Grangie
The term grangie ( Latin granum = "grain", derived from it granicum or grangium = "grain store ", "storehouse"; Italian grangia ; French grange ; Spanish granja ) originally referred to a grain store , then an enclosed courtyard and later an agricultural estate complex.
meaning
Grangien form the predominant manor form of the Cistercians and represent large estates of 50–400 ha (average size 150–200 ha) cultivated by lay brothers ( Konversen ). The Konversen led the Grangien and based their work on cloister servants ( monasteries ) and Wage workers, but were in turn accountable to the abbot and the cellar of the monastery .
In the early days of the order, grangia often emerged from the fact that previously undeveloped land (forests, swamps) was donated to the Cistercians. The inhabitants of the monastery, especially the lay brothers called Konversen, then opened up these areas through their own work, but also through the use of wage workers for agriculture and set up their farms there. In later times the areas in which the Cistercian monasteries were located - not least because of the activities of the order - were no longer sparsely populated wastelands. Now it happened more and more often that the monks were donated already inhabited leasehold land. This could lead to the farmers who had previously lived there being ousted: “If there was lease land under the donated land, the Cistercians often did everything in their power to settle the tenants, for example by paying money, delivering cattle or utensils and others. The tenants then had to leave the land or work as wage laborers for the Cistercians. ”The previous village with its farms was then demolished with the exception of a farm used as a grangie and the fields were taken over by the abbey.
The economy of the Grangien, which reached its peak in the 12th and 13th centuries, was consistently modern: As a reaction to the increasingly unprofitable and more and more fragmented traditional manorial rule , the Cistercians strived for well-rounded land ownership and legal uniformity, which was suitable together with rational forms of operation were to make a profit. The Grangien produced their products for the local market in the nearby towns and sold them through the town courtyards of the monasteries.
Examples
The good documented tradition of the Cistercians allows the development and economic system of the Grangia to be traced and traced in detail.
In the Heidelberg area, the Cistercians of the Schönau monastery built two large grange houses with Bruchhausen and Grenzhof , whereby the dissolution of the village of Lochheim is clearly documented. However, the conversion of the village of Plankstadt to Grangie failed in 1293, on the one hand because the farmers there resisted bitterly, on the other hand because the strength of the Schönau monastery, which relied on the work of the lay brothers, was already waning.
The story of the Maulbronn Grangie Elfingen , on the other hand, is anecdotal : The monks in Maulbronn were allowed to dip their fingers in a groove of wine during meals and lick them. A monk is said to have sighed in the face of the good wine: “Oh, if only I had eleven fingers!” This is how Elfinger wine got its name.
The transformation of flourishing villages into individual farms also created problems. The Franconian Cistercian monastery Ebrach promoted the establishment of Grangien am Main triangle in the High Middle Ages. During the so-called negative settlement period in the 14th and 15th centuries, many of these grangia were then abandoned. The settlements Dürrenhof, Gieshügel , Kaltenhausen , Saudrach and Schmalfeld should be mentioned among these, partly temporary, devastation .
Place names
In French-speaking areas, place names with the part of the name Granges or La Grange are often connected to an earlier Grangie.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernhard Nagel: The self-work of the Cistercians. From religious asceticism to economic efficiency. Metropolis, Marburg 2006, p. 35, ISBN 3-89518-549-3
- ↑ Peter Rückert: Land expansion and desertification of the high and late Middle Ages in the Franconian Gäuland. Diss . Würzburg 1990, p. 140.
literature
- alphabetically ascending
- Bernhard Nagel: The Cistercians' own work. From religious asceticism to economic efficiency . Metropolis, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-89518-549-3 , p. 35.
- Peter Rückert: Land expansion and desertification of the high and late Middle Ages in the Franconian Gäuland . Dissertation. Würzburg 1990, pp. 139f.
- Martina Schattkowsky: Economic basics of monastery life in old cell . In: Altzelle, Cistercian abbey in Central Germany and house monastery of the Wettins . Leipziger Universitäts-Verlag, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 3-935693-55-9 , pp. 141ff.
- Winfried Schich : Grangien and town courts of the Cistercian monasteries in the area east of the middle Elbe up to the 14th century . In: Winfried Schich (Ed.): Cistercian economy and cultural landscape (= studies on the history, art and culture of the Cistercians . Volume 3). 1st edition, Lukas Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-931836-12-6 , pp. 64-98.
- Reinhard Schneider : Grangie . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume IV. Arch Chancellor to Hiddensee . Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-423-59057-2 , Sp. 1653–1654 (with further literature).
- Hans Wiswe: Grangien of Lower Saxony Cistercian monasteries. Development and management of large late medieval-early modern agricultural holdings . In: Hans Goetting (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch . Volume 34, Waisenhaus-Buchdruckerei, Braunschweig 1953, pp. 5-134.
