Rural Communal System Reforms in Northwest Germany during the 19th Century : The Relationship between Political Participation Rights and House- and Landholding

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  • 19世紀北西ドイツの農村ゲマインデ制の変革 : 自治参加資格と家屋・土地保有要件
  • 19セイキ ホクセイ ドイツ ノ ノウソン ゲマインデセイ ノ ヘンカク : ジチ サンカ シカク ト カオク ・ トチ ホユウ ヨウケン

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Abstract

Numerous historical studies have examined the transformation of the rural commune (Landgemeinde) from a premodern agrarian community to a modern political municipality, but not yet adequately considered has been the question of how the commune's traditional social character as a corporation of house- and landholders (Eingesessene) changed and eventually disppeared by the time of the Weimar Revolution. This paper is a case study of the change in relationship between voting rights, which were a fundamental feature of membership as narrowly defined, and house- and landholding (Haus- und Grundbesitz) in rural communes of the northwest German Kingdom and Prussian province of Hanover, especially the Osnabruck region, during the 19th century. First, the paper outlines how voting rights and real property were connected under the rural municipal laws of major German territorial states from 1800 to 1900, and shows that the Hanoverian case was typical of the legal restructuring of a rural commune in Germany from a corporation, in which political participation by house- and landholders was exclusive and membership was among equals, to a more open organization that subsumed social inequality and included houseless and landless inhabitants (Nichteingesessene). Second, the paper explores the legal reform aimed at expanding the vote in rural communes, focusing on the 1848-49 March Revolution enactment of the 1852 Rural Municipal Law as a turning point within the Kingdom of Hanover. It demonstrates that the reform enabled the political integration of houseless and landless inhabitants, but that its application was dependent upon each regional authority and local commune. Third, this paper examines the cases from 22 parishes in the Osnabruck region to investigate the actual effects of the 1852 legal reforms on rural communes in the second half of the 19th century. The research reveals that house- and landholding gradually ceased to be prerequilites for voting rights, but that communes differed remarkably in their range of voters, from those comprised exclusively of house- and landholders to those that included all male heads of household. It also shows that in many communes, the expansion of the vote among houseless and landless inhabitants was limited as a practical matter due to local nonacceptance and to their economic circumstances. Finally, the paper concludes that the relationship between voting rights and house- and landholding varied greatly depending on the regional authority, the rural commune, and the inhabitants, and that as a result, rural inhabitants including the houseless and landless were able to continue to restrict reform policies aimed at restructuring the traditional corporation of house- and landholders until the end of the 19th century.

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