Look Kids! Real Research! (Again...For Once...Whichever...)

This happy story brought to you via brickhousewench, who got it from Alena, who begat Abraham, who begat Issac…wait…sorry – wrong Big Book of Fun Knowledge.

*facepalm*

Anyway, thank you brickhousewench!

“Mobility: Voluntary or Enforced? Vagrants in Württemberg in the Sixteenth Century” by Robert W. Scribner. from Migration in der Feudalgesllschaft, Gerhard Jaritz, Alber Müller (H.G). Page 65, published 1988, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York. ISBN: 3-593-33883-1

Page 67:

“The major themes of the paper can be summed up in the case of Veit Brunner of Vaihingen, a ‘Landsknecht’ arrested in January 1549 in a village just outside of Pfullingen, in the administrative district of Urach. Brunner had emptied his musket through the window of a house as he marched into the village with his female companion, Katherina Steb. He claimed that he had been drinking on the road, and was ‘full of wine’. For safety’s sake, he had wanted to discharge his musket before entering Pfullingen: ¹ he just had not seen the house in the way ². The district officials were dissatisfied with this explanation, and reported to Stuttgard, from where the Duke ordered that he be interrogated, by bringing him into the presence of the executioner ³ and if necessary by the use of torture.

“Nothing suspicious was discovered in the interrogation, and the district governor of Urach reported only that Brunner had been imprisoned two years previously in Esslingen, and since then had not been in his home town of Vaihingen for more than 2-3 days. However, he had remained there long enough to run up 100 Gulden worth of debts and to get a girl pregnant, who was even now supporting his child. In addition, Brunner was reputed to be slightly crazy ⁴. The previous August his own brothers Steffan and Friedrich had applied to the Württemberg chancellery to have a warrant (‘Steckbrief’) issued for his arrest. They claimed that he had been wounded in the head with a knife some years previously, had lost his reason, and had had to be locked up for his own protection. However, he had escaped and had been wandering the roads, and was given to all kinds of irrational behavior – abuse, threats and every kind of mischief. When he returned briefly to Vaihingen he had threatened to burn down all the surrounding villages. It was feared that he would harm someone, and all Württemberg officials were ordered to keep a lookout for him.

“Viet Brunner may have been crazy, but he had won himself a travelling companion ⁵, Katherina Steb from Überlingen. Katherina had been working in the hospital in Überlingen, where she had taken up with a fellow worker, Hans Beck from Ebersbach, only eleven months before. The couple had married just before Lent 1548, but only two weeks after Easter Beck deserted his new wife ⁶. Too ashamed to remain in her home town, she had moved to Marbach on the Swabian Alp, where she took service with a miller. There she met Veit Brunner, who arrived with a companion. Veit was struck with her, and declared that she was the woman for him. He forced her to go away with him, which Katherina claimed she had done ‘out of fear and lack of understanding’. They went to Bernback, where she again took service briefly, and then to Mittenstedt, where she found another position as a servant, and wanted to part company with Veit. But he stood in the street outside the house, and so cried out that she must come out and go with him that she gave in, again, as she claimed, ‘out of fear’⁷. From there they came to Pfullingen. Her account was confirmed by Veit’s testimony, except that he did not know that she was married, and had promised to marry her himself. Indeed, in his first interrogation he had openly admitted that she was not his wife, but had professed his intention to ‘lead her to church and street’ as soon as he was released.”

 

The article goes on to discuss Landsknechts and Gartknecht (Landsies on leave or between wars?) as a type of common vagrant. I can’t wait to read the rest of this article!

Footnotes presented here are mine, and are just my thoughts on the piece thus far:

¹ So, he was marching with a loaded musket? And he was a vagrant? Really? Wow… How the hell did he afford the gun, the powder. The Fucking WINE?!? Oh, I guess if you have a loaded gun it makes it easier to barter with the local villagers. OK. I am satisfied.
² That happens to me all the time.
³ For some truly fun information on executioners, skinners, butchers, soldiers and other “unclean” castes, try “Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts: Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany” by Kathy Stuart.
⁴ So far he sounds like every Landsknect I know. Except my husband. Of course. /side eyes the exits
⁵ Where ‘won’ is a cute euphemism for kidnapped and ran away with. *eye roll*
⁶ Katherina clearly has excellent taste in men.
⁷ Fooled me once, shame on you. Fooled me twice...

PS: If someone has a translated version of Martin Luther’s (yes, THAT Martin Luther) “Von der falschen Bettlern Buberei”, originally published in 1527 and then republished in five further additions – I will be your best friend…