Sölde (agriculture)

Former Sölde and current local history museum in St. Johann am Walde , Upper Austria

A Sölde (also Selde ) describes in Bavaria and Austria the farm and property of a mercenary (not a soldier, but a small farmer, cottage owner ) who sometimes owned some cattle and usually could not live on it alone. As a day laborer or craftsman, he had to earn additional “pay”. Unlike the farmers, the mercenaries mostly didn't have horses either. Therefore, instead of the tensioning service , they had to do manual work. With the Sölden - in contrast to the farms of the farmers, often also called "Gütel" or "Gütl", i.e. smaller than a quarter farmer - a distinction is made between

• the Achtel-Hof / Gütl (Kleinhäusl)
• the Sechzehntel-Hof / Gütl (Leerhäusl or Bausölde)
• the thirty-second yard / Gütl (common or mere Sölde)

This classification was based on the tax force of the property, which resulted from the associated agricultural and wood-working areas as well as the trade fairness on some Sölden (e.g. blacksmith, tailor, Wagner, Schäffler, baker, Kistler, etc.) (for old Bavaria see Hoffuß ). The tax force was repeatedly estimated by a committee consisting of a representative of the landlord (monastery or nobleman) and two or three property owners from the local area.

Swabia

In Swabia, the name Selde is common. The Tübingen geographer Hermann Grees has dealt intensively with the self-government in his habilitation thesis Ländliche Unterichten und rural Siedlung in Ostschwaben (1975) and other works.

Web link

Wikisource: What is a Söldengut?  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz Daffner: History of the Benediktbeuern Monastery (740 - 1802) taking into account general history and handwritten literature , Munich 1893
2. ^ Reinhard Riepl: Dictionary on family and local history research in Bavaria and Austria . 1st edition. Waldkraiburg 2003, ISBN 3-00-012700-3 , pp. 175 and 349