I have mentioned it before but let me give the name of a book again. " Hopeful Journeys " was written by Aaron Spencer Fogleman, and it gives a great amount of insight into conditions in Germany in the first part of the eighteenth century. It is based on a study of records from the villages of Germany, especially the Kraichgau from where so many of our Germanna people came.
One of the villages in the region of study, almost the most southeastern one, is Schwaigern. If you draw a broad line, in the north westerly direction toward Heidelberg, you will cover many of the villages of the study. This was no man's land. Most of the territory was owned in small parcels by about 75 " knights ", who were caught between the peasants and the electors, or dukes, of the much larger realms that surrounded them. If you are thinking that it sounds medieval, I would agree. There were differences, as the peasants had negotiated contracts, some more than a hundred years old, as to the obligations and rights of the parties. The contracts were a hindrance to the knights, who needed to raise more money to support the life style that they wanted. Especially after the wars of the seventeenth century, which reduced the population and destroyed much of the infrastructure.
The clash between the nobility and the villagers reached its zenith in the late 1710's and early 1720's, just before the large scale emigration to Pennsylvania began (with smaller numbers going to Virginia). The village of Hoffenheim was owned by two families, the von Österreichs and the von Waldenburgs. In 1618 they had reached an agreement with the villagers, and then they reissued it in 1705. The von Österreichs had leased their half of the village to a poor noble family, the Äscher von Bünningens. The ruling families were Catholic, while the villagers were Lutheran. This, and an attempt to change the old agreements regarding privileges and dues, led to friction. The villagers appealed, over the heads of the ruling families, to the imperial commissioners.
These appeals were repeated, but brought no success to the villagers. A typical pattern ensued. One of the villagers emigrated to Pennsylvania, and in the following three years at least thirty-two others followed.
The events in Ittlingen were a comic-drama. A new ruling family, the von Kochendorfs, was heavily in debt and they sought to raise their revenues from the villagers, in order to pay for a new dwelling. They installed a fence around the village commons, so that they could use it for their own purposes. The villagers tore it down. The same things were repeated again. The villagers filed an appeal. The von Gemmingens (the owners) and the von Kochendorfs (the lessees) considered the villagers to be in open rebellion. Action was needed.
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.