Stem families in rural northwestern Germany? Family systems, intergenerational relations and family contracts

Abstract

The article investigates intergenerational social relations, distribution of power and mutual rights and obligations within rural families in nineteenth-century Westphalia. Following Frédéric Le Play and Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, historiography assumes the predominance of a stem family system in northwestern Germany. However, the definition of ‘stem family’ is still not well determined to date. In particular, the question of paternal authority pertains to the core concept of stem families, but has received rather little attention in historical research. The article argues that there are good reasons to question the adequacy of the notion of ‘stem family’ for northwestern Germany. Using farm and house transfer contracts as qualitative sources, the strong position of farm heirs will be demonstrated. These contracts settled relationships between family members after intergenerational transition, especially for different types of family composition. Ageing parents were confronted with children having alternative options to make a living and had to make far-reaching concessions if they wanted a child to stay and work or respectively care for them. Even parents who still wanted to manage the farm on their own gave up the property rights in order to keep a son or a daughter as labour force and care-taker on the farm. This points to considerable bargaining power of adult children, and strongly diminished parental authority even in multiple households.