es seii purger ader gest – Long-distance merchants as strangers in the city
Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nina Gallion
The late medieval towns of the Roman-German Empire were a community of landowning burgher families based on oaths. Clergymen, Jews and by-siders were added as further groups with their own legal status. All others were considered strangers, even if they had lived in a city for many years. The sources refer to them as guests. They ranged from beggars and travelling folk to local farmers and craftsmen who supplied the market, to aristocratic guests and long-distance merchants. As they enjoyed protection of the city according to medieval conception, they had to contribute to the city's burdens (e.g. taxes and guard duties) without, however, being able to enjoy the benefits of city law (e.g. inheritance and property rights, freedom from customs duties). Above all, they were not allowed to acquire land, but had to live with a host. The so-called guest rights, which have been handed down since the 13th century, primarily refer to merchants, who are the focus of the research project. The cities were dependent on these long-distance traders, but at the same time tried to restrict their scope for action (e.g. prohibition of retail sales, higher fees, stacks) in order to protect the domestic production of the citizens.
The focus of the planned doctoral project is on long-distance merchants as guests in Lübeck and Nuremberg in the 15th century. Both cities were central trading centres with a constant influx of merchants from very different regions. The imperial city of Nuremberg was the centre of trade in the south and connected central and southern Germany with eastern Europe and northern Italy. The imperial city of Lübeck was the metropolis in the north and linked the empire with Scandinavia and the Baltic via the Baltic and North Sea trade. The Hanseatic cities had previously been treated as a special case. Here too, however, urban guest law applied as in Upper German cities. Legally, the merchants became a separate group in the centre of the city. The project examines the social dynamics of the complex network of guests, their hosts as agents, the citizens and the standard-setting council. Through new and increasingly stringent regulations, the council increasingly turned guests into strangers in the city. In terms of sources, guest tax lists have been preserved in the case of Lübeck, while in Nuremberg the extensive registers of letters and commercial records also provide a very good source base. The normative regulations from the city charter and files of the voluntary jurisdiction are additional sources.
Merchants were the driving force behind the late medieval economy. The project shows them as guests in the city – an aspect that has received little attention in research. At the same time, it provides an unprecedented comparison between Upper German cities and Hanseatic cities and opens up a new perspective on strangeness in an urban context.
Further reading:
Jenks, Stuart, Zum hansischen Gästerecht, in: Hansische Geschichtsblätter 114, 1996, S. 3–60.
Korn, Brigitte; Michael Diefenbacher und Steven M. Zahlaus (Hg.), Von nah und fern. Zuwanderer in die Reichsstadt Nürnberg. Begleitband zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung im Stadtmuseum Fembohaus vom 29. März bis 10. August 2014, Petersberg 2014 (Schriftenreihe der Museen der Stadt Nürnberg 4).
Rutz, Andreas (Hg.), Die Stadt und die Anderen: Fremdheit in Selbstzeugnissen und Chroniken des Spätmittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit, Wien 2021 (Städteforschung A 101).
Schultze, Alfred, Gästerecht und Gästegerichte in deutschen Städten des Mittelalters, in: Historische Zeitschrift 101, 1908, S. 473–528.
Seggern, Harm von, Spätmittelalterliche Großstädte als Dienstleistungsgesellschaften? Zur Anwesenheit fremder Kaufleute (Gäste), in: Metropolität in der Vormoderne. Konstruktionen urbaner Zentralität im Wandel, hg. von Jörg Oberste, Regensburg 2012 (Forum Mittelalter-Studien 7), S. 195–210.