Peasant Republic
A peasant republic is a form of political rule that developed in the Middle Ages as an alternative to the rule of the nobility and clergy . Peasant republics typically stayed the longest in remote and inaccessible landscapes, i.e. on coasts and islands, behind swamps and moors, and in mountain valleys.
Problem of terminology
The word republic refers to the terms state and territory and also means the absence of a count or royal rule. However, strictly speaking, democratic decision-making processes within (relatively small) peasant republics prove to be a form of local self-government . In terms of area size, most peasant republics are more like today's political communities or districts . It is therefore not surprising that at the time of the existence of peasant republics there were also levels of statehood to which, for example, royalty free were obliged. This makes some historians hesitate to use the term peasant republic .
The question also arises at what point in the transformation of peasant republics into territories of the type that were prevalent in the Middle Ages (for example in the case of the creation of the county of East Friesland ) the conditions became incompatible with the ideal of the “republic”.
Furthermore, it is unclear whether areas that territorial rulers made available to immigrants for colonization became peasant republics through the granting of autonomy rights or their struggle, or whether in these cases the permanent formal sovereignty of the recruiting rulers over “their” territory is decisive. This problem plays a central role in the Stedingen and Bregenzerwald landscapes .
Examples
Friesland and Niederelbe region
The term peasant republic is mainly related to some settlement areas of the Frisians and Saxons and is seen as the realization of the ideal of Frisian freedom . Examples can be found in Butjadingen , Stadland , Stedingen , Land Wursten and Land Hadeln as well as Dithmarschen . All of the areas mentioned were characterized by the fact that the land was constantly threatened by flooding, against which dikes were jointly built and have to be maintained.
The settlement areas of the Frisians and Saxons were typically characterized by the fact that local self-government of villages was supplemented by self-government on the level of landscapes . The parish was the center of everyday life and from it drew its independence. The link to the state community was formed by the "fiardandel", the state quarter, which encompasses several parishes. In the rural districts, which enjoyed extensive independence, the old school districts of the time continued up to the beginning of the 13th century (so-called Asegenzeit): from the schelta or Bonnere (who was in charge of the school districts) the orator, kok ( = Speaker) or hodere (hat wearer), became the grietmann in western Friesland. The regional quarters comprised 12 clefts. Since a peasantry was made up of three divisions, a district consisted of four peasant communities. The peasant groups for their part consisted of so-called "Fründschoppen" (gender associations). The formation of provincial estates or state parliaments with political units that would have been assigned to these organizations did not usually take place as long as the self-governments were sufficiently viable and resilient.
The original type of peasant republic was preserved longest in the remote areas "beyond the Jade" and in the north of the extensive moors at the mouth of the Weser . For a long time elected " Redjeven " ruled there , holding court and watching over law and order. The basis of the work of the Rüstringian Redjeven was the Asegabuch .
The office of the Redjeven was an expression of the pronounced development of the rural communities in the 13th century. The contract, which was signed by the city of Bremen with Rüstringen in 1220, mentioned for the first time a collegial body as the leading institution of the state community: the "sedecim coniurati de terra", the sixteen "state jury". The term “coniurati” or “consules” is used in the Latin sources, that of the redieven, the advisors, however, in the Frisian texts. The office changed annually, be it by election or "contact" from one court to another; it was part of a cooperative constitutional structure with the municipality as the authoritative body.
The free peasant republics perished partly because of the striving for power of their own large farmers and chiefs, partly because of the neighboring territorial lords. The social conditions within the individual peasant republics and between them were by no means characterized by comprehensive harmony: It was typical of Friesland in the Middle Ages that the country split up into a number of small peasant republics, many of which were at odds with one another. Marriages, inheritances and feuds resulted in a “natural selection” of the landlords, whereby the sovereign rights were concentrated in the hands of “chiefs”. The various peasant republics in East Friesland (and at times West Friesland ) were united under the chiefs of the Cirksena family in the 15th century. Under Ulrich I von Cirksena, East Friesland became an imperial county in 1464 . During this time West Friesland fell to Burgundy and finally left the empire in 1648 as part of the Netherlands .
After two wars, after the Battle of Altenesch in 1234, the Stedingers were subject to the Archbishop of Bremen and the Count of Oldenburg , the princes of Bremen also subordinated Kehdingen , the Old Country and finally the Land Wursten to their rule in 1524 . After long turmoil, the Oldenburg Count was able to take over Butjadingen and Stadland in 1514 in competition with Bremen . The farmers of the land of Hadeln were lucky ; they fell in the 13th century under the rule of the weak Duke of Saxony-Lauenburg . They preserved their cooperative independence until well into the 19th century.
Communities in Scandinavia are also known as peasant republics . This applies e.g. B. towards Iceland up to the 12th century. Some historians argue that Gotland was a peasant republic before the Danish raid in 1361.
Alpine region
There are parallels between developments in Friesland and Switzerland : in Glarus , Uri , Schwyz and Unterwalden , too , the Landsgemeinde was actually the owner of public authority. The councils, consisting of sixty men, were the executive authority. The free communities of Alpine farmers have formed a confederation of states with cities, some of which did not have a democratic constitution. But the bond that united them was so loose that it did not affect their internal circumstances. The peasants alone achieved the most glorious victories over princes and aristocracy. The dominance of free farmers in the Swiss Confederation lasted until the end of the 18th century.
The Bregenzerwald region advertises that in its area in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period there was a peasant republic with "its own free rural community, its own constitution (rural custom) and jurisdiction". In his dissertation, Mathias Moosbrugger shows, however, that the development of this rural community and the development of its communal structure were primarily in the interests of the Habsburg rule.
literature
- Jens Schmeyers: The last free Frisians between Weser and Ems: The history of Butjadingen and Stadland up to the battle at Hartwarder Schanze . Lemwerder. Stedinger Verlag 2006
Individual evidence
- ↑ Municipality of Butjadingen: An overview of the historical development of Butjadingen
- ↑ http://www.bauernkriege.de/Bauern Republik.html
- ↑ Volker Gabriel: Legal and judicial systems in the land of Wursten from the end of the Middle Ages to the 17th century (PDF file; 1.3 MB). 2004, p. 57f.
- ↑ Karsten Krüger: The land-based constitution . Munich, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag 2003, p. 81
- ↑ Touristikgemeinschaft Wesermarsch: The history of the Wesermarsch ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Volker Gabriel: Legal and judicial systems in the land of Wursten from the end of the Middle Ages to the 17th century (PDF file; 1.3 MB). 2004, p. 56
- ↑ z. B. etzel-ostfriesland.de: Ine Widdeken
- ↑ Local history working group e. V. Weenermoor - Möhlenwarf - St. Georgiwold - Beschotenweg: 1509 - 2009: 500 years of the Cosmas and Damian floods. The creation of the dollar . Section Not just a force of nature. Human complicity ( memento of the original from September 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ State of Lower Saxony: The Frisians
- ↑ Landsknechte invaded 500 years ago. Free Frisians on the Niederweser - Lecture by Professor Dr. Bernd Ulrich Hucker . Nordwestzeitung , February 16, 2007
- ^ Arnulf Krause: The world of the Vikings . Campus, Frankfurt / Main 2006, pp. 155–158
- ↑ Jörn Staecker: The standardized burial - Gotland's church cemeteries in the mirror of medieval norms and laws . In: Doris Ruhe / Karl-Heinz Spieß: Processes of norm formation and norm change in medieval Europe . Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, pp. 149f.
- ↑ Kurt Breysig: Die Geschichte der Menschheit de Gruyter, Berlin / New York, 2nd edition of the fourth and fifth volumes 2001, p. 202
- ↑ Bregenzerwald Tourismus: bregenzerwald ( memento of the original from June 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Mathias Moosbrugger: Beyond the Peasant Republic and Bezegg. New perspectives on the history of the judicial community in the rear of the Bregenzerwald (PDF file; 201 kB) Lecture at the invitation of the Bregenzerwald-Egg Adult Education Center on the occasion of "200 years of community organization in Vorarlberg 1808 to 2008" on November 7, 2008 in Egg (grammar school)
