Getreide, Brot und Geld – offene Forschungsfragen zum Untergrombacher Bundschuh 1502 und ihre wirtschafts- und sozialgeschichtliche Einordnung und Wertung

Abstract

In the case of the riot of the ‘Bundschuh’ in Untergrombach in 1502, recent research was able to correct numerous misunderstandings, while the real causes of this uproar are still unexplained. A new approach can be given by the ‘Domkapitelsprotokolle’, the records of the chapter of the cathedral in Speyer. Aside from indications concerning the events in the course of the conspiracy, these records describe the requests of numerous villages on both banks of the Rhine asking for cash loans, the respite of the ‘Zehnt’ and the delivery of grain. These requests are directly connected with the impacts of crop failure in 1501 and 1502 and they prove the hunger crisis the groups of small peasants and rural workers were facing in those villages. Methodically, we try to connect the disruptive event itself, i. e. the distress of the common man and the partially high demands on the village communities to handle the situation, with the reactions of the cathedral chapter of Speyer and to assess it by considering in particular the ethical categories of ‘Nahrung’ (aliment) and ‘Notdurft’ (necessity) as the oldest sources of paternalistic rule. It is to be stated that the chapter’s rule failed massively.