En falden fogeds bønskrift: Et forsøg på at komme tættere på Claus Paulsen (1620)

De bønskrifter eller supplikker, som blev indgivet i 1500- til 1700-tallet er vigtige kilder til enkelte mennesker og deres individualitet. Artiklen tager udgangspunkt i en supplik fra den tidligere foged på godset Hemmelmark til hertugen af Gottorp. Det konstateres, at han næppe selv havde skrevet supplikken, som følger en række konventioner, men at den alligevel giver vigtig information om hans liv, hans forestillinger og konflikten med godsejeren

Diverging Paths of Microhistory: Aspects of the History of Reception

This contribution looks at the new direction microhistory in Germany and the United States has taken. As a consequence of the characteristics of microhistory and the respective conditions prevailing in the two countries, microhistory took on different shapes as early as the beginning of the 1990s. By now scholars in Germany have turned away from studies in villages and try to use microhistory in inquiries of subjects with global dimensions. Here, microhistory is used in different ways and for different purposes, but always with a stress on agency. To broaden the scope of microhistory, it has been proposed to try it for subjects that are not well documented in contrast to the source material used in general. Such endeavours are not seen in some of the latest studies from the United States where there was a strong interest in the narrative right from the beginning. The understanding of microhistory as the study of the everyday experience of common people presented as a narrative can still be found as the examination of two recent examples shows.This contribution looks at the new direction microhistory in Germany and the United States has taken. As a consequence of the characteristics of microhistory and the respective conditions prevailing in the two countries, microhistory took on different shapes as early as the beginning of the 1990s. By now scholars in Germany have turned away from studies in villages and try to use microhistory in inquiries of subjects with global dimensions. Here, microhistory is used in different ways and for different purposes, but always with a stress on agency. To broaden the scope of microhistory, it has been proposed to try it for subjects that are not well documented in contrast to the source material used in general. Such endeavours are not seen in some of the latest studies from the United States where there was a strong interest in the narrative right from the beginning. The understanding of microhistory as the study of the everyday experience of common people presented as a narrative can still be found as the examination of two recent examples shows

Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit | Das Beispiel Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, ca. 1570 – 1721

Summary Corruption in Early Modern Germany.The Case of the Duchy Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, 1570 – 1721 Drawing on archival sources, this article looks at trials against high officers in the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, in which the charge of corruption was instrumentalized against the defendants. It tries to explore what was in fact presented as corruption and what its relationship to discourse was. While acknowledging the dynamics of change after 1750, it shows that there was also a lot of continuity. Whereas the discourse and the ordinances focused on the exercise of justice, the study of the trials however reveals a broad range of abuses of office in other fields of the administration, e. g. sale of offices (or allowing subjects to escape offices), reducing dues or prohibiting the free sale of cattle. The trials had another aim beside the political one: to ease the miserable financial situation of the territory by forcing the defendants to pay back the bribes they had received – often in vain. This took the extreme form of trials against late officers. Thus, not only the repetition of the ordinance but also the difficulties of the heirs kept the memory of the norms alive. As the prevailing conditions did not allow a sea-change, the governments limited themselves to „optimize“ the system of corruption