GEN-DE-L Archives

From: "W. Fred Rump" <>
Subject: Re: "Soldner" occupation meaning?
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 1997 17:27:13 GMT

(Conrad Weck) wrote:

>>Soelde, Soelmann, Soeldnerhof - all are words dealing with someone who
>>works for a Sold or a day's pay of some sort, therefore day laborer or
>>Haeusler or that type of concept.
>
>I quote from Wahrig Deutsches Woerterbuch:
>
>Soeldling: Someone who will do many things for money; hireling.
>Soeldner: (Formerly) Soldier who will fight for pay wherever he is
>needed.
>It should perhaps also be remembered that , at least to the end of
>WW2, the Soldbuch was the personal ID of the German soldier.

When we speak here about occupations found in old churchbooks we are
not (supposedly) referencing current use of such terms. The Soldbuch
and the words Sold and Soldat have their origin in the payment of a
fee for a rendered service. This included a mercenary service but was
not unique to it until a much later in time.

The military term Soeldner used to mean a professional soldier in the
service of a foreign power - a mercenary soldier.

Unless we know otherwise we would expect most references to this term
to mean the explanation I offered on this earlier. Mercenary soldiers
were rather rare among the population. Armies were very small in those
days. Just about everybody else farmed or survived doing some other
menial task. In Mittelhochdeutsch the word 'solden' or 'besolden'
meant nothing other than to pay for some rendered service.

One can find the various words which developed out of this use in
Haberkern/Wallach's 'Hilfswoerterbuch fuer Historiker' volume 2 page 579
which invaribly all reference back to the use of the words Haeusler and
Schutzverwandter as similar in popular use. Soeldling as definded above
in Wahrig fits this picture perfectly but there were many variations
of this word in use in the past.

Fred

W. Fred Rump
26 Warren St.
Beverly, NJ
609-386-6846 http://www.k2nesoft.com/~fre

This thread:

• Re: "Soldner" occupation meaning? by "W. Fred Rump" <>