Landsmannschaft (early modern period)

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Festive burning of the country team badges in Jena (1765)

Associations of German students from one country referred to themselves as Landsmannschaft . Their diversity is obvious, their conceptual and temporal assignment difficult. For example, there was a “German nation” at the University of Bologna and Pomeranian , Franconian , Silesian and many other “country teams” at the German universities .

history

The 10 imperial circles at the beginning of the 16th century.
Saxon canton division (1814)

Especially since the second half of the 17th century , student communities in the form of country teams, also known as societates , have been formed again at the Protestant German universities .

These self-governing associations were no longer under the supervision of the university authorities and were private associations of students of the same geographical origin. However , they resembled the older Nationes (southern type) in that they represent a society whose intention was to support and socially integrate the newcomers and whose interests they willingly represented.

Schindelmeiser writes:

“While the nobility was rarely to be found in universities as long as the theologian played the first role, the picture changed when the lawyer was preferred again in civil service. On the other hand, his prerogative was to be allowed to go armed. Part of the rest of the student body took this as an example; the long (Thirty Years) War that followed reinforced this tendency. In the country teams everything that represented this point of view finally gathered.

After Pennalism had been suppressed, on the other hand, the less active part of the students no longer joined the country teams. These students were referred to as savages or obscurants, while the country teams called themselves allies. The influence of this was again greater at universities, where students from several countries met from the outset; for the state supervision was less strict there. Apart from their location, Jena and Halle were therefore of particular importance for the development of customs.

The connection between the students united in the country teams was not firm. There were also disputes within their own ranks that were fought with the weapon. As soon as the associate had left college, at most he maintained the old relationships with former friends. Bünder, however, fell into disrepair and were opened again. From the outset, there was no endeavor to maintain a circle of friends founded in youth for life. "

- Siegfried Schindelmeiser

The number of country teams depended heavily on the size of the university. Most universities only had a few hundred students at that time, the largest around a thousand. That is why there was not a separate country team for every territory. In the large countries with strong ruling dynasties (Prussia, Borussia , Bavaria, Bavaria ) this was unproblematic, fragmented areas with many small states (Rhineland, Westphalia, Swabia, Franconia) were also often grouped according to the imperial circles that had existed since the 15th century (Rhenania, Guestphalia, Suevia, Franconia).

The small Baltic Sea universities (Kiel, Rostock, Greifswald, Koenigsberg) usually had little or no activities by compatriots. Here all students were grouped together in the general public or fraternity , that is, the entirety of the boys , the students. This term fraternity was later taken up again from 1815 by the students in Jena as a term for their new founding of an all-encompassing, politically oriented form of association, which consciously turned against the country-team structure of the student body.

  • Badge of the country teams at the University of Leipzig

  • Saxony

  • Meissner

  • Poland

  • Bavaria

Prohibitions

They made themselves suspicious of being responsible for excesses and excesses among the students. They were blamed for the excessive drinking binge that was customary at the time, the often unbridled dueling and fights with journeymen.

The country teams of that time were often banned, but these bans were only implemented more or less strictly. Mostly there were current occasions for persecution, which then calmed down again. The existence of many compatriots can be proven ex negativo from court files and bans.

Up until the last decade of the 18th century, the student carried a weapon at all times in everyday life. In addition to the semi-regular duels, which were based on honor disputes and in which cartel holders , seconds and referees were used, there were often spontaneous arguments that were fought on the spot, in the form of the so-called Rencontre (French: "meeting, Battle "). Starting in 1794 , the right to carry weapons for students in the Holy Roman Empire was restricted, fencing weapons were only allowed to be taken with them when traveling from city to city for self-defense, they were forbidden when walking within the city or when walking or riding outside the city. This led to a refinement and increased formalization of dueling.

Proof of existence due to prohibitions
city Jena Helmstedt Leipzig Greifswald to water Koenigsberg Heidelberg Hall Goettingen gain Kiel Marburg
year 1644 1654 1654 1659 1664 1664 1683 1717 1751 1769 1774 1789

18th century

National team uniforms in Göttingen (1773)

Especially in the 18th century, members of country teams wore a kind of uniform. As a rule, the color of the skirt and the color of the skirt lapels were uniform. One or two-colored national cockades were sometimes worn on the hat. This uniformity was pursued by the university authorities as a badge for secret societies .

In the design of the uniforms, the civil uniforms introduced by the rulers in the 18th century also played a role, which the officials of the respective country had to wear in national colors . It became customary for the heirs of these dignitaries to appear in the uniform of their fathers even at university. But that could hardly be forbidden as a badge of a secret society .

The distinction between what was to be regarded as a badge of a prohibited association or the permitted use of national colors was and remained a problem well into the first half of the 19th century, which in some cases occupied the university administrations intensively.

The Göttingen university laws from 1802 say:

“As a result of these prohibitions because of the medals and country teams, all marks and distinguishing marks in clothes, cocards , etc. are also forbidden to the students in Göttingen. As soon as someone lets it be noticed, such is regarded as an indication that he is in an unauthorized connection, and the same Art. 18 No. 4 is to be dealt with. Otherwise, however, in any case, the use of such marks is to be proven with Carcerstrafe and, if the situation is good, with the Consilio abeundi . Incidentally, according to the view of this prohibition, it goes without saying that it includes so little military uniforms as court and hunting uniforms, including the associated cocards, which anyone who can prove that he is entitled to do so according to his status wear remains unaffected. "

The union of the country teams was rather loose in the first half. There was no such thing as a conspiratorial community, even with a strict life covenant principle . This was introduced by the student orders emerging in the middle of the century , which, with their tighter order, their ceremonies and their order laws, influenced the country teams through the predominant double membership in both the order and the country teams. For Göttingen alone, constitutions of country teams from the 18th century are known today. So one can derive the content of the applicable laws of the Landsmannschaft from the protocols of the Hanoverian Landsmannschaft for the years 1777–1779. This had Chargiert, a selection principle for the admission by reception and punitive power over the members ranging from fines to the exclusion in case of violation of the principles. In the form of the Schubert silhouette collection , a documentation of rural life at this university is immediately available. The laws of the Westphalian Landsmannschaft in Göttingen from November 4, 1787 have also been preserved.

  • Mosellaner seal (1760)

  • Kurlander Uniform (1773)

  • Brunswick (1779)

  • Jena Rhenanen (1797)

  • First volume (1800)

Regarding the formation of the student orders, Hoede reports that the Moselle Landsmannschaft in Jena was “fritzisch” during the Seven Years' War . This led to fights with enemies of Prussia that she decided to hold her meetings in the rooms, i.e. H. secret to let take place. In 1762 this country team gave the senior almost unlimited power in their then newly drafted law . In his support were Subsenior and secretary have been used while the recording took place only after rigorous selection in a formal procedure. This created the conditions for a closer alliance with greater strength, but independent of Freemasonry .

19th century

The old country teams disappeared at the end of the 18th century due to constant fighting. They only existed in Göttingen until 1812. From 1808 they were converted into corpsland teams and in 1809 they formed the Göttingen Senior Citizens' Convention . The first Göttingen SC-Comment was signed by four Corpsland teams in the spring of 1809 with the title “General Comment of the Göttingen Burschenschaft”.

As a result of the prohibition of the medals in early June 1792 by Duke Karl August von Weimar by means of the Conclusum Corporis Evangelicorum , confirmed and expanded in June 1793 by a farewell to the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg throughout the German Empire , won the country team concept (but with adoption of the strict order and the regulations of the orders) in importance. So around 1800 the first of the connections later called Corps emerged , which initially gave themselves a wide variety of names: Society , Kränzchen , even Clubb and to the general confusion of languages ​​also country team .

In 1813 Daniel Ludwig Wallis reported on life at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . On the reasons for the country team principle in the formation of student communities, he writes:

“You stick to your compatriots and don't try to form a circle of friends or steadfast associates among strangers. This is reprehensible for several reasons; you lose love and trust in them, and in the end you find yourself terribly cheated, because unfortunately the saying is only too often true: 'donec eris felix multos numerabis amicos'; this new friendship is seldom genuine and cordial. And you certainly always have the best support in embarrassment in your countrymen, the best advice in domestic affairs, and the best help in disputes with third parties. As a rule, those who withdraw from their childhood friends, schoolmates or compatriots get astray, become dissolute, lavish and ruin mind and body. "

- Daniel Ludwig Wallis

In Göttingen, for example, the five Landsmannschaften that existed in 1809, the Kurlanders, Frisians, Hanoverians, Vandals and Westphalia, went back continuously to the year of the university anniversary in 1787. The Hessians were added here in 1810 and the Pomeranians in 1811. In 1812 there was a major investigation, as a result of which on March 7, 1812 all students of this country team had to swear to the prorector not to open any new ones. Thus, without further ado, it was reopened under the name Corps .

literature

  • Otto Deneke: Franz Eichhorn, the vandal. Goettingen 1931
  • Otto Deneke: The Westphälische Landsmannschaft 1787 to 1812. Göttingen 1935
  • Wilhelm Raeder: Curonen at the universities of Germany 1801–1831. 1935
  • Otto Deneke: Old Göttingen country teams. Göttingen 1937
  • Gunnar Henry Caddick: The Hannöversche Landsmannschaft at the University of Göttingen from 1737-1809. Göttingen 2002.
  • Rainer A. Müller: Landsmannschaften and student orders at German universities of the 17th and 18th centuries from: Historia Academica, Volume 36, 1997

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See P. Dietrich: Die Deutsche Landsmannschaft , in: Historia Academica 3/4 (undated), p. 15ff.
  2. ^ Siegfried Schindelmeiser: The Albertina and its students 1544 to WS 1850/51 (vol. 1). Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-028704-6 , vol. 1, p. 35
  3. ^ L. Golinski: The student associations in Frankfurt , a. O., Diss. Breslau, 1903, pp. 21-36
  4. ↑ See Fig. From: Hans-Georg Schmeling: Göttingen in the 18th century. Catalog Göttingen 1987, p. 168
  5. ↑ a b Deneke (1937)
  6. ↑ Klaus Hoede: On the question of the origin of “secret student connections” in the 18th century . Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 12 (1967), pp. 5-42.
  7. ^ Siegfried Schindelmeiser: The Albertina and its students 1544 to WS 1850/51 and the history of the Corps Baltia II zu Königsberg i. Pr. New edition by Rüdiger Döhler and Georg v. Klitzing, Vol. 1, p. 37. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-028704-6 . GoogleBooks .
  8. ↑ Printed by Götz von Selle in the Göttingen University Pocket Book 1929
  9. ↑ Compare RGS Weber: The German Corps in the Third Reich , 1997, p. 20.
  10. ↑ Ludwig Wallis: The Göttingen student or remarks, advice and instructions on Göttingen and student life on the Georgia Augusta . 2. Reprint of the 1913 (and 1813) edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1995, p. 68 f. ISBN 3-525-39153-6
  11. ^ Horst Bernhardi: The Göttinger Landsmannschaften from 1840-1854