Canton of Fricktal

Infobox Former Subdivision
native_name = "Kanton Fricktal"
conventional_long_name = Canton of Fricktal
common_name = Fricktal|
continent = Europe
region = Alps
country = Switzerland
subdivision = Canton
nation = Helvetic Republic
status_text = Canton of the Helvetic Republic|
year_start = 1802
year_end = 1803|
event_pre = Helv. Rep.
date_pre = April 12 1798
event_start = Fricktal annexed to
Helvetic Republic
date_start =
February 20 1802
event_end = Helv. Rep. disestablished
date_end = February 19 1803|
p1 = Breisgau
image_p1 =
s1 = Aargau
image_s1 = |

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image_map_caption = The northern part of the Helvetic Republic in 1802,
showing Fricktal in yellow, centre|
capital = Laufenburg (to Sept 1802)
Rheinfelden (after Sept 1802)

Fricktal was a canton of the Helvetic Republic from February 1802 to February 1803. Before its formation, the territories were that part part of the Breisgau, in Habsburg Further Austria located south of the Rhine. Now, the territories of Fricktal form part of the canton of Aargau — namely the districts of Rheinfelden and Laufenburg.

In 1799, a year after the proclamation of the Helvetic Republic, French Revolutionary troops marched into the Fricktal. Thanks to good relations with leading French and Swiss politicians, the brothers Karl and Sebastian Fahrländer from Ettenheim and some colleagues were able to proclaim the creation of an independent canton of Fricktal, relying on the treaties of Campo Formio (1797) and Lunéville] (1801) for the legal basis of this proclamation.

A constitution was written in the rectory of Eiken in December 1801; on 20 February 1802 the new canton was finally declared, with Laufenburg as its capital. This impetuous action of the governor Sebastian Fahrländer met with some criticism, however; his opponents met with community representatives in a guesthouse in Frick in September 1802 — the governor was unseated and the capital was relocated to Rheinfelden.

Despite intense diplomatic efforts by the protectors of Fricktal on 19 February 1803 to retain the canton's right of existence, exactly a year after its foundation, Napoleon Bonaparte decreed its merger with the cantons of Aargau and Baden on 19 March, in the Act of Mediation, disestablishing the Helvetic Republic.

References

*
* Patrick Bircher: "Der Kanton Fricktal — Bauern, Bürger und Revolutionäre an der Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert"; Forum Fricktal, Laufenburg, 2002; ISBN 3-9522417-0-9

External links

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* [http://www.kanton-fricktal.ch Jubiläumswebsite Kanton Fricktal]