Guest editorial by Sven Jaros (IOS Regensburg)
When we speak about premodern borders, we clearly aren’t speaking about lines but about zones1. This was not only caused by the inability to control the current of goods and people over a large space, but mainly because the belonging and not-belonging to premodern political and administrative entities was defined rather through interpersonal relationships than territorial divisions2. This vagueness intensified when political borders collided with cultural borders. A question of perspective – Eastern European observations on premodern border zones weiterlesen
- See e. g. Nikolas Jaspert, Grenzen und Grenzräume im Mittelalter. Forschungen, Konzepte und Begriffe, in: Klaus Herbers and Nikolas Jaspert (Ed.), Grenzräume und Grenzüberschreitungen im Vergleich (Europa im Mittelalter, 7). Berlin 2007, pp. 43–72; David Abulafia and Nora Berend, Medieval Frontiers: Conepts and Practices. London/New York 2002. [↩]
- See e. g. Andreas Rüther, Stadtrecht, Rechtszug, Rechtsbuch: Gerichtsbarkeit im östlichen Mitteleuropa seit dem 12. Jahrhundert, in: Herbers/Jaspert (Ed.), Grenzräume, pp. 123–143, here p. 123; Dietmar Willoweit and Steffen Schlinker, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. Vom Frankenreich bis zur Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands. Ein Studienbuch, 8th edition, 2019, p. 37. [↩]