The state archives of Fribourg owns a whole series of registers of citizens(Bürgerbücher). The first two of these registers are the most important ones; they cover the period from 1341 to 1769 and are presented here in digitized form. The registers present the citizens of the city of Fribourg as they change from a citizenry that is very open for economic reasons at the turn of the 15th century to one that gradually closes itself off and then becomes a privileged patriciate in the 18th century. ‘Bürgerbücher' were a means of controlling the enrollment of new citizens through lists, which from the very beginning could be in book form. This allowed mostly large and medium-sized German cities that had achieved a certain political and economic development to react to and to regulate demographic trends and immigration during the late Middle Ages, after and even before the great plague (mid-14th century). The second register was created in 1416 by the deliberate designs of city clerk Petermann Cudrefin, who had kept the first register since 1396 and had found it very disorganized. (utz)

Online Since: 06/23/2014