Markgenossenschaft is a historiographical concept created by nineteenth century legal historians to describe what they believed were communities of free peasants in early Germanic societies who jointly held and worked common land. The term derives from marchgenoten, meaning those entitled to use the mark, documented in Westphalian sources from around the year 1200. The concept was shaped by Romantic era ideas about ancient Germanic origins and influenced historical interpretation of early Germanic society for generations, but modern scholarship no longer accepts it as describing a genuine primitive institution that actually existed as originally theorized. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
FieldEconomic history and historiography of medieval land tenure 1 Proposed ByNineteenth-century legal historians, shaped by Romantic ideas about the origins of Germanic society 1 SignificanceLong read as evidence of a primitive Germanic communal institution, the construct is now regarded by economic and social historians as a heterogeneous phenomenon of the high and late Middle Ages rather than a primitive institution. 1 Classification
Concept Form Connections
Associated With
German Historical School economists, including Schmoller, studied the Markgenossenschaft as a model of pre-modern communal landholding and used it to argue against universal economic laws.
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Markgenossenschaft (Wikipedia)
Associated With School
The Markgenossenschaft was a central case study for the German Historical School's institutional and historical approach to economics.
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Markgenossenschaft (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Markgenossenschaft (Wikipedia)
Lead section
The construct was shaped by Romantic ideas about the origins of Germanic society, but its existence as a primitive institution is no longer accepted by modern scholarship.
Historiography section
The Markgenossenschaften are therefore now regarded as a heterogeneous phenomenon of the high and late Middle Ages rather than a primitive institution.
Introduction, concept-form
The concept was shaped by Romantic era ideas about ancient Germanic origins and influenced historical interpretation of early Germanic society for generations, but modern scholarship no longer accepts it as describing a genuine primitive institution that actually existed as originally theorized.
- Associated With: Gustav von Schmoller
- Associated With School: German Historical School
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