Dienstmann

A Dienstmann (plural: Dienstleute or, in Austria, Dienstmänner) was a medieval retainer or vassal and, later, a hired man, in German-speaking countries, particularly in Austria until the first half of the 20th century.

Rudolf Graf Rex: Würfelnde Dienstmänner ("Dice-playing Dienstmänner"), around 1890
Memorial for a Dienstmann in Peine, Germany

Usage

The term Dienstmann first surfaced in the Middle Ages as a Germanicization of the Latin word ministerialis,[1] for men, who served at a court and, in the course of time, were raised to be armigers with a social status similar to that of free knights (Ritter).[2]

However the term Dienstmann could also refer to men who were obliged to pay duties or render socage to their liege lords a socager, or socman. Unlike ministeriales, they held a lower social rank equivalent to the English serf.[3]

Later, the term described was used to describe a hired man who, in public service or in a private household, was contracted to perform time-limited functions of all types in return for a fee. His main duties were the carriage of belongings, such as suitcases, and messenger duties.

In fiction

Well-known fictional Dienstmänner are the Dienstmann, Alois Hingerl, in Ludwig Thoma's Satire Ein Münchner im Himmel or Hans Moser and Paul Hörbiger, the Dienstmänner in the film Hallo Dienstmann. As a so-called Berliner Original, the Dienstmann, Ferdinand Strumpf, went under the name, Eckensteher Nante.

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References
  1. Thompson, p. 470.
  2. Delbrűck, p. 254, note 17
  3. Bachrach, Bernard S. "Charlemagne and the Carolingian General Staff" Journal of Military History 66, no. 2 (2002) p. 316-7

Literature
  • Hans Delbrück, trans. Walter Renfroe Jr. History of the Art of War, Volume III: Medieval Warfare (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1982)
  • Fritz Keller: Hallo Dienstmann! In: Wiener Geschichtsblätter 62. Jg., 2007, ISSN 0043-5317, pp. 1–16.
  • Fritz Keller: Ignaz Israel Pokart – der letzte jüdische Dienstmann. In: Verena Pawlowsky, Harald Wendelin (ed.): Raub und Rückgabe. Vol. 2: Arisierte Wirtschaft. Mandelbaum-Verlag, Vienna, 2005, ISBN 3-85476-161-9, pp. 85–88.
  • Valentin Ferdinand von Gudenus, Friedrich Carl von Buri, Heinrich Wilhelm Anton Buri (ed.): Codex Diplomaticvs. Exhibens Anectoda Ab Anno DCCCLXXXI, Ad MCCC. Mogvntiaca, Ivs Germanicvm, Et S. R. I. Historiam Illvstrantia. 5 vols., Göttingen etc., 1743–1768.
  • Wilhelm Scherer (ed.): Hohenfurter Benedictinerregel. In: Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum NF 4 = 16, 1872, ISSN 1619-6627, pp. 224–279.
  • Richard Schröder: Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte. 6th revised edition by Eberhard von Künßberg. de Gruyter, Berlin etc., 1922.
  • James Westfall Thompson. "German Feudalism". The American Historical Review 28, no. 3 (1923) 440-474.
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