All --
Could someone tell me the meaning of the following words. I can not find them in any German-English dictionary.
Hoferbin
Hoferbe
Colon
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Carole Hollmann
Both Hoferbin and Hoferbe mean "heir to a farm" and Colon is a farm of a
certain size (I don't remember off the top of my head how many hectares,
but various words for farm also convey a rough estimate of the size.)
Paul
Hello Carol ,
I thought a Colon is like a colonist , a farmer who is beginning on new fields to explore.
Met een vriendelijke groet,
Albert (Veldhuis)
lid van www.veluwsegeslachten.nl
<AVeldhuis1941@kpnmail.nl>
-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
The male and female versions of heir to the farm have already been given. A
Colon was a life status held by a full fledged farm owner if we can even
use the term owner. Zeller was another term used in Oldenburg. See a
discussion from 2001 on this list:
Since I have your attention, I have a question. The term Colon(us)
has been widely discussed. I know that it applied to the head of
household of a peasant farmstead. In all the instances that I have
researched, the Colon was Eigenbehörig and was the Erbpaechter, holder
of the leasehold. Could it also apply to a head of household on a the
farmsteads designated as Leibfrei? There was only one Leibfrei
farmstead in Unterluebbe in the local history book that I have, until
the Neubauer class came along, then they had the Leibfrei designation
on their little postage stamp farms. I was not able to discover if
the Leibfrei peasants were also designated Colon if they were head of
household.
First of all even the term Colon was a regional thing. Little is
common to all of Germany except for the same linguistic
roots. Too many different tribes and too many different
systems developed over the centuries in the various parts of
the empire. As you know central government is a relatively
new phenomenon in Germany and when it came - bang it
blew up.
The English and French had much more practice with a
strong monarchy which also taught the people how to resist
such singleminded power. In Germany authority was
localized and different wherever you went.
So even your Eigenhörigkeit was not common all over
Germany. In the south there was much more individual
freedom and landownership while. In the region I'm most
familiar with, the Niederstift Münster or the Oldenburger
Münsterland, the term Colon changed to Zeller for some
reason but the meaning was the same. In general I see the
distinction only as NOT being a Heuermann or Tagelöhner.
The Colon/Zeller was the farmer who at one time may have
been referred to as a Wehrfester who started a farm from
scratch or resettled an old deserted one. His position was
one of holding the right to inherit the right to work an old Hof.
Only if he did not meet his contractual obligations, which
came with the land, could he be removed from it. On the
other hand, he could not sell or split this land either. So, he
became a steward in a system where property owning was
not really a known concept. Property was used and as long
as all parties in the chain met their contractual obligations the
system did not really permit a change except to the single
heir upon payment of some kind of fee.
The Heuermann status was also very much a contractual
thing but it went more or less from year to year. Again, a
Heuermann also had the right to renewal if he kept his side
of the bargain. So the system was based on a mutual level of
trust one was born into.
So, to answer your question from my sphere of knowledge,
being Leibfrei or not had nothing to do with being a colon.
The Leibfrei status was bought over time until it went away
completely and it really meant more from an economic
standpoint then anything else. The Eigenhörig folks were still
tied to the land because of their obligations up the line while
the Leibfrei people has a different tax status and did not have
to ask anybody as to what they could do with their land. The
whole thing is rather tricky as circumstances always varied
depending on the area and time. You almost have to follow
each individual situation which is not possible because we
have so few records of what the deal was.
Fred
Hi Carole,
I sent you some information in a separate e-message.
That message if from my hwkreger@gmail.com account, which is my primary e-mail account.
Regards,
Harry
It is good to hear from Fred Rump and Roy Johnson again. Both gentlemen seems more knowledgeable about these things than most people.
However, let me add a little more to the confusion. I have noticed other words involving some sort of “ownership” that were used in Oldenburg/Münsterland.
The first is Kötter, which seems to indicate the owner of a farm which is smaller than that which is owned by a Zeller. I have no idea where the dividing line is.
The second is Hausler, which seems to indicate the owner of a house, and little or no farmland. Such a person could be a Heuermann (hired man), or a Wirt (shopkeeper), or have another occupation.
John C Polking
2429 Bissonnet St. #258
Houston, TX 77005
polking@rice.edu
713-299-4110
John,
to clarify any misunderstandings you might have. A Heuermann can NOT be
translated as a hired man as such a literal translation does not consider
cultural differences. The word HEUER is similar in context to Miethe and
Pacht which means to rent or contractually lease. Heurath and Heirat used
to be interchangeable words for marriage. With marriage one would
contractually obligate oneself to care for the property of a father. Women
were chattel but aside from that, a Heuermann worked under an annual
contract to obtain a piece of land & some kind of lodging for his own
family's sustenance. This was not to own but to use. One did not go to the
store to buy food. It all came from the land one lived on. The contract
generally was mutually beneficial or it wouldn't have worked throughout the
centuries. Mostly it was labor for the use of land. He basically owned
nothing but survivability.
Now, a Kötter actually had a Kotten or cottage to live in. Usually this was
divided off from a larger farm and had a little land with it, again for
survivability. He may well also have been a partial Heuermann to earn some
additional income beside tilling his own soil. Mostly the difference
between these farm sizes resulted from the STATUS of the place from it's
founding. These things stuck over the generations.
Häusler is not common in our region but if he does show up he was probably
living in a farming community like a small village rather than out in the
fields.
The whole topic is never universal and very much a local behavioral custom
that grew over the generations. Other life status descriptions like
Brinksitzer etc. also exist. Each have their own origination history but
may have changed in function over the years.
Fred
Check also this: Damme - Emigration, Die Heuerleute
Werner Honkomp
Thanks Werner.
Kathy Casey