From Late Medieval City Employees to Early Modern Civil Servants. Employment Relationships as Reflected in the Frankfurt Contract Documents

Abstract

Using the example of Frankfurt am Main, this article traces the development of the employment relationships of municipal employees between the last quarter of the 14th century and the early 19th century, on the basis of the collection of their contracts, the so-called service letters. The contents of this collection determine the study’s chronological range. All sectors of the municipal service are covered. The study also highlights the limitations of the source material regarding the employment of women and socially marginalised groups.
Key aspects studied are fundamental contractual problems such as contract duration and termination, salary, risk distribution and disciplinary measures. Particular attention is paid to the resolution of conflicts between the city and its employees, including the problems of limitations on legal recourse, the settlement of conflicts before the highest courts of the Empire, and the methods and motives of consensual dispute resolution. The study also considers how the findings from Frankfurt relate to the situation in other cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Furthermore, it focuses on the historical context of the changes in contractual practices and clauses. Important events in the city’s political and constitutional history, such as the attainment of the status of imperial city, the Reformation, and the 17th- and 18th-century conflicts between the city authorities and its citizens, had considerable influence on Frankfurt’s administration and municipal service system.
Finally, the findings will be integrated into a number of early modern research narratives, such as the concept of gute Policey, social disciplining, and professionalisation, as well as more recent research questions of exchange fairness and of asymmetric dependence. The various analytical approaches together reveal a co-evolution of municipal administration and employment relationships that led to the emergence of a municipal civil service.