Kreis (Habsburg monarchy)
After the Prussian annexation of the bulk of Silesia following the First and Second Silesian Wars, it became apparent that Frederick II's administrative structures allowed him to take much higher tax revenues from the area.
Therefore, in the years following end of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748, Maria Theresa and Joseph II enacted several administrative reforms with Prussia as a model, and the old territorial divisions were converted into new Kreise.
The Amtsbezirke [de] ('office districts'), or more precisely the Bezirksämter ('district offices'), created in the reforms which followed the Revolutions of 1848 (specifically those of 1849[2] and 1853[3]), largely took over the responsibilities of the Kreisämter.
These were proposed as early as 1849 by Interior Minister Alexander von Bach as part of a necessary reform to the administrative apparatus to deal with the increase in the number citizens interacting with the offices following the final abolition of serfdom in 1848.
The Kreis system was also expanded to the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar[3][4] (formerly part of southern Hungary) and the Grand Principality of Transylvania[5] in the course of these reforms.
At the head of every Kreis was a Kreishauptmann [de] (roughly 'circle/district captain/head'; see Hauptmann), whose officials were entrusted with clearly defined tasks, which significantly disempowered the estates in financial matters.
[1] The traditional Moravian Kreise were abolished in 1849 (see below) but were reconstituted (with some border changes and with Nový Jičín/Neutitschein replacing Přerov/Prerau) in 1854 and divided into Bezirke (76 in total, excluding the cities of Brünn and Olmütz).
Until 1848 part of the joint Gubernium of Moravia and Silesia (Gouvernment Mähren und Schlesien or Mährischschlesisches Landesgubernium).
[18] Formerly the Salzburgkreis or Salzachkreis of Austria above the Enns, the Duchy of Salzburg became a crown land in its own right (with a single Kreis) on 26 June 1849[22] (formally constituted 30 December[23]).
[3] The Duchy of Styria (German: Herzogtum Steiermark, contemporary spelling Herzogthum Steyermark), although administered as a single gubernium/Gouvernement, was divided into upper and lower parts – Obersteiermark (Obere-Steyermark) and Untersteiermark (Untere-Steyermark).
The Kingdom of Illyria was a crown land formed as a successor to the Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces[note 2] after the 1815 Congress of Vienna returned its territory to Austria.
The Republic of Venice held most of the peninsula itself, including all of the western coast and around half of the eastern coast, as well as the islands in the Kvarner Gulf including Krk and Cres; the Venetian territories were annexed by Austria (as the Venetian Province) in the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio, but lost again to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in the 1805 Peace of Pressburg.
The Duchy of Carinthia (Herzogt(h)um Kärnten) was 1815–49 part of Gubernium Laibach of the Kingdom of Illyria; separate crown land thereafter.
This territory was transferred to the re-established Kingdom of Croatia, except for Fiume (Rijeka), which returned to its previous status as a Corpus separatum under Hungary.
[33] The 1850 changes to the administrative structure of the empire were reversed in Bach's January 1853 reforms, although the precise divisions remained to be determined.
'administrative regions/territories') and its Kreise formally restored:[34] The cities of Lemberg and Krakau remained directly subordinate to the crown land.
Other than the first-partition Kreise it was ceded to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1809 by the Treaty of Schönbrunn (Congress Poland and Free City of Cracow after 1815).
