Cottager
As Häusler (also Häuselmann , self crofters , Kath people , Büdner or Bödner , Brinksitzer , agricultural laborers , Franconia and the Upper Palatinate Kobler , top German Pointler or mercenaries , official German colonists or small sites owners ) were referred to previously marginal farmers with private house, but only a little land . The word comes from the Middle High German hiuseler for ' house '.
life situation
The term Häusler, which comes from feudalism , characterizes the owners of the smallest properties. They were villagers who owned a small house and little or no land of their own ( less than a 10 yoke field, i.e. less than a quarter farmer ) and had little or no livestock, especially no horse or working ox.
Häusler appeared in greater numbers from the 16th century. At that time, the village boundaries were already largely divided between farmers and gardeners . So often the only options left for the cottagers were small tradesmen , servants , day laborers , schoolmasters or shepherds . Nevertheless, buying a house meant for them a social advancement within the village .
Due to the weak social position, the cottagers were disproportionately burdened with duties , especially taxes , from the sovereign in most areas .
In the 19th century, cottagers were a transitional form to day laborers with the respective landlords and were dependent on this sideline because their own agricultural property was not enough to support them. Nevertheless, they were regarded as free workers in contrast to the serfs , but as a rule stood on the edge or outside of the village community, which was shaped by the Hufnern. Accordingly, Brinkitzereien were also founded on the outskirts of the Marche, were equipped with hardly any real estate worth mentioning and without mark authorization.
They were on the same level as the regional settlers called Wördener and Kirchhöfer .
See also
literature
- Friedrich Johannes Haun: Farmer and landlord in Electoral Saxony. Description of the rural economy and constitution in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries . Trübner, Strasbourg 1892 ( digitized ).
