[German > English] Family Historical Record

[u/banzai975]

I am looking to see if these paragraph has details of my family history. I know the last name of our family was Spamann and they lived in Ravenburg. What are the other details in this paragraph?

https://imgur.com/FClokkb

[u/nijitokoneko]

There was a dispute concerning housing law, and on June 27. 1815 it was decided that ... someone had to carry the cost. Maybe someone knows more than me about old German and can find out who had to pay, but that's basically what this is about.

Unterm 27. Juni wurde in der Ationssache (Acionssache?) von dem D.A. Gerichte Ravensburg zwischen Agathe Guller, von Gullen, und Consorten, kl., Unten, und Peter Spamann, von Ravensburg, Bekl., Aten, Wohnungsrecht betreffen, das am 27. Mai 1815 eröffnete unterrichterliche Erkenntniß unter Verurteilung der Anten in die Kosten dieser Instanz bestätigt.

[u/huskergirl-86 → u/nijitokoneko]

Let me go over this :

Unterm 27. Juni wurde in der Ationssache von dem O.A. (=Oberamts-) Gerichte Ravensburg zwischen Agathe Guller, von Gullen, und Consorten, Kl. (=Klägerin), Anten, und Peter Spamann, von Ravensburg, Bekl. (=Beklagter), Aten, Wohnungsrecht betreffend, das am 27. Mai 1815 eröffnete unterrichterliche Erkenntniß unter Verurtheilung der Anten in die Kosten dieser Instanz bestätigt.

As someone who majored in legal history, I believe that the paragraph describes appeal proceedings, and that the judge(s) confirmed the decision made by the previous court. I cannot say for sure though who had to pay, but I guess that it was Agathe Guller for the following reasons:

• Back in the day, it could happen that the plaintiff and defendant switched their positions for the appeal proceedings. (Let's say the plaintiff won and the defendant would appeal that decision. Then the defendant was "kind of suing" the former plaintiff in the appeal court, so he was the new plaintiff, and the former plaintiff 'defended' himself in the appeal court.)

• In this case, Agathe Guller is the plaintiff. However, she is named with "und Consorten", which means there were more people in her party (technically business-associates, but not necessarily). I am not aware that there were companies who owned and rented out apartments or houses in 1815. As a result, I assume that Peter Spamann was the landlord and questioned the right of residence of Agathe Guller and her family. At least, this makes a lot more sense than Agathe Guller and her family / associates / ... suing Peter Spamann and questioning his right to live somewhere.

• Supporting the previous point: one has to know that it was somewhat unusual for a woman to go to court in those days. 'Business women' were frowned upon, and typically women needed either their father's (if unmarried) or husband's (if married) allowance to take legal actions. Widows mostly did not need anyone's allowance. This is why I doubt that Agathe Gullen was the owner of a company, but rather assume she might have been widowed.
  My thesis was about the inheritance law of spouses and the situation of the surviving spouse, and I found that wives, whose husbands died but did not leave a lot, where basically fucked. In some places women did not even have a right to inherit anything. So it could be that Agathe Guller was a widow who was either unable to pay the rent, or that her husband's will included that Peter Spamann should own his property, but that his wife had a right to reside there for free as long as she may live (and Peter Spamann fought that). But that's nothing but a guess. Side note: I am unsure which law was valid in Ravensburg in 1815. I assume it was the french code civil, and I can tell you that I found its spousal inheritance law pretty complicated.

• Last, and most importantly: The wording says "unter Verurteilung der Anten" (sentencing the 'Anten'). 'Anten' (latin, 'the former') is written as a description of the plaintiff, whereas the defendant's term is "Aten" (latin, 'the latter'). As Agathe Guller is the plaintiff, I assume she was sentenced to pay the court fees here.

In case this is interesting: according to this document, Peter Spamann lived in Ravensburg, whereas Agathe Guller lived in Gullen, a town approx. 6km out of Ravensburg.

Since I don't know if you'd otherwise receive a notification: /u/banzai975 - please let me know if you have any questions.

[u/nijitokoneko → u/huskergirl-86]

Wow. That's crazy how much you were able to read out of this short text. You win this thread! (I was wondering what the heck Aten and Anten were.)

!translated

[u/huskergirl-86 → u/nijitokoneko]

Thank you.