Introduction

In recent decades historians have excavated an unexplored unit of European history, the Early Modern family. Were families emotionally close in this period? What was the nature of parent/children relationships? Was love a common attribution of marriage? 

Scholars like Mary Hartman have argued that the beginning of the Early Modern Europe was a period of moderate familial happiness, which was later met with a backlash of violence and discontent within the family structure. In her book, "The Household and the Making of History," she explains, "Women for their part, emerged as more active if not equal partners with their husbands in decision making within households and also within their local communities…however, it appears at least initially to have produced a strong and sustained reaction featuring a huge rise in popular and institutionalized misogyny." The backlash of violence appears to be a reaction to the minimal female agency that women of this period may have practiced. 

Primary sources revealing the nature of the Early Modern family are scarce, so historians often rely on legal documents to discover the household.  I am offering a selection of primary sources (legal and personal) that promote the notion that Early Modern German families were happy. 

Magdalena and Balthasar

Magdalena and Balthasar is Steve Ozment's exploration through a married couples' corresponding letters that exemplify intense mutual love and happiness between the couple. Steven Ozment unearthed these letters between Magdalena and Balthasar who were married in the 16th century in Nuremburg, Germany. It really is a great hybrid of primary sources and secondary sources that reveal happy truths about the Early Modern German family unit. Steven Ozment opposes the aforementioned historian, Lawrence Stone in his argument that the Early Modern Period was a time of familial happiness that exemplifies a moderate level of historical continuity in the household. 

Magdalena spent 6 months per year alone in Nuremburg while her husband, Balthasar, was away on business. While he was away she was responsible for his business affairs. Their letters express their loving affection for one another. 

Quote #1 Balthasar to Magdalena: 15 December 1582

The following quote is the conclusion from one of Balthasar's letters to his beloved. 

"I thank you most sincerely for the little flower you have sent me from out garden. I am carefully preserving it for your sake. May I kindly ask you to give my sincere greetings and best wishes to your brother Paul, your sister, and to Katherina Imhoff and Magdalena Held. As for you, dearest Magdale, many hundred thousand friendly and sincere greetings! I commend you in trust to the grace of the loving God" (Ozment 32). 

Your true, loving bridegroom, 

Balthasar Paumgartner the Younger. 

This excerpt clearly illustrates a generous level of marital intimacy and familial integrity. Balthasar not only adored his wife, but her family as well. 

Quote #2 Magdalena to Balthasar

This quote very much exemplifies continuity of gendered emotions revealed by Magdalena's concern. 

"It is now three weeks since I last heard from you and there may ne no letter again this Saturday, which will leave me quite dejected. I cannot help thinking of the old proverb: 'Out of sight, out of mind.' Your brother tells me that you are preoccupied with the great many business letters, for which I think I am being made to suffer. Your not writing has made me wonder whether you are well, but Jorg gives me to understand that you are doing a great deal of writing. I pointedly reminded him that in the end I have simply to believe that there is no other reason for your not writing me than that you have so much to do" (Ozment 79).

This excerpt from one of Magdalena's letters reveals her immense concern for her husband after she had not heard from him for a number of weeks. This level of apprehension justifies historical continuity considering stereotypical depictions of worried, emotional wives and mothers today. She even has to remind her husband and herself when she writes, "I have simply to believe that there is no other reason for your not writing me than that you have so much to do. " Her concern is purely out of love, which Balthasar reciprocates in his letters. 

Steven Ozment makes very competitive arguments in this compilation of primary and secondary sources from Early Modern Germany.

Ages of Woman, Ages of Man: sources in European social history, 1400-1750

This great collection of primary sources exemplifying the Early Modern European family is divided into several themes like: childhood, youth, sexuality, courtship, love, weddings, married life, and economic life. The authors (Chojnacka, Wiesner-Hanks) explain each primary source and discuss its context.

Woodcut of a young woman in love, Germany 1570

The young woman speaks

My heart is wounded 

To the ground 

By Cupid With his love-beam 

Oh, I was his love

And was so constant 

As he acknowledges 

I was inclined to him, 

But love's security

Often fails

And brings all kinds of danger

To morality and honor. 

So – go away young man, 

I won't answer you anymore. 

(more) 

            The young woman speaks

At the beginning you declared 

The power of firm love

 And because you complained

I declared my love for you

But not any more. 

Such is faithfulness, virtue and honor, 

That now you have gone

'My loyal servant', 

But you left. 

Your uniting love has gone from here. 

I will do the same. 

I loved you alone

For all time.

In love there is sweetness

As long as God gives me life.

(Chojnacka, Wiesner-Hanks 100-101)

The authors contextualize this woodcut; "Young people in love were frequent subjects of woodcuts and engravings, which served either as illustrations for books and pamphlets or were printed as single sheets and sold by booksellers and peddlers" (Chojnacka, Wiesner-Hanks 100). The fact that woodcuts describing two young love birds were common suggests not only that young people often shared mutual adoration, but also the fact that this kind of love was normative, constructed by the German community of the time. 

A daughter's letter to her father on her confirmation day, Germany 1778

"Today is one of the most important days in my whole life, because with God's support I will go into a confessional booth for the first time in my life, and afterward will be invited to the atonement and holy meal of our lord Jesus. So that I might appear in a more worth way, it is my duty and obligation as a child, to first appear before you my gracious father, with my thanks and debts…because my conscience is also convinced that I have often offended you my dear Papa both consciously and unconsciously, and have brought you to anger, so I will not only attest to this, but will ask you obediently with my whole soul to forgive me my youthful errors and sins from your heart. If you do not bear these in mind any more, I will attempt, with the help of God, to transforms these errors into virtues. I ask in closing only this, that you include me in your Christian and fatherly prayers, and ask for God's grace and help for me, to which God will undoubtedly listen. For this I will be, for the duration of my life, My gracious Herr Papa's humble and obedient daughter" (Chojnacka, Wiesner-Hanks 196-197). 

This example illustrates the love and gratitude this daughter felt for her father during the time of her conformation. This source paints some historical continuity as many children in the contemporary west will often express their indebtedness to their parents during the time of a milestone in their lives. 

The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln

Translated from Yiddish by Marvin Lowenthal, The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln is a diary of a Jewish woman from Hamburg, Germany who began writing in 1690. Before her husband's death she was involved in his business affairs, and after he died she assumed full responsibilities of the business. Her work allowed her to travel and support her family. Gluckel's ability to overcome societal impediments justifies the astonishing nature of her story and this text. Not only was she a woman, but a Jewish woman. The emancipation of European Jews during this period precluded them from intermingling with Christians as Jews were marginalized to the outskirts and were forced into money lending. Gluckel overcame her obstacles as a woman and as a Jew. 

Aside from the incredible nature of her memoir, Gluckel describes a happy life within her family. Here are some quotes that illustrate happiness in Gluckel's family.

Context of this quote: It is time for Gluckel's daughter, Zippora to get married, and so the family seeks a husband and later proceeds with the marriage in Cleves (in the Netherlands). 

"Our Business prospered. And Zipporah, my eldest child, was now a girl of almost twelve. Whereat Loeb Hamburger in Amsterdam, the son of Reb Amscel, proposed her marriage to Kossmann, the son of Elias Cleve, of blessed memory...Fourteen days before the marriage we set forth with timbrels and with dances, twenty strong, for Cleves, where we were welcomed with all honours. We found ourselves in a house that was truly a king's palace, magnificently furnished in every way…my daughter looked so beautiful that her like was never seen…all the noble-born guests departed (from the wedding party) in great content, and never a Jew received such high honour in a hundred years. And the wedding was brought to a happy end" (Gluckel 95-99). 

This butchered quote illustrates many qualities that would contribute to a happy life like: the reference to their prosperous business, the luxurious accommodations in Cleves, Gluckel's description of her beautiful daughter, and the happy end of the wedding. Among other references, these examples paint a happy picture of Gluckel's family. 

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Context of this quote: Gluckel discusses her widowed mother's case after Gluckel's father's death. 

"Although a number of excellent matches were proposed to her, so that she might have remarried and come into great wealth, the dear and good woman preferred to remain as she was; and with the little that was left to her she quietly made her own way, and lived therefrom decently and well. She dwelt in her own house, kept her house keeper by her side, and enjoyed her life in peace. May the good Lord prevail upon every woman, who, God forbid! loses her husband, to the same….The pleasure we children and her grandchildren took in the dear woman is not to be told" (Gluckel 119-120). 

This quote expresses the happiness of a widow with no intention of getting remarried. Historians frequently suggest that the life of the widow was very difficult and lacked happiness, but this example negates that suggestion. Aside from the blissful widow, this quote illustrates the adoration that Gluckel and Gluckel's children had for her mother and grandmother respectively. 

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Context of this quote: Gluckel discusses the short intervals between the birth of her children and in doing so, she expresses her love for them. 

"Every two years I had a baby. I was tormented with worries as everyone is with a little house full of children, God be with them! and I thought myself more heavily burdened than anyone else in the world and that no one suffered from their children as much as I. Little I knew, poor fool, how fortunate I was when I seated my children like olive plants around my table" (Gluckel 119-120). 

Scholars like Lawrence Stone reserve that the Early Modern Household was a place of violence for women and children. He explained it was the worst time in history for the family unit. Stone contends that because of high infant mortality rates during this period, parents did not invest emotional capital in their children (did not form close bonds). This quote negates that assumption. Gluckel worried about her children's well being and realized their positive impact on her. 

This image comes from Chojnacka and Wiesner-Hanks' book entitled, "Ages of Woman, Ages of Man: Sources in European social history, 1400-1750. 

The authors describe this image as, "In this single-sheet broadside by the German printer Wolfgang Strauch, a family - probably the man who paid from the broadside, along with his wife and children - is depicted in prayer before the cross" (Chojnacka, Wiesner-Hanks 193). As the authors explain this image emphasizes the importance of family prayer. Family prayer was perhaps a bonding experience for families. With that inference, one might assume that family prayer led to happiness in the household. 

This image comes from Chojnacka and Wiesner-Hanks' book entitled, "Ages of Woman, Ages of Man: Sources in European social history, 1400-1750. 

This depicts a husband and wife working side by side in a bellmaking workshop in 1568 Germany. In their description of the image, the authors explain, "Husbands and wives often worked side by side in craft workshops" (Chojnacka, Wiesner-Hanks 129). The only division of labor shown in this woodcut is the husband's use of an axe while the wife works on details. This image does not necessarily depict happiness between married couples in Early Modern Germany, but it definitely expresses an egalitarian nature of marri