(Discussion of Hesse, continued from Note Nr. 1619.)
We have been talking about the town of Marburg, which had a population of about 5,000 people. The town was administered by the mayor (Bürgermeister) and council, which consisted of a mixture of learned and partly unschooled men. The highest paid official in the town was the Town Scribe, or Secretary, who made 71 Taler per year. This was more than the mayor earned, as his pay was only 55 Taler per year.
The town raised this money with a variety of taxes. Altogether, in the year 1776, the town income came to 4099 Taler, which was derived in the following ways:
Very often towns owned some classes of shops. For example, the town might own the bakery, which was let on contract to a baker. The wine and beer sales in Marburg were through town-owned properties, and the operators either had to pay a fixed annual fee or a percentage of their sales. Either way, they were significant sources of income. If you were not born in Marburg and wished to become a citizen, you had to pay a fee.
The town kept it books according to slightly different rules than we use today. We are not inclined to say that the surplus carried over from previous years is an element of income in this year.
Of this total income, 876 Taler had to be paid out in interest on debts. The city was heavily indebted. By 1782, the town’s regular income had shrunk to 3,335 Taler, and some of the properties owned by the town had to be sold to raise money. The properties sold included three wine shops, which had previously been mortgaged.
There was a decline in church attendance, especially by the more educated classes, who were beset by the rationalist thinking of that age. They regarded church as the province of the ignorant and superstitious. The main church in town, dedicated to St. Elizabeth, still held many of the Catholic observances from pre-reformation times, even though the church was now a Lutheran Church. The Catholics had been without a church, but were allowed the use of the chapel in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.
The once uniform clothing style used by nearly all diverged into separate styles for the Catholics and the Evangelicals (i.e., Protestants). As is often typical, the styles evolved first in town, and then spread to the hinterlands.
(Continued in Note Nr. 1621.
(17 Mar 03)
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.