The third estate

Once a farmer, always a farmer

The oldest mention of the "Eckergut obs Moos" shows that it belonged to the fief of "Ebenzweyer" as early as 1504. The name means something like: "Ecker’s farm above a boggy swamp at the foot of Grasberg". We cannot dismiss the possibility that peat was also gathered there. In around 1700, the farm must have yielded enough profit to be rebuilt and extended. The owners, the Ecker family, belonged to the peasantry.

In a historical context, there is a difference between free peasants and serfs. Free peasants cultivated their own land, tenant farmers were free individuals but had to pay dues to the landlord, socmen had to perform socage or compulsory labour and pay dues, while serfs were the personal property of the landlord.

In a tripartite estate system, as was typical from the end of the Middle Ages, the third estate comprises those people who do not belong to the two privileged estates of clergy and nobility. So, as its name implies, it includes all free peasants and commoners.

The position of an individual depends on various factors. First, their bread-and-butter earnings, namely their profession or peasant status. Then their position within a family unit; that is to say, whether they are married, a housefather, a servant or a house member and finally the rights that the individual has in the community, such as hereditary judge, church member or crofter.

For the people of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, the estate system is regarded as a fixed, God-given order in which everyone has his or her unchangeable place. Within the third estate, every man inherits the status of his father. Switching between estates is not impossible, but in practice extremely rare. Earnings or wealth have little influence on your estate. For example, a farmer who has made money by selling timber or raising cattle may be much wealthier than a poor nobleman.

In medieval theory, certain tasks are assigned to the three main estates. The first estate is to provide for the salvation of souls, the second estate is to defend the clergy and the people against enemies, while the task of the third estate is labour. One had to pursue a lifestyle befitting one's social status.