Legal folklore

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The Legal folklore (also legal anthropology , legal culture history ) is an interdisciplinary research field in the intersection between folklore and history of law . According to Heiner Lück , legal folklore deals with "recognizing everyday legal and legal practical facts and processes (preferably from traditional customs )". And more specifically: "Legal folklore tries to draw conclusions about the legal coexistence of people from folk customs and other folklore sources that do not have to be ostensibly legally shaped (e.g. children's games, fairy tales, legends, folk songs, folk dances). “Overlaps with legal iconography and legal archeology are hardly avoidable and are wanted by most representatives of the field. Well-known representatives of the field have come together in the "International Society for Legal Folklore".

Origin of the term "legal folklore"

The term “legal folklore” was coined by the well-known Heidelberg legal historian Eberhard Freiherr von Künßberg (1881–1941), who borrowed from the established French term “folklore juridique”. The expression was almost generally perceived as more concise and clearer than other suggestions for the title of the then flourishing subject, which is why the name quickly established itself. In recent research, there have been repeated attempts to give the subject a more modern designation, such as “Legal Ethnology” or “Legal Cultural History” ( Hans Hattenhauer ), which have so far not been successful.

historical overview

The subject of research has been legal folklore since the 18th century. Justus Möser (1729–1794), Carl Henrich Dreyer (1723–1802), Tileman Dothias Wiarda (1746–1826) and Carl Gustav Homeyer (1795–1874) are considered early representatives of the field. Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) fans out the various aspects of the discipline in full in his Deutsche Rechtsalterthümern (1st edition Göttingen 1828). Because, as Grimm warned in the introduction, the carefully working legal historian should not turn one-sidedly to legal dogmatics in order to fully grasp the "multifaceted appearance of the old", he must rather also have "materials for the sensual element of German legal history, so much he could get hold of them, completely and faithfully… collect ”.

Well-known scholars of the 19th century who have dealt with topics of legal folklore are also for example Eduard Osenbrüggen (1809–1879), Heinrich Zoepfl (1807–1877) and Heinrich Gottfried Gengler (1817–1901). Karl von Amira (1848–1930) covered the entire spectrum of the subject with works such as Thierstrafen and Thierprocesse (1891), The Hand Gestures in the Illuminated Manuscripts of the Sachsenspiegel (1905) and The Staff in Germanic Legal Symbolism (1909).

Research subject

In 1925, Eberhard Freiherr von Künßberg , who gave the subject its name, initially described the field of "folklore" as the field of legal folklore, such as "folk songs, fairy tales, quarrels, sagas, proverbs and riddles", along with field, place and family names as well as festivals and ( Children's) games. As a second topic, he cited the legal symbols, to which, in addition to legal gestures, he also included “objective legal symbols” such as “earth, stalk, twig, stone”, as well as instruments, devices, weapons and coins. As a third area he named the "legal antiquities", which he (more closely than Grimm) included legally historically significant buildings and sites (places of justice, gallows etc.) as well as small monuments (such as boundary stones and atonement crosses). As an example of other relevant legal historical realities, he named the shame paintings.

There was much debate in research about Künßberg's listing (see the literature references below). A positive, conclusive definition of the area of ​​responsibility of legal folklore is hardly possible due to the strong and deliberate overlap with other subjects, which is why most representatives of the subject do without it. As can be seen from the subtitle of the specialist journal Signa Iuris , legal folklore is located in an open intersection with the subjects of legal archeology and legal iconography .

literature

Literature on the history and subject of legal folklore

  • Karl Siegfried Bader : Legal folklore from the point of view of the legal historian and lawyer. In: Konrad Köstlin, Kai Detlev Sievers (ed.): The right of the little people. Festschrift for Karl-Sigismund Kramer on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Berlin 1976, pp. 1–11 (reprinted in: Ders., Selected writings on legal and regional history, Vol. 1, edited by Clausdieter Schott, Sigmaringen 1984, pp. 124–134).
  • Hermann Baltl : Legal folklore and legal archeology as scientific terms and tasks. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore = Archives suisses des traditions populaires 48 (1952), pp. 65–82 .
  • Theodor Bühler: Folklore Juridique - legal folklore. In: Signa Iuris 1 (2008), pp. 177-179.
  • Theodor Bühler: Karl Siegfried Bader as a promoter of legal folklore. In: Research on legal archeology and legal folklore 23 (2006), pp. 13–25.
  • Louis Carlen : Folklore, Legal. In: Handwortbuch zur Deutschen Rechtsgeschichte , Vol. 4th, 1st edition, Berlin 1990, Sp. 999–1004.
  • Louis Carlen: Karl S. Bader and legal archeology and legal folklore. In: Research on legal archeology and legal folklore 18 (2000), pp. 11-25.
  • Daniel Habit: Legal Folklore Revisited. On the historical development 1945–1970 and on subsequent areas of conflict. In: Johannes Moser, Irene Götz , Moritz Ege (eds.): On the situation of folklore 1945-1970. Orientations of a Science in Times of the Cold War. Münster u. a. 2015, pp. 381-400.
  • Karl Frölich: The legal folklore as a task area of ​​the German universities. In: Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 41 (1950), pp. 182–192.
  • Konrad Köstlin : The legalization of folk culture. In: Ders., Kai Detlev Sievers (Hrsg.): The right of the little people. Contributions to legal folklore. Festschrift for Karl-Sigismund Kramer on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Berlin 1976, pp. 109-124.
  • Konrad Köstlin: Karl-S. Kramer and his legal folklore. In: Signa Iuris 16 (2019), pp. 9-26.
  • Karl-Sigismund Kramer : Problems of legal folklore. In: Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 1962, pp. 50–66.
  • Karl-Sigismund Kramer: Outline of a legal folklore. Goettingen 1974.
  • Karl-Sigismund Kramer: Why are folklorists not allowed to talk about law? On the problem of the reception of my book “Outline of a legal folklore” (1974). In: Ruth-E. Mohrmann, Volker Rodekamp, ​​Dietmar Sauermann (eds.): Folklore in the field of tension between university and museum. Festschrift for Hinrich Siuts' 65th birthday. Münster u. a. 1997, pp. 229-237.
  • Eberhard Freiherr von Künßberg : Legal history and folklore. In: Yearbook for historical folklore 1925, pp. 67–125 (reprint, edited by Pavlos Tzermias, Cologne 1965).
  • Eberhard Freiherr von Künßberg: Legal folklore. Halle (Saale) 1936.
  • Michele Luminati: Legal Folklore: A Discipline with a Future? In: Signa Iuris 16 (2019), pp. 27-44.
  • Witold Maisel: The demarcation of legal archeology and legal folklore. In: Research on legal archeology and legal folklore 2 (1979), pp. 93-104.
  • Klaus F. Röhl : How do you translate “Popular Legal Culture”? In: Signa Iuris 1 (2008), pp. 173-174.
  • Herbert Schempf: Between legal sociology and ethnological legal research. To the research field of legal folklore. In: New Instance. Journal for Law, Culture and Society 2 (March 1990), pp. 61–65.
  • Herbert Schempf: On the state of legal folklore in Europe. In: Research on legal archeology and legal folklore 18 (2000), pp. 27–42.
  • Herbert Schempf: About the informative value of the title collection in the retrospective. Considerations on legal folklore in Europe using the example of Italy. In: Rainer Alsheimer, Eveline Doelman, Roland Weibezahn (eds.): Scientific discourse and electronic data processing. Bremen / Amsterdam 2000, pp. 171–180.
  • Herbert Schempf: Legal folklore. In: Rolf W. Brednich (Hrsg.): Grundriss der Volkskunde, introduction to the research fields of European ethnology. 3rd edition. Reimer, Berlin 2001, 423-444.
  • Klaus-Peter Schroeder : “Legal Folklore” at Heidelberg University during the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich. In: Signa Iuris 7 (2011), pp. 9-23.

Magazines and series on legal folklore

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heiner Lück: What is legal archeology and what can it do? In: Thoughts. Journal of the Saxon Academy of Sciences . tape 8 (2012) , p. 35-55, 40 f .
  2. ^ A b Eberhard von Künßberg: Legal history and folklore . In: Yearbook for historical folklore . 1925, p. 67-125, 69 ff .
  3. ^ Karl-Siegfried Bader: Gesunkenes Rechtsgut - On the formation of concepts and terminology in legal folklore . In: Art and Law - Festgabe for Hans Fehr . Karlsruhe 1948, p. 7–25, 11 (reprinted in: Ders. Selected writings on legal and regional history, Vol. 1, edited by Clausdieter Schott, Sigmaringen 1984, pp. 107–123).
  4. ↑ a b Andreas Deutsch: What is legal folklore? In: Homepage of the International Society for Legal Folklore. Retrieved February 27, 2019 .
  5. ^ Jacob Grimm: German legal antiquities . Ed .: Andreas Heusler / Rudolf Hübner. 4th edition. tape 1 . Leipzig 1899, p. VII ( archive.org [accessed February 27, 2019]).
  6. ^ Hermann Baltl: Legal folklore and legal archeology . In: Swiss Archives for Folklore . tape 48 , 1952, pp. 65-82 .