John--
Property ownership--many property owners
were in it for the money--it helped support their
life styles. Also, owning
property had considerable prestige in old
Germany. The Mecklenburg nobles tried to
put through a law that prevented non-nobles
from buying the estates of nobles. I'm not
certain what the short-term effects were (i.e.,
I don't know if the law went into effect), but
in the long-term, the law was a bust. I don't have
a good feel for what property had to be held
in order for a noble to keep his/her noble title.
A book that I read about Schlesien (Silesia)
said no property had to be held there for a
noble to remain a noble. Perhaps it was the
same in Mecklenburg. Alternatively, maybe
there was one piece that needed to be held and
all others were held for economic purposes
(i.e., the von Bulows might need to hold on to the
village of Bulow, but might not need to keep
anything else).
Paul
From owner-mecklenburg-l Wed Oct 1 21:15:13 1997
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