"Einen Bären anbinden"

Abstract

During the 1570ies an intensive debate was launched by the Viennese authorities concerning the widespread practice of vineyard laborers to swindle their employers out of paid advances by defecting before their work was completed, a practice commonly referred to as Bärenanbinden. The debate ideally illustrates the specific contradictions in the social relation of wine-production in the surrounding province of Lower Austria and in Vienna. While analysing the conflicts between the owners of the vineyards and their workers the author draws up a compelling picture of the essential structural features as weil as the price- and wage-developments of this agrarian sector, which was so crucial for the economic development of early modern Lower Austria. This framework is then in turn employed by the author to unravel the motivations and behavioral patterns of vineyard laborers in 16th century Austria.