I. HA GR, Rep. 7 C, Nr. 3570

A file of the Prussian central administration for South Prussia, kept in the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. It concerns the charters of 9 August 1796 by which Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, granted confiscated and vacant estates in South Prussia to Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen (1746-1818), a Prussian general, and to six officers. The edition treats the file as one document of 22 pages, of which twelve are not transcribed.

Historical background

South Prussia was the province formed from Prussia’s share of the second and third partitions of Poland. After the uprising of 1794 the crown confiscated the estates of landowners who had taken part in it. In 1796 a number of these estates, with others that had fallen vacant, were granted to officers and officials. The grants were proposed by Count Hoym, the minister responsible for Silesia and South Prussia.

Contents

The file contains, in order: a letter of Hoym of 30 July 1796 asking that the charters be made out and that each include the clause “cum appertinentia”; a copy of his report to the King of 14 July proposing the grants; a copy of the cabinet order of 23 July approving them; a covering letter to Hoym of 9 August; the report presenting the charters to the King; the draft of the charter for Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen; and a letter of Hoym of 20 August returning the charters with his signature [1].

Hoym’s report proposes for Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen the estates confiscated from Anton von Prusimski: Kamionna, Kolno, Trąbczyn, Szetlewek, Nowawies, Łazy, Old and New Laski, Osiny, the Trąbczyn Hauland and Brzyce [1]. The six officers who received other estates are von Sanitz, Blücher, von Dolffs, von Pontanus, von Holtzendorff and von Larisch [1].

Form and language

The papers are drafts and copies in German. Registry notes at the front of the file record that it was called up in 1826 in connection with a claim by von Sanitz for his lost estates. Twelve pages, apparently the charters for the six officers, have not been transcribed and are shown as scans only. The draft charter and one of Hoym’s letters are partly garbled in the transcription.

Related holdings

The charter as issued to Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, with its certified copies: Oe 1 Bü 14525. Complaints of Prusimski’s daughter against Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, 1800 to 1802: I. HA GR, Rep. 7 C, Nr. 3709. The claim for compensation after the loss of the estates in 1807: III. HA MdA, III Nr. 12765. Papers of the winter of 1796 to 1797 on Antoni Prusimski, the former owner, then at Venice: I. HA GR, Rep. 7 C, Nr. 1414.

Scans

The archive photographed the file as 28 images, most of them openings of two facing pages. Four images of blank or unrelated pages were left out on the editor’s instruction. Thirteen openings with a blank left side were cut at the fold to the written side. An opening with writing on both sides was left whole and counts as one page.

Transcription

The German text was transcribed by an AI system and supplied by the editor, one file for each scan. Twelve pages were left untranscribed by the editor’s choice, as repeating one form of charter for the other six recipients. Each of those pages carries the note “(not transcribed)” beside its scan.

Division into documents

The editor treats the whole file as one document, dated by the charter of 9 August 1796. The registry notes and title at the front are shown before it.

Corrections

An AI model (Claude) proposed corrections to the transcription. A word was changed only where an independent witness supported the change: the same word or name written clearly elsewhere in the file, or the settled spelling of a place. Each change is logged with its reason. Words that remain doubtful were left as transcribed.

Summary and translation

The model read the document whole and wrote a German summary. A second, separate run of the model checked the summary against the text and found no statement the text does not support. The English summary is a translation of the checked German one. The model also translated the transcribed pages. Eight corrections it proposed during translation rested on sense alone and were not applied; the English marks those words as uncertain.