Page 191 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Innkeepers in Tyrol

gulden, which he did not have to return to his widowed mother. Under the
prevailing regime of separation of marital property, she would have been
entitled to this on her husband’s death. In the course of the early modern
period, however, it became increasingly common for widows to leave their
marriage portion and other assets invested in their descendants’ proper-
ty in return for maintenance in the deceased husband’s house and, where
appropriate, a certain amount of the interest paid to them. In contrast to
the other Austrian provinces, widows in Tyrol were not entitled to a so-
called ‘Leibgedinge’ – a lifelong allowance as a widow in the house of the
deceased husband (Lanzinger 2015). The restitution of the marriage por-
tion meant a considerable financial burden for sons or daughters taking
over theproperty orfor otherheirs.¹⁴ Theright of usufruct forbothpar-
ties – the son could use his mother’s property, while the widow received
a right of residence and maintenance in return – offered advantages for
both. Nine years later, on 27 March 1793, Maria Felizitas Clammerin died
in Innichen. The death register gives her age as 78 and her house number
as 121 (sti, 20, 1774–1881). She had therefore chosen the second option: to
live in the Geisserhaus.

Diversification of Job Profiles
Joseph Mayr: from Innkeeper to Freight Forwarder
The growing importance of transit traffic in the Puster Valley in the eigh-
teenth century is evidenced, among other things, by the fact that acting
as a freight forwarder became attractive to innkeepers. There has been vir-
tually no research on this industry in Tyrol to date. One example of this
is the Mayr family, which had an important establishment in Innichen, as
well as branches in Niederdorf and beyond the Puster Valley: members of
this family were active in both the hospitality industry and commerce and,
through sons or brothers of the family, had trading branches in Munich
and Trieste. Joseph Mayr (1705–1776) was initially an innkeeper. He came
from a family of innkeepers in Strassen, in what is now East Tyrol, and was
able to take over the Weißes Rössl Inn in Innichen in 1728 from his childless
maternal uncle Andreas Hatler (Lanzinger 1980, 156, 417; Lanzinger 2003,
103, 111, 152, 331; tla, vbi, 1727, 2 April 1728; stai, fb, m22, m30, m32,
m64, m84, 1700–1900).¹⁵ The year before, he had married Agnes Peintner-
in, a daughter of the innkeeper at the Bär Inn in Innichen. He married a

¹⁴ On the problems associated with the restitution of dowries see Zucca Micheletto (2011).
¹⁵ Lanzinger (1980, 156, 417), Lanzinger (2003, 103, 111, 152, 331), tla, vbi (1727, 2 April 1728)
and stai, fb (m22, m30, m32, m64, m84, 1700–1900).
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