The article investigates a number of territories in today’s Schleswig-Holstein, which had belonged to Denmark or the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf until they were united under the Danish crown in 1773: Süderdithmarschen, Norderdithmarschen, Drei Lande (i.e. Eiderstedt, Everschop and Utholm.), Stapelholm, Heligoland, Pellworm, Nordstrand, Osterland Föhr, Sylt and Fehmarn. They deserve special attention because their rural population enjoyed the right of political representation during the early modern period. The village population of the Gottorf-Danish territories formed so called Landschaften i.e. organizations of self-government on the regional level. These Landschaften sent delegates to regional diets, where officials of the prince negotiated taxation and political questions with the representatives. However, administration was the main task of the diets. The political representation of the peasant population was extraordinary strong because in this area there were neither any privileged ecclesiastical institutions nor aristocratic dynasties nor cities with special rights. The spokespersons of the villages were the only partners the officials of the princely government negotiated with. After discussing the various communal and Landschaft offices, of which there were four types, it is suggested to see the office-holders as brokers who negotiated with both sides, the government and the rural population, but never totally identified with any of them. The officials of the communities and the Landschaften received their offices in a variety of ways, including co-option and elections. The election process was surprisingly sophisticated even though it was burdened with some practical difficulties. There was a complex system of written ballots. Some candidates ran election campaigns the leaders of the Landschaft frowned upon because, they suspected them – not without reason – to be actually attempts at bribery. Voting rights depended on property and standing in the community. In the long run, the office-holders of the rural population proved to be highly unreliable brokers. Corruption and simple incompetence began to damage the representative system as a whole. Village communities tried to out-manoeuvre their own office-holders by calling upon the authority of the prince.
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Dillinger, Johannes
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Year of publication: 2023Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-02-06