Ranzion
The ranzion is a term used from the 15th to the 19th century for ransom money (amount of money for the ransom from (war) captivity as well as for captured ships, etc.) The ransom or the exchange of prisoners itself was also called this. Buying free or exchanging prisoners was called "rancioning". A "rancioned" was an individual soldier who was freed through ransom, exchange, or flight from captivity. The colloquial language of the 18th and 19th centuries generally referred to someone who had freed himself from a difficult situation as "rancied". The ransom of (Christian) prisoners and slaves has been considered a work of mercy since Laktanz († around 320) ; the order of the Mercedarians ( Latin Ordo Beatae Mariae de Mercede Redemptionis Captivorum ) was primarily dedicated to this purpose .
The origin of the name is seen in the old French word rançon or raençon , which is derived from the Latin redemptio ("to buy out").
From ancient times to the French Revolution
After prisoners of war were killed or enslaved in antiquity, with the advent of Christianity, the victors in a military conflict determined the amount of the ransom with which the prisoner of war had to buy himself out individually. - Since the time of the Thirty Years' War there were agreements between the belligerents, for the various ranks laid down different Ranzionen. There was also an exchange of prisoners. According to a Cartel treaty (cartel or dissolution treaty) between Austria and Sweden from 1642:
- for a commanding general 30,000 thalers ,
- for a colonel 1,000 thaler,
- for a Rittmeister 200 Thaler,
- for a captain 150 thalers,
- for a sutler 30 thaler,
- for a rider 6 thalers,
- for a musketeer 4 thalers.
Such a treaty was also concluded for the conflict between France and England in 1780. In each case, 60 pounds sterling had to be paid as ransom for
- a French Vice Admiral,
- an English commanding admiral ( en chef ),
- a French marshal ,
- an English field marshal or
- 60 sailors or
- 60 common soldiers.
(So a common man went into the bill for £ 1.)
The process of ransom prisoners has since then only been used in piracy ; it is resurrecting in the form of piracy off the coast of Somalia .
In addition, the "exchange" existed at a rank (e.g. lieutenants versus lieutenants), whereby the regiment that had taken a number of prisoners in a fight could exchange the corresponding number of its own regimental members from the enemy captivity. The exchange took place during the war during a specially agreed armistice .
From the French Revolution to the First World War
When, at the beginning of the First Revolutionary War, France declared in 1792 that they would no longer pay ranzion, there was only replacement in Europe. During the First World War , there was only an exchange of "permanently unusable prisoners of war".
Occurrence of the term in literature
Wilhelm Raabe : The Black Galley
... for a long time now neither pardon nor ranzion. It was respected for mercy if the mutual prisoners were knocked down briefly or if they were hung on the yard and they were not slowly tortured to death in the most cruel way, they were not crucified on deck and sunk with the taken ship.
Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué : The Schauerfeld - A Rübezahlsgeschichte
... and won the Silbertaler in an honest, open fight from a brave man from the Welsh, whom he defeated and gave him his life for this ranzion. ...
Berlinische Privileged Zeitung , January 23, 1748
... just as, on the other hand, the first-mentioned prisoner would be extradited even without the slightest ranzion, as soon as peace was either made; ...
... to put in the greatest danger, not to imagine what kind of way I wanted to make the governor a clever proposal about my ranzion. ...
The Thirty Years War in the Heidenheim area
Especially the captain was a real bird, to whom one has to give ranzion (ransom) because of Mr. Collega (first pastor) and my 6 thalers. ...
literature
- General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes. Conversations Lexicon. 10th improved and increased edition. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1854.
- Duden - The great foreign dictionary. Origin and meaning of the foreign words. Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Leipzig / Vienna / Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-411-04163-3 .
- Ranzion . In: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 10 , issue 9/10 (edited by Heino Speer and others). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-7400-0989-6 ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de ).
- Ranzion . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 13, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 577.
- Berlinische Privileged Zeitung. January 23, 1748
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Prisoners of War . In: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon 1894-1896, Volume 10, p. 732.
- ↑ Armistice . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 16, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 315.
- ↑ Meyers Konversationslexikon. Sixth edition. War addendum. Third part. Bibliographical Institute, Leipzig / Vienna 1920, p. 270 ff.