continued to distinguish between knights of noble and of ministerial birth. Legally, a ministerial was a ministerial, bound by

1219-415: The 13th century Bavarian law held that the ministeriales (or Dienstmänner ) held a position higher than the ordinary milites , and only the monarchy and princes were permitted to maintain ministeriales . Imperial courts increasingly rendered justice for ministerials, as when Count Frederick of Isenberg murdered Archbishop Engelbert of Cologne in 1225. The archiepiscopal ministerials brought an appeal (and

1272-554: The 13th to 16th centuries, as a residence of many lords and knights of Hohenems. As they were loyal ministeriales of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the castle served as a prison for notable prisoners like the Norman king William III of Sicily , who probably died there in 1198. Hohenems was granted municipal rights and liberties (German Stadtrecht ) in 1333, but the town did not make use of these rights for 650 years until, in 1983,

1325-506: The Archbishopric of Salzburg the ministerials and clergy together elected Archbishop Gebhard in 1060, as well as every archbishop from 1147 to 1256 save for Conrad III (r. 1177–83). Ministerials could be drawn from different occupational groups. In Salzburg , Austria a Timo appears in 1125/47 in the traditionsbuch (book of traditions) as a miles (knight) of the archiepiscopal ministerialage who functioned as burgrave and also as

1378-692: The Austrian state of Vorarlberg since the latter's founding in 1861. From 1945 to 1955 the municipality was in the French occupation zone in Austria. As of the season 2021-22, the football club SC Rheindorf Altach plays in Bundesliga , the highest division. Altach railway station is on the main west–east route connecting the Vorarlberg railway line ( Vorarlbergbahn ) in the directions of Bregenz and Feldkirch / Bludenz , continuing eastward over

1431-473: The Holy Roman Empire in a document named a Dienstrecht, or "service code." One constant is that all arrangements included a duty owed to the lord for military service. This could take the form of actual personal service by the ministeriales or a payment to fund others who went to war. The monastery of Maurmunster records the following: When a campaign ( profectio ) of the king is announced to

1484-661: The army moves against Saxony, Flanders or elsewhere on this side of the Alps, only half that amount will be given. From these additional taxes the wagons and pack animals will be loaded with rations and other items necessary for the journey. In Bamberg the Carolingian method of providing for a campaign remained in effect. Ministeriales were grouped into threes; one went on campaign while the other two were responsible for equipping and victualing him. This ensured that those who were sent to war were prepared for war. this also shows that

1537-529: The bishop (of Metz, in this case) the bishop will send an official to the abbot, and the abbot will assemble his ministeriales . He will inform them of the campaign, and they will assemble the following men and equipment...: one wagon with six cows and six men; one packhorse with saddle and equipment and two men, the leader and the driver...If the king moves the army to Italy, all the peasant farms shall contribute for that purpose their usual taxes (that is, probably an entire annual rent as an extraordinary tax). But if

1590-466: The blood-stained clothing) to the Royal Court to demand justice. The count's brothers, the bishops of Münster and Osnabrück, were brought before the court for complicity, and bloodshed at the court was narrowly averted. Count Frederick was convicted in absentia , all his ministerials were released from his service, and Frederick was captured and broken on the wheel . By the 13th and 14th centuries

1643-500: The end of the 12th century the term miles —theretofore reserved for free warriors—was also being applied to ministerials. Over the course of the 13th century their status was slowly assimilated to that of the free nobility, or vassals . The remaining traces of the taint of servility gradually faded, and the "fiefs for service" turned into proper hereditable fiefs, partly also because impoverished free nobles, while reserving their personal free status, voluntarily became ministeriales . By

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1696-458: The era, but Freed notes a number of ministerials who couldn't afford to turn up their noses to income. Circa 1125, Timo served not only as the burgrave of Salzburg but also as a merchant of the city. Ortolf of Kai - also a Salzburger - brokered the produce of his own vineyards. Gerhoh Itzling even appeared as a 'zechmeister' (guildmaster) in Salzburg. Nobility was a social distinction, so even

1749-688: The foot of the Schlossberg and dominates the main square of town, the Schlossplatz. It was built from 1562 to 1567, according to plans by architect Martino Longhi the Elder at the initiative of Cardinal Marcus Sittich Hohenems (Altemps), architect who also designed the Cardinal’s palace in Rome. Religious wars and a plague decimated the population and devastated the area over the next century, ironically

1802-548: The government of Vorarlberg granted Hohenems full status as a "municipality". The Burg Neu-Ems (also called "Schloss Glopper"), built in 1343, is located on a mountain promontory near Alt-Ems. In 1407 both castles were destroyed during the Appenzell Wars , but rebuilt shortly afterwards. Burg Neu-Ems is still intact today and is the private property of the Waldburg-Zeil family. The Renaissance palace stands at

1855-682: The hospital in Hohenems was originally built in 1908, and has now been totally renovated. Called the Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Krankenhaus ( "Empress Elisabeth hospital"), it is a magnificent example of Art Nouveau architecture. It hosts the palliative care unit. The modern General Hospital was built in 1972. Two state roads, the Vorarlberger Strasse L190 and the Rheinstrasse L203 cross the municipality from north to south. The L46 leads from

1908-494: The imperial court held at Eger (today Cheb in the Czech Republic) to confirm the marriage contract that Gerhoch II of Bergheim-Radeck, an archiepiscopal ministerial, had made with Bertha of Lonsdorf, a Passau ministerial. The couple had agreed, presumably with their lords' consent, that their first two children were to belong to Salzburg and the third to Passau, and that any remaining children would be divided equally between

1961-455: The lesser-noble Sims family chose to subjugate his household to the archbishop by marrying the Salzburg ministerial Liutkarda von Berg. Their son, Ulrich II, was born into his mother's status as was the practice, but now the Simses enjoyed the protection of one of the most powerful houses in the region. This was a wise strategy, considering the weak Simses were surrounded by greedy neighbors. By

2014-412: The mountain area there is a small ski resort ( Schuttannen ) and a rock-climbing area called Löwenzähne ("Lion's Teeth") with walls up to 150 m (500 ft) and level 10. There also is a wide range of hiking trails and mountain biking routes nearby. The town boasts of the largest recreational centers (13 hectares) in Vorarlberg, situated on the banks of the river Rhine's oxbow lake. One section of

2067-402: The national socialist period, and its attempts to eliminate all traces of Jewish culture in Vorarlberg and beyond. The Jewish cemetery south of the town dates to the first Jewish settlement in 1617 and is still in use today. It contains more than 500 graves, with 370 surviving gravestones. 2004–2015: Richard Amann Since December 2015: Dieter Egger (born 1969) Apart from the historical sites,

2120-462: The nobility since that was a social designation, not a legal one. Ministeriales were trained knights, held military responsibilities and surrounded themselves with the trappings of knighthood, and so were accepted as noblemen. Both women and men held the ministerial status, and the laws on ministeriales made no distinction between the sexes in how they were treated. The term is a post-classical Latin word, meaning originally "servant" or "agent", in

2173-473: The population. The Jewish presence in town was terminated in 1942 with the deportation of the last remaining Jew, Frieda Nagelberg, to Vienna and eventually to Izbica . Recently three Jewish people have moved into Hohenems. The synagogue survived the Kristallnacht without damage. It was acquired by the municipality after the war and converted into a fire station. All objects pertaining to its use as

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2226-514: The post-Classical period who were not in the royal household were at first bondsmen or serfs taken from the servi proprii , or household servants (as opposed to the servi casati who were already tilling the land on a tenure.) These servants were entrusted with special responsibilities by their overlords, such as the management of a farm, administration of finances (chancery) or of various possessions. Free nobles ( Edelfreie ) disliked entering into servile relationships with other nobles, so lords of

2279-582: The princes "to treat the knights not as slaves and servants but rather to receive their services as the knights' lords and defenders. "Hence it is," the chronicler explained, "that German knights, unlike their counterparts in other nations, are called servants of the royal fisc and princely ministerials." In England there was no group of knights referred to as ministeriales, for the tight grip that English lords held upon their knights gave them less freedom than their German counterparts who had codified (and well-defended) rights. Abbot Adalard of Corbie (d. 826)

2332-416: The rights and duties enumerated in their area. Socially, there was a distinction between the greater ministerials and the lesser ones in the order of precedence. Greater ministerials maintained their own subordinate milites , or armigerous soldiery. These could be either free knights (such as Werner of Bolland, who maintained 1,100 subordinate knights for Frederick Barbarossa ) or lesser ministerials like

2385-480: The time of the greatest power of the (Protestant) Counts of Hohenems , when they acquired Vaduz Castle from what was later to become Liechtenstein . Two manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied were found in Hohenems, in 1755 and 1779, in the palace's library. The first café (1797), bank and printing office (1920) of Vorarlberg were opened in Hohenems. The Jewish community in Hohenems had its beginnings with

2438-485: The town center is rapidly developing a modest urban ambience, with hotels, shops, and restaurants. On the outskirts of town there are large businesses, with branches of multinational retail chains and a ten-screen multiplex . On the way to the mountain village Reute , high above Hohenems, there is a unique museum – Stoffels Säge-Mühle ("Stoffel's Sawmill") – which presents the history of saw milling and mill grinding technologies. Hohenems has several leisure amenities. In

2491-606: The town center to the customs buildings at the border to Switzerland. Hohenems has motorway access to the Rheintal/Walgau-Autobahn (Austrian A14/ European route E60 ). Hohenems railway station is on the main west–east route connecting the Vorarlberg railway line ( Vorarlbergbahn ) in the directions Bregenz and Innsbruck . The train system is operated by the Austrian Federal Railways ( ÖBB ). The sole airfield in Vorarlberg, with

2544-421: The two churches. Gerhoch and Bertha could confer their allod on each other, and their children would share their paternal and maternal inheritances equally. The usual rule was that children of a mixed-status marriage would have the legal standing of the lesser of the parents. The child of a free knight and an unfree ministerial, therefore, was a ministerial. The liege of the mother would be the child's liege, for

2597-694: The unfree ministerials were considered higher in precedence than a free commoner. Being of a noble estate, ministerials were exempt from the more odious of corvée duties that other types of serfs performed, though some lieges would reserve the right to commandeer plow-teams and draft horses. Some ministerial women did perform household duties but were well-compensated for the chores. Ministerials were serfs, and as such could not move without expressed permission of their lord or lady, though in certain clergy lands they could take holy orders without permission. Ministerials were in many places forbidden to marry without permission, but in other places, their freedom to marry

2650-427: The wealthy widow Diemut von Högl, who held four castles with ministerial chaplain, chamberlain and seneschal. The lesser ministerials were ones who held no subordinates at all, but rather held an office and may or may not have maintained arms and armor. As with all medieval terms of vassalage, the duties, obligations and benefits varied by region and even individual negotiation or tradition. These are often recorded in

2703-425: Was Emperor Charlemagne's chief adviser, and described the running of the government in his work De ordine palatii . There he praises the great merits of his imperial staff, made up of household servii proprii ( serfs ) who were the first ministerials authoritatively recorded. His letters specify that not only were they considered exceptional by their superiors, but the ministerials also mentored their successors in

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2756-467: Was recognized based on papal authority, deriving from Galatians 3:28 . If a liege disliked any marriage, though, the liege could easily withdraw any lands or income held by his subject. Any marriage was subject to review or approval of the liege, as in Salzburg: In July 1213 Archbishop Eberhard II of Salzburg (1200–1246) and Bishop Manegold of Passau (1206–1215) asked King Frederick II at

2809-427: Was the financial adviser to four archbishops over the course of 40 years. From the reign of Archbishop Conrad II (1024–1039) they were employed as stewards ( Vögte ), castellans ( Burggrafen ) and judges in the administration of the imperial territories, and in the lay principalities. As Imperial ministerials ( Reichsministerialen ) they upheld the Salian , and particularly the Hohenstaufen , imperial polity. In

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