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Communalism: universal category or ideological construct? a debate in the historiography of early modern Germany and Switzerland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. W. Scribner
R. W. Scribner
Affiliation:
Clare College, Cambridge
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Extract

One of the most challenging historical debates in early modern German history of recent years has been the ‘communalism thesis’ propounded by Peter Blickle, a German historian now teaching in Bern. The term ‘communalism’ was coined to designate attempts to achieve autonomous self-government in town and country during the Reformation period, and draws on an older historiographical tradition which stressed an inherent dualism at all levels of constitutional development between a corporate principle and one based on domination (Herrschaft). The former was founded on the equality of all members sharing common rights and obligations in a form of collective association. In late-medieval Germany the basic form of association in both town and country was the commune (Gemeinde), which possessed, or sought to possess, autochthonous rights to regulate its own affairs. This included the administration of justice, maintenance of peace within the community, economic functions such as distribution of common land or grazing, administration of church finances and church fabric, and in some places communal appointment of pastors. All these communal functions were justified by an appeal to the ideal of the ‘common good’ (gemein nutz), to which all individual self-interest (eigen nutz) was to be strictly subordinate. Thus, the commune appeared to be a fundamental building block of premodern German society.

Type
Historiographical Reviews
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 199 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 The chronological development of Blickle's views can be seen in the following publications: ‘Die Dorfgerichtsordnung von Buxheim vom Jahre 1553’, Memminger Geschichtsblätter (1965), pp. 15–45Google Scholar; Landschaften im Alten Reich. Die staatliche Funktion des Gemeinen Marines in Oberdeutschland (Stuttgart, 1973)Google Scholar; Die Revolution von 1525 (Stuttgart, 1975)Google Scholar, published in English as The revolution of 1525. The German peasants' war from a new perspective (Baltimore, 1981)Google Scholar; Deutsche Untertanen. Ein Widerspruch (Munich, 1981)Google Scholar; Die Reformation im Reich (Stuttgart, 1982)Google Scholar; ‘Der Kommunalismus als Gestaltungsprinzip zwischen Mittelalter und Moderne’, in: Bernard, N., Reichen, Q., eds., Gesellschaft undGesellschaften. Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Ulrich im Hof (Bern, 1982), pp. 95–113Google Scholar; Gemeindereformation. Die Menschen des 16. Jhts auf dem Weg zum Heil (Munich, 1985)Google Scholar, published in English as Communal reformation. The quest for salvation in sixteenth century Germany (Atlantic Highlands, 1993)Google Scholar; ‘Kommunalismus, Parliamentarismus, Republikanismus’, Historische Zeitschrift ccxlii (1986), pp. 529–56Google Scholar; Peter, Blickle und Johannes, Kunisch, eds., Kommunalisierung und Christianisierung. Voraussetzungen und Folgen der Reformation 1400–1600 (Berlin, 1989)Google Scholar. A succinct summary in English is ‘Communal reformation and peasant piety: the peasant reformation and its late medieval origins’, Central European History xx (1987), 216–28Google Scholar. Landgemeinde und Stadtgemeinde in Mitleleuropa. Ein siruktureller vergleich. Edited by Peter, Blickle (Munich, 1991).Google Scholar

2 The notion appears first in the collection Kommunalisierung und Christianisierung and is derived rather uncritically from the usage of Delumeau, Jean, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire. A new view of the Counter-Reformation (London, 1977)Google Scholar, originally published as Le catholidsme entre Luther et Voltaire (Paris, 1971).Google Scholar

3 Bernd, Moeller, Reichstadt und Reformation (2nd edn, Berlin, 1987).Google Scholar

4 For Schilling's contribution see now the collection of his most important essays in English translation, Heinz, Schilling, Religion, political culture and the emergence of early modem society (Leiden, 1992)Google Scholar. His critique of Blickle, a review of Gemeindereformation, appears on pp. 189–201, originally published in Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, xiv (1987), 325–33.Google Scholar

5 Jerome, Blum, ‘The internal structure and politics of the European village community’, Journal of Modern History, XLIII (1971), 541–76Google Scholar; David, Sabean, ‘The communal basis of pre-1800 risings in Western Europe’, Comparative Politics, VIII (1976), 355–64.Google Scholar

6 This is most marked in his 1981 work Deutsche Untertanen. Ein Widerspruch.

7 The ‘communalism thesis’ is so recent that there have been few reviews that have done other than expound the concept. Some historians have given it an enthusiastic welcome, such as Brady, Thomas A., ‘From the sacral community to the common man: reflections on German Reformation studies’, Central European History, XX (1987), 219–45Google Scholar; others have been more cautious: for example, Press, Volker, ‘Kommunalismus oder Territorialismus? Bemerkung zur Ausbildung des fruhmodernen Staates in Mitteleuropa’, in: Heiner Timmermann, ed., Die Bildung des frükmodernen Staates – Stände unit Konfessionen (1989), pp. 109–35Google Scholar; Scribner, R. W., ‘Paradigms of urban reform: Gemeindereformation or Erastian Reformation?’, in: Die dänische Reformation vor ihrem intemationalen Hintergrund, ed. Grane, L. & Horby, K. (Gottingen, 1990), pp. 111–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The most critical response has been Schilling (see note 3), who, however, welcomed the general tendency of the argument and sought to incorporate it into his own conceptual schema.

8 See Roper, Lyndal, ‘The “common man”, the “common good”, “common women”. Gender and meaning in the German Reformation commune’, Social History, XII (1987), 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This important article is not referred to by Blickle and its implications for his thesis seem to have fallen outside his range of vision.

9 Die Revolution von 1525, pp. 135–43.

10 For some reason, Schilling was not at the conference, although his comments might be inferred from his remarks in the article mentioned in note 7 above.

11 Indeed, in the exchange between Blickle and Hauptmeyer in the general discussion (p. 495), it was clear just how far the issue of communalization was entangled in contemporary political issues.

12 See Kramer, Christel and Spieß, Karl Heinz, eds., Ländliche Rechtsquellen aus dem kurtrierischen Amt Cochem (Stuttgart, 1986), p. 38.Google Scholar

13 For this problem, see Wehrenberg, D., Die wechselseitige Beziehung zwischen Allmendenrechten und Gemeindeverpftichtung vornehmlich in Oberdeutschland (Stuttgart, 1969), pp. 179–86.Google Scholar

14 For this dilemma in Erfurt ca 1515–1521, see Scribner, R. W., ‘Reformation, society and humanism in Erfurt c. 1450–1530’, University of London Phil. Diss. 1972, pp. 159, 185.Google Scholar

15 This view was proposed, albeit on the basis of thin evidence, in Sabean, D. W., Landbesitz und Gesellschaft am Vorabend des Bauernknegs. Eine Studie der sozialen Verhältnisse im südlichen Oberschwaben in den Jahren vor 1525 (Stuttgart, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Sabean later followed up in his initial perceptions of the commune as a site for power contest with the more complex discussion in Power in the blood. Popular culture and village discourse in early modern Germany (Cambridge, 1984).Google Scholar

16 See Dobras, Wolfgang, Die Stadt als rechter Tempel Gottes. Untersuchungen zu reformierten Sittenzucht in der Reichstadt Konstanz, Diss. Phil. (Constance, 1990), p. 179Google Scholar; Schröder, Tilman Mathias, Das Kirchen-regiment der Reichstadt Esslingen. Esslinger Studien, Schriftenreihe, 8 (Esslingen, 1987), 297–300Google Scholar. I am grateful to Ulinka Rublack for pointing these examples out to me.

17 Helga Schnabel-Schüle, ‘Der große Unterschied und seine kleine Folgen. Zum Problem der Kirchenzucht als Unterscheidungskriterium zwischen lutherischer und reformierter Konfession, in: Krisenbewußtsein und Krisenbewältigung in der Frühen Neuzeit. Festschrift für Hans-Christoph Rublack, ed. Monika, Hagenmeier and Sabine, Holtz (Frankfurt, 1992), p. 210.Google Scholar

18 There is no entry under ‘Gemeinde’ or ‘Kommunalismus’ in Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland, ed. Otto, Brunner, Werner, Conze, Reinhard, Koselleck, 7 vols. (Stuttgart, 1972–92)Google Scholar, nor does the concept of the ‘commune’ or ‘communalism’ attract much attention in the Cambridge history of political thought 1450–1700, ed. Burns, J. H. and Mark, Goldie (Cambridge, 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar