Strangers and Misfits: Banishment, Social Control, and Authority in Early Modern Germany

169 Pages·2008·2.77 MB·English

by  Jason Philip Coy

Strangers and Misfi ts
Studies in Central
European Histories
Edited by
Thomas A. Brady, Jr., University of California, Berkeley
Roger Chickering, Georgetown University
Editorial Board
Steven Beller, Washington, D.C.
Atina Grossmann, Columbia University
Peter Hayes, Northwestern University
Susan Karant-Nunn, University of Arizona
Mary Lindemann, University of Miami
David M. Luebke, University of Oregon
H.C. Erik Midelfort, University of Virginia
David Sabean, University of California, Los Angeles
Jonathan Sperber, University of Missouri
Jan de Vries, University of California, Berkeley
VOLUME XLVII
Strangers and Misfi ts
Banishment, Social Control, and Authority
in Early Modern Germany
By
Jason P. Coy
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
Cover illustration: Marginalia from Anna Schumacherin verdict, StAU A [6589] Urgicht-
buch, fol. 89 (1603).
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coy, Jason P.
Strangers and misfi ts : banishment, social control, and authority in early modern
Germany / By Jason P. Coy.
p. cm. — (Studies in Central European histories)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-16174-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Ulm (Germany)—History—
16th century. 2. Exile (Punishment)—Germany—Ulm—16th century. 3. Ulm
(Germany)—Social conditions—16th century. I. Title.
DD901.U4C68 2008
303.3’30943473—dc22
2008026942
ISSN 1547-1217
ISBN 978 90 04 16174 0
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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For Amy

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... ix
List of Figures ............................................................................. xi
Introduction. Banishment and Social Control in Early
Modern Germany ................................................................... 1
Chapter One. Banishment and Authority in Sixteenth-
Century Ulm ........................................................................... 11
The Banishment of Rosina Schemerin ................................. 11
Political Authority and Law Enforcement in Ulm ................ 15
Banishment Practices: Prosecution and Purgation ................ 24
Chapter Two. Vagrancy and Banishment ............................... 31
The Banishment of Michel Maürer ...................................... 31
Vagrancy Legislation and Urban Community ...................... 33
Banishment and the 1559 Beggars’ Ordinance ..................... 36
Public Expulsion and Sociospatial Boundaries ...................... 52
Chapter Three. Resident Aliens, Expulsion, and Exclusion ... 57
The Banishment of Cathrina Mair ....................................... 57
The Migrants’ Ordinance and the Regulation of Resident
Aliens ................................................................................... 58
Expulsion and Exclusion ........................................................ 62
Property and Purity: The Banishment of Resident Aliens ... 74
Chapter Four. Moral Reform and the Banishment of
Citizens .................................................................................... 79
The Banishment of the Haüser Brothers .............................. 79
Moral Reform and Social Control: The Church
Ordinance of 1531/1581 ................................................... 82
Banishment and Bürgerrecht: The Banishment of Citizens ..... 88
Negotiation, Resistance, and Appeal ..................................... 97
viii contents
Chapter Five. Public Expulsion Rituals and Early Modern
Authority ................................................................................. 113
The Ritual Expulsion of Simon Schlögel .............................. 113
Displacement and Discipline: Banishment and Horizontal
Social Control in Ulm ........................................................ 114
The Therapeutic Role of Purgation ...................................... 122
‘An Image and Example’: Banishment, Public Penal
Displays, and Political Authority ........................................ 124
Conclusion .................................................................................. 137
Bibliography ................................................................................ 141
Index ........................................................................................... 153
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My interest in banishment, and its role in supporting the exercise of
authority, stems from the earliest days of my archival research on law
enforcement in early modern Ulm. The fi rst primary source that I
consulted in the city’s municipal archives was a record of punishment
verdicts, a large, leather-bound tome with a brass buckle that had the
title Strafbuch 10 embossed on the cover. As I read through the hundreds
of terse verdicts from the 1580s and 90s scrawled in dark ink on its
yellowed parchment pages, I was struck at once by the frequency of
banishment. Likewise, the wide range of crimes that merited judicial
expulsion and the diverse sorts of suspects—men and women, vagrants
and goldsmiths—that suffered banishment caught my attention. In the
years that followed, as I pursued this topic by studying banishment
practices in Ulm and elsewhere, I relied upon the generous assistance
of many scholars and institutions.
Above all, I benefi ted from the guidance and support of my dis-
sertation advisor at the University of California, Los Angeles, David
Sabean, who provided an inspiring model of teaching and scholarship.
At UCLA, my work also profi ted greatly from the comments of the
other members of my dissertation committee, Geoffrey Symcox and
Stephen Frank, and the many participants in the History Department’s
European Colloquium, a scholarly community that was at once collegial
and rigorous and that provided me with a stimulating example of fruit-
ful academic discourse. For their encouragement and their insightful
commentary on the papers I presented in this colloquium, I would like
to thank especially Lynn Hunt, Muriel McClendon, Kathryn Norberg,
Gabi Piterberg, Hans Reill, and Teo Ruiz.
Many other scholars have helped nurture this project and have pro-
vided invaluable suggestions for my research in conferences, colloquia,
and conversations. I would especially like to thank Tom Brady, Robert
Davis, Mary Lindemann, David Luebke, Terence McIntosh, Hans
Medick, and Tom Robisheaux for their advice and encouragement.
Several of my colleagues at the College of Charleston have also pro-
vided useful suggestions for revisions in the fi nal stages of this project,
including Rich Bodek, Tim Coates, and Bill Olejniczak.