Freed_generalizations on German Social History

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Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association

Medieval German Social History: Generalizations and ParticularismAuthor(s): John B. FreedSource: Central European History, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1992), pp. 1-26Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Conference Group for CentralEuropean History of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4546239

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Medieval German Social History:Generalizations and Particularism

John B. Freed

EIKE

von Repgow commented around 1225 in the Sachsenspiegel:"Now do not be amazed that this book says so little about the lawof the ministerials. It is in fact so diverse that no one can fullycomprehend it. Under every bishop, every abbot, and every abbess theministerials have a distinct law; therefore, I cannot describe it."1 Eike

identified here a fundamental problem in studying German social his?tory: how does one generalize about diverse social institutions that wereboth a cause and a consequence of Germany's political fragmentation?How different things could be is illustrated by the structure ofthe estatesin the eastern Alpine principalities. In the duchies of Austria and Styriathe nobility was divided into two estates, the lords and the knights; butwhile there were about seventy or eighty families of lordly rank inAustria in 1280, there were so few lineages of lords in Styria?abouttwenty-five in 1300, of whom only ten survived by 1400?that theycould not meet by themselves. There were even fewer lineages of Carin-thian lords?ten or twelve families of ducal ministerials in 1286, ofwhom only two remained by 1446, and only a powerless Ritterstandin Salzburg and Tyrol. Unlike the other principalities, the peasantcourts (Gerichte) formed a separate estate in Tyrol.2 If there were such"MedievalGerman SocialHistory"is a revised andexpandedversionof apapergiven at the 1990American HistoricalAssociation AnnualMeeting in New York. Iwould like to thankProfessorPatrickGearyofthe University of Florida or his criticalreadingof anearlierdraft.

1. Eike von Repgow, Das Landrecht es Sachsenspiegels,d. Karl August Eckhardt, inGermanenrechte: exte und Ubersetzungen, ol. 14 (Gottingen, 1955), 3, 42, 2: "Nu ne latetuch nicht wunderen, dat dit buk so luttel seget van denstlude rechte; went it is somanichvolt, dat is.neman to ende komen ne kan. Under iewelkeme biscope unde abbedeunde ebbedischen hebben de denstlude sunderlik recht, dar umme ne kan ek is nichtbesceden."2. Heinz Dopsch, "Ministerialitat und Herrenstandin der Steiermarkund in Salzburg,"Zeitschriftdes HistorischenVereinesjurSteiermark 2 (1971): 3-31; idem, "Probleme standi-scher Wandlung beim Adel Osterreichs, der Steiermark und Salzburg vornehmlich im 13.Jahrhundert," in Josef Fleckenstein, ed., Herrschaft nd Stand: Untersuchungenur Sozialge-schichte m 13. JahrhundertGottingen, 1977), 207-53; Peter Feldbauer, Der HerrenstandnOberosterreich: rspriinge,Anfange, FruhformenMunich and Vienna, 1972); idem, "Rang-probleme und Konnubium osterreichischer Landherrenfamilien: Zur sozialen Mobilitat

l


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2 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYdifferences in the structure ofthe estates in contiguous Alpine territories,all of which, except Salzburg, had been united by 1363 under the rule of asingle dynasty,3 what would happen if, say, the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, electoral Trier, and the margraviate of Baden-Hachberg werealso factored into the interpretative construct? No wonder that mostmodern German historians, like Eike, have preferred not to generalize.

Josef Fleckenstein observed in a 1984 tribute to Walter Schlesinger thatthe latter's works, even his most extensive ones, had been researchreports (Forschungen) rather than general presentations (Darstellungen) .4The same thing can be said about a good many other German medieval-ists. The most important contribution of postwar, German medieval

einer spatmittelalterlichenFiihrungsgruppe," Zeitschrift ur bayerischeLandesgeschichte5(1972):571-90; Peter Feldbauer,HerrenundRitter,vol. 1 of HerrschaftsstrukturndStandebil-dung:Beitrdge ur Typologiederosterreichischenanderaus ihrenmittelalterlichenGrundlagen,vols., in Sozial und WirtschaftshistorischeStudien (Munich and Vienna, 1973); HerbertKnittler,StddteundMarkte,vol. 2, ibid.; ErnstBruckmuller,TalerundGerichte, t. 1, vol. 3,ibid.; Helmuth Stradal, Die Prdlaten,pt. 2, vol. 3, ibid.; Michael Mitterauer, Stdnde-gliederungundLandertypen, t. 3, vol. 3, ibid.; Herbert Klein, "Salzburg und seine Land-stande von den Anfangen bis 1861," Festschriftur HerbertKlein: Beitrdgezur Siedlungs-,Verfassungs-ndWirtschaftsgeschichteon Salzburg:GesammelteAufsdtzevon HerbertKlein, inMitteilungender Gesellschaftur SalzburgerLandeskunde, uppl. vol. 5 (Salzburg, 1965),115-36; Folker Reichert, Landesherrschaftdel und Vogtei:Zur Vorgeschichteesspatmittelal?terlichen tdndestaatesmHerzogtumOsterreichCologne and Vienna, 1985);and Otto Stolz,"Bauerund Landesfurst n Tirol und Vorarlberg,"in Theodor Mayer, ed., Adel undBauernim deutschen taat desMittelalters(Leipzig, 1943; rpt., Darmstadt, 1967), 170-212.3. This statement is slightly misleading. The Habsburg lands were divided between theAlbertine and Leopoldine lines in 1379 and not reunited again under a single ruler until1490, and there were subsequentdivisions in the early-modern period. In a very real sensethe Habsburgs' Alpine domains did not form a distinct political entity until the establish?ment ofthe First Austrian Republic in 1918. On the other hand, the establishment in thethirteenth century of the Franciscanprovince of Austria, which included the convents inStyria, Carinthia,Carniola, and Tyrol as well as those in the duchy of Austria, suggests anincipientawarenessthatthese easternAlpine territories ormed a distinctentity. SeeJohn B.Freed, "The Friarsand the Delineation of StateBoundaries in the Thirteenth Century," inWilliam C. Jordan, Bruce McNab, and Teofilo F. Ruiz, eds., OrderandInnovation n theThirteenthCentury Princeton, 1976), 38-40.4. Josef Fleckenstein,"WalterSchlesinger:28. April 1908-10. Juni 1984," Ordnungen ndformendeKrdftedes Mittelalters:AusgewdhlteBeitrdge Gottingen, 1989), 543. Schlesinger'smost important works were probably Die Entstehung erLandesherrschaft:ntersuchuHgenvorwiegend ach mitteldeutschen uellen (Dresden, 1941; rpt., Darmstadt, 1964), and Kir-chengeschichteachsensm Mittelalter,2 vols. (Cologne and Graz, 1962). Schlesinger's mostimportant essays were published in WalterSchlesinger, Mitteldeutscheeitrdge ur deutschenVerfassungsgeschichtees Mittelalters Gottingen,1961); Beitrdgezur deutschenVerfassungsge?schichte esMittelalters, vols. (Gottingen, 1963);and in Hans Patze and FredSchwind, eds.,AusgewdhlteAufsdtzevon WalterSchlesinger 965-1979 (Sigmaringen, 1987). Fleckensteinnoted that other scholars also preferredto write Forschungenatherthan Darstellungen.Seehis comments about Paul Kehr, "Paul Kehr:Lehrer, Forscher und Wissenschaftsorganisa-tor in Gottingen, Rom und Berlin" in Ordnungen, 75-76. In contrast, other scholars likeLeopold von Ranke, Wilhelm von Giesebrecht, KarlHampe, and today, Gerd Tellenbach,have done both well. "GerdTellenbach als National-und Universalhistoriker," ibid., 562.


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JOHN B. FREED 3scholarship, at least in the field of social history, has probably been thework of the so-called Freiburg School of Gerd Tellenbach and his stu?dents, most notably, Fleckenstein, Eduard Hlawitschka, and above allKarl Schmid, on the changes in noble self-consciousness and familystructure between the ninth and twelfth centuries;5 but one looks in vainfor a book entitled simply Der Deutsche Adel im Mittelalter.6 Instead, thereare lengthy, meticulously researched articles, which are eventually pub?lished in collections;7 Festschriften by de voted students and admiringcolleagues on subjects dear to the honoree (surely, it is no accident thatAnglolexic scholars use the German word for the genre);8 and above all,the proceedings of scholarly conferences.

5. On the Freiburg School, see John B. Freed, The Counts of Falkenstein:Noble Self-Consciousnessn Twelfth-CenturyGermany Philadelphia, 1984), 1-9, and idem, "Reflectionson the Medieval German Nobility," The AmericanHistoricalReview 91 (1986): 560-66.6. Gerd Tellenbach observed in 1965: "Fiir eine zusammenfassende Behandlung allerProbleme der Fuhrungsschichten des europaischen Mittelalters ist gerade jetzt die For-schung zu sehr im Fluss." "InternationalerHistorikerkongress,Wien 1965: 'Einleitung' und'Zur Erforschung des mittelalterlichen Adels (9.-12. Jahrhunderts),'" in AusgewahlteAbhandlungenund Aufsatze, 4 vols. (Stuttgart, 1988), 3:868. Apparently, it still is. Theclosest thing we probably have toward such a synthesis ofthe work ofthe Freiburg Schoolis Gerd Althoff, Verwandte,FreundeundGetreue:ZumpolitischenStellenwertderGruppenbin-dungen mfruherenMittelalter Darmstadt, 1990). As its title indicates, Althoff does not dealwith the changes in the structure of the nobility caused by the rise of the ministerials, thedecimation of the old free nobility, and the development of territorial lordships.7. Such collections can take two forms. The first is the collected articles of an eminentscholar, often published as a Festschrifto celebrate a major birthday of the honoree. Thecollected articles of Fleckenstein and Schlesinger are cited in note 4, those of Tellenbach innote 6 (so far only the first three volumes have been published; a fourth one has beenannounced). Karl Schmid's were published as GebetsgedenkenndadligesSelbstverstandnismMittelalter:AusgewahlteBeitrdge: Festgabezu seinem sechzigstenGeburtstag Sigmaringen,1983). Less well known scholars are also honored in this fashion. The collected articles ofHerbert Klein, who was for many years the provincial archivist in Salzburg, are cited innote 2. The most important articles of Hans Wagner, the editor of Das TraditionsbuchesAugustiner-ChorherrenstifteseustiftbeiBrixen, in FontesrerumAustriacarum,eries 2, vol. 76(Vienna, 1954), and of the first volume of the Urkundenbuches BurgenlandesGraz andCologne, 1955), appeared in Festschriftiir Hans Wagnerzum 60. Geburtstag:Salzburg undOsterreich:Aufsatzeund VortrdgeonHans WagnerSalzburg, 1982). Most of Wagner's workdealt with the modern period, in particular the eighteenth century. Second, articles bydifferent scholars on the same subject but offering contradictory interpretations are pub?lished in a collection. The Wissenschaftlicheuchgesellschaftn Darmstadt has published manysuch volumes in its series, Wege der Forschung.Some examples are vol. 50, WaltherLammers, ed., Entstehungund Verfassung esSachsenstammes1967); vol. 60, Karl Bosl, ed.,Zur Geschichteder Bayern (1965); vol. 185, Walther Lammers, ed., Die EingliederungderSachsen n das Frankenreich1970); vols. 243-45, Carl Haase, ed., Die StadtdesMittelalters,3 vols. (1969-73); vol. 349, Arno Borst, ed., Das Rittertum m Mittelalter 1976); vol. 416,Giinther Franz, ed., DeutschesBauerntum m Mittelalter 1976); and vol. 492, PankrazFried,ed., Probleme ndMethodenderLandesgeschichte1978). Such collections areextremely usefulin making articles that appearedin obscure journals more readily accessible, an importantconsideration for a non-German working in the area of medieval German history. Many ofthese collections, whatever form they take, include the original pagination.8. For illustrative purposes, I will cite the Festschriftenhat were published in honor of


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4 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYThe most famous of these is undoubtedly the Konstanzer Arbeitskreisfur

mittelalterliche Geschichte, which was founded by Theodor Mayer in 1951and whose proceedings appear in Vortrdge und Forschungen. Mayer'sintention was to proceed from "the details of territorial history to generalmanifestations" and thus to establish the "connections between the par?ticular and the general."9 The question forty years later is whether theparticipants have really succeeded in making this transition. For exam?ple, the three sessions that were devoted in 1967-68 to the Germanterritorial state in the fourteenth century resulted in the publication oftwenty-five articles with a total of 988 pages. Seven ofthe articles havegeneral themes, like the territories and the Church or hospitals and thecities; the remainder deal with a specific territory. The last article is a notparticularly good twenty-page summary. There is no index (the lackof good indices is a major problem with a great deal of German schol?arship).10 The published proceedings of the 1978-79 sessions, sevengeneral articles and sixteen regional studies?1,008 pages?on the late-medieval Grundherrschaft, are better integrated (there is, for instance, afifty-five page index). In his summary Alfred Haverkamp pointed out,however, that the different themes and methodologies of the contribu?tions and their territorial orientation make it difficult to establish supra-regional communalities, and he refused to construct a model of thelate-medieval Grundherrschaft in western Central Europe.11 LeopoldGenicot cited Haverkamp's refusal in his Rural Communities in the West, inwhich he dealt with a larger and more diverse area than Haverkamp, but

Tellenbach, Fleckenstein, and Schmid;Josef Fleckenstein and Karl Schmid, eds., Adel undKirche:Gerd Tellenbach um 65. Geburtstag argebrachton Freundenund Schiilem(Freiberg,Basel, and Vienna, 1968); Lutz Fenske, Werner Rosener, and Thomas Zotz, eds., Institu-tionen,KulturundGesellschaftmMittelalter.FestschrifturJosefFleckensteinum 65. Geburtstag(Sigmaringen, 1984); Gerd Althoff, Dieter Geuenich, Otto GerhardOexle, andJoachimWollasch, eds., Personund Gemeinschaftm Mittelalter.Karl SchmidzumfunfundsechzigstenGeburtstagSigmaringen, 1988). It should be stressed that a great deal of scholarship firstappears n such Festschriften.or example, twelve ofthe forty-two items that appear n thefirst three volumes of Tellenbach's collected articles were first published in Festschriften.9. Josef Fleckenstein, "Danksagung an Theodor Mayer zum 85. Geburtstag:Versucheiner Wurdigung," Ordnungensee above, note 4), 534-35.10. Hans Patze, ed., Der deutscheTerritorialstaatm 14.Jahrhundert, vols. (Sigmaringen,1970-71; 2d. ed., 1986).11. Alfred Haverkamp, "Zusammenfassung: 'Herrschaft und Bauer'?das 'Sozialge-bilde Grundherrschaft,'" in Hans Patze, ed., Die Grundherrschaftm spatenMittelalter,2 vols., in VortrdgendForschungen,ol. 27, 2 pts. (Sigmaringen,1983), 2:321, 344. Haver?kamp is not alone. After mentioning that therehad been considerablediscussion, includingat the KonstanzerArbeitskreis,about the constitutional and structural elements of themedieval city, Jiirgen Sydow, "Elemente von Einheit und Vielfalt in der mittelalterlichenStadt(im Lichte kirchenrechtlicherQuellen)," Universalismus ndPartikularismusmMittelal?ter (Berlin, 1968) (reprinted in Jiirgen Sydow, Cum omni mensura t ratione:AusgewahlteAufsatze: Festgabe u seinem10. Geburtstag,d. Helmut Maurer [Sigmaringen, 1991]), 187,


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JOHN B. FREED 7a local historian would not make. For example, Higounet stated thatVienna was first granted?date unspecified?as a fief to Aribo ofSalzburg.23 Vienna never belonged to Salzburg, and no archbishop wasnamed Aribo. Second, the general historian sometimes overlooks in?formation that would in fact strengthen his or her case. For instance, Itried to apply Jacques le Goff's thesis about the correlation betweenurbanization and the expansion ofthe mendicant orders to Germany,24but was confronted by the awkward fact that the oldest Dominicanpriory in the province of Teutonia was located in Friesach, Carinthia,today a small, sleepy provincial town. All I could say was that itsfoundation was an accident, due to Friesach's location on the Venice-Vienna route.25 Friesach was, I now realize, the most important city inthirteenth-century Carinthia, and the Friesach Pfennig was the standardcoin in the eastern Alps?it circulated widely even in Hungary andCroatia.26 While the foundation ofthe Friesach priory was an accident,Friesach was an obvious site for a Dominican house, particularly if theorder was interested in the evangelization of the southeastern Germanfrontier. Thus the priory in Pettau (today Ptuj, Slovenia) on the Dravanear the Hungarian border was founded a decade later in 1230 by Mathil-da, the widow of Frederick III of Pettau, whose ancestral castle in Stein,Carinthia, was located approximately fifty kilometers southeast ofFriesach.27 Frederick's sister-in-law Richza of Rohitsch (today Rogatec)

23. Higounet, Les Allemands,163-64. I have tried to figure out what Higounet meant.The first possible reference to Vienna (Wenia) occurs in 881, when Count Aribo (871-909)was the margrave along the Danube; but Aribo was never called, to my knowledge, Ariboof Salzburg. See Charles R. Bowlus, "Die Wilhelminer und die Mahrer," Zeitschriftiirbayerische andesgeschichte8 (1973): 756-75; Karl Lechner, Die Babenberger:Markgrafen ndHerzoge von Osterreich 76-1246 (Vienna, Cologne, Graz, 1976; rpt., Darmstadt, 1985),24-27; and Michael Mitterauer, KarolingischeMarkgrafenm Sudosten:FrankischeReichsaris-tokratieundbayerischer tammesadelm osterreichischenaum (Vienna, 1963), 160-69.24. Jacques le Goff, "Apostolat mendiant et fait urbain dans la France medievale:L'implantation des ordres mendiants. Programme-questionnaire pour une enquete,"Annales 23 (1968): 335-52; idem, "Ordres mendiants et urbanisation dans la Francemedievale: ?tat de l'enquete," Annales25 (1970):924-46. See Freed, TheFriars, 15, 52-53.25. Ibid., 32.26. Egon Baumgartner, "Beitrage zur Geldgeschichte der FriesacherPfennige," Carin?thiaI: Geschichtlichend volkskundliche eitrage ur HeimatkundeKamtens150 (1960):84-117;Arnold Luschin-Ebengreuth, "FriesacherPfennige: Beitrage zu ihrer Munzgeschichte undzur Kenntnis ihrer Geprage," Numismatische eitschriftn.s. 15 (o.s. 55) (1922): 89-118; n.s.16 (o.s. 56) (1923): 33-144; Alfred Ogris, Die Burgerschaftn den mittelalterlichen tddtenKamtensbiszumjahre 1335 (Klagenfurt, 1974), 28-37, 153-64; and Thomas Zedrosser, DieStadtFriesach n Karnten:Ein Fuhrerdurch hre Geschichte,Bau- undKunstdenkmaler,d. ed.(Klagenfurt, 1953).27. August von Jaksch and Hermann Wiessner, eds., MonumentahistoricaducatusCarin-thiae,11 vols. (Klagenfurt, 1896-1972), 4/1:79-80, no. 1720;333-34, no. 2321; andjosephvon Zahn and Gerhard Pferschy, eds., Urkundenbuches HerzogthumsSteiermark,4 vols.(Graz, 1875-1975), 2:369, no. 271.


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8 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYwas the cofounder of the Dominican nunnery in Studenitz (todayStudenice), and Mathilda's sister-in-law Gisela and the latter's son, Sieg-fried of Mahrenberg (today Radlje), established the Dominican nunnerybeneath their castle.28 I was simply unaware of Friesach's commercialimportance in the first half of the thirteenth century and of the familialties that linked the Dominicans' chief benefactors in Lower Styria (todaySlovenia) and that ran, it should be noted, through women.

Third, such books tend to be pastiches with examples drawn fromeverywhere between the Baltic and the Adriatic, the Moselle and theMemel. Such an approach obscures significant regional differences.Bumke's Courtly Culture contains the following extraordinary statement:" . . . it is not without some uneasiness that I repeatedly address isolatedstatements and observations as typical manifestations of their time, with?out being able to justify this in every case. It is here that the subjectivecharacter of the essay is most clear, for it would of course be possible tocreate a different picture by selecting entirely different passages."29 Ifevery turn of the kaleidoscope creates a different pattern, what is thehistorical validity ofthe design? Fourth, the general historian has to builda construct, even if it does not fit all the facts. For instance, Arnoldargued that ministerialis was simply the scribal designation for an "unfreeknight" in Germany and that knighthood became the means for theministerials' ascent into the nobility.30 Hence, the title of his book:German Knighthood 1050-1300. He dismissed in a footnote the evidencethat in the Austro-Bavarian area the ministerials were not called knightsbecause miles referred to the ministerials' own servile armed retainers,31but the differences in terminology may be symptomatic of significantdifferences in the social structures ofthe respective territories and need tobe carefully scrutinized for that very reason. Yet the inclusion of every

28. Ibid., 2:472-73, no. 363; 3:106-8, no. 49, 158-60, nos. 93, 94. For the familialconnections, seeJohn B. Freed, "German Source Collections: The Archdiocese of Salzburgas a Case Study," in Joel T. Rosenthal, ed., Medieval Womanand the Sourcesof MedievalHistory(Athens, Georgia, and London, 1990), 87-104.29. Bumke, CourtlyCulture,19. In all fairness, Bumke was aware ofthe implications ofhis words becausehe continued: "Some readersmay find these methodological deficienciesso serious that they might question the usefulness of the present study. But in the finalanalysis every comprehensive essay faces similarproblems, especially if it tries to documentevents and objects with direct referenceto the sources."30. Arnold, GermanKnighthood, 0, 69.31. Ibid., 33, n. 52. On the whole issue, see John B. Freed, "Nobles, Ministerials, andKnights in the Archdiocese of Salzburg," Speculum 2 (1987):575-611. It is worth notingthat Bumke, who was aware of such regional differences n the use ofthe word miles n TheConcept fKnighthood, 1-62, declared n CourtlyCulture,21, that, in describing "the socialbasis of courtly literature,""Of necessity I have had to ignore the regional differences thatincreasingly shaped the legal and political developments within Germany from the thir?teenth century on."


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JOHN B. FREED 9regional variant threatens to dissolve the synthesis into a collection ofdisparate details.Particularism has not only made German historians reluctant to gener-alize, but, according to James Sheehan, it has also made social historyitself suspect, at least in the case of modern German history. The klein-deutsch domination of German historiography has meant that Germanhistorians have tended to treat even nonpolitical topics from a politicalperspective and to neglect topics, like the history of women or familylife, that cannot really be studied from a national perspective. While agreat deal of local history is written, "it is," in Sheehan's words, "ofinterest only to people who share the experience ofthe Heimat."32Sheehan's comments have, I think, considerable applicability as well tomedieval German history. Social history has been neglected. I know ofno Annales-style regional monograph by a German historian. The onlyworks of this type have been written by non-Germans: Dollinger'sclassic study of the Bavarian rural population33 and Richard C. Hoff-mann's brilliant new book on the late-medieval duchy of Wrociaw.34Werner Rosener pointed out that little work has been done in recentdecades on the early-medieval Grundherrschaft in German-speakingareas.35 Suzanne Fonay Wemple's review of Edith Ennen's Frauen imMittelalter (Munich, 1984) concluded: "The section on the participationof German women in urban life is commendable but, even in this area,new observations are beginning to be published by scholars . . ."36 Partof the problem with Ennen's book is that she paid little attention to thefindings of local historians outside her own specialty of urban history.For example, only 43 ofthe 243 pages ofthe text are devoted to the High

32. JamesJ. Sheehan, "What Is German History? Reflections on the Role ofthe NationinGerman History and Historiography," TheJournalof ModernHistory53 (1981): 11-12, 20.A comment in a recent article in The AmericanHistoricalReview illustrates the problem.William W. Hagen wrote in "Seventeenth-Century Crisis in Brandenburg: The ThirtyYears' War, The Destabilization of Serfdom, and the Rise of Absolutism," AmericanHistoricalReview 94, no. 2, (1989): 306: "While there are some good local studies of noblemanors and peasant villages, the social and economic history of early-modern Branden-burg-Prussia has only begun to be written in terms acceptable to present-day scholarship."It is hard to imagine anyone saying that about seventeenth-century England or France. Onthe highly politicized nature of the postwar discussion of modern German history ingeneral and the Third Reich in particular, see RichardJ. Evans, In Hitler's Shadow: WestGermanHistoriansand theAttemptto Escapefromthe Nazi Past (New York, 1989).33. Philippe Dollinger, L'evolution des classesruralesen Baviere depuisla fin de Vepoquecarolingienneusqu'aumilieudu XIHe siecle (Paris, 1949).34. Richard C. Hoffman, Land, Liberties,and Lordship n a Late Medieval Countryside:AgrarianStructures nd Changein the Duchy of Wroctaw(Philadelphia, 1989).35. Rosener, "Zur Erforschung" (see above, note 11), 9.36. Suzanne Fonay Wemple, Review, Speculum61 (1986): 924. Ennen's book is nowavailable in English: The Medieval Woman, rans. Edmund Jephcott (Oxford, 1989).


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10 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYMiddle Ages and that includes two pages on the Fair Maid of Kent whodied in 1385. Ennen might have been better served, presumptuous as thissounds, if she had read, say, my article on Salzburg's most important,twelfth-century ministerial heiress, Diemut of Hogl, which was pub?lished in a local historical journal, the Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fiirSalzburger Landeskunde.37

Students of modern German history have pondered why the AnnalesSchool has had so little influence until recently on modern Germanhistoriography, and their musings may be of some relevance tomedievalists. Irmline Veit-Brause asked why, unlike France where theAnnales School has had great influence, Landesgeschichte has generallybeen relegated to the position of an ancillary discipline in the study ofnineteenth-and twentieth-century history. She pointed out that the studyof local history has been associated since 1871 with particularism, studiedand supported by opponents ofthe Prussian domination of Germany andthe kleindeutsch interpretation of history. Moreover, the Methodenstreit atthe beginning of this century, which pitted Karl Lamprecht, who advo-cated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of cultural history,against the traditional practitioners of legal and institutional history likeGeorg von Below, ended with the reassertion ofthe primacy of politicaland narrative history. In contrast, the Annalistes applied the social sciencesto the study of local history in France. Veit-Brause conceded thatthere has been a good deal of excellent work done in local history inGermany since the interwar period, but is has largely dealt with# medievalhistory, perhaps, she speculated, because medieval history was politicallysafer during the Nazi period. But, she added, "most of these studiesremained on the level of a descriptive Bestandsaufnahme and abstainedfrom systematically exploring theories about socio-historical change ona large scale. Even where such more comprehensive pictures emerged,as for example in the Stadtgeschichte of medieval and early modern times,it certainly did not revolutionize the dominant trend in Germanhistory."38Hartmut Kaelble, writing in 1987, pointed to the apparent disinterestof French and German social historians in each other's work. As he putit, "During the last two decades, which saw the flowering of European

37. John B. Freed, "Diemut von Hogl: Eine Salzburger Erbtochter und die erzbi-schofliche Ministerialitat im Hochmittelalter," Mitteilungender Gesellschaftiir SalzburgerLandeskunde 20/21 (1980/81): 581-657.38. Irmline Veit-Brause, "The Place of Local and Regional History in German andFrenchHistoriography: Some General Reflections," Australian ournalof FrenchStudies 16(1979):447-78, esp. 471. On the treatment ofthe Nazi eraby local historians, see Evans, InHitlers Shadow(see above, note 32), 125-27.


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JOHNB. FREED 11social history, the Rhine has been a greater barrier than the EnglishChannel or even the Atlantic." This failure to communicate has beenattributed to five causes. (1) The French have been interested in thelate-medieval and early-modern periods, culminating in the Revolution,whereas Germans have been concerned with the more recent past, focus-ing on the Nazi era. (2) The Germans have employed social history tostudy political questions in a new way, whereas French historians havebeen unpolitical. Indeed, the study of regional history in France, a highlycentralized country, is, Kaelble argued, an escape from politics. (3) TheFrench have concentrated as part of their escapism on the longue duree inan alien distant world, whereas the Germans have stressed social changein the more recent past. (4) The Germans have been far more concernedthan the French with theory. (5) The democratic political climate in thefirst half of the twentieth century was favorable for the development ofthe Annales School in France, whereas the extreme German nationalismof the Weimar Republic, let alone the Third Reich, was highly unfavor-able for the study of social history. Kaelble concluded, however, thatthese divisions have been breaking down in the last few years amongmodern historians.39

Medievalists have always been somewhat more receptive to eachother's work, as Veit-Brause noted, perhaps because the society theywere studying was clearly both more local and more international thanpost-1789 Europe. Georges Duby, the dean of French medievalists, hasacknowledged his debt to Karl Schmid on several occasions;40 and anyAnnaliste would be proud to have written Heinrich Fichtenau's extra?ordinary book, Living in the Tenth Century: Mentalities and Social Orders(Chicago, 1991).41 Still, the fact remains that no German or Austrian

39. Hartmut Kaelble, "Sozialgeschichte in Frankreichund der Bundesrepublik: Annalesgegen historische Sozialwissenschaften?" Geschichteund Gesellschaft13 (1987): 77-93, 77:"In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten der Bliitezeit der europaischen Sozialgeschichte war derRhein eine scharfere Grenze als der Armelkanal oder gar der Atlantik."40. Georges Duby, The ChivalrousSociety, trans. Cynthia Postan (Berkeley and LosAngeles, 1977), 67-68, 101-3, 150, 153; and MedievalMarriage:Two ModelsfromTwelfth-CenturyFrance,trans. Elborg Forster (Baltimore, 1978), 9-10.41. The original German version is Heinrich Fichtenau, Lebensordnungenes 10.Jahrhun-derts:StudienuberDenkart undExistenz im einstigenKarolingerreich, pts. (Stuttgart, 1984).Fichtenau, it should be noted, is an Austrian rather than a German. The English translationis Living in the Tenth Century:Mentalitiesand Social Order,trans. Patrick Geary (Chicago,1991). Jiirgen Sydow, "Stadt und Kirche im Mittelalter: Ein Versuch," WurttembergischFranken58 (1974, reprintedin Sydow, Cum omnimensura)see above, note 11]), 45-46, hadin 1974 already recognized the need for French-style investigations of late-medieval urbanpiety: "Dabei ist dieser franzosischen Forschungsrichtung darin zuzustimmen, dass einesolche 'histoire de mentalite' nicht wie die 'Geistesgeschichte' vergangener Forschungs-epochen losgelost von den materiellen Grundvoraussetzungen, sondern in einer die Syn-these wahrenden Betrachtungbetrieben werden muss, aber fiir Untersuchungen uber Riten,


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JOHN B. FREED 13Gottingen, the number of American, English, and French medievalistswho were listed in the tabula gratulatoria ofthe Schmid Festschrift was alsominiscule (George Beech was the only American among the 247 congrat-ulants). The isolation of German medievalists from their colleaguesWest or East is striking.

Germany's often tortured history has thus, as Sheehan pointed out,profoundly shaped its historiography. The basic political orientation ofmedieval German social history is evident in the work of the FreiburgSchool. Tellenbach's interest in the nobility originated in the early 1940sduring his debate with Schlesinger and Martin Lintzel about the role ofking versus the folk led by the nobility in the formation of the FirstGerman Reich.44 Surely, the choice of this topic was zeithedingt. Theoutgrowth of this debate was the publication of Tellenbach's seminal1943 article, "Vom karolingischen Reichsadel zum deutschen Reichsfiir-stenstand," in which he traced the connection between the Carolingianimperial aristocracy and their descendants, the princes who created theindividual principalities.45 After the war, Tellenbach and his studentsemployed new sources, in particular, the Libri memoriales (Tellenbach,Hlawitschka, and Schmid edited, for example, the book of remembranceof Remiremont),46 to explore the connections between changes in familyconsciousness, the formation of patrilineal lineages, and the establish?ment of territorial lordships.47 For instance, Schmid utilized an entry in

44. The key works are Gerd Tellenbach, Kbnigtumund Stamme in der WerdezeitdesDeutschenReiches(Weimar, 1939); idem, "Die Unteilbarkeit des Reiches: Ein Beitrag zurEntstehungsgeschichte Deutschlands und Frankreichs," HistorischeZeitschrift163 (1941):20-42; Walter Schlesinger, "Kaiser Arnulf und die Entstehung des deutschen Staates undVolkes," ibid., 163 (1941): 457-70; Tellenbach, "Zur Geschichte Kaiser Arnulfs," ibid.,165 (1942): 229-45; Martin Lintzel, "Zur Stellung der ostfrankischen Aristokratie beimSturz Karls III. und der Entstehung der Stammesherzogtumer," ibid., 166 (1942): 457-72;and Tellenbach, "Wann ist das Deutsche Reich entstanden?,"DeutschesArchivfur Geschichtedes Mittelalters , no. 1 (1943): 1-41. Tellenbach's articles, "Die Unteilbarkeit des Reiches,"and "Wann ist das Deutsche Reich enstanden?"have been reprinted in the second volumeof his collected essays (see above, note 6), Schlesinger's in Beitrage ur deutschenVerfassungs?geschichtedes Mittelalters1 (see above, note 4). All of the articles have been reprinted inHellmut Kampf, ed., Die Entstehung es deutschenReiches(Deutschlandum900) (Darmstadt,1956). On the debate, see Freed, "Reflections," 554-56; and Karl Ferdinand Werner, DasNS-Geschichtsbild nd die deutscheGeschichtswissenschaftStuttgart, 1967), 51-52.45. Gerd Tellenbach, "Vom karolingischen Reichsadel zum deutschen Reichsftirsten-stand," in Mayer, ed., Adel undBauern(see above, note 2), 22-73. It has been reprinted inHellmut Kampf, ed., Herrschaft nd Staat im Mittelalter Darmstadt, 1956), and in volume 3of Tellenbach's collected essays. Timothy Reuter translated the article into English: "Fromthe Carolingian Imperial Nobility to the German Estate ofthe Imperial Princes," in TheMedievalNobility: Studieson the Ruling Classesof Franceand Germanyrom the Sixth to theTwelfth Century(Amsterdam, 1979): 203-42.46. Eduard Hlawitschka, Karl Schmid, and Gerd Tellenbach, eds., Liber memorialis onRemiremont, vols. (Dublin, 1970).47. See Gerd Tellenbach, ed., Studienund Vorarbeitenur Geschichtedesgrossfrankischen


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14 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYthe Liber memorialis of St. Gall to investigate Henry I's designation ofOtto I as his successor and the acceptance of the indivisibility of thekingship.48

The use of social history to investigate constitutional changes?whatKaelble described as the use of social history to look at political history ina new way?is also evident in the work of a younger scholar like GerdAlthoff. Using the Liber memorialis of Reichenau, Althoff demonstratedthat Otto I, unlike his father, no longer treated the lay magnates as hispeers.49 Althoff also showed how changes in the Billungs' lordshipaffected their family consciousness as is revealed by the necrology of theirdynastic monastery, St. Michael's in Liineburg. The necrology also castslight, in Althoff s opinion, on such things as Hermann Billung's relationswith his brother Wichmann the Elder and on various conspiracies.50Unlike such French scholars as Duby,51 members ofthe Freiburg Schoolhave not probed the social ramifications of the changes in family struc?ture such as the effect that the formation of patrilineal lineages had ondaughters and younger sons.undriihdeutschen dels(Freiburg, 1957). This contains articlesby Tellenbach, Fleckenstein,Schmid, FranzVollmer, andJoachim Wollasch. Tellenbach'sown articles about the nobil?ity, including his contributions in Studienund Vorarbeiten,re reprintedin volume 3 of hiscollected works. Tellenbach discussed the use ofthe Librimemoriales s a historical source ina number of articles:"Der Konvent der ReichsabteiPriim unter Abt Ansbald (860-886),"AusgewdhlteAbhandlungenndAufsatze, 2:411-25; "LiturgischeGedenkbiicherals histori-sche Quellen," ibid., 2:426-37; "Der Liber Memorialis von Remiremont. Zur kritischenErforschungund zum Quellenwert liturgischerGedenkbiicher," ibid., 2:438-84; and "ZurBedeutung der Personenforschungfur die Erkenntnis des friiheren Mittelalters:FreiburgerRektoradsrede m 4. Mai 1957,"ibid., 3:943-62. Many of Schmid's most importantarticlesonthese themes have been reprinted n his collectedarticles,Gebetsgedenkensee above, note 7).48. Karl Schmid, "Neue Quellen zum Verstandnis des Adels im 10. Jahrhundert,"Zeitschriftur die Geschichte es Oberrheins 08 (1960): 185-232; and idem, "Die ThronfolgeOttos des Grossen," Zeitschriftder Savigny-Stiftungur Rechtsgeschichte,GermanistischeAbteilung81 (1964): 80-163. Neither of these articles was reprintedin Schmid's collectedarticles, but "Die Thronfolge Ottos des Grossen," and the first part of "Neue Quellen,"have been reprinted in Eduard Hlawitschka, ed., Kbnigswahlund Thronfolgen ottonisch-fruhdeutscher eit (Darmstadt, 1971).49. Gerd Althoff, "Unerforschte Quellen aus quellenarmerZeit (IV): Zur Verflechtungder Fuhrungsschichtenin den Gedenkquellen des friihen zehntenJahrhunderts,"in Neit-hard Bulst andJean-PhilippeGenet, eds., MedievalLivesandthe Historian: tudies n MedievalProsopographyKalamazoo, Mich., 1986), 37-71.50. Gerd Althoff, Adels-undKbnigsfamilienm SpiegelihrerMemorialuberlieferung:tudienzum TotengedenkenerBillungerundOttonen,Munstersche Mittelalter-Schriften47 (Munich,1984), 31-132. Althoff also examined the necrology of Merseburg, which incorporatedmaterial from Quedlinburg, and concluded that the Saxon kings. after Henry I did notrememberlay magnates (133-228). The sub itle of Althoff's new book, Verwandte, reundeund Getreue see above, note 6), reveals the political perspective.51. See, for instance, Georges Duby, "Lineage, Nobility and Knighthood: The Macon-nais in the Twelfth Century?a Revision," The ChivalrousSociety(see above, note 40),59-80; and idem, The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest: The Making of ModernMarriage nMedievalFrance, rans. BarbaraBray (New York, 1983), 227-84.


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JOHN B. FREED 15The study of local history, medieval or modern, continues, on the

other hand, to reinforce, as Sheehan indicated, love ofthe Heimat.52 Forexample, the title ofthe historical journal ofthe Rupertiwinkel, a thirty-kilometer strip of territory on the left bank of the Salzach that hadbelonged to the ecclesiastical principality of Salzburg and that was cededto Bavaria in 1816, is Das Salzfass (the salt barrel is the iconographicsymbol of Salzburg's patron saint, Rupert): Heimatkundliche Zeitschrift desHistorischen Vereins Rupertiwinkel (the name for the area came into useonly around 1900). Christian Soika, the Kreisheimatspfleger of Traunstein,cited, in the fifth volume ofthe Heimatbuch des Landkreises Traunstein, Dernordliche Rupertiwinkel: Erbe des Landkreises Laufen (the Landkreis ofLaufen, which had been nearly coterminous with the Rupertiwinkel, wasdivided in 1972 between the districts of Traunstein and Berchtesgaden),his predecessor's prefatory words, written in 1963, to the first volume inthe series: "Our Heimatbuch has the task not only to present the readerwith a picture of his Heimat, as it is, but also how it originated and how itwas formed. The Heimatbuch should transport the reader back into thehistory of his Heimat, should arouse his pride and love, and should keepalive the feeling for the inherited tradition of his Heimat . . . Heimat, loveof the Heimat, and consciousness of the Heimat are spiritual values.Where they are lacking, the inner equilibrium has been disturbed." Soikaadmitted that the Heimatgedanke, which had been misused earlier in thecentury, was associated in the early 1960s with backwardness and small-mindedness, but he added that in the last twenty years consciousness ofthe Heimat had considerably increased among the populace.53Such "homeland books," often lavishly illustrated and published withsubventions from local and provincial governmental authorities and/orprivate contributors, contain articles, usually footnoted, by academic,public, and amateur local historians and by scholars from other disci-plines. For instance, the volume on the northern Rupertiwinkel haspieces on geology, vegetation, prehistory, archaeological finds, the medievalperiod, administrative structure, church history, ecclesiastical and secular

52. On the study of local history in general, see Pankraz Fried, ProblemeundMethoden(see above, note 7); and Alois Gerlich, Geschichtliche andeskunde esMittelalters:Genese undProbleme Darmstadt, 1986).53. Christian Soika, ed., Heimatbuchdes LandkreisesTraunstein,vol. 5, Der nordlicheRupertiwinkel:Erbe des LandkreisesLaufen (Trostberg, 1990), 5: "Unser Heimatbuch hatja nicht nur die Aufgabe, dem Leser ein Bild seiner Heimat zu geben, wie sie ist, son-dern auch, wie sie entstanden ist und wie sie geformt wurde. Es soll ihn in die Geschichteseiner Heimat zuruckfuhren, seinen Stolz und seine Liebe wecken und in ihm das Gefiihl fiirdie gewachsene Tradition seiner Heimat lebendig halten . . . Heimat, Heimatliebe, undHeimatbewusstsein sind seelische Werte. Wo sie fehlen, ist das innere Gleichgewichtgestort."


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16 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYarchitecture, the interior decoration of churches, castles, peasant houses,pilgrimage sites, costumes, customs, dialect, place names, an iron forge,the castle and museum in Tittmoning, and historical illustrations ofTittmoning, the chief town in the northern Rupertiwinkel. HeinzDopsch, who is professor of comparative Landesgeschichte at the Uni?versity of Salzburg, wrote, for instance, the article on the medievalperiod; and Ingo Reiffenstein, a prominent Germanist who teaches inSalzburg, was the author of the piece on the local dialect. Needless tosay, the quality of these articles varies greatly, but the Heimatbuchercontain a great deal of extremely useful information.54

Historical exhibitions, sponsored by the provincial authorities andvisited by hundreds of thousands of viewers,55 strengthen local patriot-ism. The lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogs contain not only detaileddescriptions of the artifacts in the exhibition but popularizing articles byrespected scholars. Sometimes a separate scholarly monograph withadditional articles is published in conjunction with the exhibition. Forexample, an exhibition was held in Salzburg in 1982 to commemoratethe alleged 1400th anniversary of the foundation of the still flourish-ing Benedictine abbey of St. Peter's in Salzburg (the exhibition com-memorated a non-event since the abbey was founded, or conceivably alate-antique foundation revived, by St. Rupert in 696). The exhibitioncatalog, Das alteste Kloster im deutschen Sprachraum: St. Peter in Salzburg: 3.Landesausstellung 15. Mai-26. Oktober 1982: Schatze europaischer Kunst undKultur, has 430 pages. The separate, more scholarly commemorativevolume, Festschrift Erzabtei St. Peter in Salzburg 582-1982, in Studien undMitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner-Ordens und seiner Zweige 93(Salzburg, 1982), has 950 pages.56 A great deal of valuable historicalscholarship is published?and buried?in the exhibition catalogs. For

54. Alfred Stefan Weiss's critical review of Soika's Heimatbuchappeared in the Mit?teilungenderGesellschaftiir SalzburgerLandeskunde 30 (1990): 812-14. The Heimatbuch fthe northernRupertiwinkel is hardly unique. The 320-page Heimatbuch f Bischofshofen, atown in the province of Salzburgthathad 9,671 inhabitants n 1987, Roswitha Moosleitner,Bischofshofen:000Jahre Geschichte ndKunst(Bischofshofen, 1984), contains ten articles,including pieces by Dopsch on medieval and early-modern Bischofshofen, by FritzMoos?leitner, director of the archaeological section of the Museum Carolino Augusteum inSalzburg,on the prehistoricaland ancientperiods, and by WiltrudTopic-Mersmann, an arthistorian at the University of Salzburg, on the eighth-century cross of Bischofshofen.55. The attendancefigures for some recent exhibitions in Austria with medieval themesare: "1200JahreKremsmunster"(1977), 472,000; "1000Jahre Babenbergerin Osterreich"(1976), 466,000; "Die Kuenringer?Das Werden des Landes Niederosterreich" (1981),400,000; "Die Bajuwaren?Von Severin bis Tassilo" (1988), 400,000; and "Die Steier?mark? Briicke und Bollwerk" (1986), 311,000. Mitteilungen er Gesellschaftur SalzburgerLandeskunde31 (1991):422.56. To give the reader some sense of the magnitude of the phenomenon, I will list thecatalogs of several other exhibitions or commemorative volumes related to medieval


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18 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYperspective between French and German scholarship. This is not to saythat the French approach is necessarily better, but it reveals once againhow little impact the Annales School has had east of the Rhine.

Many local historians write in seeming ignorance of each other'swork. Adriaan Verhulst pointed out, for example, that monographsabout the structure of individual manors in the East Frankish Kingdomcontain few comparisons with findings elsewhere.59 The consequence ofsuch parochialism is that it is difficult to tell whether the local historians'findings are unique to their localities or whether their discoveries are partof a broader pattern, and even harder to make any general explanatoryconclusions. Even worse, most local historians do not even raise thesequestions. Regrettably, some local historians also show a lamentable lackof historical sense. A recent, otherwise valuable, article about shippingon the Salzach indicated that the church of Salzburg received property inLaufen in the eighth century from a Reginolt of Lampoding. The authorthen added that Reginolt was the first representative ofthe late-medievalpatrician family with that toponymic surname in Laufen!60 Even if thewriter never heard of Karl Schmid, he might have asked himself if it ispermissible to talk about a lineage that left not the slightest documentarytrace for five hundred years.

Above all, there is the problem of integrating this vast outpouring oflocal scholarship, whether it is social or "old-fashioned" political andconstitutional history, into general German history. Part of the problemis simply human frailty. Few libraries can afford to procure all the localjournals and monographs, let alone the exhibition catalogs and com-memorative volumes (this problem is even worse for American librar?ies); and no individual scholar, even if the material is readily accessible,can read all of it. Beyond that, there is the more fundamental problem ofdefining what is meant by Germany in any particular period during theMiddle Ages. It is hardly identical with the territory of the formerSecond Reich, which excluded the Habsburg domains, let alone thereunited Federal Republic; but it cannot simply be equated with themedieval regnum Teutonicum, which included Brabant and Lorraine andexcluded Prussia. Linguistic criteria are hardly more helpful since

59. AdriaanVerhulst, "Die Grundherrschaftsentwicklungm ostfrankischenRaum vom8. bis 10. Jahrhundert: Grundziige und Fragen aus westfrankischer Sicht," in Rosener,Strukturensee above, note 11), 30.60. FranzHeffeter, "Die Salzachschiffahrt nd die StadtLaufen,"Mitteilungen erGesell-schaftfurSalzburgerLandeskunde29 (1989):7-8. On the Lampodinger, see Heinz Dopsch,GeschichteSalzburgs: Stadt und Land, vol. 1, Vorgeschichte,Altertum,Mittelalter,3 pts.(Salzburg, 1981-84), 1/1:401. Heffeter is not alone. Herbert Weiermann, "Burgen undSchlosser," Heimatbuch esLandkreisesTraunstein, :276, wrote: "Das Geschlecht der Lam?podinger geht bis ins 8. Jahrhundertzuriick."


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JOHN B. FREED 19burghers of Liibeck and Graz, if they ever met, would probably have foundeach othef's "German" nearly incomprehensible. English and Frenchhistorians face the same problem, but the problem is more acute inGermany because of its large size, lack of natural borders, and decliningmonarchal authority, which was, even in its heyday during the Saxon-Salian period, concentrated in those areas where the king could exerciseintensive lordship. In that sense, Ottonian history is largely Saxon his?tory just as Habsburg history is Austrian history.61

The most recent trend in German historiography, in part a response tothis very problem, is the writing of what I call "Common MarketHistory," in which medieval German history is placed in a WesternEuropean or even world historical context. Hagen Keller wrote in thefirst paragraph of his provocative history of Germany between 1024 and1250: "This work can provide the reader with a fair picture of theSalian-Hohenstaufen era only if the developments that took place in theWest between 1000 and the middle ofthe thirteenth century are incorpo-rated into the history of Germany."62 The emphasis is no longer ondynastic and constitutional history but on the political, economic, social,cultural, religious, and intellectual transformation (not necessarily inthat order) of Germany and Europe between the ninth and thirteenthcenturies. A comparison ofthe titles of Hlawitschka's Vom Frankenreichzur Formierung der europaischen Staaten- und Volkergemeinschaft 840-1046(Darmstadt, 1986) with Robert Holtzmann's classic Geschichte der sdchsi?schen Kaiserzeit (900-1024) (Munich, 1941; rpt. ed., Darmstadt, 1967) orof Keller's Zwischen regionaler Begrenzung und universalem Horizont: Deutsch-

61. On the problem of defining Germany in the Later Middle Ages, see Peter Moraw,VonoffenerVerfassungu gestalteterVerdichtung: as Reich imspdtenMittelalter1250 bis 1490(Berlin, 1985), 43-46. Johannes Fried, "Deutsche Geschichte im Friiheren und HohenMittelalter: Bemerkungen zu einigen neuen Gesamtdarstellungen," HistorischeZeitschrift245 (1987): 625-59, criticized the new general histories of Germany that appeared in the1980s (see below, note 62) for their failure to define what they meant by Germany prior tothe thirteenth century and for failing to integrate Landesgeschichte ith all its regionaldifferences into their accounts. In Fried's view the authors concentrated on the Reich andthe king and thus the regional focus of such histories changes as the monarchy's base ofpower shifted.62. Hagen Keller, ZwischenregionalerBegrenzungunduniversalemHorizont:Deutschland mImperium er Salier undStaufer1024 bis 1250, in Propylaen Geschichte Deutschlands, vol. 2(Berlin, 1986), 11: "Von der Epoche der Salierund Staufer kann dieses Werk dem Leser nurdann ein angemessenes Bild vermitteln, wenn in der Geschichte Deutschlands die Entwick-lung eingefangen wird, die sich von derJahrtausendwende bis zur Mitte des 13. Jahrhun?derts im Abendland vollzog." For similar views, see Alfred Haverkamp, AufbruchundGestaltung:Deutschland 056-1213 (Munich, 1984), 11-16; and HermannJakobs, Kirchenre-form und Hochmittelalter 046-1215, 2d. ed. (Munich, 1988). Jakobs's book, v, 87-163,contains an excellent discussion and annotated bibliography about the major researchproblems in this time period. Haverkamp's book is available in English: MedievalGermany,1056-1273, trans. Helga Braun and Richard Mortimer (Oxford, 1988).


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JOHNB. FREED 21king but one of the Frankish kings who since the time of Charlemagnehad divided or disputed among themselves the protection of the RomanChurch."66 Wilhelm von Giesebrecht must be rolling in his grave, Inshort, whereas modern German historians have debated whether Ger?many embarked after the middle of the nineteenth century on a Sonder?weg, due to its incomplete modernization,67 most German medievalistshave placed medieval Germany in the mainstream of European history.Indeed, Keller stated that the dualism between the monarchy and theReich was no more a Sonderfall than the development of absolute monar?chy in "Modell Frankreich."68

While it is refreshing after the strident nationalism of an earlier era toread Haverkamp's history of Salian-Hohenstaufen Germany that beginswith an account of Western expansion in the Mediterranean,69 a fewwords of caution are in order. First of all, the social and cultural unity ofthe Carolingian Empire should not be exaggerated. As Richard E. Sulli-van put it: "In short, the real Carolingian world appears to have beencomfortably polymorphous, drawing vital energies from regional andethnic communities which pfedated the Carolingian age and which sur-vived beyond it at least until about 1000 . . ."70 Let me cite a simpleexample. Mansus was synonymous with hoba in ninth-century Bavaria,but it referred only to the peasant's hut and garden in Thuringia, whereashuba was the complete holding. Indeed, the classic, bipartite manorialstructure was only being introduced from the West into the East Frankish

66. Karl Ferdinand Werner, 'L'Empire carolingien: Le Saint Empire," in MauriceDuverger, ed., Le conceptd'empire Paris, 1980), 177; reprinted in Karl Ferdinand Werner,Vom Frankenreichzur Entfaltung Deutschlandsund Frankreichs:Ursprunge?Strukturen?Beziehungen:AusgewahlteBeitrdge:Festgabezu seinemsechzigstenGeburtstag Sigmaringen,1984), 354: "Celui qui allait recevoir le couronnement imperial, en 962, n'etait pas un roiallemand, mais un des rois francqui, depuis Charlemagne, se partageaientou se disputaientla protection de l'Eglise romaine." It is worth noting that while Tellenbach and his criticsdebated in the 1940s the role ofthe king versus the folk led by the nobility in the creation ofthe first Reich,Werner refused to use the term Stammesherzogtiimerecause, by stressing thefolkish element, the word obscured the fact that the West and East Frankish Kingdomsarose out of Carolingian administrative units or regnaunder the leadership of high membersofthe Carolingian imperial aristocracy who held high imperial offices. See his "Les duches'nationaux' d'Allemagne au IXe et au Xe siecle," Les Principautes u moyen-dge:Actes duCongresde la Societedes historiensmedievistes e Venseignementuperieur ublic, Bordeaux1913(Bordeaux, 1979), 29-46; reprinted in VomFrankenreich, 11-28.67. Evans, In Hitler's Shadow(see above, note 32), 114. For a recent article on the debate,see Thomas Childers, "The Social Language of Politics in Germany: The Sociology ofPolitical Discourse in the Weimar Republic," The AmericanHistorical Review 95 (1990):331-35.68. Keller, ZwischenregionalerBegrenzung,24-25.69. Haverkamp, Aufbruchund Gestaltung,17-23.70. RichardE. Sullivan, "The Carolingian Age: Reflections on Its Place in the History ofthe Middle Ages," Speculum64 (1989): 292-93.


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22 MEDIEVAL GERMAN SOCIAL HISTORYKingdom in the late Carolingian period.71 Frankish rule may have leftWestern Europe with a common, classical, and Christian high cultureand, at least superficially, with similar political institutions like Werner'sregna;72 but the differences between, say, Saxony, whose Christianizationand "urbanization" were initiated by Charlemagne's wars of conquest,and the Rhineland with its Roman and Christian inheritance, let aloneAquitaine or Italy, should not be minimized.

Second, while historians like Keller are aware of the increasing regionaldiversification of high-medieval Europe,73 it is easy to lose sight of thisin their general histories. The careless reader of Keller's volume mayforget, for example, that the first German university was founded only inthe second half of the fourteenth century when reading about the originsof Bologna and Paris and Germans who studied abroad in the twelfthcentury.74 The historian must ask why universities had been founded inItaly, France, and England by the beginning of the thirteenth century,but not in Germany however it is defined (should the University ofPrague which was established in 1348 be classified as a "German" uni?versity?). Moreover, there were, as Johannes Fried pointed out, distinctregional differences within Germany itself. Western and southern Ger?many, particularly the Danube valley from Regensburg to the Leitha,were far more receptive to the new French and Italian learning in thetwelfth century than the north.75 To cite another example, there are stillno satisfactory explanations why an estate of ministerials developed inthe Empire but not in France, that is, in Brabant and Lorraine, but notin Flanders or Champagne,76 or why ministerials were equated with

71. Verhulst, "Die Grundherrschaftsentwicklung" see above, note 59), 37-38, 40-41.For an introductory discussion of the differencesbetween northern, central, and southernGermany in the ninth century, see Timothy Reuter, Germany n the Early MiddleAges c.800-1056 (London and New York, 1991), 51-69.72. See, for instance, Karl FerdinandWerner, "Konigtum und Fiirstentum im franzosi-schen 12.Jahrhundert,"n VortrdgendForschungen,ol. 12 (Constanceand Stuttgart,1968),177-225; reprinted in idem, Structurespolitiques(see above, note 64); idem, "Missus-Marchio-Comes: Entre Tadministration centrale et 1'administrationlocale de l'Empirecarolingien," in Werner Paravicini and Karl FerdinandWerner, eds., Histoirecomparee eVAdministrationIVe-XVIII siecles) (Munich and Ziirich, 1980), 191-239; reprinted inWerner, VomFrankenreichsee above, note 66), 108-56; and idem, "Lagenese des duchesen France et en Allemagne," Settimanedi studiodel Centro talianodi studisull'altomedioevo,21: NascitddelVEuropad Europacarolingia:un'equazione a verificareSpoleto, 1981), 175-207; reprinted in VomFrankenreich,78-310. Werner's article, "Konigtum und Fursten-tum," has been translated by Reuter, The Medieval Nobility (see above, note 45) as"Kingdom and Principality in Twelfth-Century France," 243-90.73. Keller, ZwischenregionalerBegrenzung,48?51.74. Ibid., 307-11.75. Johannes Fried, "Die Rezeption Bologneser Wissenschaft in Deutschland wahrenddes 12. Jahrhunderts," Viator21 (1990): 103-45.76. On this problem, see Freed, "Origins" (see above, note 19), 237-41.


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JOHN B. FREED 23knights in Alsace but not in Austria.77 As Henri Pirenne put it in 1909: "Itis incomprehensible, moreover, given the nearly identical social condi-tions in the lands situated between the Rhine and the Seine in the HighMiddle Ages, why the ministerialage that flourished so much in Ger?many and the Low Countries should have been unknown in France"(Pirenne thought that liege homage took the place ofthe ministerialage inFrance).78 Such macro and micro regional differences require an explana-tion even in accounts that stress, among other things, the hierarchicalorganization of medieval society, noble dominance, and the commonscholastic and chivalric cultures.

Third, as the introduction ofthe bipartite manorial system and the latefoundation of German universities indicate, Germany tended to lagbehind its western and southern neighbors in its social and economicdevelopment. A Colmar Dominican described the transformation he hadwitnessed in his native Alsace. It had been an underdeveloped region in1200, which had undergone enormous changes, in the chronicler's opin?ion for the better, during his long lifetime. He specifically mentionedthat in 1200 the two most important Alsatian cities, Basel and Stras-bourg, had been small, rather insignificant towns with inadequate for-tifications and unimpressive buildings and that such towns as Colmar,Selestat, Rouffach, and Mulhouse had not existed at all.79 It is hard toimagine anyone writing about thirteenth-century Flanders or Lombardylike that. A major issue in medieval German history is thus the effect thatsuch external influences as the Christianization of Saxony in the lateeighth century or the introduction of French courtly culture in thetwelfth had on existing society. In the case ofthe friars, the establishmentof a mendicant convent was not so much a response to the religious crisis

77. On the Alsatian ministerials, see Henri Dubled, "Noblesse et feodalite en Alsace duXle au XHIe siecle," Tijdschrift oor RechtsgeschiedenisRevue d'histoiredu droit)28 (1960):129-80; idem, "Quelques reflexions sur les 'ministeriales' en Alsace," Archives de Veglised'Alsace3 (1949/50): 375-82; and Hans WalterKlewitz, Geschichte erMinisterialitdtmElsassbis zum Ende desInterregnumsFrankfurtam Main, 1929). On the Austrian ministerials, seein addition to the literature cited in note 2, Otto von Zallinger, Ministerialesund milites:Untersuchungeneberdie ritterlichenUnfreienzunaechst n baierischenRechtsquellen es XII. undXIII. JahrhundertsInnsbruck, 1878).78. Henri Pirenne, "Qu'est-ce qu'un homme lige?" Academieroyalede Belgique:Bulletinde la classe des lettres(1909): 57: "On ne comprendrait pas d'ailleurs, vu l'identite presquecomplete de la situation sociale des pays situes entre le Rhin et la Seine au haut moyen age,pourquoi la ministerialite, si florissante en Allemagne et dans les Pays-Bas, eut ete inconnueen France."79. Philipp Jaffe, ed., De rebusAlsaticis ineuntis saeculiXIII, in MonumentaGermaniaehistorica:Scriptores,vol. 17 (Hanover, 1861), 236. On the Colmar Dominican, see KarlKoster, "Die Geschichtsschreibung der kolmarer Dominikaner im 13. Jahrhundert," inPaul Wenzcke, Schicksalswege m Oberrhein:Beitrdgezur Kultur-und StaatenkundeHeidel-berg, 1952), 1-100.


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JOHN B. FREED 25their services at home and that only two civil treatises were written inGermany during the twelfth century. Roman law simply diverged toomuch from German legal practice and thinking, he concluded, to berelevant.87 Such selectivity should not be interpreted, however, Friedinsisted, as an indicator of German political, cultural, and economicretardation and backwardness as, say, Bosl, who has repeatedly stressedthe difference between "archaic" Germany and "modern" urban Italyand feudal France, has done.88 Germany had, Fried argued, its owntraditions inherited from the Carolingian period that were not inferior tothose of its western and southern neighbors.89 In discussing and explain-ing the differences between France and Germany, or, for that matter,between Saxony and Bavaria, historians should not assume, in otherwords, that there is an ideal type of societal development against whichall others are to be measured and found wanting. Modern democratic,capitalistic, pluralistic society is no more the teleological end of historythan the Hegelian nation-state.

Sixth, it is dangerous to suppose that what may have been generallytrue in Europe was necessarily true in every part of Germany. DavidHerlihy stated that "widely across Europe" the "burdens of matrimony"shifted toward the bride and her family from the twelfth century onwarduntil the husband's gifts declined to virtual insignificance in the laterMiddle Ages. Although most of Herlihy's evidence is Italian, he alsocited English and Spanish examples. He attributed this shift to thedeclining economic importance of women and an unfavorable marriagemarket for women.90 The exact opposite occurred in the eastern Alpineterritories. Here the husband's contribution, namely the combinedwidow's dower and Morgengabe, could be by the later Middle Ages asmuch as two and a half times the amount ofthe dowry.91 Does this mean

87. Fried, "Die Rezeption" (see above, note 75), 104-5, 128-30.88. Karl Bosl, Europaim Aufbruch:Herrschaft,Gesellschaft,Kultur vom 10. bis zum 14.JahrhundertMunich, 1980), esp. 15-16, 192-93; and idem, Die Grundlagender modernenGesellschaft m Mittelalter: Eine deutscheGesellschaftsgeschichtees Mittelalters,2 vols., inMonographien ur GeschichtedesMittelalters,vol. 4, 2 pts. (Stuttgart, 1972).89. Fried, "Deutsche Geschichte" (see above, note 61), 651-59.90. David Herlihy, Medieval Households (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1985),98-103, esp. 98.91. Wilhelm Brauneder, Die Entwicklungdes Ehegiiterrechtsn Osterreich:Ein BeitragzurDogmengeschichte nd Rechtstatsachenforschunges Spatmittelalters nd der Neuzeit (Salzburgand Munich, 1973), 206, found the following ratios between the wife's and the husband'scontributions: Vienna 1:1.5, but also 1:1 and 1:2;nobles in Lower Austria, 1:1.5, but with arange from 1:1 to 1:2.5; Styria, 1:2; Carinthia, 1:2, and Salzburg, 1:1.5. See also HaraldBilowitzky, "Die Heiratsgaben in der Steiermark wahrend des spaten Mittelalters unterStande- und wirtschaftsgeschichtlichem Aspekt" (Ph.D. diss., University of Graz, 1977),70-75. For a fuller discussion ofthe problem, see chapter4 of my forthcoming book: NobleBondsmen:MinisterialMarriages n the Archdiocese f Salzburg 1100-1343.


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Documents

Freed_generalizations on German Social History