Prostitution in the Middle Ages

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Brothel scene, depiction from the second quarter of the 16th century

With the prostitution in the Middle Ages which is purchasable sex in Central Europe in the period between the ancient and the modern era (from about 600 n. Chr. To about 1500), respectively. Prostitution accompanied the development of the cities and the medieval state step by step.

Designations

The term prostitute does not appear in the sources until the late Middle Ages . Terms used in the sources are "meretrix" (Latin expression for a registered prostitute), "prostibilis" ("offer oneself") "gemaine weiber" (general "women" - prostitutes were usually obliged to give each customer "without distinction") to serve) or "frie frowen" (free women - private prostitutes who did not work in the women's refuge, but in unofficial private brothels, which were not obliged to serve every customer).

Indeed, the term prostitute is questionable for the Middle Ages as it reflects a modern understanding of prostitution. The Whore (most common translation for Meretrix) was primarily an unmarried woman who had sex with several men. The fact that she took money for it was considered immoral by very few contemporaries. Rather, poverty was still a kind of guilt-reducing circumstance for the moral judgment of the person (cf. “meretrix, que multorum libidini patent” from the Decretum Gratiani - fundamental text of canon law).

research

While the historians of the 19th century recognized the signs of a general immorality in the urban brothels of the Middle Ages, the discussion about prostitution is carried out today in the context of so-called fringe group research, which is about how a society deals with deviant forms of behavior To be able to explain understanding about standards. The concept of the fringe group is controversial, however, as there are many social groups that are severely disadvantaged on the one hand, but in other places show elements of a socially integrated group.

The prostitutes of the Middle Ages and their environment are therefore a research focus of fringe group research, as their social role seems to have been extremely ambivalent. Some of them had no rights and were serf, driven into artificial debt and obliged to do forced labor, but on the other hand they were welcome guests at festivals and parades and thus took part in various public events of medieval city life. The woman landlord, the leaseholder of the public brothel and director of the prostitutes, on the other hand, was a free man, even if as a rule not a citizen.

The female landlord (often also the executioner) was often wealthy, but socially disadvantaged and was considered dishonorable. There is no known source that reports the presence of a woman host at a festival. Using the example of the prostitute and the female landlord, one can see how the social characteristics of some people vertically wander through an all too rigid layered model of society.

Women's refuge

In the women's shelter , master with the tape rolls, 15th century

The women's shelter was a late medieval special form of the brothel . The women's shelters were either owned by the city and leased to a landlord by the city, or they belonged to a wealthy citizen who leased the city's building. The council of the medieval city thus promoted prostitution and, as it were, institutionalized it. The rights and duties of the prostitutes were regulated in a women's shelter. These regulations stipulated, for example, that a prostitute had to be “free” (that is, generally accessible) and had to serve a certain number of customers per day. Regulations for the case of illness and the nutrition of the prostitutes were also laid down in the women's shelter rules.

The first brothels in Europe during the Middle Ages are mentioned in a document in the 12th century . Early and high medieval weaving and spinning houses , the so-called gyneces , were at times considered by research to be the forerunners of urban brothels, as the prostitutes in the women's shelter were often contractually obliged to spin a certain amount of yarn for the woman host . A direct line of development between the gyneces of Charlemagne and the communal brothels of the 15th century cannot be drawn, however.

According to contemporary writings, the reasons for the establishment of communal brothels are laid out both in the social structure and in the gender ratio of late medieval society. A relatively high percentage of men were unable to marry due to the provisions of marriage law. Extra-marital intercourse between unmarried men and unmarried (young) women led to the latter being socially ostracized. The result was frequent rape and casual prostitution. To counter this, women's shelters were set up to incorporate prostitution, which was considered a “lesser evil” in the sense of Augustine , into the urban order.

The court files from 1472 about the prostitute Els von Eystett from Eichstätt can still be found in the Nördlingen city archive . The historian Jamie Page evaluated the documents for a thesis at the University of St Andrews . The Nördlingen women's refuge was demolished in 1988.

In France and Italy , typical brothel prostitution can be traced back to the 12th century. At that time there were already several women's shelters in cities like Paris , Florence or Avignon , which were located within a designated district. In Germany and England, however , the establishment of official women's shelters did not begin until the 13th and especially then in the 14th century. In Venice in 1509 there were 11,654 prostitutes out of 300,000 inhabitants. At the Council of Constance (1414-1418) 1500 prostitutes are said to have been in the city, at the Basel Council (1431) 1800.

Labeling and stigma

In accordance with the medieval attitude towards sexuality , prostitutes were generally regarded as sinful. Medieval prostitutes were classified as marginalized and lived outside of society. They were excluded from civil rights and often exposed to rape by customers, women traffickers , pimps and women landlords, because in legal practice the rape of a woman from the same social class was punished more mildly than the rape of a woman from a higher social class.

However, prostitution was permitted with reference to Augustine to prevent worse. Prostitutes had to wear recognizable clothing or a mark. There was a superstition that they had the " evil eye ", brought bad luck and were not allowed to touch certain foods. In Pavia, criminals and heretics as well as prostitutes had to leave the city when the newly elected ruler was sworn in on the city constitution. According to Merano's municipal law, around 1400 prostitutes were not allowed to attend public dance events in which “respectable” women took part.

Nevertheless, prostitutes were also valued in certain areas of everyday life in medieval society. In Vienna it was customary for prostitutes to attend official receptions of high guests, and prostitutes often danced for weddings and delivered their congratulations. In the case of childlessness, an encounter with a prostitute should bring fertility, and in Italy a serious ailment should be curable by secretly digging three stones from the door of a prostitute and placing them on the sick person's chest. In the Leipzig carnival custom, which was about driving out death, the prostitutes represented the motif of happiness and joie de vivre.

The dress codes differed through the Middle Ages and from city to city. Prostitutes in Vienna had to wear a yellow handkerchief on their armpits, in Augsburg a veil with a two-finger thick green line in the middle, in Frankfurt am Main a yellow trim (hem) and in Zurich and Bern a red cap indicated their low class affiliation . The wearing of certain shoes, ribbons or veils was also prescribed or prohibited for them. As a rule, the color markings were kept in the so-called shame colors: red, yellow or green. Since "ordinary" (or "decent and honest") women in the Middle Ages not "dress up" could or should, prostitutes were as Hübschlerinnen referred.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pierre Dufour: History of Prostitution , Volume 1, The pre-Christian time, 5th edition, Gross-Lichterfelde-Ost 1907
  2. ↑ Distinctio XXXIV Chapter C XVI
  3. ↑ https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/noerdlingen/Das-Leben-der-Wanderhure-aus-alten-Akten-regenössiert-id19046761.html
  4. ↑ https://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/2013-11/prostitution-geschichte