バイエルン王国の1834年定住・婚姻関連法と農業奉公人  [in Japanese] The Bavarian Settlement and Marriage Legislation of 1834 and its Effect on Agricultural Servants  [in Japanese]

In 19th century Bavaria, as in many other German states, legal restrictions on marriage were adopted to prevent population increase among poor families. Setting aside the original aim of the law this article considers the influences of the legislation upon farmers and agricultural servants in the area. In the rural area of Upper Bavaria, the main region of the present study, the principle of impartible inheritance was general and therefore there were many agricultural servants who were employed by farmers as laborers and lived in their employer's house. They were single. The farmer needed servants to maintain his large farm, but the servants would not obey the employer. Disobedience among servants was a long standing issue for the government authorities, too. It is clear that the Minister of Home Affairs, Ottingen von Wallerstein, sought to improve the attitude of servants, partly by putting rigorous conditions on marriage, which was the earnest desire of the servants, and partly by giving the right to determine whether servants might marry to the village communities i.e. the farmers. Marriage would bring independence from the farmer who was the object of the servants' disobedience. In addition, the legislation was useful in relieving the shortage of able agricultural servants. The legislation required servants to serve an apprenticeship of at least 15 years. Finaly, I look at the social background that enabled the legislation to function-the low removability of the servants reflecting the closed constitution of the village communities and the tolerant attitude to illegitimate birth among the village communities.