For the development of Sehestedt in the last 100 years, the location on the Kiel Canal, which divides the village, is certainly of central importance. However, if one expands the field of vision by a few hundred years and looks at the history of Sehestedt since the Middle Ages, it is primarily the noble Sehestedt manor that has shaped the village.
The manor, which was built on the site of an old moated castle, can be traced back to the 13th century. The first known owner was Reimer von Sehestedt, whose descendants held the estate until 1503. The manor changed hands repeatedly in the following centuries until it was finally bought by the Ahlmann family in 1929, who still run it as a farm today.
The manor house was built in 1728/29 and underwent various alterations in the 19th century. Of the buildings belonging to the manor, which are grouped along the "Dam" (the path leading to the manor house), the barns are still preserved in their original form.
But it is not only architecturally that the manor has left clear traces in the village over the centuries. Administrative and social aspects are also of great importance. In the early modern history of Schleswig-Holstein, the noble estates are closely linked to the institutions of manor lordship and serfdom. For several centuries, the manor represented a core legal and social unit that accommodated different social groups and was characterized both by strong differences and by the interdependence of its inhabitants. . .
As in the case of the Kiel Canal and the Battle of 1813, the history of Sehestedt also reaches beyond the boundaries of the village through the estate and provides insight into historical phenomena that were effective throughout the region, and in some cases throughout Schleswig-Holstein.
In the 18th century, one criterion stood out that distinguished the different inhabitants of the manor from each other: the question of whether a person was free [Freien] or serf [Leibeigen]. To the group of the free belonged of course the lord of the manor and his family, furthermore craftsmen or tradesmen, the clergyman, and the " Holländer ".
But even within the group of serfs, not everyone was equal. One aspect that strongly influenced a person's social position was whether he had received a house or farm and land from the lord of the manor to farm, and how large this land was. In the following, the different groups will be presented in more detail.
Die Gutsherrenfamilie [The landowner's family] Lord of the manor
Until the middle of the 19th century, the lords of the manor of Sehestedt were noble families who managed their manor themselves or leased it out. However, their role went far beyond that of the owner of a farm and that of an employer. The noble estate replaced what we today call a community [Gemeinde], and the lord or lady of the manor exercised dominion over this area in every respect. Sovereign laws and ordinances also applied to the noble estate, but it stood outside the offices and was thus beyond the reach of local authorities.
The lord of the manor was the court lord for his serf subjects, his orders or those of his agents were binding, and he could impose penalties for non-compliance. In the 16th and 17th centuries he was even authorized to pronounce death sentences. Only after 1746 did this require a sovereign confirmation. In addition, he was patron of the church - and thus selected the preacher - and responsible for the school system, the appointment of teachers and the selection of the subject matter. A description of the estate from 1787, made on the occasion of the sale of the Sehestedt estate, describes the privileges and rights that the future lord of the manor received with the purchase:
"In both cases, the aforementioned estate with all the lands belonging to it, also serf subjects, in so far as they have not acquired their freedom in a legally stable manner, present and absent [... ] and their services, duties and taxes, as well as with all noble freedoms, law and justice, civil and criminal jurisdiction, high and low hunting, furthermore with all buildings belonging to the estate, and what is Erdnied- und nagelfest therein, likewise church pews, stands and funerals [. ...], not less with the cows, horses and other livestock belonging to the estate, also building and farming equipment [...] awarded to the highest bidder hereditary and proprietary".
(Conditiones nach welchen das adeliche Guth Sehestedt cum Pertinentiis von den dazu allerhöchst verordneten Herren Commissarien am 17ten September, 1787 aus dem Schlosse Gottorf öffentlich verkaufet werden soll, Gutsbeschreibungen 2, Schleswig 1814)
The lord of the manor thus based his position on certain legal privileges that legitimized his actions. A central role was played here by the patrimonial jurisdiction, which had been granted to the landlords of the country by the sovereign in 1524 and which is also referred to as the 'mother of serfdom'. However, serfdom was not only associated with privileges for the lord of the manor, but also with certain obligations. Towards his subordinates he had to fulfill the duty of conservatorship: If a serf got into distress or could no longer work, the lord of the manor was obliged to support him. In this context, he also had to pay for the medical care of his serfs. The lord provided the servants' dwellings and cottages, animals and tools, hired bailiffs to keep order during field work, took care of fire protection measures, and much more.
In addition to the manor house and the barns, there are two other buildings on the estate that were erected at the beginning of the 19th century: a coach house and a cottage in the northwestern part of the grounds, which - like the barn - have been listed as historical monuments since 1996. The gatehouse of the manor is no longer preserved.
On the estate there was not only grain cultivation, but also dairy farming. Dairy products such as butter and cheese were produced for the estate's own needs. From the transition from the 16th to the 17th century, the practice established itself in Schleswig and Holstein - and thus also on the Sehestedt estate - of leasing the dairy cows to so-called "Dutchmen", who were then responsible for the dairy farming and also sold their products.
In 1835, an estate dairy (also called "Holländerei") was built on the Mühlenkoppel between the estate and the church. In 1840, a total of 28 people were employed there in milk production and processing; in 1854, there were 156 dairy cows on the estate. Attached to it was a cooper's workshop where, among other things, the butter churns and buckets were made. The dairy existed for more than 100 years, but in 1996 the milk production of the Sehestedt estate was stopped. The former dairy serves as a residential building today.
Serfdom was abolished on the Sehestedt estate in 1800. It was completely abolished on January 1, 1805, by a state decree issued by Christian VII in December 1804:
"Serfdom is abolished in Our Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from January 1, 1805, completely and forever without any exception....
As of January 1, 1805, the freedmen, like other freeborn peasants, may dispose of their persons as well as their property freely and without hindrance, unless Our decrees prescribe general restrictions.
In particular, from that day on, the consent of the landowner to marry and to obtain a trade is completely abolished."
(Quellen zur Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins, Teil I: Von den Anfängen Haithabus bis zu den großen Reformen im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, hrsg. v. Institut für Regionale Forschung und Information in Deutschen Grenzverein e. V. und dem Landesinstitut Schleswig-Holstein für Praxis und Theorie der Schule, 2. Aufl., Kiel 1987, S. 257-258)
What effects did this have on life on the estate? It can be assumed that at first very little changed in the world of the now former serfs, which was strongly closed off to the outside world. The farmhands now held their farms as temporary tenants and paid service money instead of performing services on the farm field. The group of Kätner and Insten gradually evolved into the Tagelöhner class, which was later supplemented by laborers from other regions. Nevertheless, the work was basically the same, the mobility of individuals remained severely limited, and social hierarchies also continued to exist.
The lord of the manor remained the patron of the church, but now had to appoint and pay a court keeper. He was allowed to choose this person himself, on condition that he was confirmed by the king. From 1810 onwards, the judicial councilor Caspar Diedrich Christensen from Kiel was responsible for the Sehestedt estate. He was supposed to be independent of the lord of the manor and was not allowed to be dismissed by him.
It was not until 1853 that the jurisdiction of the noble estates was abolished. After Schleswig-Hostein became a Prussian province, an administrative reorganization took place in 1867, which, however, provided for a separate regulation for the noble estates and made them into manor districts. The landowner retained a key position within this estate district. For example, as late as 1906, Franz Trummer was an estate owner, patron of the church and head of the district all in one person. In 1927/28, the manor districts were dissolved again and political communities [Gemeinden] were created in their place.
Serfdom brought severe restrictions for the subjects of the manor: They lost their freedom of movement, were subject to the jurisdiction of the lord of the manor, could not freely choose their occupation, and could marry only with the permission of the lord of the manor. Depending on their age and social position, they can be divided into different groups.
a.) Servants and maids.
The working life of a serf could begin at the age of 6, when he was hired as a goose boy and received his daily food and some linen cloth for his work. Through the stages of young boy and young man, he could become a small farmhand [Kleinknecht] at age 20 and a large farmhand [Grossknecht] five years later, receiving an annual wage of up to 40 marks. Servants worked for the blacksmiths and cottagers or on the estate itself.
"The low wages were barely enough for the necessary needs. The farmhands, who had to do a lot of digging and therefore had to stand in the water a lot, spent most of it on their footwear." (Christian Kock: Sehestedt, eine Gutschronik, 1943, vol. 1, p. 74)
The girls usually served as maids also with the farmers, on the estate or in Holländereien. Their wages were 10 to 12 marks, much lower than those of the farmhands. They lived in very cramped quarters in the dairies and were given few opportunities to go out. If a serf had worked as a Grossknecht for several years, it was at the discretion of the lord of the manor to grant him a marriage license and make him an Insten, or even assign him a [Halbhufe] half-hof or [Hufe]hoof. A free choice of the marriage partner did not exist in many cases. Advancement to Insten was not automatic for the serf; some serfs remained Großknecht even beyond the age of 30.
b.) Insten
The lord of the manor provided the Insten with a dwelling - often just a small cottage or part of a house - and a piece of garden land (the so-called "Kohlhof"). In return, the Insten had to work two days a week on the estate, the other days they worked for wages on the farms of the Hufner, as craftsmen or similar. The Insten women also had to work 60 to 70 field or garden days a year on the estate. In 1787, there were 14 large Insten and several small Insten living in Sehestedt, who performed manual labor and gardening during harvest time.
The Insten represented the village lower class. They often lived in extremely meager, sometimes miserable conditions and had usually learned nothing except field work. Their living environment was spatially very limited and even after the abolition of serfdom in 1805 (on the Sehestedt estate already in 1800) their mobility hardly increased. If an Inste fell into unbearable poverty, the lord of the manor was obliged to keep him in conservatorship, but only until a kind of subsistence level was reached again.
It is obvious that not all lords of the manor behaved in the same way toward their subjects. A good example is provided by the Rantzau brothers, who owned various estates in the 17th and 18th centuries. Hinrich Rantzau, who owned the Bürau estate, increased the services of the serfs as soon as he took over the farm and even called the Hufner "his greatest enemies". When a serf escaped from his farm in 1722, he had his relatives and a farmhand arrested, beaten and bound so hard that they died after a few days. His brother Hans Rantzau, lord of the manor at Ascheberg, gave away more than 5% of the income from his farm to his serfs every year and was one of the first to abolish serfdom and the manorial system on his estates.
c.) Kätner
In the social hierarchy above the Insten but below the Hufner were the Kätner. They had a Kate croft with a cabbage garden and some land, which, however, did not reach the area of the Hufner. Many of them had another main occupation besides agriculture. They worked, for example, as shepherds or craftsmen. The estate description of 1787 mentions 8 Kätner for the noble estate of Sehestedt. In return for receiving the cottage and their lands from the lord of the manor, they had to send a man or farmhand to the courtyard every day.
d.) Hufner
A Hufe is a piece of land, originally so much that a family could cultivate it and live from the yields. In Sehestedt this corresponded to an area of 30 to 40 hectares. Accordingly, a Hufner was a farmer who had such a piece of land and a farm. At the time of serfdom, this farm did not belong to him personally, but was given to him by the lord of the manor to work. The lord also provided equipment and livestock. In return, the farmer had to pay taxes and send a four-horse cart or plow and farmhands and maids to the estate every day, who then worked the farm field. In 1787, the Sehestedt estate had two Vollhufner full hofners and eleven Halbhufner half hufners, who together provided services for the entire estate.
If the farmer got into economic difficulties, the lord of the manor could take away his Hufe. Therefore there was a saying among the serfs: The farmer should not prepare his bed before evening, because he cannot know during the day who will sleep in it the next night.
To obtain a Hufe was an opportunity for a serf, and the Hufner occupied the highest social position among the serfs. Nevertheless, the life of the Hufner was in no way easy. He had to manage his farm in such a way that the yield was sufficient to feed his family and himself, to pay the dues, and at the same time to pay for the labor he sent to the farm. Towards the end of the 18th century, the burdens on the farmhands became greater and greater, threatening to collapse under them. A further increase in yield was not possible under these circumstances. A fact that was to become one of the main causes for the abolition of serfdom.
III. "Freemen
In addition to the serfs of the estate - referred to in the church records as " Eigene" - there were also so-called "Freie" (freemen) on the estate. Thus, some of the craftsmen were not under serfdom. Most of the noble estates had their own forge, where iron fittings, plowshares, harrows and horseshoes were made. The construction of wagons and equipment for work in the fields, stables and barns was done by the wheelwright.
Also among the freemen were the " Hollanders ", who were responsible for dairy farming. In Holland, the methods of dairy production were already more advanced in the 16th century than in other regions; therefore, Dutch countrymen were called to the manors. They leased the dairy cows and produced dairy products for the estate's own use and for sale.
The terms "Holländer" and "Holländereien" have been preserved, even though only in the early stages did the "Holländer" actually come from Holland or were descendants of Dutchmen who had immigrated to Eiderstedt. The earliest Dutchman who can be traced in Sehestedt was a man named Laurentz Petersen, to whom the landowner Wulf vam Damme leased the dairy cows of the estate in 1619. The production of dairy products was quite a profitable business; in 1786 it accounted for 47% of the total income of the Sehestedt estate with about 2500 Rthl.
von Sören Klein und Jorge Olivares
1. Blum, Jerome (Hg.): Die bäuerliche Welt. Geschichte und Kultur in sieben Jahrhunderten. München 1982. 2. Bentzien, Ulrich: Bauernarbeit im Feudalismus. Landwirtschaftliche Arbeitsgeräte und -verfahren in Deutschland von der Mitte des ersten Jahrtausends u. Z. bis um 1800. (Veröffentlichungen zur Volkskunde und Kulturgeschichte, Bd. 67). Berlin 1980. 3. Davids, Georg: Die Meierin. Ein Beruf auf den Gütern des 17. bis 19. Jahrhunderts mit großem fachlichen Können und persönlichen Qualitäten. In: Die Heimat. Zeitschrift für Natur- und Landeskunde von Schleswig-Holstein und Hamburg. Nr. 1/2 , 107. Jahrgang, Januar/Februar 2000.
Translation of:Hofgeschichte