The communities in the northern Kraichgau were tightly packed and close together. Normally, one could stand at the edge of one village and see the next village. Or, from a slight elevation, one could see several villages. The distance from Hoffenheim to either Sinsheim or Zuzenhausen is one and one-half miles.
This tight packing of the villages in the region meant that the land available to the villagers was very limited. The average parish in the Kraichgau contained only slightly more than two thousand acres or an area less than two miles by two miles. Typically, a few hundred people lived in the parish (within the central village), so the amount of land available to support one person was only a few acres. But these are average figures and in many cases the land available to one family was much less.
During the Thirty Years' War, many records were lost and the population was reduced. After the War, on the average, more land was available per person. But, as the population grew after the war, the land scarcity arose again. The boundaries of the parishes had been neglected and it was uncertain just where they were. Heated arguments developed between the parishes as to these boundaries. A border dispute between Bonfeld and Kirchhausen started in 1717 and continued until 1761.
Factors which led to emigration decisions included the oppressive actions of the nobles, the scarcity of land, and overpopulation. These were interrelated. At first, the burden of support of the nobles was heavy because the population was reduced, which meant everyone had to carry a bigger load. Then, because the amount of land was fixed, the growth of population meant the average amount of land available per person was reduced. One could also look at this situation from an inheritance standpoint. A father divided what he owned among his children. As time went by, each person owned less and less.
The typical Kraichgau villager lived a subsistence life of producing just enough to get by. He had very little surplus to sell. Within the market towns, such as Schwaigern, there were craftsmen who emphasized a non-agricultural pursuit. For example, even while doing a little farming, they concentrated on their occupation such as weaving, tailoring, shoe making, carpentry, or butchering.
It was hard for the Kraichgauers to understand what people wrote from America. In America, there were no nuclear villages. Homes were scattered. And a man might own hundreds of acres of land. The New World immigrants might compare the distance between their homes as equal to the distance between villages in the Kraichgau.
In the first half of the eighteenth century, letters to Germany described a land of abundance and free from the oppressive measures of Germany. These letters had a tremendous impact on those potential immigrants still in Germany.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.