Page 177 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

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Innkeepers in Tyrol: Pluriactivity,

Social and Spatial Mobility
(Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries)

Margareth Lanzinger
University of Vienna, Austria

© 2025 Margareth Lanzinger
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-486-6.175-195

Introduction

Innkeepers aretradesmen who havebeenlargelyneglectedinthesocial
and economic history of the early modern period.¹ Inns, on the other hand,
have repeatedly been the subject of research: as important places for the
exchange of information, communication and sociability, but also in terms
of (regulatory) political and administrative functions in the early modern
period (Kümin 2007; Kümin and Tlusty 2002; Kümin and Radeff 2000; Rau
and Schwerhoff 2008; Pfister 1992). Although the history of hospitality
in Tyrolgoesbacktothe late MiddleAges, especially in connection with
the transport and transit of trade goods, there is no systematic analysis
of inns and their operators in this field. Little has changed in this respect
since Hans Heiss made similar observations in 2001 (pp. 12–14). This is all
the more surprising given that they often belonged to the local elite, held
administrative and political functions and offices, and engaged in vari-
ous economic activities: as butchers, bakers, merchants, freight forwarders
and, last but not least, as moneylenders. It can also be assumed that they
cultivated a certain lifestyle and that their status as a rural elite was also
expressed in their material culture – in their clothing, in the furnishings
of their houses and living rooms.

¹ This article is an English translation and extended version of the contribution ‘Un-
ternehmer in den Alpen: Gastwirtsfamilien im südlichen Tirol im 18. Jahrhundert,’ pub-
lished in Issue 30 (2025) of the journal Geschichte der Alpen – Histoire des Alpes – Storia delle
Alpi.

Panjek,A.,ed.2025. Upland Families, Elites and Communities: Long-Run Micro
Perspectives on Persistence and Change. University of Primorska Press.