Overview

The significant changes in early modern German marriage practices included many unions that violated some taboo. That taboo could be theological and involve the marriage of monks and nuns, or refer to social misalliances as when commoners and princes (or princesses) wed. Equally transgressive were unions that crossed religious boundaries, such as marriages between Catholics and Protestants, those that violated ethnic or racial barriers, and those that broke kin-related rules. Taking as a point of departure Martin Luther’s redefinition of marriage, the contributors to this volume spin out the multiple ways that the Reformers’ attempts to simplify and clarify marriage affected education, philosophy, literature, high politics, diplomacy, and law. Ranging from the Reformation, through the ages of confessionalization, to the Enlightenment, Mixed Matches addresses the historical complexity of the socio-cultural institution of marriage.

Full Product Details

Author:   David M. Luebke ,  Mary Lindemann
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   8
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.513kg
ISBN:  

9781782384090

ISBN 10:   178238409
Pages:   252
Publication Date:   01 August 2014
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Transgressive Unions David M. Luebke Chapter 1. ‘It is not forbidden that a man may have more than one wife’: Luther’s Pastoral Advice on Bigamy and Marriage David Whitford Chapter 2. Celibacy—Marriage—Un-Marriage: The Controversy over Celibacy and the Marriage of Priests in the Early Reformation Wolfang Breul Chapter 3. ‘Nothing More than Common Whores and Knaves’: Married Nums and Monks in the Early German Reformation Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer Chapter 4. Transgressive Unions and Concepts of Honor in Early Modern Defamation Lawsuits Ralf-Peter Fuchs Chapter 5. Negotiating Rank in Early Modern Marital Mismatches Michael Sikora Chapter 6. Between Conscience and Coercion: Confessionally Mixed Marriages Between Church, State, and Family Dagmar Freist Chapter 7. The Rhetoric of Difference: The Marriage Negotiations Between Queen Christina of Sweden and Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg Daniel Riches Chapter 8. Mixed Matches and Inter-Confessional Dialogue: The Hannoverian Succession and the Protestant Dynasties of Europe in the Early Eighteenth Century Alexander Schunka Chapter 9. Trans-Ethnic Unions in Early Modern German Travel Literature Antje Flüchter Chapter 10. The Meaning of Love: Emotion and Kinship in Early Modern Incest Discourses Claudia Jarzebowski Chapter 11. Aufklärung, Literature, and Fatherly Love: An Eighteenth-Century Case of Incest Mary Lindemann Afterword: Shifting Boundaries and Boundary Shifters: Transgressive Unions and the History of Marriage in Early Modern Germany Joel F. Harrington Bibliography Contributors Index

Reviews

This collection of essays implicitly addresses the adage that 'every rule is made to be broken.' Each author takes up a category of departure - shall I say deviance? - from the norms governing moral behavior in early modern Germany, an age allegedly rigidly devoted to order and discipline. The topics run from bigamy through ex-nuns' marriage, marital class and racial differences, spousal adherence to opposing faiths, and incest. These studies all embody significant primary research and are of uniformly high quality. Collectively they illuminate not only specific acts of nonconformity but the standards themselves. * Susan C. Karant-Nunn, University of Arizona

Author Information

David M. Luebke is Professor of History at the University of Oregon. He is author most recently of Hometown Religion: Regimes of Coexistence in Early Modern Westphalia (2016). He is also editor of The Counter-Reformation (1999) and co-editor of Conversion and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Germany (2012) and Archeologies of Confession: Writing the German Reformation, 1517-2017 (2017).

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