Colonisation in Medieval Germany

Dutch and Flemish Colonization in Mediaeval Germany Author(s): James Westfall Thompson Reviewed work(s): Source: American Journal
of Sociology, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Sep., 1918), pp. 159-186 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2763957 . Accessed: 16/12/2012 15:25
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DUTCH AND FLEMISH COLONIZATION IN MEDIAEVAL GERMANY'

JAMES WESTFALL THOMPSON ofChicago University
The progress made in recentyears in economicand social interhistory has changed boththeaxis and theorbitofhistorical of pretation. Political, dynastic, and military history, thehistory many governments, laws, and institutions, has ceased to interest students ofhistory in thesedays. The Aristotelian mindofWesternEuropeand America has discovered newsources ofinformation and new subjectsof investigation. is No one of thesequestions moreimportant to themediaevalist thanthatofdemography. whichthe modern Amongthe discoveries studyof mediaeval has made is the profoundly history organicand heterogeneous of its composition, natureof mediaevalsociety-the complexity of its texture. The sharpcleavageonce supposedto the variety thethree classesofmediaevalsociety, to have existed between we but a line of separation, now know,was not a hard and narrow someofthem so slight thattheir ofsocialgradations, series parallax, determined.2 so to speak,has notyetbeenaccurately of the mediaevalpeasantry The lightcast upon the condition researches has been in the courseof these social and economic
I The literature upon this subject is verylarge. It is cited fullyin Kretschmer, HistorischeGeographievon Mitteleuropa(Berlin, I904), 37I-72; in Schulze, Die Saale und Elbe (Leipzig, i896), zwischen derGebiete und Germanisierung Kolonisierung in K6tzschke, Deutsche Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Iog. These books have brief I29; (3d ed., I906), III, 309-42, has a great accounts. Lamprecht,DeutscheGeschichte materialpacked into a small compass. R. K6tzschke'sQuellen amountof suggestive (Leipzig: der ostdeutschen Kolonisation im I2. bis 14. Jahrhundert zur Geschichte Slaofthe charters. Helnold's Chronica collection Teubner,I9I2) iS an indispensable ed. Schmeidler(Leipzig: Hahn, I909), is the best narrative source. May vorum, I also mentionmy article,"The GermanChurchand the Conversionof the Baltic April and July, i9i6; and another, Slavs," in the AmericanJournal of Theology, HistoricalAssociation,i9i6. ofAmerican "German East Colonization,"in Proceedings 2 See my article on "Profitable Fields of Investigationin Mediaeval History," AmericanHistoricalReview(April, I9I3), 500.
I59
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THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
of thesefindings is the enormous. One of the most interesting startling discovery that the ruralpopulationof Europe in the MiddleAges was probably than morenomadicand less sedentary ofpopulathelower classesofsociety today.' Thesedisplacements scale ofthe German migrations in tionwerenot uponthegigantic the fifth century or the Norse and Hungarianinvasionsof the ninthand tenthcenturies. Nevertheless theyweremass moveof popularmigration sometimes mentsof largedimension-waves one anotherthrough a series of years,whichwere succeeding for ofmaterial motived improvement condition primarily by desire and powerfully affected distress and the pressure of by economic of the SpanishMarch social forces. The Frankishcolonization of and Louis the Pious is an example in the timeof Charlemagne ;2 more is thehistory and more sucha movement typical important ofthe German oftheeastward peopleunderthe Saxon, expansion and theircolonization of and Hohenstaufen rulers, Franconian, and Silesia.3 Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, from the laborDutch and Flemish In thispioneer immigrants of part. The emigration Low Countries played no unimportant in the twelfth Hollandand Belgium of modern and the peasantry in numerous scattered centuries and theirsettlement thirteenth in LowerGermany was due to the simultaneous colonies operation whicha new land forces at homeand the attraction of expulsive presented. the honorof being MediaevalBelgiumsharedwithLombardy ofWestern themostdensely Europe. The heart populated region
I This the late Achille Luchaire, Social France at the Time of Philip Augustus (English trans.),404-6, clearly demonstrated. Cf. Powicke's review of the French originalin English HistoricalReview,XXV, 565. The conclusionamply confirmed de la France (French Etudessurl'etateconomique ofLamprecht, the previousresearches de l'ancienne France,II, livre Flach, Les origines trans.by Marignan), I38-39, 222-23; Gesch.,Vol. III, iii, prem.partie. For Germanythe last halfof Lamprecht,Deutsche no otherwork,showsthe same thing. to mention
2 See Imbartde la Tour, "Les Coloniesagricoles desertes et l'occupationdes terres in his Questions d'Histoire, 3I-68. a l'epoque carolingienne," 3 See my article," GermanEast Colonization," Historical Proceediings ofAmerican of theBaltic "The GermanChurchand the Conversion Association, I9I6, and another, XX (I9I6), 203-30, 372-89. Slavs," AmericanJournalof Theology,
DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL
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i6i
associahad beenhere, and theintimate monarchy oftheFrankish and the sovereigns and Carolingian theMerovingian tionbetween in the of manymonasteries in the founding church had resulted land. Nowhereelse in Europe perhapswere theymorethickly with theirample lands and theirthousandsof serfs clustered, exploiting the rich glebe farms. Here were the great historic abbeysof St. Vaast in Arras,St. Bavon in Ghent,St. Martinin in Cambrai, St. Laurenceand St. Geryand St. Sepulchre Utrecht, St. Bertin, St. Lambertin Liege, and of St. Omer,St. Quentin, of artisans, of clusteredcommunities and St. Riquier,formed and pettytradesmen dwellingin separate"quarters" craftsmen, villagesof servile aroundthe monastery walls,withthe scattered on theabbeylandsstretching and in the roundabout,' husbandmen intomoreor lessindependent and twelfth centuries grown eleventh were others, Corbie, these many towns. Besides greatabbeysthere St. Hubert, St. Calmont, Trond, Nivelles,Andennes, Lobbes, etc. Brogne, Fosses,Alden-Eyck, Stavelot, did on a largescale in clearing What thesegreatmonasteries moor and swamp lands2those among the forests and draining free did in less degree. For,as lay and ecclewho were peasantry its coils over the persons siasticalfeudalism throwing expanded, ratherthan submitto servile and lands of the freepeasantry, in remoter and bondageto the glebetheyfound refuge conditions of of moor as the waste and of the wide exactly population fen, parts theirtiny and thereestablished the uplands fledto the forest, redeemeda and dikingand draining villages,and by ditching waters. the reluctant graspof the sluggish fewacresof soil from and blocksfortheircottages, Cubes of turfservedforbuilding fuel.3 peat was their But in the courseof time,as in the uplands the feudality and reducedthe freeforest the forests villagesto appropriated noblesgradually thefeudal so in theLow Countries peneserfdom, theirseigneurial and extended fenregions tratedinto the remote
I See Flach, op. cit., II, livre iii, C. 7; Blanchard, La Flandre, I53-69; articlein JournalofPoliticalEconomy(November,I9I5), 872-73. 2
and my
Blanchard,I70-20I. (4th ed.), 336.
3 Lamprecht, III Gesch., Deutsche
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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
marsh swayoverthefree villages.' Withthespreadof the feudal came the evilsofprivatewar,which and manorial regime neither ofGod northecivilpower(for thecivilpower thetruce was thatof was able to suppress, in addition thelords themselves) to which the burdenof heavy and vexatiousmanorialexactionswas imposed of thingsemigration upon the peasantry. From this condition ofrelief. form was thereadiest the lot of the peasant was made worseby the Furthermore viciouscommercial policy of some of the nobles,whose heavy in the taxationupon production, and consumption distribution, of numberless form tonlieux, the peages,and maltotes impoverished or even ruinedenterprise.The bishop peasantsand discouraged closedto theFrisians forexample, ofMunster, their market ofthe to bringtheircattlefor Ems, whither theyhad been accustomed market was opento them barter. No other becausetheDanes and of Bremen and Hamburg demandedmoney,a the merchants which was veryscarcein Friesland. As a consequence commodity the sole resource of the country, the Frisian cattle,practically and starvation becamediseasedfrom ensued.2 inbreeding, inprovoking Industrial coercion, again,wasa factor emigration, in Europein the eleventh fornowhere and twelfth centuries was and townpopulation ofindustry the development thanin greater securedfreedom of workand measurBelgium. If the burghers if able political coercion succeeded rights they stayed; they sought to migrate. What development had industry attainedand in fromthe influence how far was it emancipated of agriculture and a rural environment and become urban? Levasseur has in the relations shownthat a change had supervened between and industry ofthe twelfth agriculture by the beginning century.3 It goeswithout sayingthatthis changewas intimately connected of the servile classes and the birthof with the emancipation
I The history of thisswamp reclamation and forest clearingin mediaevalBelgium has been the subject of various studies: Blanchard,chaps. xi-xiii; Duvivier, "Hospites: defrichements en Europe et sp6cialement dans nos contreesaux Xje, Xjje, et Xjjje siMcles," Revued'histoire et d'arch6ologie, Vol. I; Van de Putte, "Esquisse sur la mise en culture de la Flandre occidentale," Ann. de la soc. d'6mulation de Bruges, Vol. III. 2 Curschmann, Hungersndte im Mittelalter (Leipzig, I900), 23. 3 Histoiredes classes ouvrieres (Ist ed.), I, I73 f.; cf. 320-2I, and Lamprecht, L'dtateonomique de France, 24I-47.
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the burgher class in thetowns. There is no need to enterhere and thorny question. But the intoconsideration of thiscomplex and the formation of industrial tendency to freedom of industry knows,were bitterly combinations like the guilds,as everyone of who triedto maintainthe serfdom resented by the nobility, of agriculture.' industry quiteas muchas the serfdom whichinducedmigration in the Middle An additional factor themostgeneral ofall influences, was famine. The Ages,perhaps condioffamine was not alwaysdue to adverse weather occurrence which killed thepeasant'sseed tions. It is truethata hardwinter or a drought, or a prolonged cornin the cellars, wet seasonwas ofthecrops. But asidefrom destructive these often physical terribly at leastlocally, famine was often by other engendered, phenomena taxation bothofproduction causes,suchas feudal war,exhaustive of in addition to whichthe rudimentary and distribution, system with crudefarming and ignoimplements agriculture prevailing, mustbe takenintoaccount. ranceoftheuse offertilizers, theabsenceofanymonograph SinceLamprecht upon deplored the gap has been filled, at least of mediaevalfamine, the history admirable and theLow Countries, forGermany by Curschmann's famine times occurred four thatin Belgium book.2 He has shown in thetwelfth, and twicein the ninetimes in theeleventh century, betweenthese a connection There is most certainly thirteenth. in I I44-47was a threeyears'famine conditions-there hunger whichtook place from and the huge emigration Belgiumin the no feudallord twelfth century.3Understressof such privation
d'Irminon,I, 47I f., 7I7 f., 729 f. Levasseur,-I, i67; Guerard,Polyptique EnglishHistorical See n. 2, p. i62, and comparethe reviewsin RevueHistorique, all of and Vierteljahrschrift fiir Geschichtswissenschaft, Zeitschrift, Historische Review, whicheulogizethe book as a veryvaluable work.
I
2
in Europe 3Curschmann, 40 and I40-4I. He comparesit,8, withthegreatdrought from Germanyand Ireland. In the particularly upon emigration, in i847 and itseffect of these latter countrythe potato crop had also failed the year before. The effect and so promotingthe revolutionof popular discontent "hard times" in provoking are sometimes and under-production i848 has notyetbeen studied. Over-population the positive and the negative way of saying the same thing,and over-population cause ofmigration. See forBelgium,Blanchin theMiddle Ages was a veryprevalent I, I35-40; forGermany, Histoire de B6lgique, ard,485-88; Curschmann, igg; Pirenne, kolonialBeStadte in der Zeit der mittelalterlichen Piischel, Anwaccsender deutschen ostlich der Elbe, II, 17-i8. I der Ldtnder Wendt, Die Germanisierung I3-I5; wegung, have givensome details in the two articlesof minecited in n. 3, p. i6o.
i64
The cattle were slaughtered for lack of fodderand to furnish food. Whenthey wereconsumed nothing butflight remained as a recourse. It is impossible to avoid thisconclusion, evenif one is abletoestablish a direct notalways nexus between anygiven famine ofthetwoevents and anygiven migration.The simultaneousness was not accidental. Whenthe Friesland or Flemish to the peasantbetookhimself in order ofthemarshes to escapefrom refuge feudaloppression he foundonly a precarious freedom even there. For he lived ever in perilofthesea. The low coast,themanydeep tidalestuaries, the flatplainsacrosswhichthe Rhine,the Vaal, the Meuse, the and their affluents and which Scheldt, often overflowed meandered, their thesalt marshes, low banksin timeoffreshet, theswampsall theseconditions to floods exposedthe population whichwere in their terrible sometimes devastation.' Inundation was a powerI In the middleof the first centuryA.D. Pliny, the Elder, who had seen service described the condition of the Frisians in the Roman provinceof Lower Germany, in termswhich are applicable to them a thousand years later. He says: "In this eitherthe tops of hills or artificial moundsof regionthe wretched natives,occupying turfraised out of the reach of the highesttides,build their small huts,whichlook like sailing vessels when the water covers the land, and like wrecks when it has retired. For fueltheyuse a kind ofturf[i.e., peat] dug by hand and dried ratherin the wind than in the sun, and with this earth theycook theirfood and warmtheir bodies. Their only drink is rain-watercollected in ditches under the eaves." in Flanders in the Seances de 1'Acad6mie ... There is an ancientstudyof inundations as is also de Belgique, I (i777), 63 f. Blanchard, chaps. ix-xi, is very interesting, Curschmann,who gives extracts from the sources. Montagu Burrows, Cinque of the English Channel on the Ports, chap. xi, deals with tidal and storm effects terrible havoc along all the North southcoast of England. The year I405-6 wrought forit practicallyraged,with Sea coast. It was perhapsthe greateststormin history, over the whole of Europe fromNovember,I405, to April, I406. briefintermissions, of the north, was ruinedby it, forthe sea emporium Bruges,the greatestcommercial the great tide gates at the mouthof the Zwin,regardedeven in Dante's overwhelmed and so filled theharborofBrugeswithsand thatnothing timeas an engineering wonder, draftvessels could enter. At the same timethisgreat stormcleared but the lightest a huge island of sand out of the mouth of the Scheldt and opened Antwerp,which had been a merefishing village,to trade,and so it succeeded Bruges in comhitherto mercial history. Popular opinion associated this mightystorm with the death of Tamerlane, who died February I9, I405, but the news was not known in Western Europe untilMarch, 1406. Wylie,HistoryoftheReign ofHenryIV, II, 470-75, has in England. The winterI407-8 was the its effects gathereda mass of data regarding "-one of the most famousknown. "Great Winter
could have been able to retainhis tenantry.Propter caristiam colonofugiente,plurimi vici desertiremansere, reads a chronicle.
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ful incentiveto emigration.'The peasant who saw his little in a day,thelaborofyearsoftilling, farmstead destroyed draining, his cropsruined, ditching, diking, go forworsethan naught, his cattle drowned or lost in the awful conf-usion of a greatflood, had no heartleftto beginthe struggle all over again in such a land.2 thepartial Constant warfare against thesea was required despite protection ofa strip ofsand duneson thecoast.3 In Hollandand Friesland, to theeast of the Scheldt, thisbarrier had beenbroken downby inundations earlyin the Christian Era, and as the land afterdistrict progressively sank,relativeto the sea, district was turnedfromarable land to swamp or perhapscompletely subin size, cut merged. So the islandsalongthe coast werereduced to pieces,or washedaway; so theinlandZuiderZee was made an arm of the ocean in the years following I 200; and so shortly afterward weretheDollartand theJadebusen scoopedout by the voracious sea, whichtook,alongwiththe land, the villagesthat happened to standuponit. A flood ofNovember i8, I42I, at the mouthof the Waal River, destroyed no less than seventy-two hamlets.4 To theFrisian and Flemish which intheeleventh and peasantry, of adversecontwelfth centuries suffered underthe combination Lower Germany ditions whichI have endeavored to summarize, and thousands trekked filled beckoned invitingly, ofthem eastward to found new homesfor withnew energy and fresh hope,seeking in a and politicalfreedom themselves and to findnew economic land wherethe population was sparse,land cheap, and littleor no capitalnecessary to beginwith. of this We catchtheechoof thishopeofthelowland emigrants time in thetextofan old Flemish has beenpreserved: balladwhich
I 5. IPuischel,
It is curiousto note that the regions of Flandersmostsubject to inundation were least likelyto suffer from famine. Curschmann, 21, suggeststhat the reason may be foundperhapsin the factthat the peasants wereoftenable to drivetheircattle out of reach of the floodsand so preservethem.
2
3 4
Blanchard,chaps. ix and xi. Knull, Historische Geographie Deutschlands im Mittelalter, 5-7.
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THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY wyryden, willen NaerOostland willen wym6e, NaerOostland heiden, Al overdiegroene Frisch overdieheiden. stee Daer isser eenbetere komen Alswybinnen Oostland huis, Al onder dathooge gelaten, wybinnen Daer worden overdieheiden; Frisch
Zy heetenons willekom zyn.'
The Drang nach Osten of the German peoples had long since been under way when the first"rush" of settlersout of Friesland and Flanders into North Germany began -early in the twelfth century. From the time of Henry the Fowler, under the lee of of colonial settlementhad advanced, the battle line, the frontier conqueringthe stubborn soil and the no less stubborn resistance of the Wends, until by the termof the Franconian epoch Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Pomerania, and the Thuringian Reichsland were studded with German settlements; the initial stages of a grounded; permanentpolitical and ecclesiasticalsystemwere firmly Magdeburg, Bardwick, and Lubeck had become importanttrade farther from west,tempted centers; and coloniesof Germansettlers might be titles which under easy terms by cheap land and the acquired, were established. But the Flemishand the Frisian pioneerdid not come into these Wendish regionsuntil the subjugation or expulsion of the former peoples there had been accomplished by the sword of the Saxons warfareagainst them, throughtwo centuriesof almost unremitting made by Germancolonists. workof settlement and the preliminary They were not men of the battle edge, but of the rear guard.2 For the land into which they came the Flemingand the Frisian were singularlyadapted. In the high feudal age Lower Germany along the coast of the North Sea and the Baltic was an almost under Gebiete zwischen und Germanisierung I Quoted in Schulze, Die IColonisierung Liederen Saale und Elbe, 79; Lamprecht,D.G., III, 342. Willems,Oude Vlaemsche but later. century, (Ghent,i848), 53, has claimedthat thisballad is not of the twelfth He printsthe completetexton p. 25.
2 See
my articleon "German East Colonization,"op. cit.,forfullexposition.
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and fens, ofmarshes which, owing to thesluggish interrupted series of acrosstheflatplainand the deep indentation flow ofthe rivers estuaries like the mouthsof the Weserand the Elbe, sometimes inland. Mecklenburg distance and Pomextended a considerable therewas erania were dottedwith lakes. Even in the interior areas which were morasses. huge muchbog land and some into these regionshad naturally The firstGermanincomers forthemselves the tilled avoided theseplaces and appropriated soil of the conqueredWends. When almost all of this had the been occupied,chiefly by the clergyand high feudality, and clearedthe stillclungto high wherepossible, ground settlers, forests. intoGermany in oftheDutch and Flemings Before thecoming if and used at the were the twelfth marshes, all, century swamps if not too wet,forhay and occasionally, used onlyforpasturage, beforetheirimmigration meadows. But the Germanpeasantry ofmaking suchbottom oftheprocess lands knewlittleor nothing and who feudal imported arable.2 The German prelates princes value forswampreclamaknewtheir theselowlanders by hundreds and artificial had drainage tion. SinceRomantimes dike-building in Flanders and Holland.3 beenpracticed in Germany4 of population and espeIt was the slowincrease ofthegreatproprietors, bothlay land hunger ciallythe enormous whichgave a newvalue to theseneglected and clerical, spotsand in inducing thebishops, factor was theprimary abbots,and princes of Germany to bringin coloniesof Dutch and Flemings. They thelaborwas inheavysoils. Moreover, usedto deepplowings were but it was not exactlythe without peril. It was a new country, frontier. nobleslike Adolfof Holstein, HenrytheLion, and Intelligent like the fourgreatarchthe Bear vied withchurchmen Albrecht Frederick, and Adalbert, Adalbero, bishopsof Hamburg-Bremen,
derBar, IHeinemann, Albrecht
2
227;
Agrarwesen, II, Meitzen, Siedelungutnd
45I.
x. derNiederliinder, Ansiedelungen Vogel, Ldndische Heinemann,143.
3 4
on this head see Kotzschke,DeutscheWirtschaftsgesch., 50-52 For information is cited. wheremuch literature
i68
ofHildesheim withBernhard ofMagdeand Wichmann Hardwich, of theseFrisianand Flemish the immigration burg,in promoting however,were the most settlers. The Cistercianmonasteries, of lowland colonization. Having been but active promoters thisorder found in older littleplace foritself established, recently in areas of land had been forcenturies enormous where Germany, and Cluniacs. In consequence the the handsof the Benedictines their to found housesin theNewEast of werecompelled Cistercians where land was stillcheap,and,in the Germany just beingopened, couldbe acquiredfornothing.' case ofmonks, thewhole thespaceofa hundred Within Weser, yearsthelower Meissento Hamburg, themarshes of the valleyof the Elbe from Havel, the bottomlands of the Mulde, the Black and the White withits Elster,the banks of the Oder below Breslau, together with these Dutch and were like the affluents peopled Netze, like Hollern,Hollen,Hollernweg, Flemishsettlers. Place-names HollerHollerndick, Hollanderhof, Hollernklink, Hollernstiick, of and other namesoflocalities Hollerbrock, Hollerwettern, wisch, tell the like Vlammingen, Flemish Flemsdorf, Flemingsthal, origin is legible eventodayuponthemap ofGermany.2 tale,which theextremes variedbetween ofcolonization ofthe The methods of and settlement individualpioneersettlerand the migration of colonists, greator smallin number. In themain,howgroups was thepractice. The day ofthehomomigransof ever,thelatter ofthe theSalic Code,and ofthehospesoftheannalsand cartulaires had passed. While ninth,tenth,and even eleventhcenturies,3 to be cleared landstillcontinued muchforest by thelone doubtless or waste redeemed, the groupidea or bog land drained, pioneer, was dominant. It was real colonization-the simultaneous whotooktheir cattleand ofpeople, ofblocks migration co-operative from with them the ancient effects and their household homeland,
of the Cistercians of the transupon the colonization I The subject of the influence Elbean lands in Germanyis too large to be consideredin this article. 2 Historische sec. 227, wheremuch Geographie, Meitzen,III, 352-54; Kretschmer, to. is referred local literature
3
230-4I; 2I2-38.
de France, and compareLamprecht,Etat economique See Du Cange, Glossarium, domanialen France au moyen-age, Henri See, Les Classes ruraleset le regime
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in whichthe in a new country. This was thefashion settlement that wasmadein Germany, oflowlanders settlement important first Bremen. near Weser of the of iio6 in themarshes in of population natureof thesedisplacements The organized to things is one of the first centuries and thirteenth the twelfth I have strikethe student. In an articlepublishedelsewhere' colonization of the the history of the case in this show to endeavored stockwho by peoplesof,German Hinterland of the trans-Elbean parts populated from the olderand moredensely movedeastward ofthe and Franconia. In thehistory likeWestphalia ofGermany the localities and Frisian,although of the lowlandFleming influx the we see the same purpose, wheretheysettledweredifferent, of and similarconditions the same organization, same motives, settlement. history of the upon the particular however, Beforeentering, in Germany a word established colonies lowlander mostimportant formed is necessary. Whilesomeofthemwereinitially ofcaution in course oftime which and Frisia, from Flanders settlers oforiginal andfrom agglomofthepopulation increase natural bothfrom grew on the owingto the occasionalarrivalofnewimmigrants, eration otherhand numbersof these Flemishand Frisian coloniesin were not composedof originallowlanders, evidently Germany Confusion from the arises ofthemother-group. but wereoffshoots distinguish whichdo not always of the sources, loose terminology nor betweenoriginal lowbetweenFlemishand Dutch settlers, from these. The lowland derived and colonies landersettlements as the generation straininclinedto thin with each succeeding their German or the with with neighbors, intermarried newcomers in its ancestral habitat. whichremained population local Wendish still more,the nature and Finally,to confusethe investigator copied of these lowlandercolonieswere sometimes institutions
rMy articleon " GermanEast Colonization,"op. cit. the settlement establishedby Bishop Udo For example,Liuntzelin mentioning ofHildesheimcalls it a Flemishcolony,whereasthe names of the fourmen withwhom are obviously Frisian,i.e., Dutch, as Vogel,op. cit.,xi, has thebishopmade thecontract is foundto obtain of landholding pointedout. Again,the factthat the Flemishform and Domnitzschin the later Middle Ages does not prove aroundUebigau, Schweinitz, that theseplaces weresettledby originalFlemishcolonists(Schulze, I30, n. I).
2
I70
by real German colonies, so that thereare examples of the latter of Holland or Flanders,thoughthey whichbear the earmarks no inhabitant actually contained ofthatstock.' The chiefsourceof information forthe history of theselowlandercoloniesis of a documentary nature.2 Of the chronicles Helmold'sChronica Slavorum is farthe mostvaluable. Philology of has been an important auxiliary sciencein tracing the genesis surnames and the namesof places; and archaeology has thrown somelight uponthesubject.3 These Dutch and Flemishcoloniesin mediaevalGermany, as be expected, weremorenumerous might near the country whence the settlers came. The marshlands of the lowerWeserwerethe thenthelower and middle Elbe and its earliest place ofsettlement, are tributaries, then the Oder region. Traces of Netherlanders to be foundin Galicia,in Austria, and in the Carpathians. But littlepositiveinformation is to be had concerning them.4 The farther tohavebeensettled Balticcoastseems chiefly byimmigrants from theduneand marshtopography Westphalia, although might be presumed to haveattracted thepeoplefrom theLow Countries.5 The highuplandsof Germany of the and themountainous region and the Carpathians Erzegebirge wereusuallyavoidedby them. They preferred cuttingreed grass and diggingturfto clearing timber and mining. The Flemish settlements nearWaldheim and Altenburg (where namedFlemmingen) and theDutchand is a locality evennowthere Flemish nearKoesen,which werecertainly (qui etFlamingi) colony of the there before thefoundation established II40, thatis, before forthereasonthatthey are exceptional, Cistercian abbeyofPforte, found and forest insteadof a in a mountainous lodgment country riverplain.6
I
Schulze, I26.
I2.
Kotzschke,Quellenzur Gesch.der ostdeutschen Kolonisationishundert, Leipzig, I9I2.

2
bis I4. Jahr-
3 Meitzen, II, 4 Kaindl,
358; Kretschmer, 374.
Gesch.der Deutschen in den Karpathenlindern (2 vols.) (Gotha, I907),

6 Schulze, I29,
II, 208;
Knull, 94-95.
s Kretschmer, 367-68; Lamprecht,III, 305.
note.
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The earliest record of Netherlandish settlement in Germany is found in the Bremisches Urkundenbuch forthe year I062, whena oftheseimmigrants smallgroup was settled in themoors alongthe left bankoftheWeser by thegreatarchbishop Adalbert.' The fall ofAdalbert and the plundering of the bishopric by the Billunger, theanarchy ofGermany coupled with forso manyyearsduring the reignof HenryIV, probablydeterred further immigration fora longtime.2 Thingsrapidly changed, soonafter the century mark however, was turned. In iio6 Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen Frederick energetically revived hispredecessor's policy, and granted "certain landswhich areuncultivated, swampy, anduseless" tohisownpeople to persons and whowereapparently "who are calledHollanders," refugees, forthe charter recites thattheycame to the archbishop and "earnestly begged" forleave to settleon the moors.3 The prelate,"considering that theirsettlement wouldbe profitable," granted theirrequest. The lands were dividedinto rectangular blocks measuring 720 "royal" rodsin length and 30 in width. The wereto pay one penny(denarius) settlers annually foreach hide orholding, to giveevery eleventh sheaf ofgrain, every tenth lamb, ofthehoneyand every tenth goat,every tenth goose,and a tenth foreach coltand a farthing flaxfor besidesa penny tithes, (obolus) was set foreach calfon St. Martin'sDay. A titheof thesetithes forthesupport and oftheparishchurches, asideby thearchbishop of to each priestwas to have one hide land. They agreed pay forevery one hundred hidesfortheprivilege every yeartwomarks of retaining theirown law and holding theirown courtsforthe in secularmatters. This they settlement of all theirdifferences of asked"because theyfeared from theinjustice theywouldsuffer ofappeal. court was tobe a court foreign judges." But thebishop's The successof the enterprise musthave been soon manifest. For almost immediately afterward Bishop Udo of Hildesheim established a colonyof Flemings at Eschershausen, west of the
I
Lamprecht,III, 372.
See my articlein American XX (I9I6), 227-28. Journalof Theology, 3 K6tzschke, Quelleen, No. i. There is an English translation in ThatcherMacNeal, Source Book for Mediaeval History,No. 298. For commentary, Meitzen, III, 264-68. Map 86 is a luminousexposition ofthe text.
2
I72
THE-AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
Harz,' and Dietrichof Halberstadt undertook the settlement of the lowlandsbetweenthe Bode and the Ocker rivers.2Within two yearsafteriio6 the promotion of Dutch and Flemishimmigrationforthe redemption of swampland became an organized of the clergy effort and lay noblesof Lower Germany. In iio8 the archbishop of Magdeburg, the bishopsof Merseburg, Naumlords of easternSaxony" (universi orientalis Saxonie majoreset minores) unitedin a joint circular petitionto the archbishop of Cologne,the bishopsof Aachen and Liege, the duke of Lower Lorraine, Robert,countof Flanders, and others, themto urging encourage the emigration of theirsurplus and hungry population into Lower Germany, not unlikelandwhichwas represented, promotion schemes today,as a land flowing withmilkand honey.3 whattheimmediate effect ofthisendeavor We do notknow was. But by themiddle ofthecentury Flemish and Frisian immigration intoNorthGermany was in fullswing. Of the German noblesat thistime<Adolph ofHolstein was themostactivein thiseffort."In I I43," saysHelmold, "becausethelandwassparsely peopled, Count Adolphsentmessengers intoall theregions even into roundabout, and Holland,[thebishopric Flanders and of]Utrecht, Westphalia, Frisia, toproclaim inwantoflandmight thatallwhowere come with their and receive families thebestofsoil,a spaciouscountry rich in in fishand flesh, crops,abounding and of exceeding good pasturage."4 The marshlands of the lowestcourseof the Elbe at this time were the special regionof colonization, whereEutin and Siisselweresettled by Dutch and Frisian pioneers.5
I K6tzschke, Quellen,No. 2. The originalcharteris lost. We know the fact fromthe confirmation of it by Udo's successor,Bernhard. For anothersuch colony see Schulze, I58, n. 3. 2 Vogel, op. Cit., vii. 3 The text of this remarkable documentis in Kotzschke,Quellen,No. 3, where references are also givento a largeamountofliterature dealingwithit. 4 Helmold, Chronica Slavorurn, I, chap. 57. 5Ibid. Helmold confuses "Frisians" and "Flemings." For full information regardingthese settlementssee Gloy, Der Gang der Germanisation in Ost-Holstein (Kiel, I894), I7 f.; J. von Schr6derand H. Biernatzki,Topographie der Herzogtiimer I (Oldenburg,I855), 6. The settlement Holsteinund LauenbTurg, of the Elbe marshes i i44. must,however, have been begunbefore For evidencesee Wendt,op. cit.,II, 3I.
burg,Meissen, Brandenburg, and Counts Otto (of. . . .), Wicbert (of . . . . ), Ludwig (of . . . . ), "and all the greater and lesser
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The furious racial and religious war whichbrokeout in II47, known as the Wendish Crusade, devastated thewhole eastern frontier of SaxonGermany from Magdeburg toHolstein. The newFlemish and Frisiansettlements wereimperiled at themoment whenmany ofthemenhad returned to their old homes in theLow Countries to bring backtheresidue oftheir possessions which they had left there. Whentheinfuriated fire burst intotheregion with and sword Wagri theyfoundless than a hundred fighting men in the blockhouses whichhad been erectedto protectthe villages,insteadof four hundred. Fortunately theWends, while they hatedtheSaxonsfor their ofthem, oppression did notconfound theFlemish and Dutch incomers with theirGermanenemies. The frightened villagers, who could not have resisted if theyhad so dared,werespared, in theblocktheyand their herdsand crops.' Alonethegarrison houseat Siissel,underthe leadership of a priestnamed Gerlach, braved the foe.2 What destruction did befall the colony,not without of their Holsteiner reason, was attributed to the violence neighbors, who werejealous of the industry of the settlers and hatedthemas "foreigners."3 The effect of the WendishCrusadein I I47 was to open large tracts ofborder land to occupation had been still whichhitherto precariously heldby the Slavs, and a wave of Dutch and Flemish colonists of Westphalian settlers followed hardupona greatinflux into the territory east of the Elbe, alongboth the lowerand the middle course oftheriver.4 in by all The promotion of this movement was participated classesof landedproprietors-dukes, margraves, counts, bi8hops, theBear ofBrandenabbots. The greatest ofthesewereAlbrecht of Magdeburg. The amount burg and Archbishop Wichmann
I
Helmold,chap. 63, to the end.
2Ibid., chap. 64.

i).
The Holsteinerscalled these lowlanderincomers"Rustri" (ibid., I58 and n.
4 This appears from a surveymade by Bishop Anselmof Havelberg in i i5o, after of the Wendish Crusade was over, and is contained in the new Fundationsprivileg Conrad III: ". . . . et cum praenominatae civitates et villae saepe irruentibus paganis vastatae suntac depopulatae adeo, ut vel nullo vel rarohabitatoreincolantur, habeat ut idem episcopus liberamabsque contradictione volumus atque praecipimus, ibidemponendiet locandi colonos de quacunque gentevolueritvel habere facultatem potuerit."-Riedel, CodexDiplont.Brand., II, 438.
I74
in themiddle ofthetwelfth withGerman oflowlander bloodinfused century in the basin of the Havel River must have been considerable.' These tenacious lowlanderseagerly attacked the of acresof swampland in courseof time soddensoil. Thousands documents oftheyearI I48 were redeemed by them. For example, describe theregion on theriver Storas a huge around Brettenburg of Cronenmoor morass. In theyear I340 theDutch communities farming localities.2 and Liitteringe are describedas prosperous was ofDutch in thispartofHolstein That themainbodyofsettlers I of Denthe fact that Christian origin Meitzenhas shownfrom the jurisdiction of Dutch markin I470 issueda decreecanceling and substituting law in the Kremperand Wilstermarshlands Danishlaw instead.3 the No lordof NorthGermany was moreactivein promoting of these Dutch and Flemishimmicolonization and settlement theBear ofBrandenburg.In thispolicyhe grants thanAlbrecht of Magdewas ably assisted Wichmann by thebishops, especially Barbarossa's Rainald of Dassel, Frederick burg. Exceptpossibly ofMainz, ofCologne, Christian and'theversatile heroic archbishop in Italy,twelfth-century Germany whowas forso longhisviceroy sidehe was thanWichmann. On thepaternal had no ablerprelate fromthe Billunger dukes of Saxony,on his mother's descended of Lausitz and Meissen.4 After havingcomfrom the margraves at Paris,Wichmann was successively studies pletedhis theological of Halberstadt, bishopof Naumburg (II48), priorof the chapter of was madearchbishop I's reign and in thefirst yearofFrederick of the emperor adherent Magdeburg by him. He was a faithful III and oneofthechief Alexander all thelongconflict with through ini I83. He wasan implacable ofthepeaceofConstance negotiators in the catastrophe of Henrythe Lion and a principal adversary Saxon duke in ii8i. In that year, the mighty whichovercame he laid siegeto Haldenswiththeaid ofthebishopofHalberstadt, theplace, diverted leben. But the countofLippe,who defended
I
der ostdeutschen Kolonisation(Leipzig, K6tzschke,Staat und Kulturins Zeitalter Meitzen, III, 354.
3
IWIO), 30-34.
2 4
Heinemann,222.
zur Fechner, Leben des ErzbischofsWichmann von Magdeburg,Forschungen deutschen Gesch., V, 4I7-562.
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I75
the course of the Ohre River. Nothing daunted, Wichmanrr threw up dikesaroundthe townso thatthewateroverflowed the to seek refuge in church walls and drovethe inhabitants towers thenbuilta fleet ofboatsand withthis and granaries. Wichmann littlenavytriumphantly sailedoverthewallsofHaldensleben and it.' so captured of the AlthoughAlbrechthad received titular investiture of Brandenburg in II34(?), the Slav element in the margraviate in thelastyearofhisepiscopacy allyaidedbyWichmann. Already at Naumburg, Wichmann had imported a colonyof Flemings and themat Schul-Pforta, settled wheretheylongretained their own laws and gave theirname-Flemmingen or Flaminghe-to the to Magdeburg, locality.3 Six years afterhis transference when domination Albrecht's had been made complete in Brandenburg, Wichmann of Flemishand Dutch began the active importation into the unoccupied settlers marshlands of the Havel. Wichmannwas not the original in thussettling pioneer thesecolonies in II54 BishopGerung alongtheupper Elbe, for already ofMeissen had established a groupof themat Kiihrennear Wurzen.4 But was the greatest Wichmann of theseenterprises, promoter more theBear himself.5 so eventhanAlbrecht The detailsofthehistory ofthesettlement oftheseDutch and Flemish colonies and Wichmann by Albrecht maybe tracedin the Urkunden.But Helmold'sChronica Slavorum has one chapter6
I Chron.Montis Sereni, anno II82, in Mencken,SS. rerunm germanicarum, praecipuesaxonicarum, Vol. II; Raumer,Reg.,No. I558. 2 This information is containedin the fragments of the Old Chronicle of Brandenburg,to be foundin Heinemann,422; cf.Lavisse, La Marchede Brandenbourg sous la
Mark was not whollysubdued until II57,2 an achievementmateri-
dynastie Ascanienne, 71-72.
3 K6tzschke,Quellen, No. 9; Wendt,II, 35. For a completestudysee Rudolph, Die niederldnderischen Kolonien der Altmark im I2. Jahrhundert, Berlin, i88o. 4 K6tzschke,Quellen, No. io; Vogel, vii; Schulze, I59. s K6tzschke, Nos. I4, I5, I6, i8; Wendt, II, 30 f.; Heinemann, Urkunden, Nos. 38-4I; Rudolph, op. cit. Hollanders were establishedat Krakau near Magdeburg,and at Kleutsch near Dessau; Flemings around Naundorfand Pechau near Magdeburg; Westphalians at Poppendorf, across the Elbe, opposite Magdeburg,in pratiset paludibus. 6 I, chap. lxxxviii.
I 76
ofAlbrecht's is so excellent which that colonizing policy descriptive it is heretranslated:

surnamedthe Bear, had In that time(ca. II57) themargrave Adelbert, ofeastern prospered Slavia, whoby God's careoverhimverygreatly possession subjugum]all theterritory oftheBrizani,2 [misit in hislot.' For he conquered and manyothertribesdwelling along the Havel and the Elbe, and Stoderani,3 overcamethose of them in rebellion.4 Finally, as the Slavs graduallydissensimSlavis], he sent to Utrechtand the regionsof appeared [deficientibus the [lower]Rhine, as well as to those peoples who live near the ocean and vim maris],namely,Hollanders, the violence of the sea [patiebantur suffer Zealanders,Flemings,and broughta great multitudeof them and caused themto dwellin thetownsand villagesof the Slavs. of settlers the immigration intothe bishopfurthered [advenae] He greatly and Havelberg, multiplied thereand because the churches ricsofBrandenburg increased.5 thevalue ofthe tithes greatly In this time Dutch settlers began to occupy the east bank of the Elbe. Fromthe cityof SalzwedeltheseHollanderssettledall the marshand meadow whichis called Balsemerlandeand land [terram palustrem atque campestrem] 6 beingverymanytownsand villagesas faras the Bohemian Marscinerlande The Saxons are said formerly [olim]to have inhabitedtheselands frontier.7
I Helmold's phrase is in funiculo sortis. The figure is derivedfromthe method land by measuringit offwitha rope. Helmold several timesmentions of surveying of mensuration, e.g., chaps. 69, 7I, 77, 84. Cf. my articleon "The German thisform of the Baltic Slavs," op. cit.,385-86. Churchand the Conversion
2 The Brizani were one of the small tribesbelongingto the Baltic branch of the 27I f.). Slavs; theydweltnear Havelberg (Riedel, Der Mark Brandenburg,
A similartribein the same region(Riedel, 306 f.). recovered Brandenburg(the city) in II57.
4 Albrecht the Bear
of the Baltic Slavs," op. cit.,2IO-I7. article,"The GermanChurchand the Conversion

224, 386.
5 For the terrible burdenof the titheimposedupon the conqueredWends see my
6 Balsemerlande,Pagus Belxa, was the territory around Stendal in the diocese. and of Halberstadt. Marscinerlandeis supposed to have been between Arnesburg Werben,but Rudolph, op. cit., 37, has questionedit.
7 Helmold's wordsare usque ad saltumBoemicum. In chap. 8o, i50, he uses the between same phrase. WhetherHelmold, who lived in Holstein,knew the difference and theErzgebirge VI, 85 f., may be doubted. Dehio, Brem.Jahrb., the Boehmerwald to the Erzgebirge; Rudolph, op. cit.,37, to the Boehmerwald. thinksthe phraserefers the last editorof Helmold, is sure that the latter is not meant,and not Schmiedler, certainthat it applies to the former. I have translatedthe wordsaltumas " frontier," to expressthe indefinite of the word,is sufficiently which,whilenot an exact rendering hazy state of Helmold's mind.
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in thetimeof the Ottos,'as can stillbe seenin the remains of old levees which had buttressed the banksof the Elbe in the swampy land of the Balsami. Butafterward, when theSlavsprevailed2 theSaxons were killed and theterritory hasbeen possessed bytheSlavsuntil ourtime. Butnow, because Godhasgenerously given health andvictory toourduke andtheother princes, the Slavs everywhere have been worndown[protriti] and driven out,and peoples "strong andwithout number" havebeenbrought in from theborders ofthesea,3 and havetaken ofthefields possession [terminos], andhavebuilt towns and churches and increased in wealth all expectation. beyond Albrechtthe Bear seems to have preferred the agency of others in promoting lowlander colonization of his territoriesto direct enterprise by himself. His favoriteagencies were the Cistercians
and the Praemonstratensians. In II59 AbbotArnoldof Ballenstadtpurchased two localities "formerly possessed by the Slavs" " from themargrave, and soldholdings in themto certain Flemings who had petitioned to occupythemand to preserve permission their own law."4 In II70 Otto of Brandenburg gave twoDorfer, Dalchau and Drusedow, to the Johannite Order, whichhad been settled by Hollanders during hisfather's lifetime.5 In theWeser theinitiative region ofBremen begun by Frederick was continued bylaterarchbishops.In II58 Archbishop I Hartwig established a colony ofHollanders ontheOchtum, of a smallaffluent the Weser.6 In II70 Friedrich von Machenstedt, founder of the of Heiligenrode, of Bremen,receivedpersouthwest monastery missionfromhis successor, Archbishop Baldwin, to settle the swamp lands betweenBrinkumand Machenstedt,' west of the with Hollanders.7 This is because Ochtum, example interesting Baldwinhimself and in II78 returned was a Hollander by birth, to his nativeland as bishopof Utrecht, overwhich he ruleduntil hisdeathin II96. of Dutch and Flemishcolonization, In Saxonythe precedent whichAdolphof Holsteinwas the earliestof the lay noblesof
Helmold,I, chaps. I2 and i8. This refers to the great Slav rebellionin io66. See, fordetails,my articleox "The GermanChurchand the Conversionof the Baltic Slavs," Op. Cit., 228-30. 3 The wordsare quoted from Joel i :6. 4 Kotzschke,Quellen, 6 Vogel, iv. No. I3A.
I
2
5Ibid.,No.
ig.
7 Ibid.
178
by Henrythe Lion, whose was followed to introduce, Germany rule owes moreto Adolph's example than his biogintelligent of the have admitted. Afterall but the last remnants raphers Obodrite populationwere drivenout of Mecklenburg wretched of Henryand King Waldemarof in ii6o, by a joint expedition intothe bottom of lowlanders wereimported hundreds Denmark, and Ratzeburg.' landsaroundMecklenburg is a noticeable there century approaches As theendofthetwelfth intoLowerGermany. immigration off in Dutch and Flemish falling was due to thegreat madein North revolution How farthisdecline by thefallofHenrytheLion in i i8i, or to thegrowing Germany knows, as everyscholar which, of the Low Countries, prosperity at thistime, it does ofeconomic development reached degree a high in "slowingdown" not seempossibleto determine.One factor in this,thatas theWeser maybe found perhaps thisimmigration the nextavailable becamesettled, increasingly and Elbe marshes the source in the basinof the Oder,wereso faraway from tracts, andunusually unusual thatit required activity ofimmigrant supply to go so far. Probably also to inducenewsettlers terms favorable landsby 1200 had beentakenup had thefactthatthebestmarsh was so huge and so unoccupied its influence.What remained the capitalnor had neither that peasants simple miry hopelessly its reclamation.Such enormeansto undertake the engineering mous tracts of swamp as the GoldeneAue could be successlike that of the fully drained only by corporateenterprise Cistercians. are proportionally thatthere it is certain thereasons, Whatever ofDutchorFlemish ofcolonies oftheestablishment examples fewer II thatdate. Hartwig afterii8o thanbefore in LowerGermany nearBremen, ofHollanders a colony in I20I established ofBremen were terms attractive thatexceedingly required butitis noteworthy to prevailuponthemto come.2
IHeinemann, 227; Henry the Lion founded a colony of Hollanders in II64 around Erteneburg(Meitzen, III, 358). 2 Meitzen, II, 350-5I; Kretschmer,368; Kntill, 7-8, Lamprecht, III, 326; Kolonisation des Mittelalters in der ostdeutschen K6tzschke, Das Unternehmertum that Kotzschkehas not includedthis record (Bautzen, I894), 5-8. It is unfortunate in his Quellen.
GERMANY
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the Hinterland of of the thirteenth century By the beginning of mediaeval Germany was notthevalleyoftheElbe,butthevalley had now become Germany the Oder. The "Far" East of earlier the "Middle" East,' and Breslauhad takenthe place of Magdecenas a frontier city. In the thirteenth burgand Brandenburg Brandenburg, where ofLebusinfarther tury Silesiaandtheterritory landsoftheWeser and theMarchtouched theOder, notthebottom werethe partsof the Elbe, not lowerSaxonyand Mecklenburg, the tide of overflow from whither the Low population Germany directed itself. In Lebus,where thepopulation stillwas Countries heavilySlavonic(it was the ancientland of the Leubuzzi), the from Flanders colonists local housewas veryactivein attracting and Eastphalia,fromHesse and Thuringia. In the thirty-five it is said that over i6o,ooo acresof waste yearsbetween I204-39 land was redeemed or bottom by them.2 In lowerSilesia,where was a great influx ofGerman thepeoplewerePolishin blood,there in thetimeofBoleslavtheTall and his son Conrad, who colonists and it maybe surmised to havecomefrom seemchiefly Westphalia, who enteredSilesia came that most of the Flemishimmigrants in the wake of these. Zedlitz,westof the Oder intothe country and near Steinau,seemsto have been one of these settlements, was a Flemish colony.3 PogelnearWohlaucertainly it maybe said thateast of theElbe Riverthe CisIn general, canons were more tercianmonks and the Praemonstratensian thaneither lowlander thebishops activein furthering immigration of whileas to Prussia,thewholeexploitation or thefeudal nobles,
I Professor classic forthe historyof the F. J. Turner has made this distinction betweenthe" Old West," the" New West," and the" Far West," and frontier American I have applied it here. 2 Fisher, Mediaeval Empire, II, I6. I do not know upon what authorityhe depends forthis statement. 3In the middle of the twelfthcentury the Augustins of Breslau brought a Les colonieswallonesde Silesie, colony of Walloons into the Altmark (Grtinhagen, Brussels,I867), and later some serfsfromNamur are foundin Silesia. The Walloon into Silesia precededthat of the Flemings,but theywerenevernumerimmigration than a migration. Since Griinhagen's ous. Their comingwas ratheran infiltration Zeilschrift study,Levison (Zur Gesch. des BischofsWalter von Breslau, II49-II69, XXV [I90I], 353-57) has thrown new Gesch.und Allerlum Schlesiens, des Vereinsfiir light upon this obscure Walloon population. Cf. Pirenne, Hisloire de Belgique, IXI38, n. 3.
I80
theAustrian and Hungarian landsrepelled settlers whowereused and the Carpathians to a fencountry. The Erzgebirge had more forSaxon miners from attraction theHarz thanforthem. There of organized or groupcolonization or is no evidence by Flemings Dutch in Southeastern Europe. The few lowlanders foundin into the country Vienna or Hermannstadt probablypercolated or at themostin family individually groups.2 It was naturalthatthe changesand new conditions hereoutnewinstitutions.Almost from linedshould develop thevery incepit acquired an organized character. The joint tionofthemovement proclamation issued in i io8 by Adolph of Holsteinand other of this. The mechanism of both Saxon noblesis an indication feudaland ecclesiastical was earlyused to promote government of Dutch and Flemishcolonization in and govern the movement mediaevalGermany. In the rivalry between the two forms that ofthechurch was superior to thatofthesecular nobles; and ofthe oftheclergy ofthe Cistercian thesystem Order was twobranches to all. superior and mostinfluential institutions thatdevelOne oftheearliest " of and profession "promoter or locator. oped was the office of thefeudaldomains of some or steward Usuallyhe was a bailiff princeor prelate,who as agent of the lord surveyed the tract
domusAustriacae, This valuable charteris reprinted fromHerrgott, Monumenta in Reich, Med.andMod.History, 264-65. Select Documents Illustrating to be found. For other Kaindl, op. cit, II, 206-I0, has summarizedthe information d. deutschspecial literaturesee Schwind-Dopsch,Urkundenzur Verfassungsgesch. Erblande (Innsbriuck, oesterr. I895), 38. X, 92; Huber, Gesch. 2K6tzschke, 53A; Archivf. Kunde Oest. Geschichtsq., Oesterreich, I, 488.
I
burgenses nostrosqui apud nos Flacdrenses ntuncupatur in civitate nostraWiena.' But theintensely mountainous natureofmuchof
theland was in thehandsoftheTeutonicOrder. The colonizing work ofthetwoformer is a subject which willbe taken up in another article, and theactivities of the greatmilitary order of the north falloutsideof Germany territorially proper. As to Dutch and Flemish immigration into Southwestern thereis little to be written. Leopold VI of Austria Germany, in i io6 issueda charter bestowing certain rights and liberties upon
etc.(I750-72),
GERMANY
i8i
intendedfor colonization, and then, armed with the termsof betook and there settlement, himself intotheLow Countries organized a company of "homeseekers" whomhe conducted into the new territory.His fee was commonly a preferred share in the of land. Naturallyhe enterprise in the formof an allotment often also becamean important official in thenewcommunity and mediumbetweenthe settlers and the reigning noble. The first mention of a locatoroccursin the year II49.' But it is evident from the allusionthat the office was alreadyan established one. In fact, thissortofrealestateagency becamea profession.2 Even citieswereestablished in thesamemanner.3 Thereis muchvariation in detail in thesesettlements, but a striking general uniformity both in methodof distribution of the allotments and in institutions.The modelforalmostall agreements seemsto have been the charter of Archbishop of Frederick Bremento the men of Utrechtwhomhe settledin the Weser in iio8. Insteadof the nucleated marshes manorial village, with itspeasantstrips orplowlands inthespring andautumn " plantings " separated by dividing "balks" ofturf, its demesne land,its group ofhuddled in one corner ofthemanor, cottages itsarray ofirksome farmtasks and "boons," thesecolonialvillageswerelaid out in rectangular blocks-an American wouldcall them"sections" and " quarter-sections "-of 40, 6o,8o,ormore so thateachhomeacres, had a steader farm ofcontiguous composed land,and not,as under themanorial an assembly ofwidely regime, scattered holdings. We findthese "manors of Dutch measurement" among both the Dutch and the Flemings and amongnew settlements of German the enormous of colonists, who recognized the advantage practice overtheold system.4
Meitzen, II, 348. On the institution of the locator see my articlein Proceedings ofAmericanHistoricalAssociation (I9I6), n. 8i, and references there given. K6tzschke's Unternehmertum, etc., is the most recentstudyof it. 3 Poeschl, loc. cit., is full of evidence on this point. More briefly describedin Heil, Deutsche Stddteund Burgerim Mittelalter (Teubner's Sammlung,Band 43). 4 These "mansus Hollanriensis dimensionis" are frequently mentionedin the charters,e.g., K6tzschke, Quellen, No. io; Riedel, Der Mark Brandenburg,5I; Codex Diplorn.I, 338. Elsewherethey are called "Flemish"-inansos ad mensuram
I 2
182
The village, instead ofbeinga huddled groupofcottages, was a long street, everyhouse situatedat the near end of the holding the road. Behindit lay the farmacres,the meadow, facing the wood lot, in this orderif the "lay" of the land so permitted. ofthevillage, Somewhere, usuallynearthecenter werethechurch and thepriest's besidesthelocal tithe, having a house,thepriest, ofhis own (called" Goddespeece" in England)which holding was either serfs orby thepeasantry ofthevillage. If worked byparish a number of themcollecthere wereseveralvillagesclosetogether, intoa parish.' The priest's houseand thatof tivelywereformed the most substantial the locator weregenerally and commodious in the structures community.2 These Flemishand Dutch settlers brought theirown house architecture with them in many cases. While doubtlessthe original"shack" mighthave been rudelybuilt of logs, the edificewas oftenof homemadebrickmade out of permanent the local clay, with timbertravessesand, of course,timbered superstructure.The floorstoo were brick; peat, with which the lowlander was familiar, but whichthe Germanpeasant had no knowledge the of, was burnedin the fireplace. Sometimes or ofthehousewas decorated front withrudeand curious carvings, of horseheads,swans,windmills, etc. Of course paintedpictures obtained theseluxurious appointments onlyamongthemorewellwho land whichwas well to-do settlers possessedconsiderable diked and drained. Poorersettlers on smallholdings frequently had nomeanstoindulge intheblandishtoflood andfreshet exposed ofart.3 ments
Flandrensium(K6tzschke, Quellen,No. i3C and 50C). They were also known as "mansus regales" or "Konigshufen" (Sommerfeld, Gesch. der Germanisierung des Herzogtums Pommern in Schmoller's Forschungen, XIII, Heft V, 140, 149). Cf. my articleon " GermanEast Colonization,"op. cit., n. 76. Meitzenhas an exhaustive und Kinigshufe(Festgabe f. G. Hanssen, i889), i-6o, repubmonograph,Volkshufe lished in Conrad's Handwdrterbuch, IV, 496. op. cit.,423-27, whogivessome I On theseFlemish"street" villagessee Blanchard, interesting maps. Cf. Meitzen, II, 47-53, 343-44; Inama-Sternegg, DeutscheWirtschaftsgesch., I, 439-43. Cf. my article,cited just above, n. 77. 2Lamprecht, III, 364-65.
3
Ibid.; Meitzen, II, 359-60, has a detailed account.
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I83
to thesesettlers alwaysoffered inducements One oftheprimary and multiple manorial obfromthe exasperating was exemption themin the homeland to such a degree burdened which ligations werea realcauseofemigration.The sources grievances thatthese abound withevidenceon this point. Usually it was put negawhat shouldbe that is to say, the charter clearlydefined tively, to thetransaction, ofbothparties and obligations duties, therights, forthegovernconstitution so to speak,became a written which, in ofthecommunity. tomakethe however, order ment Sometimes, the dutiesand obligations after reciting colonists doublyassured, what the settlers to narrate wenton specifically from the charter was doublydefined.' freedom so thattheir shouldbe exempt, withmuchthat was new thesesettlers comBut in common thatwereold. Theytenaciously somethings clungto the mingled in the new land. of theirown nativelegal customs preservation of thischaracteristic traitof feudalparticularism, The persistence is traceableto the old Germanic of the legal theory whichitself oftheold order ofthings oflaw,2in spiteofthefluxing personality of so manynew institutions, is a striking and the development of the law.3 of things of the conservatism example record of thisprivilege. It appears abound with The charters of Bremen(iio6), in the of Archbishop Frederick in the charter wheretheirtraditional earliestinstanceof Dutch colonization, in thatofBishopWichmann of judicia etplacita are guaranteed;4 the Hollander in in to colony Schul-Pforta;5 Naumburg(II52) of Meissen(II54), wherethe provision is that of Bishop Gerung
I Item voluitidemarchiepiscopus, ejusdem quod omnesvilliciet cultoresagrorum ecclesiae liberiesse deberentab omnicensu civitatisvel villae et quod essentliberiab Brem. (ca. II42), cited by Inamaomtiiadvocatia," etc.-Henric. Wolteri,Chront. II, 29, note. For otherexamplessee Schulze, I57, n. i. Sternegg, 2 Meitzen, II, 349. 3 Even the Stadtrecht wherefew of Goslar, I256, althoughit was a mining-town que vulgar.Kura " settled,showstracesof Flemishlaw, e.g., the " institutio lowlanders for and Bitterfeld pointsto the Keuren of Flanders. The town coinage of Jiiterbock n. 2). The many years showed the Flemish originof the places (Schulze, I26-27, Belgian scholarVan Houtte has made a special study of the survival of Flemishlaw amongthese Flemish colonies in mediaeval Germany(Le Droitfiamandet hollandais en Allemagne au XIIe et au XIIIe siecle,Bruges,I899). de colonisation dans les chartes 4 K6tzschke, Quellen,No. i. s Ibid., No. 9.
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curiously worded:in placitis que cum ipsis et apud ipsos;' in II59 in thatofAbbotArnold ofBallenstedt (jure suo); in thatofWichmannof Magdeburg in ii66 (jure Hollandensium); in the swamp in I I 70between established Baldwin Brinkum co,lony byArchbishop intheKremper and Wilster and Mackenstedt;2 marsh settlements.3 were In thenature ofthings theseimported judicialinstitutions in courseoftimewiththoseofthe German assimilated population incomers settled. But in amongwhomtheseDutch and Flemish some cases thesespecial laws endureda long time. The Dutch coloniesof Zarnekau and Gumale in Holstein preservedtheir "Hollensch Recht" and did not go over to "Holsten Recht" I of Denmarkin I470 canceledthe Dutch untilI438;4 Christian around in themarshes Breitenburg law oftheHollander settlement of the Flemminger in Bitterfeld ofthe St6r;5the statutes Societdt and remains of werein vogue as late as the eighteenth century, themare still traceablein this locality.6 fact that theseDutch and FlemishimmiIt is a noteworthy a ruralpeasantry the latter, werealmostwholly grants, especially theFlemish and nota townspeople, towns by thetwelfth although of comwere alreadywell developed. The attractions century dissuadedthis latterclass fromemigrating. merceand industry ofGerman townlifein theMiddleAges thehistory In consequence Nor do Dutch or shows little evidenceof Flemishinfluence.7 and houseas servile ministeriales Flemings appearin the records i hold servants. In the war of i66 waged by Henrythe Lion's ofAmerland seizedBremen with vassalsCountChristian rebellious ofthekind butthisis theonlyinstance a bodyof"Frisian" troops,8 I have met. which effect On the other development hand,their uponthematerial of the open country, especiallybottomlands, was very great. a marshfolk,theircrude While the Wends were traditionally
4 Wendt,II, i6. 5 Meitzen, II, 354. 6 Schulze, I30. 7 Ibid., I30, n. 3. Guilds of Flemish weavers are traceable in Nordhausen, Langensalza, and Gorlitz.
I 2
Kotzschke,Quellen,No. io. Ibid., Nos. I3A, I4; Vogel,iv. 3 Kotzschke,Quellen, No. 6.
8 Helmold, I,
chap. I03:
Fresonum manu.
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oftheengineering to drainthe necessary was incapable agriculture he was a woodlander by ancestral swamps. As forthe German, oftheNorth eventheLow German and by preference; association of until theprocess avoidedtheriver bottoms, German plainusually drovehimto them.' and theforests oftheAlmend feudal inclosure had a natural Flemishand Dutch settlers But the incoming to forthiskindoflabor. Theywereused to bog and fen, aptitude and by inclination lowlands preferred and swamps, peat marshes of Germany who proto uplands. The greatlandedproprietors of theireconomic had a clear perception motedtheirsettlement accordedthem. The charter worth; hence the large privileges of Bishop Gerung lauds the "strongmen of Flanders" (strenuos whowill redeemthe waste of swampsaround viros ex Flandrensi) theselowlander and draining Meissen. Besides ditching, diking, helped the countryby buildingroads.2 materially immigrants allusions is theexterminaseveral to which we find service Another tionof snakesby them.3 where whosettled laborers think thatthesehumble One might at all withthe German competed others wouldnotgo and hardly wouldhave been welcomed by him. But thiswas not the case. not withoutreason,were Helmoldrelatesthat the Holsteiners, and Dutch settlers ofFlemish offiring during thevillages suspected crusade"on accountof hatredof theseimmigrants" theWendish whowerecalled "Rustri" in Holstein.5 (advenae),4
I On thisprocessof "inclosures" see Lamprecht, D.G., III, 53-58; von der Goltz, etc. (iith ed., i885), secs. 79-80. Landwirtschaft, 93-98; Roscher,Ackerbau, 2
K6tzschke,Quellen,II, note. (p. 7), 4 (p.

II). 4 Helmold, I,
3 Ibid., Nos. 2 5 The
chaps. 63-64.
termfirst appears in Schol. 3 in Adam of Bremen'sGestaHammaburgensis it. See Pertz's-edition ecclesiae pontificumn, from whomHelmold,chap. i, 83, borrows the note to the schol. Helmold,I, chap. 64, quotes at length, the ofAdam ofBremen, harangueof a Germanpriestnamed Gerlachagainst the Flemings,in whichhe said: Fresis. Sane feteteis odor noster." Every anthropologist "Nulla gens detestabilior knows the importanceof this phenomenon among primitive peoples. and ethnologist of Israel in Egypt complainedto Moses and Aaron: "Ye have made So the children in the eyes ofPharaoh."-Exodus 5:2I. Even to thisday in our savor to be abhorred from theWeserto theOder,thetermsVldmsch, Vldmischer Kerl, VlUmisches Germany, Gesicht, etc., signify "uncouth," "heavy," "rough," "having bad taste."-Schulze, 130, n. 3, at end.
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reasonable, oftheWends wasmore them toward The resentment forthe Wends were a fenpeople who oftenwere actuallydisfromthe Low Countries. This was possessedby these settlers and aroundDessau, Worlitz, thecase in Brandenburg particularly of theWendstookplace under a ruthless expulsion Pratau,where of Magdeburg.' In the really the Bear and Wichmann Albrecht relating of Pribislav,the Obodritechieftain, eloquentcomplaint is givenat length by Helmold,2 ofhis people,which thesufferings along with Saxons and and Hollandersare mentioned Flemings his as those by whom people have been expelled Westphalians fromtheirhomelands. " Worn down by the comingof these thecountry." as honest Helmold says,"the Slavs forsook settlers," It was thefateoftheRed Man in America. deedoftheGerman people has said thatthegreatest Lamprecht and colonizaeastward over, expansion in theMiddleAgeswas their theElbe and theOder. Mostof landsbetween tionof,theSlavonic themlabor was done by the Germans this long and important of thisachievement was portion selves. But a not inconsiderable dwelling by theoceanand suffering due to thesenameless pioneers of the the marshes the violenceof the sea, who came to redeem Weser,the Elbe, the Havel, the Oder,and even the Vistula.3 has ill requitedthe service. The hapless Modern Germany in their street no longer, ofBelgium games,"count out" children theold ballad: as formerly theydid by singing
Naer Oostlandwillenwy ryden, Naer Oostlandwillenwy m6e, Al overdie groeneheiden, Daer issereen beterestee.
2 Helmold,I, 98. Schulze, 130. in der Kolonisation des deutschenOstens ist unter den Pionierdienst Brtidereine der grossten; er soll ihnen unvervielen Grosstatenunsererwestlichen III, 342. Gesch., gessenbleibenin jeder deutschenGeschichte."-Lamprecht,Deutsche
3 "Dieser

Colonisation in Medieval Germany

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Dutch and Flemish Colonization in Mediaeval Germany Author(s): James Westfall Thompson Reviewed work(s): Source: American Journal

DUTCH AND FLEMISH COLONIZATION IN MEDIAEVAL GERMANY'

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DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

Blanchard,I70-20I. (4th ed.), 336.

3 Lamprecht, III Gesch., Deutsche

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DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

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DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

Blanchard,chaps. ix and xi. Knull, Historische Geographie Deutschlands im Mittelalter, 5-7.

my articleon "German East Colonization,"op. cit.,forfullexposition.

DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

Agrarwesen, II, Meitzen, Siedelungutnd

x. derNiederliinder, Ansiedelungen Vogel, Ldndische Heinemann,143.

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DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

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Kotzschke,Quellenzur Gesch.der ostdeutschen Kolonisationishundert, Leipzig, I9I2.

bis I4. Jahr-

3 Meitzen, II, 4 Kaindl,

358; Kretschmer, 374.

Gesch.der Deutschen in den Karpathenlindern (2 vols.) (Gotha, I907),

s Kretschmer, 367-68; Lamprecht,III, 305.

DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

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DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

Helmold,chap. 63, to the end.

2Ibid., chap. 64.

The Holsteinerscalled these lowlanderincomers"Rustri" (ibid., I58 and n.

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

Mark was not whollysubdued until II57,2 an achievementmateri-

dynastie Ascanienne, 71-72.

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ofAlbrecht's is so excellent which that colonizing policy descriptive it is heretranslated:

4 Albrecht the Bear

of the Baltic Slavs," op. cit.,2IO-I7. article,"The GermanChurchand the Conversion

5 For the terrible burdenof the titheimposedupon the conqueredWends see my

DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

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DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

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Ibid.; Meitzen, II, 359-60, has a detailed account.

DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

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Kotzschke,Quellen,No. io. Ibid., Nos. I3A, I4; Vogel,iv. 3 Kotzschke,Quellen, No. 6.

DUTCH AND FLEMINGS IN MEDIAEVAL

K6tzschke,Quellen,II, note. (p. 7), 4 (p.

3 Ibid., Nos. 2 5 The

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