Die Selbstverortung des Essener Damenkapitels im Rahmen der landständischen Verfassung im Landesgrundvergleich des Essener Stiftes vom 1. September 1794

The imperial free ladies’ abbey in Essen, Germany, was one of few of the German Reich’s territories in which women were constitutionally involved in the running of their principality, as Princess-Abbesses and in the ladies’ chapter. This study tries to show the ladies’ chapter’s self-determination by examining the Essener Landesgrundvergleich of 1794. This constitution-like contract was created to resolve a court case between the chapter’s estate and the Princess-Abbess Maria Kunigunde of Saxony. With this contract the ladies’ chapter managed to assert themselves in their role as self-administrative authority, representative of the abbey, and its sole electoral body against the other local authorities, the male collegiate church, and the Princess-Abbess