Salt moves the world – trade without borders?

Sources:

• State Archive Munich, Saline Reichenhall, Plans 1 (Fassadenansicht der Saline Reichenhall, 1839).

• Bayerischer Hauptstaatsarchiv, Bayern Documents 3582 (Convention between Bavaria and Austria on the mutual salinity conditions, 18 March 1829).

• Bayerischer Hauptstaatsarchiv, Bayern Documents 4007 (Agreement between the Free State of Bavaria and the Republic of Austria on the application of the Salinen Convention, 25 March 1957).
  

Points of attachment:

Why was the salt so important? How to secure older rights? What different rights are there? How do trade routes change? How do trade routes shape a region? What makes a state contract? How long does a state contract last? What rights does a country have within the Federal Republic of Germany? Where does administration end?

Disputes among neighbors are common daily. But what if the neighbours are territories or states? It becomes even more difficult if it is not only about the above-ground, but also about underground rights to be disputed.

Salt, also called “white gold”, is a valuable commodity. It served and served to season and – much more important – to keep meat and other food. Salt reduction and trade dominated whole regions, made cities flourish and others settle, changed and defined traffic routes. The town of Salzburg and the river Salzach bear the “salt” directly in the name. At Hallstatt in Upper Austria, Hallein near Salzburg and Bad Reichenhall in Bavaria, the name component “Hall” refers to salt production. It is certain that this is an early-medium term in mining, and it is also possible to have a Celtic origin. Questions, rights and regulations on salt mining and the extraction of wood for salins were of central importance in and around Salzburg and Berchtesgaden. Salt has been mined at the Dürrnberg near Salzburg since the Neolithic period until the Celts. After the Celts, the knowledge of the salt at the Dürrnberg came to oblivion and became only in the 12th century. century rediscovered. For centuries Bavaria and the Archdiocese of Salzburg fought for salt and wood. Specifically it was about the salt mining of Saline Hallein am Dürrnberg, today in Austria, the trade in salt and the supply of the Saline Reichenhall in Bavaria with wood.

Raw material deposits are not oriented towards territorial boundaries and so it came that in the 13th century the mining area of the Saline Hallein under the Dürrnberg until under the territory of the then Prince Propstei Berchtesgaden. The Prince Propstei was in agreement with the undermigration of their territory in exchange for other rights.

A lot of wood is needed for heating the brewing stoves in a saline. The wood for the Bavarian Saline Reichenhall came since 8th. century mainly from the Pinzgau. The Pinzgau belonged since the early 14th. Century to the rule of the Salzburg archbishops.

The sovereignty and property relations changed over the centuries, the rights of use remained – but were not incontroversy in their form. In the 17th century, even a real “salt war” between the Salzburger Fürsterzbischof Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau and the Bavarian Duke Maximilian became the conflicts. Bavaria reacted to the occupation of Berchtesgadens by Salzburger troops with an invasion of Salzburg. For Wolf Dietrich, his escape ended with life-long imprisonment on the fortresses Hohenwerfen and Hohensalzburg.

After the end of the Napoleonic wars and the excretion of Salzburg from the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816, an intergovernmental solution that is portable for all sides had to be found. In 1829, therefore, the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Austria concluded a state contract for the reduction of salt and wood, the so-called Saline Convention. Among other things, the Austrian salt mining was regulated up to the Bavarian area and the Bavarian wood mining in the Austrian Pinzgau for the Saline Reichenhall (Saalforste). In addition, Bavaria was allowed to remove and sell up to 160,000 Zentner salt from Saline Hallein each year. A Commission meeting every ten years should determine the price to be paid by Bavaria for the salt. Production, packaging and transport costs were included in the price determination. However, the Bavarian trade with Halleiner Salz was already around the middle of the 19th century. This regulation was only more theoretical in nature.

After the Second World War, the Saalforste in Pinzgau (Bezirk Zell am See) were seized by the Americans and managed faithfully by Austria. While Austria continued to reduce salt under the Dürrnberg, it was not possible to export wood to Bavaria. In 1955 the Republic of Austria obtained its state sovereignty. Bavarian Prime Minister Wilhelm Hoegner negotiated private contacts with the government in Vienna. The result was a modification of the old provisions for Austria and a demonstration of Bavarian nationality. On 25 March 1957, Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold Figl and Bavarian Prime Minister Wilhelm Hoegner signed the agreement between the Free State of Bavaria and the Republic of Austria on the application of the Salin Convention. The ‘Salin Convention of 1829 as amended by 1957’ was established as an annex to this Agreement.

Austria submitted the agreement for ratification to its Parliament, the National Council, Bavaria treated the agreement as a pure administrative agreement, the federal government and the state parliament had not to be involved – from the Bavarian point of view. All in all, a constitutionally non-controversial parade which resulted in lengthy internal German negotiations. By Art. 32 of the Basic Law is the responsibility for foreign policy with the Confederation. Finally, the Federal Government agreed to the agreement already in force in autumn 1958. Interestingly, the described agreement on trade with Hallein Salz also found its entry into the recast of the Salinen Convention. The Salin Convention is today referred to as the oldest still valid state treaty in Europe.

Further information

• Alexander Wegmaier, Salinenkonvention 1829 and 1957, published on 24.6.2013. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria, URL: http://www.historical-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Salinenkonvention_1829_und_1957 (2.8.2018).

• Crossing borders. Bavaria and Salzburg 1810 to 2010 (Exhibition Catalogues of the Staatliche Archive Bayerns No. 52), Munich 2010.

• www.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de/histkarten

• www.bsb-muenchen.de/einblicke/historische-karten-app/www.salzburg.gv.at/sagis (Geographical information system of the Salzburg region with historical maps)

• www.doris.at/themes/history/history.aspx

• www.geoportal.bayern.de (Geodaten Infrastruktur Bayern mit Link zum Bayern Atlas)
  

Course reference:

Methodology competence, judgment competence, orientation competence Bavarian identity, forms of historical tradition (Gymnasium, Class 6), Our native region in the Middle Ages (Gymnasium, Class 7), Europe in the Age of Revolutions (Gymnasium, Class 8), territory of state and cultural heritage (Gymnasium, Class 8), changes in the early 19th century New Bavarian regions (Gymnasium, class 8), rural development in the age of industrialisation in Bavarian examples (Gymnasium, class 8), cross-disciplinary teaching project with social science (Gymnasium, class 10), aspects of European history – patterns of thought and forms of order