Brach liegende Felder

Grundzüge der deutschen Agrargeschichtsschreibung

Abstract

The author claims that agrarian historiography in Germany suffers from a deficit of innovations resulting from the dominance of particular traditions. The history of agrarian growth and crises put forward by Wilhelm Abel was taken up in English-language research rather than in Germany. The mainstream of German agrarian historiography focused on the peasantry and on the political relations between peasants and lordship and thus followed the approach of Günther Franz. Although results like the active role of peasants in power conflicts during the early modern period refuted Franz' dictum of the passiveness after the Peasants' War (Bauernkriege), social differentiation of rural class society remained underexposed in German historiography.