Abstract
This study of changes in the regulation and control of settlements in the village society of the Osnabruck region from 1763 to 1806 shows how the rapid growth of the lower classes influenced the rural social order of early modern Germany. The problem of overpopulation in Osnabruck villages grew in the late eighteenth century, and the economic position of the Heuerlinge (landless tenants) deteriorated. The government of the region (Hochstift Osnabruck) thought that the Hofbesitzer (peasant farmers) should restrict the number of Heuerlinge who could reside in the Hofe (peasant farms). The Poor Laws of 1766 and, most notably, 1774 therefore obliged village communities to support, or banish, poor Heuerlinge. In response, the Hofbesitzer as a body began to organise strict settlement control over the Heuerlinge, through both local administrative mechanisms and autonomous peasant movements. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, groups of Hofbesitzer were controlling and monitoring the influx of members of the lower classes into rural areas. This is probably how the rural social order began to evolve into its modern form.
