Sex und „gute Policey“ Frühmoderne Ordnungen für Huren, Hebammen, Ehebrecher und Alkoholiker in Süddeutschland

Abstract

In the libraries, archives and registries of German imperial, bishop's and residence cities as well as other imperial territories in the early modern period, which was even poorer in media, there were quite exciting things to read about our topic “Sex and good Policey”. As a first orientation in the field of sexual offences, the database on the printed works of the 17th century in the German-speaking area (vd17) provides 18, 28, and 38 hits, respectively, for the relevant search terms (in German) “adultery”, “whores”, and “fornication”. The synonym “Affairen” for sexual adventures, on the other hand, was misleading in the context of "good" Policey, since it was used exclusively in the context of political processes. We did not want to leave it at these quantitatively manageable proofs and consulted the eight source works on the “good” Policey in Southern Germany composed at the Chair of Regional History in Erlangen. The family, midwife, health, hygiene, drinking, security, and criminal ordinances edited there, above all in the vicinity of the imperial cities, provided timely and source-related evidence for our analysis of sexuality in early modernity.